More Good Customer Service

I got a scary call yesterday morning from Tiva, who works in my apartment complex office. My rent was overdue as of yesterday morning and she told me (this was news to me) that if it was not received prior to the seventh day of the month, I would be sent to their legal department and they would start the eviction process. On top of owing the full, new monthly rent amount (I just signed a new lease last weekend), I was also now required to pay a $50 surcharge for the late rent.

My explanation that I had told my bank to send a check, that I only had an online banking account so do not have checks, she understood but could do nothing about. I would have to pay the $50 in a cashier's check or money order (both of which  have additional expenses). I also complained that all this was caused by their inability to update my automatic deposit for rent without renewing the process from scratch (which requires about 3 weeks for them to get going). Had they been able to call IT and just update my auto-pay, this would not have been an issue at all.

Yet again I found the Irvine Company's rules too strict and unyielding. The fact that they own approximately 90% of all apartment and store property, however, allows them to throw their muscle around and do what they want.

So, I reasoned with Tiva. I told her I could print out the pages from my online bank account that show the transaction and that the check was sent. I got her to agree to call me each day between then and Saturday when the mail arrived if my check had been received or not. I also asked, if I showed up with $50 cash, if some nice person with a check book would write the check from his/her account for me (to which she actually said yes, she would! I can be smooth when I want to!).

I immediately moved into crisis management mode and started thinking of ways around this or how I could talk myself out of it if the check was delayed in the mail until after Saturday. I conceived of a work-around, but was not happy that I needed to.

Luckily, later that afternoon, I received another phone call from Tiva-- the check arrived in yesterday's mail. Because my account was in good standing, she also waived the $50 late fee.

Now, while I know I dodged a bullet and do plan this weekend to go back in and set up the auto-pay feature again (I got the paperwork, but have to find the required codes online), I still plan to enact some of my crisis mode plan in order to alleviate this happening again between now and when I leave for Canada.

And I made sure to thank Tiva for the good customer service she provided.