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goku chewbacca posted:Ask her for a finder's fee or commission. One month's rent? Yeah, that sounds great - definitely give her an excuse to harass you when the next tenants poo poo up the place and it's somehow your fault for "finding them". No wait, actually that sounds terrible. Just don't do it.
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May 26, 2014 04:57
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A finders fee would imply that I would seek out tenants, like I'd do that either.
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May 26, 2014 05:02
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Double post for another question: I'm using ABF UPack to move and there's only one moving company in my area affiliated with them. Said moving company is based 1.5-2 hours from my house and just quoted me for 6 hours of labor. Loading the truck should take 3 hours tops, does this mean they're charging me for travel time to and from my house? Is this normal? I called them and left a message asking them to explain themselves but I haven't heard back.
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May 28, 2014 16:16
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Double post for another question: I live in an area with lots of competition (Dallas) and I specifically asked them the same question and they said no. I also found a groupon for the company I used which was for 2 hours of moving. The time started when they arrived and ended when everything was unpacked.
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May 28, 2014 16:21
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I have moved a few times and I have never seen the transit time counted against you; however, I have seen companies that have a mandatory minimum count. So they'll charge you $X, which includes two hours of moving, and then $y for eac additional hour, but even if you are done in 45 minutes you pay that minimum. When you say that loading the truck should take 3 hours, is that what they suggested or is that just your personal appraisal? It's possible that they just think that it's a six-hour job.
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May 28, 2014 16:25
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Double post for another question: Are you being charged by the man-hour? IE 3 guys for 2 hours or 2 guys for 3 hours?
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May 28, 2014 16:26
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I just got a call from ABF UPack asking me why I scheduled 6 hours and did I really mean to because that sounded excessive, I told them I didn't and the moving company decided that then UPack was like WTF and re-booked me for 3 hours of labor. ABF UPack is seriously the best moving company I've used.
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May 28, 2014 20:45
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I was looking at renting the first floor of a multi-family from an old lady who lives on the 2nd floor. The apartment is super nice, but the lady seemed a little off. She said her tenants usually live there for 4+ years so I figured she couldn't be so bad, but now that she's doing her "background check" and I'm getting scared. She sent this email to my boss and my boss freaked out because she could get in legal trouble for answering these:quote:For how long has Mr. Jerome Louis been with xxx? How secure is his position? Is it soft-money or a permanent position (as permanent as today's economy allows!)? Approx monthly salary? Any overtime or commissions? For how long do you anticipate him being in your department and with xxx? How are his relationships with his coworkers? To the best of your knowledge, does he have involvement with drugs of any kind, weapons of any kind or a history of either? If you had a rental apartment in your home, would you select him to be your tenant? I'm going to tell her that this doesn't bode well for later and withdraw my application, that's a bit much.
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May 29, 2014 14:29
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Jerome Louis posted:I was looking at renting the first floor of a multi-family from an old lady who lives on the 2nd floor. The apartment is super nice, but the lady seemed a little off. She said her tenants usually live there for 4+ years so I figured she couldn't be so bad, but now that she's doing her "background check" and I'm getting scared. She sent this email to my boss and my boss freaked out because she could get in legal trouble for answering these: It's the same kind of information every landlord tries to get, she's just being more direct about it.
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May 29, 2014 14:31
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:It's the same kind of information every landlord tries to get, she's just being more direct about it. I must have trusting landlords, because the most they've ever done for me is look at my paystubs, and run credit reports and background checks from a service.
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May 29, 2014 14:34
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:It's the same kind of information every landlord tries to get, she's just being more direct about it. Yeah but she's kinda going about it the wrong way, she can ask that stuff from my personal references. My boss answered her with "I can just confirm he is a permanent employee" and then the landlord emailed me and said the reply from my boss was useless. Maybe I'm just expecting too much professionalism.
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May 29, 2014 14:35
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Jerome Louis posted:Yeah but she's kinda going about it the wrong way, she can ask that stuff from my personal references. My boss answered her with "I can just confirm he is a permanent employee" and then the landlord emailed me and said the reply from my boss was useless. Maybe I'm just expecting too much professionalism. Oh no doubt she's doing it all wrong, particularly if you didn't sign something giving her permission to contact your employer. But that's the problem with individual landlords. Bigger companies will generally have an automated way of scoring credit, checking landlord tenant records, criminal records, etc. The answers to a lot of her questions should have been on the application and confirmed with pay stubs. I actually find her method to be cute, in a down home sort of way.
