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Fri 27 Jun, 2008 09:10 am
I am in the middle of a dispute with the company that handles my apartment building...we call them strata management companies here....I don't know what you call them elsewhere.
They do stuff like arrange maintenance etc.
Anyway....I have been concerned for some time about the number of times jobs around the place do not seem to be done correctly the first time.
For example....we have swipe card entry to doors, and the gates into the carparks.
A while ago, the pedestrian door into my carpark stopped working. I use this a lot, so I notified the problem.
A couple of weeks went past.....still didn't work...I called again...our manager said it had been fixed, I said it hadn't. A week or so later, it worked for a few days, then stopped again. I notified again...a couple of weeks later, it was fixed.
Recently, the same thing happened with the front door.
Then, the lights in the lift lobby and corridor on my level stopped working properly. I notified....I noticed there were more lights, but the problem I notified wasn't fixed. I called again, and got into an argument with someone covering for our manager when I said "I assume we don't pay the electrician again for coming back and doing the job correctly?" This guy was of the view that we did...because he wasn't sure the electrician had been given full information re what the problem was.
1. With tradespeople I hire directly, if they don't fix the problem the first time, and need to come back, I do not pay a second fee, but I do think it reasonable to pay for materials used to fix the problem properly.
Do others think this is fair?
2. If a company is responsible for arranging repairs, I would think thet, if the tradesperson does not get the correct information to fix the problem (I have since spoken personally to the electrician, who HADN'T properly understood the problem) is it reasonable to expecty the management company to pay for the second visit...(since they were responsible for the instructions).
Do others think this is fair?
It seems fair enough to me. There are individual circumstances that go into every situation but overall it is pretty much the way I handle things (as a trades-person).
If someone calls me and asks me to do something, I do it and if they aren't happy with it I don't charge them (for materials or labor!) to correct any problems unless they do something like change the scope of the problem.
If someone asks me to replace their ceiling light fixtures in their living room with others that they've purchased I bill them for doing exactly that. If they call me back because one is crooked or improperly installed I fix it and that's that - I don't bill them for coming back to fix it. If they call me back because they decide they don't like those particular fixures (which they provided!) or they now want fixtures in the bedroom or kitchen replaced I do charge them - that's a change in the scope of work.
If your manangement company gave improper instructions to the electrician then they should be paying him/her to come back out. It isn't the electrician's fault that they were told to do the wrong thing.
Good...this fella acted as though I were mad.
Grrrrrrrr....I was reasonably mad by the end of the conversation.
How about putting the requests/reports in by email, thus your having a record of the specific complaint, with no possible room for implication that somehow it was your request that was confusing...
Past that, I agree with Fishin' on the process and the charges.
dlowan
I don't think you were unreasonable at all. I dealt with 21 contractors prior to re-doing my house and yard. Talk about a headache. I will never take on that job again (general contractor).
I had written contracts with each major company and there were deadlines they had to go by in order for me to get the next contractor in. Only 1 job was on schedule and nothing went wrong. I wrote up the main contract that was 19 pages long to cover all bases. That was the best thing I could have done and I am glad I did it. It paid off in the end.
ossobuco wrote:How about putting the requests/reports in by email, thus your having a record of the specific complaint, with no possible room for implication that somehow it was your request that was confusing...
Past that, I agree with Fishin' on the process and the charges.
'Twasn't my request...it was put in by the cleaner, who is also paid to do basic maintenance, and to pass on such requests.
He hardly speaks English.
dlowan wrote:ossobuco wrote:How about putting the requests/reports in by email, thus your having a record of the specific complaint, with no possible room for implication that somehow it was your request that was confusing...
Past that, I agree with Fishin' on the process and the charges.
'Twasn't my request...it was put in by the cleaner, who is also paid to do basic maintenance, and to pass on such requests.
He hardly speaks English.
Aah.
Still, communication befuddlement, wherever it happened, doesn't cover that the maintenance person didn't notice the lights in lift, lobby, and corridor weren't working properly - before adding more. Wouldn't his instructions have included "check the lights" in any case?
Aggravating, I'm sure.
I presume there is an executive committee for your owner's corporation?
Take it up with the executive committee - or insist that the complainant puts it in writing to the committee, so that it is understood, when the request goes to the strata manager. Then have someone sign off on it. Someone who knows what is wrong and can check if it has been fixed.
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