Me (pointing to the aircon with remote in hand): That one, not working. See? (While aiming and pressing remote. Deadma ang aircon, no reaction.) New batteries here. (While pointing to remote.) This remote ok with other aircon. (Walks to living room and demonstrates. Aircon turns on with one click.) So how?
Technician: Ah. Signal receiver. Not working. $120 only.
Gastos na naman!!!
Ok, it's not so much the cost of replacing broken-down things in this rental condo that gets to me. It's more the idea of having to call the not-so-nice real-estate agent of the absentee owner of this condo that makes my heart drop. You see, our contract for this place spells out that any repair over S$100 that has to be carried out will be borne by the owner of the condo. A repair costing less is on my account. Ergo, dahil $120 ang new signal receiver, I must call the not-so-nice agent to tell her that hey, the owner better pay for this.
I don't like this agent very much because she is unrealiable, mostly unhelpful, and generally don't care much about this condo. (If only the absentee owner knew how she has left the bathroom ceiling slowly and surely warping despite my repeated entreaties to her to get someone to poke their head into the ceiling for a possible water pipe leakage check.)
She's the type who doesn't call back when she says she will, who immediately puts me on the defensive when I call about something needing attention in the house, as if I have nothing better to do than sabotage the appliances around here. She dilly-dally's about getting me a plumber when water is already flooding the kitchen and seemingly wants the perfect alignment of the stars with Jupiter and Neptune before she will call an electrician to check why our ref short-circuits and leaves our place without electricity.
Anyway, so I had to call this lady, who I shall call Lynette. When she answered, I explained to her the problem.
Lynette (the she-devil): Why $120? It was only $80 the last time the other aircon also had this problem.
Me: Of course it wasn't $80 or I wouldn't have bothered calling you that first instance, right? If it was just $80, I would have had to pay it myself hence there would have been no reason to call you.
Lynette: Ok then. Pay $100 and then we will pay the $20, to make a total $120.
Me: Don't be absurd! You pretty well know that is not how it works! The contract states that anything that has to be fixed that costs over $100 will be paid by the owner. Don't try to pull a fast one on me cos I am not falling for it! And tell the owner that both our responsibilities re the unit were spelled out in the contract and his include paying for anything needing fixing or replacing that exceeds $100. He signed that contract first too. And ask him if he has heard of the concept of maintenance costs when owning a house? His unit is 8 years old and he can only expect things to be starting to break down around here.
After a few more to-ing and fro-ing, she finally relented and gave her go-ahead. (Aba, dapat lang!)
It's nice to have remote-controlled aircon units again but these battles of will with Lynette must stop soon. I don't like the idea of moving again after 4 years in this house, but I think the she-devil leaves me with no choice. I just can't stand her any longer! Anyway, I've been dreaming of a condo with an ocean view. Might be time to look into the possibility of that.
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