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It's 87 degrees in my apartment...

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by imjustagirl, Jun 27, 2010.

  1. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    At 1:30 in the morning.

    My a/c stopped working properly about 9 days ago. It was after hours on a Friday and it was still manageable (I'd turn it down to 60, it would be about 71 in the apartment) but I knew it was costing me mad electricity. So i called first thing Monday morning while I was at work. She said a lot of people had had problems, she'd try to get the guy to my apartment that day. I said if he couldn't make it Monday, could he come Wednesday as I had a friend in from out of town on Tuesday that I don't get to see very often, and I didn't want to waste two hours of it waiting for some repairman to fix my a/c.

    I get home Monday evening to no note and no working a/c. Tuesday, same. Wednesday, I sit home all day (I was off) to no avail. I call Thursday morning from work, and she said he had come Monday and supposedly fixed it. He was off that day, but he'd come back out Friday.

    I get home from work at 7 on Friday evening, and there's a note on the door saying they've recharged it, but it's no better. I figure maybe he came late and it would take a couple hours to kick in. By 9:30, it was 82 degrees, so I called the emergency maintenance number. The apartment manager called me back, said she had no idea what the problem was, but she would send another guy out first thing Saturday morning. Worst case, if he couldn't figure it out, she'd give me the keys to the guest apartment (2 BR, fully furnished, but no internet).

    I work from home on the weekends, so I woke up early (he was supposed to come at 10 a.m). At 10:30, she calls, says she's pissed, but he's running late and won't be here until about 11:15. At 11:30, I call again and she says he's 5 minutes away. He comes, and spends about an hour in my hallway, squirting some kind of acid into the a/c unit, saying it's all clogged up with pet hair (apparently about three years worth, where no one ever apparently did the preventive care on making sure the coil stays clear). The air is definitely coming out stronger at this point, and he says I'll be cool within a couple hours.

    At around 1, I call the office to see if I can get the keys to the guest apartment just in case, because the air coming out is no cooler. Now, I have to clock in at 1:30, and without internet, I'm stuck working in my place for today. She brings me a fan and the keys to the apartment. She's been very kind and helpful throughout, and I like her a lot. She says it's obviously not blowing cold air, and it looks like they'll have to switch out the whole unit on Monday.

    So I do my work, and get done around 10:30 p.m. It takes me a while to round up my cats and the stuff I'll need, and I trudge down to the apartment she told me.

    Except the key doesn't work.

    So either I was just trying to break into someone's apartment at 12:15 a.m., or I got the wrong key. I called back to the emergency line, but no one has returned my call and it's been 90 minutes.

    Either way, I'm stuck up here for another night. Fan blowing right on me, ceiling fan on in the bedroom, and it's still disgustingly hot. I'll go into the office tomorrow just for the a/c, but I have no idea what to do with my cats during the 10 hours I'm at work tomorrow.

    So...any ideas what I can logically hope to shave off my rent? Because I'm not paying full cost when I've gone 1/3 of a month with a non-functioning a/c unit. But I also don't want to go in there demanding moon and stars when I don't pay that much as it is.

    Ideas?
     
  2. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    FWIW, it's about 67 in Connecticut right now...

    :)

    Anyhoo, as for a serious reply, I figure they should at least comp you a little off the rent. Don't know what you're paying out there but I'd tell them that it's only fair they take off $25-$50 for the month. Of course, if you're paying $100 per month or something crazy low, you might not have any leverage.

    I think the main problem is they've been helpful so you don't want to be a bitch to them but this also isn't acceptable, especially since you've got pets. (Always knew you were a crazy cat lady).

    See what they'll give you in terms of money off the rent and, worse case, see if they'll spring for a new unit if it doesn't get fixed.
     
  3. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    It's two cats. Three makes you a crazy cat lady.

    I mean, I'm insane. But it has nothing to do with my cats.
     
  4. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    Oh, and side note: It's 8 degrees cooler outside than it is in my apartment. So I opened the windows in my living room and bedroom, hoping it would help...but as a couple people here can attest, my apartment is literally 40 feet from 12 lanes of 1-75 traffic. So I'm not sure if the noise cancels out any equilibrium in temperature.
     
  5. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Well, do you want to be comfortable or do you want to sleep? lmao
     
  6. Trey Beamon

    Trey Beamon Active Member

  7. Sxysprtswrtr

    Sxysprtswrtr Active Member

    Stay out of it Nick Lachey /thesoup

    IJAG - Seems like you can definitely inquire about some price taken off the rent, but like schiezainc said, since they were somewhat (kinda) helpful, it's hard to demand too much. Depending on the management you're dealing with, maybe it's a good idea to go in with a number like you want $200 off the rent, and then see what their reaction is to it. That way they don't lowball you by them offering $25 and you can't really make a jump from $25 to $200. Better to go down than up. [TWSS]
     
  8. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    I would start with a figure that's something like half the rent for the days the A/C was out.
     
  9. bydesign77

    bydesign77 Active Member

    So you're saying it's hot in herre?

    So take off all your clothes ....
     
  10. Killick

    Killick Well-Known Member

    That sucks, IJAG. The past few summers, I've tougher it out rather than pay a huge electricity bill for the AC. Wasn't too bad, once I put a fan in one window blowing in, another in the opposite end of
    my apartment blowing out.

    This year, I said screw it - turned on the AC because it was so humid I wasn't getting any sleep. It'll go off again when we're in the low 80s and not so humid again, tho.

    I'd go in asking $150 off - tell them you had to take off work, etc. (they don't need to know the truth) and see what it gets you. Hell, tell them the cats suffered. Play every card you can. All's fair, you know.
     
  11. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    No SportsJournalists.commers where you live?

    Your actuator might be out as well on the unit. It looks like a small beer can inside the unit that has three wires coming from it.

    Don't fuck with it, but it could be an easy fix and the guy probably should have spotted it before.

    Stay strong, they will get it fixed eventually.
     
  12. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

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