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May 29, 2014 14:43
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I rent an apartment from a big management company and they definitely wanted my boss to send a similar letter. They got the money info from my tax return or pay stubs, but my boss just wrote something on company letterhead that was like "Anne has been working for us for X years. She is a trustworthy, reliable employee and we predict a good future at this company. I would recommend her in any context." It was normal (in New York) and no big deal.
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May 29, 2014 15:45
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i like nice words
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:It's the same kind of information every landlord tries to get, she's just being more direct about it. Is this really the information they ask for when you give them your boss' contact info? I usually just give a pay stub instead, but I would be embarrassed to ask my boss to fill out a dossier about my life.
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May 29, 2014 16:51
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I have rented from some crazy people and not one of them tried to call my employer. That is nuts.
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May 29, 2014 16:58
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Yeah I've never actually seen a case where a landlord reaches out to an employer. At most, it should be an employment verification form like a mortgage company uses.
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May 29, 2014 17:08
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More news in the irritation of my extremely expensive power bill. The roommates and I went away for a few days. In preparation, I unplugged everything except the major appliances. I turned the a/c off entirely. The resting power usage of my apartment when nobody is at home to use anything is 28-30kWh/day. Since the two major power draws are the refrigerator and water heater, I'm kind of at a loss.
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May 29, 2014 17:34
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Try a Kill-A-Watt? http://www.p3international.com/products/p4400.html
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May 29, 2014 17:57
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GabrielAisling posted:More news in the irritation of my extremely expensive power bill. The roommates and I went away for a few days. In preparation, I unplugged everything except the major appliances. I turned the a/c off entirely. The resting power usage of my apartment when nobody is at home to use anything is 28-30kWh/day. Since the two major power draws are the refrigerator and water heater, I'm kind of at a loss. Does your building have outside lights attached to it? There's always a chance the house lights are running off of your meter. I also once saw a situation where someone who used a lot of power switched their meter with someone who was gone all the time. You need to make sure the meter being read is the meter that provides your electricity.
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May 29, 2014 18:56
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:Does your building have outside lights attached to it? There's always a chance the house lights are running off of your meter. I also once saw a situation where someone who used a lot of power switched their meter with someone who was gone all the time. You need to make sure the meter being read is the meter that provides your electricity. How would I go about checking that? All the meters for my building are on the same wall and just run under the building. The only outside lights are individual units' porch lights and a nearby street lamp.
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May 29, 2014 19:59
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Anne Whateley posted:I rent an apartment from a big management company and they definitely wanted my boss to send a similar letter. They got the money info from my tax return or pay stubs, but my boss just wrote something on company letterhead that was like "Anne has been working for us for X years. She is a trustworthy, reliable employee and we predict a good future at this company. I would recommend her in any context." It was normal (in New York) and no big deal. That actually is very unusual. Most companies will not do anything other than verify that you are currently employed (or your dates of employment if you no longer work there).
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May 29, 2014 20:14
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GabrielAisling posted:How would I go about checking that? All the meters for my building are on the same wall and just run under the building. The only outside lights are individual units' porch lights and a nearby street lamp. You need to locate your fusebox/circuit breaker. It should be somewhere accessible because you would need access to it if something trips or if you need to turn off power for some reason. Possibly in the basement, maybe in the unit itself. Once you know where it is, you can turn off each circuit to work out what it powers (in theory it should be labeled but I have never had a properly labeled box in any apartment.) Basically you turn off a circuit, check to see what is dead, turn it back on, repeat. Having a friend is good because it means one person can stay with the box while the other checks outlets and lights. If your wiring is screwed up, you might find that turning off one of your circuits kills the lights in the stairwell or all the porches, which means you're paying for those lights. You might also find that you have a circuit that doesn't seem to effect anything in your apartment - that might be empty, or it might be feeding something elsewhere in the building you can't see. In that case, you could try leaving any mystery circuits off and see if it reduces your usage.
