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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be wth - letting agent advice please

155 replies

whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 14:25

Need some advice on this to see if it's as weird/unprofessional as I think.

No hot water last night, boiler well and truly gone, ok not great two DC's under 4. Letting agent has an online reporting tool so nothing to do but log and call in the morning. Which we did.

When we clicked the issue on the digital tool a pop up tells us to continue reporting on there but for this problem to also call the emergency line, I mean in my head it's v urgent but not an emergency as summer. Called twice no answer.
Gets an auto-response from agent saying that this problem (heating and hot water) is classified as urgent and that they will attempt to deal with urgent queries in 3 working days.

We were a little eeekkkk, what does that mean, have someone out or just respond, being Thurs eve we were a little panicky and the thought of it not being dealt with until the start of next wk - we have nowhere to go as the three people we could ask have covid!!! I called the emergency no again and left a vm saying we've just received this email, if someone receives this tonight I'd appreciate a quick call or text just confirming that 3 days won’t be the case and stop me panicking I was nice and jokey about it.

45 min later nothing, and as we have a really good (small city) FB page I thought I would ask on there to set my mind at rest;
"Does anyone rent with xxxx and has had experience of no hot water/heating, and their xxxx online reporting system? We reported the problem via xxx but have received a response back saying this has been categorised as urgent - it then lists all the urgent issues (emergency issues above this are basically major structural problems). And that they will aim to deal with the issue within 3 working days of the issue being reported.

I'm not sure what deal means, but I'm taking from this it could be into next week before its resolved given it's Friday tomorrow😅😱. Surely this can't isn't right, is it? I was thinking there would be some kind of 24hr call out for boiler issues??"
We're all just recovering from covid, DC have conjunctivitis and just wanted some reassurance before I went to bed that I wouldn't be waiting 3 days. I haven't rented since 2007 so have no idea what is to be expected.

Fast forward to this morning they email DH to say someone organised for today, great, they then followed up with call to confirm - I picked up, I was bright and breezy on the phone and like oh thank god, thank you, yes seen email etc. and was about to say we were panicking as your online thing says the above, but, to say the agent was being aggressive was an understatement, I thought DH had maybe complained this morning or there'd been some kind of altercation and he'd not said, so I said sorry is there a problem do you need me to get DH, when they exploded at me, not in volume more tone IYKWIM. How they would have expected me to come directly to them if there was a problem, how disappointed she was in me, at which point i was like I'm sorry what, they then proceeded to to tell me how they were members of the facebook group and they had seen the post last night and they were really hurt (they sounded more angry but ok) that we were complaining on there and we thought they wouldn't fix the problem they always fix problems like that in 24 hrs, so I was like, whoa, well if you've seen the post you'll know I was talking about your reporting platform and the message generated from that, which distinctly does not say 24hrs it says 3 working days!!!

She then said “well that's what the emergency phone number is for you should have called that as per the tenancy agreement....."we did, 3 times, left two messages one asking the exact question I put on facebook. No one ever got back." Her response was to shut me down and say "we can go round and round on this I don't think there's anything more to say". I was just completely baffled and kept saying what, sorry, I then said look I'm not sure what's happening here...." at which point she slammed and I mean slammed the phone down.

I just feel hair dryer'ed and I do not appreciate that, I mean this is unprofessional right.? Also feel a little spied also who is she to tell me what I can post on Facebook.....I looked at the member list and none of the lettings team are members of that group.

DH has emailed the branch manager asking them to call him - emailed back saying they are on leave today and can't call.....picking up emails and no out of office though 🤔

OP posts:
Iwantachange · 01/07/2022 14:41

Yabvu to post on fb with complaints when they didn't respond to you straight away. You should have waited till this morning to see what happens when the office reopened for the day. You said it yourself that originally you didn't think it was an urgent emergency to get fixed so it's baffling why suddenly you needed a response ASAP and couldn't wait overnight.

