Doesn't like the gate in gated community

[bhskittykatt]

From Hubby's work. He is a security guard at a gated community. The whole point of a gated community is to only allow select people inside. Residents, guests of residents, and certain service people such as the pizza delivery guy can enter, but the greater public is not allowed access.

A guest comes up to the gate. His parents own a house inside that he is visiting. However, he is unsure of the exact address, and his parents aren't the registered resident in the system. (Owners are not always the registered resident; it can be a renter for instance.) Because the system is not set up to search by owners names very easily, it takes a minute for Hubs to find the house and sign in the guest.

A few hours later, the parents start calling and complaining. Hubs said he took two calls from the mother and one from the father complaining about how hard it was for their son to get in. Among the conversations, this gem popped up

Sucky Homeowner: "So how are people supposed to get to my house?!?"
Hubs: "If you want people to come in any time, you can add them to your permanent guest list by letting the office know. You can also call in guests to put them on a temporary list for the day."
SH: "So I would have to bring a list of like 100 people into the office?"
Hubs: "If that's how many people you want on your permanent guest list, then yes. The office can add people to that list."

The other day, their son again visited their house. There was a line-up at the visitor's gate, and it caused him to have to wait a whole extra five minutes. The parents called and chewed out Hubby's coworker for that.

If they have an issue with the whole limited-access thing, methinks they should not have bought a house in a friggin' gated community.

Bonuses: Outside the scope of the job

Hubs gets a lot of calls to Security about non-related security things.

The office is closed, you need to fix it!

The community office recently changed their hours. Hubs fielded literally dozens of calls from people calling the security office to complain.

The pool is closed and you are ruining my day!

There is a pool, but a pass is required for its use. They can be procured from the office, which is open Monday - Friday. Meaning if you want to use the pool on the weekend, you had best plan ahead.

Sucky Woman: "I want to use the pool, but the office is closed. Can you get me a pass?"
Hubs: "Only the office can issue a pass."
SW: "But my child has friends over and they want to use the pool."
Hubs: "Only the office can issue a pass. Maybe you could get a pass this week and they could use the pool next weekend?"
SW: "We need to use the pool. What are we going to do about this?"
Hubs: "You're going to have to find something else for them to do. I can't issue a pool pass."
SW: "Hmph!"

You don't know the WiFi password? Get me your supervisor!

The clubhouse has free WiFi. Hubs says it's an open, unsecured network, so he wasn't sure which network this woman was trying to hook up to. But she was saying the WiFi was password protected. It was a weekend, so the office was closed.

Sucky Woman: "What's the number for the WiFi?"
Hubs: ??? "I'm...not sure. The office may know. They are open on Monday."
SW: "But I need to use it nooooow! We don't have phone or Internet at home and we can only use Internet here!"
Hubs: "I'm sorry, but I wouldn't know. I'm just Security. You'd have to contact the office on Monday."
SW: "Who is your supervisor?"
Hubs: "Believe me, she wouldn't know either." (Site Supervisor = complete technophobe)

The woman hounded him for several minutes until Hubs told her he would call her back if he found out anything. She seemed satisfied with that and finally hung up.

I can't hitch up my boat!

Someone had trouble hitching their boat trailer and called Security wanting them to fix it. Hubs forwarded the call to Maintenance who was actually able to winch the trailer into position so it could be hitched up.

Other drivers are mean!

Many times, people entering the community will complain about other drivers on the roads outside the community. Hubs tells them that is outside their jurisdiction and to contact the Sheriff's Dept if they want to pursue the complaint further. Cue many cat-butt faces.

[LesserSouthernFroglet]

Are you sure the locks are to keep everybody else out, and not to keep the residents in???

Some of them sound seriously Speshul.

[Crossbow]

Are you sure the locks are to keep everybody else out, and not to keep the residents in???

Some of them sound seriously Speshul.

If it was to keep the residents in, he should have locked the gate and gone to the bar...

[Raveni]

I dunno, maybe the guy could start by telling his 100 guests (or at least his son) what his address is.

[dalesys]

I dunno, maybe the guy could start by telling his 100 guests (or at least his son) what his address is.

"Immediately around the center of the universe... ME!"

[SixFortyK]

I live in a gated community, and it never ceases to amaze me how often I see residents stuck outside the gate. The gate is open during the day, but closed overnight from 7PM to 7AM. No one is stationed at the gate. We use a provided radio key or punch in a code to open it. At least twice a week, in the middle of the night, I will see some resident parked off to the side of the gate waiting for someone like me to come along and open the gate. They rush in behind me before the gate closes. Office staff says they get frequent complaints from people who forget their radio key and forget their code, or forget to give their code to their guests. Like they can do something about their forgetfulness. They move to a gated community, but don't think they should have to remember their code to get in.

[mhkohne]

I live in a gated community, and it never ceases to amaze me how often I see residents stuck outside the gate. The gate is open during the day, but closed overnight from 7PM to 7AM. No one is stationed at the gate. We use a provided radio key or punch in a code to open it. At least twice a week, in the middle of the night, I will see some resident parked off to the side of the gate waiting for someone like me to come along and open the gate. They rush in behind me before the gate closes. Office staff says they get frequent complaints from people who forget their radio key and forget their code, or forget to give their code to their guests. Like they can do something about their forgetfulness. They move to a gated community, but don't think they should have to remember their code to get in.

The solution here, I think, is to actually close the gate all the time - it'll get them in the habit of carrying the key/remembering the code.

[Argus]

The solution here, I think, is to actually close the gate all the time - it'll get them in the habit of carrying the key/remembering the code.

It'll also bog things down during high-traffic times.

[raudf]

Like everything else in life, an SC only wants the protection and security of a gated community until it inconveniences them. Mom worked as an actual guard for a gated community near one of the cities close by. It worked like a military base.. all you had to have was your parking/entry sticker and she'd lift the bar to let you in. No sticker and you had to stop by the gate to get signed in or call the person you were supposed to be visiting.

Mom heard a wonderful gamut of excuses concerning the stickers being missing. Oh, and her least favorite was when parents of adult children would have those children come to live with them.. and forget to get them a sticker.

Also, if you had deliveries (except for Fedex, UPS and USPS.. oh and the school bus!) you had to call the gate and let them know so they would let them in. See, a while back, a "pizza delivery driver" came in and robbed two homes, so no more just wave 'em ins. You have to call... or you'll be waiting a while longer while the driver gets out, heads up to the guard shack, guard hunts down your number (can't accept phone numbers from delivery folks for the same reason) and then calls you. If you're lucky, you even remember to update your phone number with the gate.. if not, good luck getting that pizza! Oh, the wailing because of this rule! Apparently, the gate wanted these pampered poops to starve to deaths!

[Ironclad Alibi]

Apparently, the gate wanted these pampered poops to starve to deaths!

Well, they wouldn't be bothering the front gate guy anymore.