Saturday, June 16, 2007

Trapped in my own parking lot

I was furious yesterday when I came out to go to work in the morning (late already, of course, having been up really late Thursday night watching the Cavs get swept from the Finals) and found my car trapped by a car parked by the valet guy. I don't even understand why there is a valet service at my apartment complex (although my roommate explained to me last night that it's basically because there are way too many tenants and nowhere near enough spots for those tenants to park) but this car was perpendicular behind mine and therefore, I was stuck. And angry. Well, the valet guy was nowhere to be found, even though a couple neighbors saw me waiting and said he works until 8 am. This was about 7:30. The woman parked next to me came out maybe ten minutes after I did and she was mostly trapped too, although if she was skilled at maneuvering her SUV out of tight spaces, she might be able to get hers out. If hers was gone, I could probably get mine out too. She tried and gave up, though, so we needed this car moved!!!

I went back to waiting for the valet guy when finally someone (another tenant) came out and told me that the valet guy was gone... the telltale sign being that the board with keys was gone. Oh. So I head to our building's front desk, where the keys are taken when he leaves, and no one is there. Apparently no one comes on duty there until 8am. Apparently, if you need to get your keys before 8 am and after whatever random time the valet guy decides to leave, you are out of luck. At about 8am, the woman working at the front desk shows up and has already detected the problem herself and tells me she is going to call a tow truck because she already knows that she can't get ahold of the valet guy. Umm, why not just try to track down the resident whose car is blocking mine? She says that she is not able to access the computer until 10am, when office hours officially start. Are you f'ing kidding me? Well, surprise surprise, the tow truck says it isn't going to come move a car that's legally in a parking lot, albeit blocking another car. So, I'm like, can't we just get the key and move the car ourselves? Finally, the woman agrees and sends me out to get the number off the valet sticker.

When I get out to the parking lot again, the woman parked next to me is gone! Some other helpful neighbor tells me he helped her get her car out and can help me too. First, I run back inside to tell the front desk woman that I should be able to get out and give her the number off the valet tag. I stay long enough to see that there is no key for that tag... which I guess explains why the car hadn't been moved, the valet guy had lost the key!! Anyway, that wasn't my problem. But this great guy helped me get my car out and finally, I was off to work, 45 minutes later. Boy was I pissed about it all. Still am, actually.

When I got home from work, I ran into the assistant manager and complained to her. She was nice and told me to write up what had happened and give it to her since she'd been looking to get the valet guys fired already. She reaffirmed that the valet guy is supposed to be there until 8am so right there, the major problem was that he was gone early. Whatever, though. I'm glad I got to complain but boy, how ridiculous. Just another example of why I hate this apartment complex.

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