West Coast Drama

Even though we are renting a house on the economy in Monterey I'm still dealing with that loser from the housing office. If you've read my previous blogs about this frustration you'll get a kick out of this.
I e-mailed my dear friend at the housing office letting him know that his services are no longer needed. My e-mail may have been a little harsh, but I think that it was needed because the process of pre-leasing a house from them was a total disappointment after another huge delay in hearing from this guy. Here's my "Thanks but No thanks" e-mail.....

Mr. Gordon,
I just wanted to let you know that we no longer need your services. I have found housing for my family on the economy. In the time that it took you to e-mail me pictures of an available house I had spoken to a landlord, had him e-mail pictures, fax me a lease which I signed and returned. It took you two full weeks to respond to me only after I spoke to your manager. You then promised to call me back in 1 hour. You NEVER called and I got an e-mail from you 32 hours later. I just wanted to let you know that our frustration with trying to get a pre-leased home from you is the reason we are renting on the economy. I would say thank you for your time but I don't believe you actually spent any time in helping us.

Nicole McMurtrie

And then miraculously I received an e-mail back from this guy only 3 hours after I sent it. Amazing HUH??? He's so very busy that giving us a house is too hard to manage, but he made sure that he responded to my nasty gram. How kind of him.... Here's his response.....I enjoyed him insulting military families. What a jackass!!!

Good Evening Mr. McMurtrie

Sorry you feel this way. I did indeed attempt to assist you in finding
housing for you and your family, unfortunately you are not the only
person requiring housing here at La Mesa. The landlord who was able to
assist you in such quick fashion I'm pretty sure that he/she is not
dealing with another 75+ personnel and their families both via email,
telephone, in-office and at the same time dealing with present residents and
their families. We ask and tell everyone that calls and/or visits
our office to please be patient and understanding because we are very
busy at this time of year.

I am retired with 24-years service under my belt, I do understand about
PCSing, time lines, etc... Since working here, I now understand and
appreciate civilians who have to deal with military, the different
personalities and expectations levied upon them by military personnel who
assume that they know nothing about military life. I tried to assist
you, sorry it wasn't in your time line...

Last, but not lease, we are all human beings with room for error.

Good luck to you and yours...

Don't these people have any experience in customer service?? It's a shame. I know that there are some military families out there who really think everything should be done for them with no gratitude given. This is NOT my family! I was trying to take advantage of a service this place said they could provide. They failed and he's trying to make me feel bad about it. Oh NO my friend.....that's not how it works. Don't these people know not to egg me on???? Here's my final response. I just couldn't resist. I was going to let it go and not respond and be the bigger person, but it just wasn't sitting well with me. So the way I'm being nice about all of this is not CC-ing his manager to these e-mails. Anyway.....the last bit of West Coast drama from the housing office, (unless this guy is crazy enough to write me back again....) Here's my final response....

Mr. Gordon,
First let me say that I completely understand a busy office. Your office offered this service of pre-leasing. To me this meant taking care of the housing situation before you arrive so it's one less thing to worry about and also having an address where I could send things. My family will be traveling and then moving to Ca next week. The problem I had is that this process would not have been complete by the time we moved to Monterey. What would be the point in pre-leasing if I would arrive there before the process was done? I started this process with you the second week of May. It took you 2 weeks to respond to my e-mails and phone calls. I understand that you are in a busy moving season right now but don't you think that 2 weeks is unacceptable? Then after I did get a hold of you you said you were going to call me back in 1 hour with homes to view. Stupid me sat in my house by my computer waiting for that phone call and e-mail with pictures. My hopes were that I would be able to pick a house and send you a check that day. With that this would have been done. Instead you wasted my time. That I don't appreciate since I am busy as well.
You are correct in that we are all human beings with room for error. My error was in assuming that the process of pre-leasing a home would be simple. I am sorry that your office is busy and that you are dealing with 75+ families and current residents. I don't understand how that is supposed to justify my experience. I also don't understand how you can return my e-mail so quickly when you are defending yourself but not so quickly with information on finding my family a home.
I hope we are now done wasting each others time and entertaining each other with these e-mails.

Good luck to you as well.
Nicole McMurtrie

Thank goodness for Craigslist...right??? :-)