Elevators and Mail boxes

It's been one hectic and upsetting day. The very first thing I did this morning was answer an S.O.S. call from my best friend, Hazel. She had, as she told me, "fallen and I can't get up." She was certain that she had broken her hip. I called an ambulance and went up to see her. Tough Newfie! And with her sense of humour in tact even if her leg wasn't!

The paramedics made it in what must be record time! And that in spite of running into the useless elevator at door #2. Hats off to those guys!! Fortunately too, they ran into our Maintenance crew who brought them over and made sure the elevator at door 4 was available. But the gurney does not fit so the paramedics put her in a wheel chair and one steadied her broken leg while the other pushed the chair.

The elevators have been down for over a week. Marion assures me that the company has been called several times. I called OHC and find out that the elevator company does not keep spare parts in Ottawa! And I am left to think that this elevator company, that somehow stays in business in spite of leaving their clients without elevators because they do not keep spare parts available, also do not have the capacity to order or have never heard of airplanes because it appears the part(s) is coming via slow boat to China. (That is what my English teacher would call a run on sentence but I want to make sure you do not miss the point even a little bit.) This is one thing that I hear being blamed on OHC but it is Not OHC's fault.

An efficient service company would have spare parts for most possible troubles. An efficient company would definitely have spare parts for an elevator that is as old as this one and that has had other relatively recent problems. An efficient company would have a plan B should they find themselves without a required part - you know like putting it on a plane to get it here asap. An efficient company would be trying even harder to hang on to the clients they have now that we are in the midst of a fairly severe recession. They don't really know, after all, that when this crunch is over, that OHC or any other company who received such scandalously bad service, will stick with them. In all my 40 plus years of working for service oriented companies, I never worked for one with such as lousy attitude. In one week I get to be at the receiving end of two - the alarm checking company and now the elevator company. Unbelievable!!

Because of this 'couldn't care less' attitude we have all been inconvenienced, especially those on the fifth floor and my.... Our .... friend, Hazel, who was left to experience more pain than she normally would have because of them. Also Unbelievable!!

I am told, yet again, that they will be back in the morning and it will be fixed. I certainly hope so.

Mail Boxes

A number of the mail boxes have doors that are broken - some are even about to fall off. They have been that way for weeks. A letter to Housing and, guess what? You guys did not report the broken mail boxes to anyone. Said it before and I will say it again. Ottawa Housing is not a psychic organization. If you do not tell them, they do not know. Do not assume that just because something is broken, that someone else reported it. Report it! If it is something visible, take a picture of it! If you do not have a camera, come and tell me and I will take a picture of it and send it off. Try and remember that there are something like 200 buildings run by Ottawa Housing. They are not omnipotent. They are not psychic. So tell them. So what if someone else called it in. Better to hear from two or more than from no one.

Anyway, for the moment, the mail boxes that are broken have been reported and the Post Office will be out to fix them. Should any more get broken, call OHC. They'll call the Post Office. If they have been broken into, call the police and OHC. Stealing mail is a Federal Offence covered by the Criminal Code of Canada. Remember - If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.

I have kitty cat sitting duties in the morning so I'll leave it there.