The estate agent was also BU because they took your post waaay too personally and were very unprofessional in their behavior, especially the slamming of the phone. They would be totally justified if they were a bit annoyed with you for jumping the gun with ur post but anything more is OTT

I could imagine what has happened with branch manager is now (rightly or wrongly) you are perceived as a bit of a "Karen" and you are more likely to be fobbed off going forwards

Original poster
whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 14:51

@Iwantachange no I said I didn't think it was an emergency that needed fixing that night, but neither did I think it was reasonable to be without hot water for up to 5 days, I wasn't complaining, I was asking specifically about people's experience with the online reporting tool for this issue and what that said versus other tenant's actual experience of the response time. I don't think the fb post which I've copied in is complaining, just asking for other's experience. Does it not come over that way?

OP posts:
SamphirethePogoingStickerist · 01/07/2022 14:53

So.. you contacted them out of hours and before office hours you went to social media with a whole woe is us story?

YABVU.

araiwa · 01/07/2022 14:53

Bloody hell

Was any of that necessary? You could've just called in the morning

Original poster
whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 14:55

Just for clarity this the fb post:

"Does anyone rent with xxxx and has had experience of no hot water/heating, and their xxxx online reporting system? We reported the problem via xxx but have received a response back saying this has been categorised as urgent - it then lists all the urgent issues (emergency issues above this are basically major structural problems). And that they will aim to deal with the issue within 3 working days of the issue being reported.

OP posts:
Original poster
whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 14:56

Just for clarity this the fb post:

"Does anyone rent with xxxx and has had experience of no hot water/heating, and their xxxx online reporting system? We reported the problem via xxx but have received a response back saying this has been categorised as urgent - it then lists all the urgent issues (emergency issues above this are basically major structural problems). And that they will aim to deal with the issue within 3 working days of the issue being reported.

I'm not sure what deal means, but I'm taking from this it could be into next week before its resolved given it's Friday tomorrow😅😱. Surely this can't isn't right, is it? I was thinking there would be some kind of 24hr call out for boiler issues??"

OP posts:
Original poster
whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 14:59

@SamphirethePogoingStickerist no I asked the question as above - that is what is posted, does it come across as woe is us??

OP posts:
ChessieFL · 01/07/2022 15:00

Yeah I think you jumped the gun putting that on Facebook when you hadn’t given them much time to get back to you. I can understand why the agency people were annoyed. However, they shouldn’t have spoken to you in that way.

Idontevenknow · 01/07/2022 15:06

I think a reasonable person would have just waited till the office reopened this morning and phoned to clarify. I personally would have logged it on the system, if they directed me to the emergency line id have left a voicemail on the emergency line reiterating the problem I've reported and then left it till the morning. I think you were being very impatient.

However the agent was unreasonable in how they spoke to you and were unprofessional.

mummabubs · 01/07/2022 15:09

I think they responded quite firmly but have to say I agree with others that you were being unreasonable to post on a public platform when you'd not even waited until the office to open the next day. If you had waited then you'd have known it was going to be fixed within 24 hours anyway (which falls within the 3 working days they quote). It sounds like they pride themselves on looking after their tenants and so you publicly questioning this on a small fb group before they'd realistically have a chance to see your message probably did feel hurtful to them. It does sound like you tried to apologise though.

FWIW our boiler broke when our second child was one day old, we don't rent so just had to accept it would take a few days in less than ideal circumstances to find someone with availability to come and fit a new one, was a week in the end.

Blowthemandown · 01/07/2022 15:16

I don’t think asking for advice in itself is unreasonable but for whatever reason they read your post as a complaint rather than an enquiry. I’d have held off posting until after I called once the office opened as you’d reported everywhere as instructed. However, their phone manner needs work and they could update their info to explain what service times are for urgent vs non urgent etc. And as you haven’t been in that situation before could have been more understanding.

IcedOatLatte · 01/07/2022 15:16

at which point she slammed and I mean slammed the phone down

Of topic but how can you tell that someone has slammed the phone down? Do they have an actual phone cradle, did you ring the 1970s? No one slams phones now do them, maybe they jab the end call button really hard but how would you know?

