Just to continue on from my post from Friday, I have had a few more experiences since my last update and still think it is an absolutely fabulous idea to not live in a condo. Onward with the saga no one cares about but me!
Saturday in the early afternoon, Bright House was able to send someone out to my building to try to work around the problem of the cable strung dangerously in midair. A gentleman came out and spent a pretty good amount of time trying to chisel away at the dirt between the sidewalk squares with a screw driver so that he could feed the cable between the sidewalk squares. This seemed like a pretty good solution because the cable would not be a tripping or a clothesline-ing hazard above the sidewalk. This solution would require a slight deviation from the original installation because there would be a bit more cable above ground than a pure installation (again, not possible right now because of the frozen ground), but no one would be at danger walking on the sidewalk and I would have access to internet and cable television. When I got back to my place Saturday night, the guy had finished up with his work and I felt that we had something workable until the spring. I also kind of felt like I had overblown my displeasure about the whole situation because Bright House was able to find a solution that would keep everyone happy until the time of a more permanent fix.
Well, it appears as though I originally did not hate enough the concept of property management (LandArc) and the homeowners' association. Today, someone from the property management company came out and literally cut the cable. I was cruising along on MLK day, celebrating civil rights, doing laundry, and sorting through old mail when all of a sudden my email was gone and my TV stopped receiving a signal. There was no mystery to the cause, and when I went out to the cable just to see if there was anything I could do, I was faced with a severed coaxial cable and a growing desire to take a poop on LandArc.
Two weeks after the problem surfaced, I have actually moved backwards a step because originally we at least had cable TV and no internet. Now, no TV and no internet and I've wasted a whole bunch of peoples' time. Someone from Bright House is again supposed to come out tomorrow (I think this is the 5th visit for them) and try to return us to the original setup with functional television but no internet. After this, we have to wait for a formal approval from the HOA board so that we can put the wire back in the ground exactly as it was over the weekend before they cut it and pulled it up today, and then we have to schedule an appointment with Bright House for them to come out and put the damn thing back the way they just did it about 48 hours ago.
All of this because of a great group of individuals from a property management company called LandArc. The woman I talked with at Bright House today said that she has been working in her role for 10 years and she has never in that time come across a condo association or property management company that was so inflexible and useless in helping to solve a problem.
In the great scheme of things, these problems are inconsequential and again speak to my mostly problem free existence. While this is true, it does not mean that my hatred of condo associations and property management companies can't continue to grow and fester. I will be at the hearing when you declare bankruptcy, LandArc. The HOA issue has to be the standard no power anywhere else in life, so rule over the land between the sidewalk squares with an iron fist. Can't a brother (of Steve and Gail) get internet access...and now cable television?
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3 comments:
Pretty outrageous. Should tell http://consumerist.com
I remember a number of years ago when Nick was living in the Rochester Hills condo and someone from the condo assn had the bright idea of removing all of the gutters on the condos (he had heard about this at a party). The result was a steeply sloped ice rink on his (and everyone else's) driveway, as the water from the roof spilled onto the driveway and froze. So we had a nice long battle about that one, and throughout that winter he had to get in his car and back down the driveway to get his mail and paper.
Remember, too, that if you don't want to go all the way to Royal Oak to get internet, your public library has access. But I'm hoping you've got it back today. I'm feeling for you, Ken. You'll be ready when it comes time to move!
That is ridiculous. I would have thrown a temper tantrum.
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