The real piece of work I talked to today-long, minor language warning

[lobo94]

I'm posting this in sightings because the...person in question was not himself a customer. Mods, please feel free to relocate at your discretion.

OKay. A little background. I work in a call center for what has been referred to as the Land of Storage. I have recently become a member of the department that handles escalated situations that the regular customer service reps and sales reps can't handle.

Today, I got a follow up call from a caller in regards to one of our containers. The caller was the president of a homeowner's association. He was upset that we had placed a container on the condo property without his permission, and that when doing so, we had placed a container on a lawn and caused some damage to some sprinklers.

Mr. HOA was demanding that the container be moved today. Tomorrow wasn't good enough. I contacted the customer in regards to the issue, and the location manager. Mr. HOA did say he would have been happy with the container just being moved from the placement area to a nearby street.

The location said the schedule was full for the day, and that the best we could do was an early removal from the property on the scheduled removal day scheduled for the following day. Customer was fine with this. Not Mr. HOA. Location manager also advised that the issue was ultimately between the HOA and the customer-we had the customer's signature on a waiver and everything. When I advised Mr. HOA of our position, he said that wasn't the case, since we placed the container. All the while, he is calling the customer an idiot, and questioning our intelligence for placing the container where we did. Also going on about how he was a lawyer and how he knew the law, that he was the man in charge of the HOA, that it was essentially his property. And that he was going to have the container towed today if we didn't move it.

In short, Mr. HOA came across as an arrogant, condescending, rude jerk with delusions of grandeur. He was telling me what we were going to do, and damn the consequences.

The location ended up working a repositioning into the schedule for today. Not sure what happened after I finished my end, advising our customer and Mr HOA what we were going to do.

Mr HOA did express a desire to sue us for property damage, as well as suing the customer, and the owner of the condo that the customer was renting from.

Oh. And he said he was being nice during the conversations.

I really wanted to tell Mr. HOA where to go, how to get there, and what he could do when he got there. If I were independently wealthy or a lottery winner, I would have done all that, called him every name in the book, hung up on him, and promptly quit, a la the Jet Blue flight attendant who had a final exit worthy of Errol Flynn.

I'd like to think I handled this as best I could. I have years of customer service experience, here and elsewhere, but I'm new at handling escalated issues like this. I did seek and receive some supervisory guidance during this.

Thought-you give some people even a semblance of authority, it goes straight to their heads.

I have resolved to never buy a house in a place run by an HOA dictatorship. Some of these HOAs need to go pound sand.

A curse on you, Mr. HOA. May a litter of black cats cross your path, may you break every mirror in the Hall of Mirrors, amd may you walk under a bunch of ladders. On Friday the 13th.

On the bright side, the customer himself was cool.

[bainsidhe]

I don't know much about condos, but doesn't the condo owner own the land in front of the condo? Because I can definitely see how broken sprinklers would be upsetting to the owner.

Since HOA guy was convinced that HE essentially owned things and ran the operation, you might let customer & condo owner know so that they can forward the tax bill and maintenance costs to the correct person.

[EvilEmpryss]

When you live in an area with an HOA, rules of ownership no longer apply. The HOA committee members are GODS, and they know it. They have the RIGHT to foreclose on the home for even minor infractions, and it says so right in the HOA contract.

I recall one little old lady whose husband died. Hubby had been responsible for mowing the grass. For the two weeks following his death no one mowed the lawn. HOA sent two notices (one each week) telling her to mow her lawn. On the third week they went to court to seize her home for not maintaining the property. THEY WON! The judge (who was unethically friends with a few of the HOA members) stated in his decision that the old lady should have paid someone to mow the grass. We're not talking foot-high grass on three acres, either. Pictures in the news showed a lawn that you couldn't even tell wasn't mown except in comparison to the yard next door. Forget the fact that her hubby of about 50 years just died and she was distraught -- the HOA rules must be upheld!

In the county I live in there is currently a fight going on between a condo owner and the HOA because he needs to repair a leaking roof. The HOA is refusing to give him permission to replace his roof, even though it's going to be exactly the same style and color as the previous roof. They don't think the roof replacement is necessary and don't want to disturb the rest of the neighborhood with the construction noise!

HOAs are evil creations that once had a place and reasonable enforcement of the codes. Too many criminally overstep their boundaries and need to be abolished.

