Impossible to work

I got to thinking about what happened on Tuesday at Chicago Apartment Finders and ended up deciding that I should file a complaint with the company and see if they were willing to make up for their mistake.

So I filled out the feedback form on their web site and waited for someone to get back in touch with me. That was Tuesday evening. Since I hadn’t heard back from them, I decided to call and talk to a manager. If that phone call didn’t make a difference, I was going to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. And since I didn’t want to write a letter to them, I’m happy to report that the phone conversation went pretty well.

It was problematic at first, my phone disconnected right at the start of our conversation. But when I called back, I talked to a manager who was receptive to my complaint. He’s going to hook me up with a new (and theoretically better) agent over there. He also said that my credit check fee would be waived (which isn’t really a lot of money or anything, but it’s the thought that counts here). So maybe I’ll like Chicago Apartment Finders by the end of next week.

I certainly hope so. I also hope that previously mentioned Skeevish gets a good talking to. I don’t think he should lose his job, but I do think he needs to be reminded that asking someone about his or her ethnic heritage in a business meeting is not acceptable. I know he was just trying to make small talk, but it was a poor attempt at it.

I didn’t intend to get all Ralph Nader (pre-2000) here. But since I started it, I might as well finish it. I’ll keep you posted on this situation. Hopefully, by the end of next week, I’ll have an apartment to move into. I’ve already said so much about Chicago Apartment Finders, I might as well balance it out by talking about the people I interact with in this apartment search.

For the record, I’ve never used an apartment search service before. I’ve always found my apartments either by walking around and writing down numbers or in the Reader. It’s always worked for me in the past, but maybe this time around using a service will prove fruitful, if more stressful”^a1a”.

1. Funny that. The whole notion of using one of these services is to reduce the stress of apartment hunting and the process is already more stressful than any previous apartment search. aaa