Sparring with Ms. Shirley

I must tell you, Ms. Shirley's drama is no match for me.

I have a preteen daughter.

For those of you who have lives, here is the quick back story on Ms. Shirley. Ms. Shirley contacted me about a year ago because there was a mysterious roof leak and she was suggesting I needed the 10 year old roof completely replaced. In fact, she had a handy-dandy company that would handle it and it wouldn't cost me anything because I can put a homeowner's insurance claim in.

I wasn't impressed, so Ms. Shirley squawked about this for a few months. However, the roof in question miraculously healed itself when I refused to play along, making it very clear I would not be using the roofing company she was recommending (who also happened to be giving kick-backs to Ms. Shirley for her business).

Last autumn Ms. Shirley started taking advantage of our business relationship and began paying whenever she darn well felt like it. Her justification was that I didn't know what it was like to be poor. The translation was I deserved to wait until she was good and ready to cough up the money she was contractually obligated to pay. That was resolved very quickly when she received a lease termination notice this past January. At that point, our relationship regressed back to a last name basis.

There have been other issues hither and yon. In December of 2009, she asked if I would put screens on the windows.  A reasonable request. However, I asked her to wait and ask again in the spring when she would have open windows. In the spring she was carried away with the roof leak and never got around to the screens.  I forgot too.

A week ago, on a Saturday night, Ms. Shirley e-mailed me. Her air conditioner wasn't working. What exactly was I planning on doing about it? After all, I am to maintain it according to the lease. Yes, that is true. But I am not doing a thing about it on a Saturday night. Because there is a two hour time difference, I told her first thing Monday to call the HVAC company I use and ask them to come out. It would be faster than me calling them Monday when I was up and moving.

Last Monday, when I was up and moving, I did call the HVAC company. I wanted to let them know they had an authorization limit. Anything more than my desired amount and they would need to call me first. I didn't want Ms. Shirley putting a new AC unit on the home on my dime. Not that she would do that.

Probably.

The HVAC company told me they had gotten tons of calls over the weekend and into Monday morning. They were booked solid until the today--March 28th. However, they were taking care of Ms. Shirley's issue first thing that day. 

Ms. Shirley didn't know I called. Otherwise, she probably wouldn't have sent me a snippy e-mail, telling me the HVAC company was booked up until next March 28. And again, what was I going to do about it? Mind you, this same HVAC company had told me an hour earlier they were squeezing in Ms. Shirley's AC issue that day. Ms. Shirley didn't mention that. But, I did when I responded.

As a rebuttal to the awesome customer service she was about to receive, Ms. Shirley's announced how she would really like to open the windows, but suggested that it was just impossible because I hadn't bothered to put on window screens--like she asked about so long ago.

"Well how about that! We got so caught up in the leaking roof last year, I just forgot all about those screens. Thank you so much for reminding me. How's that roof holding up?" I sweetly asked, getting the desired effect: Ms. Shirley managed to figure out a way to stop talking.

Incidentally, the AC issue wasn't a big deal. In fact, there appeared to be more drama in her getting the repair made than the actual issue--which is also typical for preteen girls.