OMG. This is going to sound nuts, but I could use some kind words. Or maybe good stories about when you were in a similar situation.

I live in a condo (townhouse, but with condo ownership), and we have a contract with an older guy who works on our AC/Heating. He's supposed to do maintenance on the individual units twice a year (but I struggle to get him to come out once a year), and to come out if something breaks and fix it.

I have to pay for this through my HOA fee.

Every year, it's very difficult to get them to come out for maintenance. Every year, I have to call multiple time, and it takes over a month to get them to come out. Every freaking year.

This year, I called... and got no call back. I called a week later, and the machine (old style answering machine) was out of memory. I emailed the person that I know on our Board of Directors, and she called them (she has a private number) and the man's wife (who handles scheduling) called me back, and kind of chastised me for calling the board member, told me he couldn't come out in the rain (which is fine, but why not call me back and at least try to schedule something!), and said he'd be there early next week.

I never saw him or heard anything from them. Then, my AC started to act up (burning smell). I called, left a message, and... no call back. I've waited several weeks, no call back.

Finally, I sent another long email to the Board member asking for help, expressing my frustrations, and breaking down the dates. It's been nearly 6 weeks since the first call! It's just crazy. I also called and left another message today with the AC people.

Well. This woman calls me back and spends 20 minutes yelling at me, telling me that it's unreasonable for me to call the board member (dude, I wouldn't have to bother her if you'd return your calls!) who is on vacation out of the country (I had no clue, I emailed her - if she didn't want to deal with emails, she could have waited to respond), etc. She then tells me how wonderful her husband is, how he tries to take care of the people in our community, how he already came out and did maintenance on my AC unit (um, nope - I didn't see him - she says that if I wasn't home, he'd just clean the outside unit, but I work from home, so if they had bothered to schedule a date, I'd be here and if he had knocked, I would have seen him)..

It just goes on and on. She says that she's talked to me 3-4 times this year... I tell her, no, it's only been once, when you called after I talked to the board member last time... she looks at her books and I think she saw that I was right.

She's basically acting insane. They're both ~70 years old, and this whole thing seems so ridiculous to me.. is it really that hard to RETURN A PHONE CALL in a reasonable amount of time, and SCHEDULE a time to do maintenance?

I kept trying to explain to her that I do not know what else to do. I'm not calling the board member because I want to get them in trouble, I'm calling because they're utterly unresponsive. SIX WEEKS. I would be totally OK waiting 6 weeks for maintenance, if they'd just call and schedule something... like, "OK, we're a bit backed up with requests right now... could we come out on <date> to do your regular maintenance?"

Or, as a friend pointed out... why the heck not just schedule a couple of days to come do ALL the maintenance for the community?

This is just... mind-boggling crazy to me. Insane. She accused me of wanting to get their contract cancelled, and at this point, I would LOVE to get their contract cancelled. Or for them to just retire. She doesn't seem to be able to handle the logistics end of it anymore...

I really want to bring this up to the board, but I'm not sure how... I think I need to request time at their next meeting.

I'd like to suggest that they survey the community, because I think many people do not use this company (despite the fact that we pay for it). It's not unusual to see trucks from other AC companies in our community, and I have to believe that's because nobody wants to deal with these people.

I'm sorry for the ranting, I'm just still shaking. I'm already having a super crappy year, and feeling depressed and horrible. This is such a stupid thing... in the sense that it's really easy to do right (how hard is it to return calls, make appointments, and not yell at your customers)? I don't need this!

OMG. Just... omg. Life sucks.

How do you deal with awful people like this? At this point, a friend has suggested that I just pay to have a reputable company come out and do the maintenance from now on. It really, really sucks to be paying for something (via the HOA fees) and to have to pay again b/c the provider is inept.

UGH.