Had My Fill

I have dealt with Mario and his minions more in the past 12 hours than I have in the past 12 months. First, I had an administrative tax issue. I have been trying to get this resolved since last January. When I have asked about it before, I am told to go to their web site, watch a "short" video and voila! my question will magically go away.

In the real world, watching videos don't make problems go away. Even in Propertymanagement Land. So, this slight issue has been dragging. And in two days, if I don't get it resolved, Diamond Jim is going to have to jump through a lot more hoops and the IRS might get cranky. So, today was the day.

Anyway, after spending a good portion on my morning playing with their site (seriously, do I really need a capital, numeral and non-alphanumeric character in an 8 character password for a property management web site??? Who wants to steal the work order information telling me the garage door doesn't open properly?), I broke down and e-mailed Mario and asked him if he could provide me with a link, or dare I say it, the actual forms to fill out to change my tax ID number and bank account information? Wouldn't you know? Mario got back to me in record time with words like, "Fantastic," "Happy to help" and "How was your vacation?" (which I did not tell him I was taking).

Later today I got a cryptic e-mail telling me the gas fireplace smells like gas when the tenant uses the fireplace. The e-mail was from someone named "Manny" said, "Please help us to keep a happy tenant by contacting them as soon as possible to let them know that you have received it and you are working on it and/or setup a time to get the work completed."

I beg Manny's pardon, but I was under the impression I have a property management company so I don't have to call the tenant and reassure her this is under control. It isn't that I mind doing so, but Mario charges enough as it is. Manny can do his job and call the tenant himself. And besides, the note was kind of ambiguous as to if I was supposed to get the issue resolved or just pat the tenant on the head.

Because I have had enough of Mario for one day, and because Mario and his minions seem to do much better when Marty Sunshine calls them, I made him call. Bruce--Mario's top minion--is going to look into everything and let me know if I am calling someone or patting someone's head.

Bruce also said to Marty that it pains him that we didn't move our properties to his company. Marty gave some diplomatic answer about their Web site being a hassle, all while I was gesticulating wildly and holding up hand-written pieces of paper about the real reasons I am not using them. And I have many. Though I gave examples on my handwritten signs, Marty ignored them and kept on talking to Bruce promising that we would give them a try if the new company didn't work out.

In the mean-time, Bruce is set to call Marty back with an update on our maintenance issue. And with any luck, that should be all the contact we have with them for the next twelve months.