us vs steve bass

Tony and I got used to our tempermental shower. See, every time we wanted to shower we had to play this game of "radio dial" with the faucet knobs. If not, the shower would fluctuate between antarctic chill and heated hell temperatures intermittently.

we talked to Gary, unofficial super, who explained that's just how the water is in this building. same deal in his apartment.

we dealt with it.

two weeks ago, our toilet stopped flushing - or rather, would not refill. I called Gary who subsequently called Steve Bass' manhattan voicemail, the college professor landlord who lives out in Indiana - far away from the concerns of St. James Place. Gary also emailed Stece. No response. Gary called again. no response. After 3 days of having to manually refill the toilet with a bucket that was, until this situation, inexplicably sitting next to the toilet since we moved it from the previous tenant, Eric, I decided it was time to get in touch with Steve directly. I phoned Gary who responded with Steve's Indiana phone number on my voicemail which I received at 2am in the morning after leaving work. I called the following morning. I left a message explaining my concern with or dysfunctional toilet and his lack of response and asked that he return my call asap. Two days after not hearing back, I called and explained how I would get a plummer to repair it and deduct it from rent.

I received a phone call from Steve directly the next morning.
Mr. Bass agreed to $75 at the most since "the job shouldn't cost more than $50 for any unlicensed plummer." Steve was shocked at why wer were the only ones voicing plumbing problems since he "just had the pipes replaced for the building."

You remember the shower ordeal? well it decided it didnt want to produce hot water for 3 days I was waiting to hear back from Steve. Need I even mention the leak in the kitchen sink or how the pipes wrattle when you have the valve open at certain positions? Even with the cold shut off and the hot on full blast, we still only got "alaskan breeze" temperature.

Steve was again baffled since we were "the only one's having problems ....and it should be a building wide problem."

I talked to Steve on Tuesday, November 28th with the conversation ending with him saying he would get a plumber to "perform an analysis" since an "analysis of the problem was necessary."

It's now December 1st - Rent Due day. No response, no chance in the irregularity of our water and of course no delay from the monthly hand written reminder of how to make our checks payable to Steve Bass and where to return the checks in an envelope with no cash to the vacant Steve Bass apartment downstairs.

to be continued...