Dear Ventana Student Housing,
I have been living in your residential complex for over a year now. As the months have crept by, I have been continually impressed by your ability to successfully run a people oriented business without orienting your business around your people.
As a new month approaches, just like any other apartment complex, I am required to pay you rent. Ironically, your office hours overlap perfectly with mine turning the act of paying my rent into a fun combination game of hide-and-seek and tag. I always start looking for you where you least expect it… the office. I figure that since it’s such a good hiding place, and since nobody else is there at 8:00 in the morning, you might show up one day and I’ll catch you. This is never really the case though because you start work an hour after the rest of the world decides to start. After dashing my hopes in the 4 foot deep swimming pool, I abandon my Rent Pay Game until about 5:00 PM. At the sound of the whistle, I rush to my car, speed home and bolt to the office… again, the doors are locked.
People tell me that you are there from time to time, but I don’t believe it. To me, you are like some mythical creature like the Lucky the Leprechaun, Sasquatch or the Chupacabra. Have you ever tried paying rent to the Lucky the Leprechaun? Those kids can never catch him! Granted, you do have a rent drop box but it’s inside the office which is locked when your ludicrously and inconveniently planned 9:00-to-5:00-with-a-random-two-hour-lunch-business-hours are over. Is this also part of the game?
I would, however, like to thank you for providing me with the convenient option of paying my rent online… for an additional $20 fee (which is equivalent to the fee received if I pay my rent late… so why bother really?). Like all college students, I am made of money and can afford to pay an extra $240 a year for the convenience of not having to try to guess when your dependable office staff will be present to relieve me of this cumbersome $330 check that’s burning a hole in my pocket.
I guess all the craziness associated with paying rent can be overlooked because of the wonderful amenities you provide us, like a pool and a hot tub. It’s nice to have the hot tub back in commission from its winter break, now that the weather is getting hot and muggy again. There’s nothing quite like dragging my butt through a scorching hot day and then getting to reward myself by sitting in a 100 degree hot tub. Despite what other people say, I’m glad you emptied it out for the winter. I mean, who wants to sit in a hot tub when it’s cold outside? That’s almost as ridiculous as wanting to run through the sprinklers on a hot day.
I know you feel like the poor, picked-on kid from elementary school who nobody likes and everyone hates because you’re stupid and ugly. But did you ever stop to consider the ever popular phrase, ‘The customer is always right.’? I know it’s a far fetched idea, but maybe if you catered to your customers a little bit, they wouldn’t egg the University Parking Patrol cars or steal the complex master key or the flat screen TVs out of the office to get back at you.
I wish you luck in your future endeavors… and by the way, when will you be around so I can pay my rent?
Letters To Companies I Hate - Day 2 »« I Need Your Help!
