even on thanksgiving, they cant take a break from being sucky

[vacation_rentals_suck]

Guest: Dave, this is my third phone call and I am very pissed. I have been waiting over an hour for someone to come fix my oven so I can cook dinner. Why is nobody here yet, Dave?

Me: where are you staying?

Guest: Jesus fucking Christ, why the fuck do I have to keep repeating myself to every goddamn person I talk to

Me: well ma'am, if you dont tell me where you are staying, I cant help you

Guest: Goddamnit, I am staying at a certain villa (I didnt want to put an address in here)

Me: ok well let me call my technician and see what's going on

I call the tech

Me: ok I left him a message

Guest: ok well I am not going to continue to wait, I want this oven fixed right this minute. I have 17 hungry people waiting on dinner

Me: well I will send him down there when he calls back

Guest: thats not good enough, this oven needs fixed NOW. I need him here NOW.

Me: I have to wait until he calls me back

Guest: what part of now dont you understand?

Me: I cant do anything until he calls me back

Guest: well Dave, you're gonna have to.....I cant wait until someone feels like coming down here......you rented me this house, you need to fix the oven

Me: we will as soon as my tech calls me back

Guest: ok Dave, I cant wait until he calls you back, something needs to happen immediately. I just find it ridiculous that the oven wasnt working to begin with and then to be made to wait for an over an hour. Dave, I demand a satisfactory explanation

Me: I dont know what to tell you

Guest: well I do, you can start with a humble and respectful apology for ruining our thanksgiving although something tells me I wont get one from you because you're in some call center somewhere and really dont care

Me: ok well as soon as he calls me back, I will send him down there

Guest: you've said that ten times already and it pisses me off more every time you say it

Me: what do you want me to say

Guest: you know what, I think you're just plain stupid, Dave. I am done with you. You are just like a stinky turd in the toilet and I think it's time to flush you. Goodbye.

[Qaeria]

I should give you my number VRS. That way, you can transfer these gems to me. I would love nothing better than to deflate such an air of entitlement. Keep up the good fight though... If nothing else, you provide excellent entertainment for your fellow CS.com peeps!

[KnitShoni]

Ok, how long were they in this house before they decided to check to see if the oven works? I mean, seriously, if you KNOW you're having that many over for dinner, wouldn't you want to make sure before hand that you'd be able to cook for them?

[EvilEmpryss]

So what, were you supposed to come down from your "call center somewhere" with all the knowledge, skill, and parts necessary to fix the oven Right Now? Or maybe offer to shift all 17+ people to a new rental, which transfering would entail its own list of bitchery?

[RootedPhoenix]

Guest: well Dave, you're gonna have to.....I cant wait until someone feels like coming down here......you rented me this house, you need to fix the oven

*pulls oven out of ear*

...but I figure she'll complain about all the yellow streaks...

[Ree]

I mean, seriously, if you KNOW you're having that many over for dinner, wouldn't you want to make sure before hand that you'd be able to cook for them?

Well, to be fair, I can see me in the same situation. If I am renting a place and probably paying top dollar, (since it was a major holiday), I would expect that the amenities are in working order.

Call me crazy, but I wouldn't even think that I would need to check the oven, since that's a pretty basic necessity, regardless of whether I was cooking a Thanksgiving meal or not.

On the other hand, if I did discover my oven wasn't working, while I would be really upset, I think I would understand that it's a holiday, so it's going to take a while for a repair service to reach me.

Guest: Dave, this is my third phone call and I am very pissed. I have been waiting over an hour for someone to come fix my oven so I can cook dinner. Why is nobody here yet, Dave?

Me: where are you staying?

Guest: Jesus fucking Christ, why the fuck do I have to keep repeating myself to every goddamn person I talk to

Sucks that your company makes all those people work Thanksgiving. I hope you were all getting double time and a half.
Where did all those other people go that she spoke to? Since you were her third call, how come nobody else helped her, and why did you end up once again bearing the brunt of the customer's anger? Hardly seems fair.

I swear you seem to have an asshole magnet on your phone.