I'm that aside I think you did go ott with the FB post before you'd even spoken to anyone

Womencanlift · 01/07/2022 15:16

Your FB post doesn’t come across that you are asking a question about the portal, more like you are bitching about the service

The person you spoke to acted completely unprofessionally so for that YANBU

However you very much did jump the gun and can see why they were pissed off (although they shouldn’t have shown it in the way they did). I wouldn’t expect much from the branch manager as sounds like you have got their backs up

Original poster
whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 15:23

@IcedOatLatte they definitely slammed.....I still have a cradle phone in the office, is this weird now??

OP posts:
Original poster
whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 15:24

Okay well I wasn't @Womencanlift but thanks for your opinion.

OP posts:
Original poster
whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 15:28

@mummabubs yes I did and I tried to clarify but it sounded like she had no idea what the portal throws out, nor did she want to be informed of it - neither of which helped.

OP posts:
DDivaStar · 01/07/2022 15:32

Your fb post sounds like you're complaining you might have to wait 5 day/ 3 working days and you think thats too long. The fb message was completely unnecessary as you could get a proper informed answer from the company the next morning.

WatchoRulo · 01/07/2022 15:34

YANBU OP People are funny about SM posts - as if you have to get permission from your Mum in triplicate before you can even post a question. Letting agent should be sorting out your issue, not fucking about giving etiquette lessons - just show their priorities are all wrong.

Discovereads · 01/07/2022 15:42

OP, did I read this right, you called the emergency out of hours number on Thursday evening, left a message, then waited 45minutes and before posting the FB complaint? (It’s a complaint btw complete with 😱 emojis and such). Sorry but that is really unreasonable. You should have slept on it and called Friday morning when the office opened.

I really don’t blame the estate agents at all because waiting 45mins wouldn’t even be giving them a proper chance to respond to your urgent issue during business hours much less in the middle of the evening/outside business hours.

Original poster
whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 15:42

@DDivaStar well I wasn't but I would have been! I wouldn't have complained on FB though, I genuinely fked from covid, not used to not having british gas homecare (I know I'm in a very fortunate position to have always had that) and just wanted someone to say nah don't worry they sorted mine really quickly or something similar.

OP posts:
DelosParks · 01/07/2022 15:44

You should have just waited until the morning. Today is a completely ordinary working day so there was no need to push for answers last night.

If it was you who was paying for the plumber would you have waited until the morning to call one and had no hot water overnight or would you have called an emergency plumber knowing it would be ten times the price?

Original poster
whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 15:48

@Discovereads OP, did I read this right, you called the emergency out of hours number on Thursday evening,

Yes but only because when I clicked on the no hot water icon on the portal there was a pop up that appeared that said 'for this issue continue to report here but also call the emergency no on 07....' I said this in my post I thought this was unnecessary and said this to them in the VM I left but I was just following instructions. They had a go at me for not doing that this morning......so it's clearly not monitored.

OP posts:
Lindy2 · 01/07/2022 15:49

I actually don't regard no hot water as a 24 hour emergency event. No heating in the middle of a cold winter, yes that's a significant problem but no hot water in summer is inconvenient, not an emergency.

Most homeowners have to wait a while sometimes for a plumber or gas engineer to attend.

Your agents/landlord will need to find a gas engineer with availability. A wait of a few days is normal.

I think you've been rather OTT although the agents shouldn't be rude to you.

It's been a long time though since most people have been able to slam down a phone. They might press the red button quite hard (not nearly as satisfying) but gone are the days when people were able to do a good slam.

Original poster
whyarepeoplesobananas · 01/07/2022 15:50

@DelosParks i think you need to read the post and thread, there was absolutely 0 expectation of a plumber being called last night - that's quite explicit from the post, that's not what this is about.

OP posts:
SD1978 · 01/07/2022 15:52

You didn't even give them the next business day- you called out of hours, and lodged the email, then straight on FB, naming them, when they hadn't even had a chance to contact you. Your idea of bright and breezy May have come across as anything but given quite how u reasonable you were not even giving them 24 hours to fix it. I'd have been peeved too.