"I'm giving her all she's got, Captain!"

Awhile back I posted a blog about my TV dying and the desire to get a new one. Then I started noticing a trend that when the TV was "dying" the power to other items in the apartment also seemed to be affected. I called the front office to have a worker come out and take a look.

The worker, Geraldo, stood in my apartment for 20 minutes with everything turned off, strangely didn't notice any power fluctuations or problems, and concluded there was nothing wrong.

The power fluctuations continued and I saw a pattern; they happened during peak usage hours mostly, and only to my front room (which consists of the main living area and the kitchen). It affected everything in both areas of the front room to some degree-- didn't matter which plugs I used or whether the item was plugged directly into the power (like the lights). Got so bad that the TV would shut off, the microwave's clock would go blank, and my TiVo would reset and have to go through the power-up process.

I called again. Geraldo came back out, "tested" my plugs, and said everything was okay. That weekend, not two days later, the situation got so bad I had to move out of the front room and into the bedroom. I called the weekend hotline and didn't get an answer.

I put up with it for another two weeks, while other aspects of life were more important, and then the power situation got abysmal again during the weekend. I called the hotline and reached someone this time. Explained the problem and they assured me that someone would come out within an hour. Wrong again.

Recently I signed a new lease for another year. Wanted to move, but life piled up and it became difficult to look for a place and what looking I was able to do showed me most places were more expensive than resigning a lease would be. While talking with the front office I told them about my continued electrical problems.

Out came Geraldo again. This time he checked the circuit breaker and claims to have replaced some parts in it. I was good for about a day-- or the intermittent nature of the problem was more stable for that day, I don't really know which-- but the problem returned after that.

I complained in detail to the front desk. I explained that the problem was NOT in my actual apartment. Somewhere there is a circuit breaker that feeds power to the entire front room area and that THIS is where the problem lies. I explained everything that had happened to-date and that having someone come out to look at my apartment again would garner the same results-- nothing would appear to be wrong. Justin, the man I was dealing with, assured me that he would talk with the service manager and get this cleared up.

Came home yesterday and there was a nice little note from Geraldo (who is NOT the manager, btw), virtually word-for-word identical to the last time he was out, saying that he had replaced the circuit breakers IN MY APARTMENT and that I should be okay.

So, I guess I was imagining the power flickering and the loss of power that occurred last night, eh, Geraldo?

I'm sort of at a loss of what to do at this point. I cannot get them to understand that the problem is external to my apartment and that everything they have done to-date has been without effect. I may have to contact the William Lyons Group directly and see if I can't get more satisfaction from someone "at corporate" than I am going through my front office people.

I am even considering asking my father, who is a whiz at electronics, to come down with his equipment and take a look himself.

I've lived in this same apartment for 4 years now. I’ve had a pretty good relationship with this complex and the management here. I’m happy with where I live, except for this continued problem.

I currently have an extension cord from my bedroom to my front room. Since the power in the bedroom is fine, the extension cord powers everything I need it to in the front room without interrupt.

Oh, and it turns out I don't need a new TV after all.