Other than the aforementioned lack of customer service?
I don’t like the fact that, it seems, nothing is easy. And I mean nothing.
We had trouble with our boiler this past weekend. Called the landlord’s agent. No answer, no emergency number listed. Called a boiler repairman ourselves. Paid £60 that we had better get back.
Had more trouble with the boiler on Monday. Called the landlord’s agent. Was told they would get in touch with the landlord and get back to us. That happened about 3 hours later. Why can’t we just call the landlord directly?
This building is run badly. One agent rented us the flat. One agent represents our landlord now that the flat is rented. One agent runs the building. Virgin Media guy was here Monday. Needed into the cupboard down the hall to flip a switch, or something like that, it was locked. I call Simon and ask him to call the landlord’s agent (his is the only name on the lease, so he has to do it) and ask how we get into that cupboard. They can’t tell us, call the building management. Oh, says the building management, the concierge is in the building somewhere, he has the key. Do you have a phone number? No, but his office is in the basement. Robyn heads to basement, just happens to run into the Concierge.
Need the front door buzzer hooked into our phone number, so guests can be let in (interesting fact, there is no key for the front door of the building, it is a code instead. Kinda cool). Simon calls the building management, talks to some crazy person who makes no sense as to what we need to do. So I call. Speak to a woman who sounds about 12. You’re leasing? Yes. Then your landlord needs to call to confirm that it is okay to hook your phone into the security system. And its £25.
Do you know what would help? A small document, given to all new tenants, saying who to contact for what. Like hotels do, ya know?
So it seems that Belfast’s raison d’etre is to make things as difficult as possible. Makes me insane.