Make no mistake about this. We are tough. Wisconsin tough. Minnesota tough. But when my roommates and I woke in the middle of the night last Wednesday, it was cold; breath-seeing, frost-on-the-pumpkin kind of cold.
Since none of us take much to camping, let alone winter camping, we called our landlord at Madison Property Management to get some heat. We understood that he didn’t have a magic wand and it would take a little time to get whatever was wrong fixed, but it is now Monday evening. Therefore, I am compelled to write — not to complain, but to stay warm.
After my roommates and I called MPM Thursday morning to get some heat, they came out and informed us that they needed to order a special part and we should expect our heat Friday. We gritted our teeth, put on our best stoic Midwest smiles and piled on the blankets.
By Friday afternoon, we had seen maintenance workers come and go half a dozen times. Our confidence in their capabilities was clearly being tested, but we went about preparing for the guests we expected Halloween weekend. Hoping to get advice on what to do next, we called the Tenant Resource Center, but filing a complaint still left us cold. We returned to our apartment that evening out of ideas. In desperation we called the emergency maintenance number again and were told they did not find the problem and therefore had no answers.
No answers and no timetable! There must be someone who cares. We asked for the name and phone number of our apartment manager, but that was verboten.
At this point, the faceless, careless person on the other end of the phone took pity and recommended we purchase space heaters at the landlord’s expense. Our guests were coming soon so the heaters were purchased and started. Of course, you know what happened next. That’s right, our space heaters knocked out our power. The power was repaired that night, but we have blown the fuse three more times since then and still have no heat.
Some of you may have worse stories. In fact, a year ago we battled MPM over our stove, which we felt was unsafe and unhealthy. After months of phone messages, we finally called the gas company, which not only condemned our stove for a slow carbon monoxide leak, but also confirmed the stove as the likely source of our constant headaches.
The bottom line is that student tenants are often abused by large management companies in Madison. Our concerns are hardly worth a returned phone call, and no heat is something we simply must endure. The fact that three women are still without heat for five days speaks volumes about MPM. All we can do is write and warn others.
Stephanie Elmquist ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in marketing.