What Happened to the Notion of Customer Service?

Today, I have been thinking a lot about customer service, as I'm struggling to get through to the company that manages the apartment building where I've lived for 15 years.

The Freelancers
There's the Handyman, who doesn't work for the company. He's great. He does a good job, and then he's gone. There's a lady who comes in and vacuums the common hallways once each week. She's reliable and efficient. She does a good job, and then she's gone. There are two groundskeepers who come once per week, mow the grass for 15 minutes and go. They're reliable and efficient. They do a good job, and then they're gone. They're freelancers like me. Freelancers understand how important it is to keep our customers satisfied!

The Employees
And now we come to the employees. That's where all goes wrong.

There's the Caretaker, who takes care of next to nothing, and certainly not this building. He seems to have only two purposes - showing vacant apartments to potential renters and painting the suite, badly, the morning they're trying to move their stuff in. His voicemail says "I'm sorry this phone is never answered in person. Leave a message." Why bother? He doesn't call back.

There's the Property Manager. I've met him once - that was April 1, five months ago, the evening he knocked on my door to deliver my notice of rent increase personally. While he was here, I decided to show him a couple of problems I have in the suite. I figured if I was going to pay more rent, I wanted these things to be fixed. (I don't know where I got the idea they'd fix anything, but, well, I tried.)

Here is a picture of my disintegrating bathroom vanity with the doors that fall off. The darn thing is rotten, through and through. This is what I showed the Property Manager the night he visited me, four months ago. At that time, I requested it be repaired.

Anyway, I have followed up with the property management company on this problem with my bathroom vanity very gently but quite diligently for five months - first with monthly inquiries, then with weekly inquiries, and now with bi-daily inquiries. It turns out the Property Manager never answers his phone either, so I've been leaving messages on his voicemail. Unfortunately, he seems to have taken customer service lessons from the Caretaker.

The Management
Yesterday, I phoned the company, and spoke to the receptionist, to ask for the name of the person senior to the Property Manager, and she pumped me until I finally told her the story. She was very understanding and sympathetic, and she promised to pass the message along to both the Office Manager and the Senior Property Manager, and that one of them would call me back before the end of the day. Nuh-uhn. Nuthin!

So today, I phoned the Office Manager, again reaching an answering machine, and again explaining that this has drawn on, and I just need someone to call me back and provide me with a status report. Nuthin again. Why am I surprised? I got her name and number from the company's website, where I read all about how well they take care of their customers - the apartment owners. Not the apartment renters. Apparently, I'm not their customer.

Take my advice - never, NEVER rent anything managed by MacDonald Commercial Realty. It's excrutiating.