On Dec 8th 2007, I called before I left for work to the after hours service line to report that our hot water was out for the building. OK!, mind you, it's a industrial model that serves my entire building. they "promised" that they would call us back.
Hours later, someone called and said that they assumed it was just our unit that was out, before my neighbor upstairs called them for the SAME reason. (Dear reader, please read about the stated hot water heater above.) so, if I'm out of hot water, you can bet the entire building is out. ok, fast forward to that evening. Around 8pm, i saw that there were 2 guys working on it and they stated that the "Damper" was faulty. Ok, gentle reader, we have a Lowes and a home Depot nearby to get one. also, it's the dead of winter(please note the date of the first time I called..DEC 8th!) one could've been appropriated from one of those establishments instead, we got the "it can't be fixed until monday", two days away. I have a 15month old son and two daughters that need hot water to bathe for school at the very least. we have had to heat our bath water on the stove because our board of directors and the management company have not tuned into the fact that they work for us. this means to fix and repair things as they need to be. but, as luck would have it, we are being lead by blind people who have TOTAL disregard for other people, even on the most basic level of being human beings.
fast forward to Monday the 10th. I got home from work at the usual 8pm to 8:30pm time frame and kept a document that was passed out to My building that stated he(the property manager) was aware of our hot water issue and that "special parts" (meaning damper) would be in on Tuesday the 11th, the next day. But, again as luck would have it, the parts didn't arrive. but , my wife on Monday got the run around from the property office that they knew NOTHING about our hot water being out. hmm.. see where this is going fast?
ok, on to Wednesday. We finally got the parts!! they were installed and I watched for a period of time as these two guys fumbled with the wiring of the hot water heater. the wires for the thermostat are exposed as if the cover had been ripped off to do "jerry rigging work in the past. these guys had no idea what they were doing. I'm thinking these guys were unlicensed and unbonded repair guys as they looked alot like the keystone cops trying to fix this d**n water heater. mind you again, we still have to heat our water on the stove for baths.
So, about thursday, the water heater went out again!!! I ended up calling the office to get a repairmen out to fix the water heater and called the office of code enforcement. there are codes that they are being warned about and can subsequently get fined for this continuation of hot water outages.
so to make a long story short, it is now the 15th, and I had lukewarm water and called the after hours office again. the lady stated that Frenchmans creek now turns off the hot water heater around 12am and turns it back on around 6am. I can guess only because the guy who has been repairing the d**n water heater says the thermostat doesn't regulate the water temperature and we could get scalded. How ghetto can we get? we have people who work late shifts and come home before 6am. I guess they are boned.
if they turn it on later and it doesn't come on, I'll be calling the city code enforcement to fine them now.
Chris
New Carrollton, Maryland
U.S.A.