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May 29, 2014 20:20
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GabrielAisling posted:More news in the irritation of my extremely expensive power bill. The roommates and I went away for a few days. In preparation, I unplugged everything except the major appliances. I turned the a/c off entirely. The resting power usage of my apartment when nobody is at home to use anything is 28-30kWh/day. Since the two major power draws are the refrigerator and water heater, I'm kind of at a loss. How's the insulation in that place? Your power bill rises along with how poor the insulation is. If the thermostat can't keep a constant temperature when you're there, that could be a cause. Not sure why it'd be so high with just a fridge and a water heater, but my guess would be that, given where you're living, the apartment complex is spending the absolute bare minimum on appliances and as such they are very energy inefficient. Also, check the seals on the refrigerator. Poor seals on the fridge = cool air escaping = the fridge has to work harder to keep the inside cool = more power usage. Fake edit: also check to see if the fridge has any coolant leaks. HonorableTB fucked around with this message at 20:31 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 20:28
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Do the obvious first and shut off all the breakers, then go check the meter that's yours and make sure the thing isn't spinning. Rule out the most obvious problem right away, at least.
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May 29, 2014 20:34
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Thoguh posted:That actually is very unusual. Most companies will not do anything other than verify that you are currently employed (or your dates of employment if you no longer work there).
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May 29, 2014 20:38
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My buddy just moved into a new apartment and hasn't been able to setup interent or cable. Time Warner is the only one available in his area  He's had Six installers come out, who are contractors of TW, that refuse to install because it's too difficult. The contracted installers are saying that the installation would take the time of five jobs and TW is only paying them for one. After calling TW over and over again, they have yet to find a solution. He asked the apartment complex to give him the contact info of the former tenant to ask how they got internet/cable but the complex won't do it for confidentiality reasons.
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May 29, 2014 20:50
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RisqueBarber posted:My buddy just moved into a new apartment and hasn't been able to setup interent or cable. Time Warner is the only one available in his area This happened with one of the places I used to live too. For some unknown reason they put the outside switches for the cable lines underground and it was a weeks-long argument between Comcast and the management company about who had to dig the hole (we were the first tenants so they didn't realize they wired the place super stupidly till we tried to hook up cable). Meanwhile my roommates and I were internet-less which is a big loving deal when you're a college student who's expected to participate in online portions of classes. This was before smartphones were ubiquitous so tough poo poo if our professors sent an important email while we were home and not on campus. I'd have your buddy contact his management to figure it out because they're the ones who are in charge of making sure their units are actually reasonable to live in, and in this day and age not having access to the internet is not acceptable. If it's legitimately impossible to hook up cable he could maybe work out a deal to get one of those mobile hotspot things and deduct the cost of it from his rent.
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May 29, 2014 23:47
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Anne Whateley posted:It isn't unusual in New York City, which is where I am. If you've left a company and you're interviewing somewhere else and they call your old HR, it's easier for them if they don't say anything other than "X worked here [dates]." But that doesn't mean that's all they're allowed to say in any circumstance. How could it be illegal for your boss to give a positive recommendation? My boss has written dozens of similar letters, and if you think that's nuts, wait until you hear about co-op applications. Its not illegal. It opens them up to liability so most companies have policies that they won't do anything more than verify employment dates.
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May 30, 2014 01:24
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GabrielAisling posted:More news in the irritation of my extremely expensive power bill. The roommates and I went away for a few days. In preparation, I unplugged everything except the major appliances. I turned the a/c off entirely. The resting power usage of my apartment when nobody is at home to use anything is 28-30kWh/day. Since the two major power draws are the refrigerator and water heater, I'm kind of at a loss. HonorableTB posted:How's the insulation in that place? Your power bill rises along with how poor the insulation is. If the thermostat can't keep a constant temperature when you're there, that could be a cause. Not sure why it'd be so high with just a fridge and a water heater, but my guess would be that, given where you're living, the apartment complex is spending the absolute bare minimum on appliances and as such they are very energy inefficient. 
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May 30, 2014 02:22
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Thoguh posted:Its not illegal. It opens them up to liability so most companies have policies that they won't do anything more than verify employment dates.
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May 30, 2014 02:24
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RisqueBarber posted:My buddy just moved into a new apartment and hasn't been able to setup interent or cable. Time Warner is the only one available in his area I don't know how much the PUC in your state sucks, but TWC is a legal monopoly and subject to regulation (and fines) by the PUC. They are re-evaluated every few years and win the contract to provide cable to your local area. Complaints put this in jepoardy. They are legally required to give you cable in a timely manner, and if they fail, there are sanctions by the PUC. In the 90's, I was having trouble getting cable installed in an apartment (similar story to yours), and was pretty frustrated. I was pretty short with the customer service agent on the phone. I mentioned the PUC in an offhand way, I was asked to hold, and the next voice I heard said "General Manager's Office". I had cable the next day.
