Retail Banking and a Blessing

John always tells me stories about angry customers.  Let's face it; John doesn't like his job.  It was fun for a little while, but he gets sick of people yelling at him for things that can't be controlled.  I think it's horrible and hilarious that people get an overdraft fee, yell at John with every swear word imaginable and threaten to close their account because "John has treated them so horribly".  The fact is they spend money they didn't have.

So I don't get it.  Why do people get mad at the worker when it's not the worker's fault and it's out of their control?  It's pretty obnoxious.

Now here's there really good story:

Our house is up for rent.  On Monday at 3:30 we had a family that wanted to look at the house.  Whenever someone comes to look at the house, we are not allowed to be here.  Supposedly homeowners "scare potential renters".  I had to take my daughter to the doctor, so I was going to be out anyway.  At around 3:45, I came home and I saw the Property Manager and  the potential renters driving away.  I circled around the block and went home.  When I came home, the lock was broken.  It took me a few minutes to open the door.

No big deal right?  Locks break occasionally.  It just happened to be when someone else was in my home.  For some reason, I didn't worry about it.

On Tuesday I went to WalMart to get a new lock.  Olivia fell asleep in the car, so I put her to bed right when we got home.  Less than an hour after I got home, four teenage boys came out of a black car and walked up to my house.  Three of them when right to my backyard and one went to my front door.  I could see them through my front window.  I could hear the one boy at my door fiddling with my lock box.  I calmly opened my window and said, "hey can I help you?"

Keep in mind, I was still pretty calm.

The boys were pretty startled.  The boy at my door had the code to my lock box and had my house key in his hand!  He said he thought he could just go in because the house was for rent.  I told them if they wanted to tour the house, they had to call property management.  Well, there was NO WAY four 17-18-year-old boys could have the credit score to rent out our house, so I knew they either wanted a party house or they wanted to steal stuff.  Right when they started leaving, I called a friend to come over and she and her husband came within 2 minutes.  I called John and he came home from work too.  I was pretty shaken.

The blessing part is, if the lock didn't break on Monday, the kids would have been in my house and who knows what could have happened.

I called my property manager and changed my locks.

The next day I went into my property manager, they apologized profusely, and I gave them my new keys.  I asked the guy there what the lock combo was on my lock box and he just rattled it off like he had them all memorized.  I thought that was okay because I know the office all knew about what happened at my house.  Maybe that's why he knew the combo without looking it up.

So what did I do?  My friend and I went to another house that night with a lock box and tried the code.

It was the same.  ALL the houses have the same code.  AND they give it code out to anyone who wants to see any of their houses!  If you want a vacant party house, let me know.  I'll give you a list of empty houses and a code.

Is this post long enough?  Well, let's make it a little longer.

The more and more I thought about it, the angrier I was that they let ANYONE walk into my house as long as nobody lives in it.  On Wednesday, I packed up both the kids and went to property management.

Okay, going back to John's work.  I could have easily gone in and yelled at him and threatened to take my business elsewhere.  In fact, I did say I would but nicer:

I walked in, and told Jared (my property manager) that I like this property management place, but there is just one thing that I can't get over: they let anyone in my house unaccompanied.  He interrupted me to apologize again and told me that he called all his potential renters and asked if anyone sent teenagers to my house.  He said all of them said they did not send anyone to my house.  I'm not sure how true that is.  I'm just not sure how that conversation went: "Hey someone punks tried to break into a lady's house.  You send them?"  Well, I asked a bunch of clarification questions and it came down to this: I said, on Tuesday, I lost all my trust in your procedure to rent out my house.  I never want anyone unaccompanied in my house .  I never want a lock box on my house.  I just feel like I can't trust this company anymore.  Unless you can do something to build up my trust in you again, I will need to switch property management companies.  I just don't feel comfortable for my family's safety while I'm here and I don't want my property trashed when I leave.

He said that in the 700 properties that they have, that never has any one been trashed.  However he promised me that he will hide the lock box on my property and write in my file that no on is allowed in my house unless accompanied by a property manager.

I told him that that was very comforting, but the day that a lock box is put on my front door will be the day that I find a new property manager.

He was fine with that.

I felt like I handled the situation well despite the fact that I was actually in danger because of their poor procedure.  But unlike people at the bank, I never yelled and I asked for clarification.  Because yelling at a worker does nothing.

That's my long story.  Doubt anyone made it through the entire thing, but now I can just print this off and put it in my journal.  Wonderful.

Point is: never yell at a worker when the thing that you are angry about is not their fault and sometimes a broken lock can actually be a blessing.