The Nerve of Some People!

When Bud and I returned to the Netherlands from Utah, we came home to a few things not working in our apartment -

 

The elevator didn't work. We very seldom use it but since we had a lot of luggage to carry up the stairs it was not good.  And by we, I mean Bud!  

 

Our water heater didn't work - for the 5th time since moving into the apartment.  It makes this terrible groaning sound everytime you turn on the water.  It is very loud and I am sure everyone in the building could hear it.  The property management people had two repairmen come out that Monday and they fixed the problem lickety-split.  The pipe had come undone from the compressor pan, or baffle or thingamagig.  The pan came lose and knocked the pipe out. They reassembled everything and announced their quick success. Bud said, "I don't think its fixed!" They looked at him in disbelief and he said it again.  If any of you know Bud, you can imagine his deep voice sounding very unhappy!  I then reiterated that this was the 5th time they had been here in the short time we have been living here.  I then asked them if it was possible that were some bad clips or the like.  Huh?  Guess what, they checked the clips holding the pan and one was bad.  When the water would get hot it would make the pan expand and the clip would pop.  Can you imagine being a repairman and trying to find the cause, instead of just fixing the problem?!  Novel idea!!  Next thing I know I see one of them grab one of my wire clothes hangers.  I never saw the end result of their work but I did see about 5 inches remaining from said clothes hanger.  You know what, at this point I don't care as long as it holds that pan in place!

The final non-working item was my oven. Again!  The last time it was repaired the repairman said it was wired incorrectly.  Scary, huh?  He rewired it and it was working just fine, until it wasn't!  Same repairman and, I think, his twenty-something son came out again.  They don't know why it was not working but they disconnected it from the electricity and reconnected it again and now it works.  I asked the man what was wrong with the oven and he said, "Don't know but working fine now."  I am sure they will be back in the near future.  

 

In the meanwhile, his coworker, who I will refer to as his "son" was looking at our security camera monitor.  He walks over to it and pulls it out of the wall!  What the heck?!!!  He inspects it, looking at the wires, etc.  I honestly think he was just curious about it. He goes to put it back into the wall and guess what?  He can't get it to fit!  He works at it for 10-15 minutes, I kid you not, to get it to fit back into the wall.  He is adjusting mounting screws, pulling the monitor in and out of the wall.  I am just watching him in disbelief.  The father is basically ignoring the son's doings.  (I had asked the father a question about my refrigerator water filter and he was in deep thought about that.) Finally the son gives up and walks over to me.  I said, "That's not flush with the wall."  He walks back to the monitor, gives it a little push and walks back over to where I am with a "I don't give a crap attitude." The father says they are finished and they leave.  This is what I am left with -

The caulking strip is destroyed, the paint is pulled out and of course the monitor doesn't fit!  This isn't a itty bitty monitor - its 10 1/2" wide so its noticeable that its not flush with the wall.  I sent the property management an email with these pictures stating to them what happened.  It was a brief but factual statement as to what happened.  They emailed me back saying they would correct the repairman and send someone out to fix it.  Of course I haven't heard anything further from them.  

I was somewhat disappointed in myself.  I really wanted to get after the kid and ask him why in the world would he do something so bold.  Due to the language barrier, although I am sure he is like most young Dutch people and speaks English very well, I lost my nerve.  Plus Bud was out of town so I felt it best to just bite my tongue.  I still can't believe someone would have the nerve to do that!  Live and learn!