[tollbaby]

I agree with Ree - it'd never occur to me to check the oven before I needed to use it, because come on, I'm paying big bucks for this place, the appliances should at least be in working order That said, I've had so many ovens crap out on me (my current one only has one working burner - my landlord has been saying he'd replace it for months while the previous owner didn't care). It's frustrating, but at that point, I'd be just ordering chinese or something, not yelling at the rental company WHILE my guests were sitting around hungry... Even if the repair tech had magically squeezed himself out of the phone, it's not enough time to cook a turkey :P

[jackfaire]

Can you (the renter) personally inspect the place before accepting the key?

If not I guess I can see how other people wouldn't bother inspecting the amenities figuring nothing they could do about it if something didn't work.

If they could however then yes it is the renter's responsibility to check that they are receiving product the way it is supposed to be.

[South Texan]

I also would be seriously ticked off if the oven did not work and I was trying to prepare a meal for guests.

Then being told that everything hinged on whether and whenever the tech decided to call back? And she had been waiting for a response for an hour? I can fully understand her frustration. Her language is a whole different issue.

Please tell us the tech did return your message quickly. If not, then your company really needs to consider keeping a tech on call during a holiday who actually stays on call AND responds promptly.

[EricKei]

I can certainly understand being pissed about the oven and the tech -- but she should be pissed at *him*, not at you. She got into the foul language pretty quickly, too >_<

[Tito]

At least she did not tell you to go to hell.

[Fryk]

No, just down the toilet :: )

[tigress666]

I also would be seriously ticked off if the oven did not work and I was trying to prepare a meal for guests.

Then being told that everything hinged on whether and whenever the tech decided to call back? And she had been waiting for a response for an hour? I can fully understand her frustration. Her language is a whole different issue.

Please tell us the tech did return your message quickly. If not, then your company really needs to consider keeping a tech on call during a holiday who actually stays on call AND responds promptly.

I honestly am barely getting hte idea of how Dave's business works from reading his rants (I'm kinda new here). I don't know if they get a chance to inspect the properties at all before renting or if it is up to owner of property to make sure property is working.

Honestly, I'd say the anger is properly placed on whoever is responsible for maintenance of the house and making sure things are working properly before people rent the house (and honestly, messups happen, I think as long as they were willing to find some way of compensating me I'd be happy. Sh*t happens sometimes). I agree that I'd assume the oven was working myself and it is reasonable of the customer to have expected the oven to work (especially since ovens in my experience don't tend to break too often. I have yet to encounter a broken one in any apt I have lived in or place I have rented).

At the point that it is already Thanksgiving it is too late and honestly unreasonable to expect that they will be able to get some one out right then and there on a holiday. I'd be amazed myself if they had some one answering stuff like that on a holiday.

Prolly if I were the customer I'd just give up on the dinner, consider it ruined, go out to eat, and expect a discount or some sort of compensation from the company rather than expect they can pull a tech out of their ass last minute for thanksgiving, especially in time to cook a turkey. And if they weren't offering of one (or some way of compensating, even if it is to find a way to get my turkey cooked, heh, but something to show they are sorry for the messup), just remember that, don't come back, and tell people my experience.

[sirwired]

I can guess what happened...

Oven, in general are pretty reliable devices, especially electrics. There just isn't much to them. At least, there wasn't until some numbskull decided that fancy-pants touchpads were a nifty way to build a device that heats up to hundreds of degrees.

SC opens the oven the day before and thinks it's a little grungy. (Chambers subjected to hundreds of degrees of heat have a tendency to do that.) He hits the "Self Clean" button. The self-clean cranks on and dutifully heats the thing to 600 degrees or so to turn the grunge into ash. The oven vent, in the meantime, does it's job and vents the oven into the kitchen.

Where is the oven vent located, you might ask? Underneath the keypad, which for some reason sometimes doesn't react well to being heated not that far below the melt point for electric solder.

The fix is easy: a $200 control assembly. Too bad there are a bajillion different kinds of this expensive part, which guarantees the tech doesn't have any on the truck.

Moral of the story: Never, EVER self-clean an oven less than a month before a major holiday. If yours does break after self clean, you can order the part online yourself and have it in just a couple of days, but you don't want to be emergency calling a tech tx-giving morning only to have him charge you $100 to say he can't help.

SirWired

[blas]

Or if your landlord fucks with them in an attempt to save money and not fix them.

That's a rant for another day.