Last night I went to wash some of our eternal pile of dirty laundry. We have this small dirty cramped laundry room down the breezeway from the apartment. I got the clothes and detergent put in and pushed the coin tray loaded with quarters into the machine. Jammed.
The past few months this machine has become a constant source of stress. It will work sometimes, but other it gets jammed and won't start the wash cycle. Of course it will only jam after the quarters are pushed into the box, thereby stealing my money. It's bad enough to have to outsmart the neighbors to find time that the washer is open, but to have to fight with the machine to wash the clothes when it is open is just too much.
At first I would swear and stomp around the apartment angry. I'd call the manager or knock on her door and maybe 1 out of 10 times she'd go empty the coinbox or answer the door. That is the problem, the box gets so full that the quarters can't drop. I did the pissed off routine a few times before I finally took matters into my own hands. Literally.
I found that if you take a hammer and smack the coin tray that 8 out of 10 times it knocks the quarters in the box down and you can wash. If that doesn't work you body slam the washer and it miraculously redistributes the coins and lets you wash. On tough jams you have to do both.
So I went and got the hammer and really had to work hard to get the tray to drop the quarters, but since I was pretty determined I got the job done. I was enjoying that bit of stress relief walking back to my apartment with hammer in hand when the manager showed up. I kept walking with a glance at best in her direction.
"You can't hit the wash machine with a hammer"
"Really? I just did and it fixed the problem." No use denying it since the hammer was still in my hand.
"You can't hit the machine with the hammer. If it's broken you'll have to pay to fix it"
"Okay. Perhaps you would also like to refund me the money, pay for lost time and materials I've suffered because YOUR machine is not properly maintained."
Silence
"You cannot hit the machine with a hammer. You've never come to me when it's been jammed."
"Are you kidding me?!! I've called and knocked on your door several times. I pay a ton of rent and I can never find you when things break around here. Now ....... you've said what you need to say and I've heard it. Why don't you go back to your apartment and hide"
Okay, so maybe that wasn't the most mature way to handle it. For added measure I sent Bill down to talk to her when he got home. Somehow she found it in her heart to admit that it was their fault that the machine's coin box doesn't get emptied often and that she does have a way to start the machine if it is jammed. Of course you'd have to find her for that to work.
I suppose I should start looking for another apartment just in case she wants to push the issue. I'm not overly stressed over the idea of moving since I doubt there could be a worse maintained complex.