[Sliceanddice]

my hoa is wonderful.
kids over 8 either have to play in the parking lot that has no inforcable speed limit, people speed through and his blind corners, the little barely there play ground located right across the parking lot from the 2 sexual offenders in our complex or risk a 100 dollar fine for playing in the grassy areas near the houses.

they dont want to pay for the concrete to be fixed, or regular power and water maintenance but will pay the high emergency fees when a line bursts or the power is killed because they wouldnt pay for a re asphalter team the same day as pipe work.

wonderful huh.

[chainedbarista]

mr. hoa, may scabies eternally infest your genital area.

that being said, he really doesn't have a case, unless he is the actual owner of the damaged property; if the area falls under the hoa, it's their concern and he needs to bugger off yesterday.

[LillFilly]

Ugh, I too never want to live ANYWHERE with an HOA.

You hear about the lady that was replacing the trim on her house, and she sent to the HOA and got APPROVED the material and color of the trim. A week later, they send her a notice saying she has to re-replace the trim because a few days after she got approved, they decided not to allow that material or color anymore!

My Dad was the President of our HOA in our condos. He had to keep the other members of the board from going on power trips, and took a lot of crap for the stuff they would pull. Half the time it was darned if you do, darned if you don't; no decision made people happy! He saved everyone money by doing lightbulb and filter replacements himself. But, after a few years of being the referee when condo owners fought with each-other (he always tried to be fair and reasonable), he resigned and the power-hungry treasurer took-over...and promptly came to Dad with EVERY PROBLEM so he basically ended-up doing all the work of the President without being President!!! And all the people that would complain about him BEGGED him to come back, because the fees had gone up

[Marmalady]

A curse on you, Mr. HOA. May a litter of black cats cross your path, may you break every mirror in the Hall of Mirrors, amd may you walk under a bunch of ladders. On Friday the 13th.

Or a favourite curse of mine: 'May your earholes turn into a**holes and crap all over your shoulders'.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

HOA committee member..is there any lower form of life?

/C. Montgomery Burns

[roothorick]

I read HOA horror stories and it's like a different world. We don't have any problems with our COA, which is just "each owner meets and makes decisions". We otherwise don't report to anyone, not even the apartments next door, and I think that helps a lot. The worst we have is petty squabbles about what color different things should be, like the fences enclosing our patios.

[Shalom]

Or a favourite curse of mine: 'May your earholes turn into a**holes and crap all over your shoulders'.

Oh, that's wonderful. I'm gonna have to remember that one.

[Marmalady]

You're welcome!

[Whiskey]

I don't know much about condos, but doesn't the condo owner own the land in front of the condo? Because I can definitely see how broken sprinklers would be upsetting to the owner.

It doesnt matter who owns what with a HOA. You move into a HOA neighborhood and whats yours is now theirs and you better comply or they'll evict you. Its the pettiest stuff. Im allowed to have blinds in two colors: White and Off-White.

Why not crack down on the bastards breaking beer bottles outside at 2AM (the reason i'm awake and CRANKY AS HELL)? The security (where did you go?!) would give me stank face every time I came home from work at 2AM.

[Big-box-retail-blues]

Every time I see anything about a HOA it irritates me to no end. I'd be damned if I ever lived anywhere that there was a HOA to deal with. They are as bad as school boards. Give someone a little power, and in the case of the HOA a lot of power, and they almost always desire to flew said power.

[Sapphire Silk]

One of the factors in deciding where to buy my house was the lack of an HOA.

And honestly, I can't see that living in a non-HOA neighborhood is so bad. We have a few houses that are brightly painted, rather than having neutral (read boring) colors, but the choices are tasteful rather than garish and make the neighborhood bright and cheery IMHO.

[telecom_goddess]

I've stated before how much I hate HOA's and will NEVER live in an area that has one. If they would just stick to their original purpose of being a way for homeowners to get together and take care of real problems that would be one thing. But the way they are now it's just an excuse to make people follow stupid rules, even worse than rules that you have as a renter in an apartment.

If I own a house I am NOT going to be told what color to paint anything, or what color blinds I can have, or what kind of grass I can grow or how often I have to mow it, or how the outside needs to look. I want to treat MY property how I see fit. And HOA's don't let you do that. So screw 'em.