Something happened to me today that to me seems to symbolize everything wrong with the modern world. I live in a student apartment complex with two on site maintenance guys and a lady named Tira at an on site office who I always assumed was the landlord or directly answering to him. Few weeks ago I get email that the apartment complex has been sold to some other company, whatever, my rent is already signed for next year.
Anyways today I see a slip under my door telling me that my rent is two weeks overdue and they are charging 80$ late/bounced check fee in addition to the rent which if I do not pay in 3 days I will be kicked out. I go downstairs to Tira and try to explain to her that I made the payment online and that maybe something went wrong but its not my fault. She informs me that she feels my pain, but there is nothing she can do to waive the fee since only the company that now owns the building can do it and she can't make decisions without them. When I ask who I can talk in the company she tells me the company just owns the property from far away and does not have any desire or infrastructure for dealing with tenants. They basically just collect a check every month, its like a stock for them. I badger her to give me the number but she swears that there is no contact information or higher up or anything, finally she goes to their website and gives me the corporate number and tells me I am wasting my time.
I call the company and explain to a very nice lady my problem. She is genuinely vexed, the company owns property but doesn't in any way deal with the practical aspects of landlordism, they do not have a customer service or accounting line I can talk to. After talking to her for half an hour she finally transfers me to an even nicer secretary who listens to my story again and tells me she didn't even know the company owned real estate in my state. Finally she tells me she will have Mr. Morgan deal with it who judging by the hushed tone is somebody who can actually make decisions there.
I sit home pissed off waiting for the call back, instead I get a visit from Tira who is all crying and shaking, evidently Mr. Morgan just called her instead, yelled at her, told her to waive the fee, and explained to her he never ever wants to be bothered about this crap again. So I got my money back but I feel like an arse even though I never once said anything bad about Tira while on the phone.
I think it is a real window into how large corporations are run. The owners view the business in abstract terms as a bottom line at the end of the year, they do not care about the people the business serves and have no desire to in any way forge a relation with them. The employees at these places are cynical and alienated feeling like they have no power or authority and completely unwilling to help. This is why the service at Walmart sucks, why cable companies have help lines where its impossible to reach a person, and why Hollywood makes sh*t movies.