A Bless Your Heart Kind of Day

Last Friday, as we passed the sign that says, "Now Leaving the Phoenix Metro Area: The Last Bastion of Civilization for the Next 70 Miles" I quickly checked my e-mail on my phone. My property manager Mario's minion--Ben--had sent me an e-mail saying that the air conditioning at Hysteria Lane had gone out. Could I please send someone out there to fix it.

I promptly e-mailed him back, explaining I was on my way to pick up Polly at summer camp and about to loose cell service. Could he please call the AC company? I omitted the part about that is why I pay them an exorbitant amount of money to handle these things. But I did add that I wanted to make sure this was taken care of ASAP, as I would hate to have my tenants uncomfortable through the weekend.

When I checked my e-mail this morning, Ben had followed up to tell me the company did not go out there and the tenant was upset. Ben's directive was for me to call the air conditioning company and make this happen.

My first order of business was to call the tenant. I left her a message giving her my info and the AC company's info. I told her we would take care of this and I was so sorry she spent the weekend without cool air. I may have also let it slip that I wasn't sure why I had a property management company if they couldn't handle this particularly simple task.

I then called the AC company. Apparently the tenant was unreachable. They tried several times. They also were willing to go out on Saturday if the tenant would have just returned a call or three. Of course, Ben didn't mention the fact the tenant hadn't returned any calls when he sent me this directive to do his job to call the AC Company. Granted, he may not have known. For whatever reason, tenants seem to like drama.

My second to last order of business was to contact Ben. The AC Company is ready, willing and able to go to the house ONCE THE TENANT RETURNS A CALL. Short of me getting on a plane, showing up in Birmingham and tracking down the tenant, I am not sure what else can be done. To my credit, I took that last sentence out of my e-mail to him. No reason for total snark before 9 a.m.

My last order of business is to locate the contract I have in place with Mario's company and find out what to do not to renew it. I understand it isn't Ben's fault the tenant is unreachable and it is the tenant who is causing her own discomfort by not returning phone calls. However, the reason I have a property management company in the first place is so they can volley phone calls and take care of the nonsense.