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May 30, 2014 09:31
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ladyweapon posted:It took me until better weather to realize it, but poor insulation is what was raising my electric bill. I kept my heat at like ~65*F at the hottest, turned off/unplugged things at night, etc and still managed to use 24-28kw/day. Since the weathers gotten better, I turned my thermostat down to ~50*F (so it effectively never comes on) & I'm down to using 9-15kw/day. I'm also home a bit less on average which contributes. He said he turned off his A/C, and unless he/she lives VERY far north (or south,) it's unlikely the heat was needed. And that also requires the heat be electric, which is a concept in and of itself I find baffling, but I understand is pretty common in areas that don't get a lot of cold weather. A lot easier to put some electric baseboard heaters for the relatively little use it gets than to have the massive amounts of infrastructure and resources needed for natural gas, propane, or oil.
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Jun 3, 2014 18:42
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I have a packing question. I have a sofa like this with the loose cushions forming the back rest:  What's the best way to pack the back cushions? Last time I moved I just tossed them in contractor trash bags but that time I was just moving across town so they weren't getting squished in the truck for too long. Would boxing them up be better for a long distance move?
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Jun 8, 2014 01:26
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Are you packing the truck, or do you have movers doing it? If you're packing the truck, you have a brain in your head, and you'll toss the trashbags with the pillows in them on top. If movers are packing the truck, they will cram them somewhere they don't quite fit, and you'll unpack misshapen pillows in two weeks. If that's the case, use a box.
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Jun 8, 2014 02:11
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Movers are packing the truck. I'm trying to be helpful when I'm packing boxes and notating the ones that are ok to get a bit squished (like the ones full of clothes and bedding) and those that absolutely should not be crushed (ones with electronics, etc) and I'm stacking all of them out in my garage so theoretically all that has to happen when the truck loaders show up is I open my garage door and they get all my furniture from inside my house without having to navigate around boxes then just toss all my boxes in from the garage.
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Jun 8, 2014 04:06
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Think of all the minimum wage jobs. You know the guy who stands at McDonalds with the blank stare while you order a value meal? Where it's air conditioned and you don't have to lift anything heavy, just punch numbers on a point-of-sale system? The guy who is packing the moving truck wasn't skilled enough to get that job, so he stands in the heat (or the cold) and lifts heavy stuff onto a truck. In my experience, they will disregard anything you write on the boxes, and haphazardly stack stuff on the truck. So if you want to be sure, put them in a box.
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Jun 8, 2014 04:20
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These guys have fairly good reviews, nearly a 5 star rating with almost 400 reviews. But the few bad reviews are that they're poo poo at packing trucks  The only boxes i've marked so far are a huge box that only has a chair cushion in it that basically says that it's super light so they can toss it on the top instead of assuming big box = lots of stuff inside and one box that has something I'd be distraught about getting broken but it's too big to put in my car to drive personally so I have FRAGILE written all over it and "don't stack anything on top of this!!" written on the top. There's also one that says "BOOKS. HEAVY. (sorry)" Trying not to micromanage them too much while also making sure my stuff gets there in one piece. It's a delicate balance.
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Jun 8, 2014 04:33
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My move was with a group that had 4.5 stars and a few hundred reviews, and I got upsold from 2 guys to 3. I've never seen three people move so slow. We were all pretty friendly until I lost my poo poo and started barking orders, but once I did, they started moving. I'm sorry I was a dick, but even though they'll hate me, they'll never have to see me again.
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Jun 8, 2014 05:05
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:These guys have fairly good reviews, nearly a 5 star rating with almost 400 reviews. But the few bad reviews are that they're poo poo at packing trucks I mean, why not take a shipping philosophy and just pack it like it's gonna get tossed around?
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Jun 8, 2014 05:41
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:I mean, why not take a shipping philosophy and just pack it like it's gonna get tossed around? I do have everything wrapped and padded and it should be fine, but I also don't want the fragile box sitting under a really heavy box for five days either. Last move the movers whined I didn't help load the truck. That's why I hired movers! I'm pretty sure I would've just gotten in the way too. I was going around after them cleaning each room as it got cleared out so I could toss my cleaning supplies in the truck too so I wasn't just standing around doing nothing.
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Jun 8, 2014 13:17
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