A successful business slogan I have always remembered is under promise and over deliver. The principle does not always work to be sure, but it largely does. When you exceed even modest expectations, people are almost always pleased. When you fail that, the outcome is reversed. I also believe in expectations being modulated to the environ. I do not expect that a McDonald's cheeseburger will be comparable to a burger at a chophouse nor do I expect even a new Kia to outperform a 5 year old Porshe. However, I do expect a McDonald's experience be consistent to other McDonald's experiences and a new Kia to compare to other new cars in its class and price range. According to people I have worked with and dealt with, even this puts me in a high needs class, seemingly because I expect some standards at all.
What does the preceding paragraph have to do with anything? Well, mainly it relates to our apartment. When we moved in, they over promised and they are certainly under delivering. This may not be a big deal, but for a 'luxury' apartment that is charging prices congruent with that moniker, it is highly disappointing. Since we have moved in the laundry list of complaints is as follows:
- The garage door keeps being repaired. At each repair, it gets noisier and noisier. It now has the distinctly displeasing sound of rending steel every time it opens. And it opens a LOT. And we are far too near it to ignore each and every opening.
- The gym is supposed to be stocked at all times with towels and cold drinks. It is a 50/50 proposition generally. Fine if that wasn't one of the sell points, but it was.
- The one garbage chute per floor works fine mostly, except when it is stuffed and blocked. Fun. But the big common problem is one recycle bin for everything but glass and one for glass that is emptied weekly. Tia and I used to fill one of those up ourselves at least monthly. Now you are talking about 30+ apartments and one bin. Which means recycling everywhere in a small room that gets cleaned out once a week.
- Leaky windows that, honestly, they continue to not address. I don't know what is being done behind the scenes, but the communication is poor. In the meantime there is no way there wont be mold issues in due time. This is in a number of apartments and appears to be structural.
- Supposed free internet that really only works about 20 feet from the hot spot.
- A big screen TV in the common room but only an antenna hooked to it so it gets 8 channels. Kind of like buying a sports car and then putting bike tires on it.
- No entrance from the lobby to the stairs, meaning you have to wait a long time for an elevator to take you up one floor. It is comical and everyone in the building is frustrated by it.
- A new front load washer/dryer that seems to never dry things and vaguely washes them.
I am sure there is more, but I mainly mean to make the point that a LOT of these things would not be problems except that we are paying a premium price for them. My expectation is that the price affords premium accouterments and that they be maintained. However, that is not happening. And, as our complaints dont seem to resonate, we are left contemplating other options that are altogether unappealing like moving yet again. Bah!
On other topics:
- It won't stop raining, and raining hard no less. Missing warm sun.......or either one of those things.
- Work is crazy busy. Even with 3 RNs running the phones it is a scramble to keep up with volumes. They also want to add more to our agenda. I am thinking that might be a while in the coming at this rate or something will fall off the table and be forgotten. Still nothing else in the pipeline.
- Going to a wedding reception today. My recommendation, just elope and have a party after. It is cheaper, more fun for all involved, and you can use your 'special day' money you would have spent on overpriced catering and attire to have a truly memorable honeymoon.
- I just read that the US govt spends more on defense than the NEXT 20 NATIONS COMBINED! Some estimates put it as higher than all other nations combined. And yet they dicker over pennies on tax breaks and the like. What the hell!?!?!
- Only three more weeks until the new year. Hopefully that means new opportunities too.
Time to get back to trying to do things. Hard to get motivated when it seems perpetually dim outside.
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