My Week 258: What’s The Point?

On Thursday, I got a message from Kate that cleaners had come into her apartment unit and thrown away a wide variety of her personal belongings, including her shoes, her own cleaning supplies and garbage can (ironic), all her forks except for one, one oven mitt but not both (bizarre), and her toaster, among other things. She was furious; I was livid. Apparently, because she has a private room and bathroom in a “pod” with four other rooms and a common living and kitchen area, the property management company took it upon themselves to “clean” the units for the start of the new school year. She tried talking to the property manager, whose attitude was “too bad”, so I said, “Do you want me to call?” And you know how serious it is when your 21-year-old, who prides herself on her independence, says “Yes”. On Thursday night, I talked to my brother, who has a Ph.D. and got some legal advice, then I planned what I was going to say. So on Friday, I finally, after quite the run around, got in contact with the property manager, whose only excuse was “we told them in July that the cleaners were coming.” In response to that, here is an analogy that I used with her (sans the swearing):

I lived in a condo for the last four years. Every year, we would be given notice that technicians were coming to service the furnace and we had to make sure that our furniture was at least three feet away from the furnace unit. One year, I forgot to move my furniture. You know what happened? They left me a note saying that they were unable to clean my furnace. You know what didn’t happen? They didn’t steal my F*CKING COUCH.

 I also explained that, as per the Landlord Tenant Act AND the lease she signed, she was required to give him 24 hours’ notice to even enter the unit, and that I wanted his stuff back, to which she replied, “It’s already gone. They were supposed to label their stuff or put it in their rooms—we sent an email.”  So I said, “Fine, send me the email.” She did, and I read it:

Property Manager: You see the email?
Me: Yes, I’m looking at it right now.
PM: So you see? We told them.
Me: Interesting. Unfortunately, there’s NOTHING in this email that says you’re going to THROW AWAY her personal belongings if she doesn’t put them in her room. And the only things that were supposed to be labeled were items in the cupboards and refrigerator, which I assume refers to food.
PM (long pause): How much do you want?

We settled on a parking discount. And why am I telling you all this? Because the silver lining to this strange tale is that I had just gotten my most recent points offer from President’s Choice Optimum (a grocery chain and drug store here) and I could earn points on cleaning supplies. Kate offered to replace her mop, broom, bucket, etc. herself, but I was like, “No. Let me do it. It will be my pleasure” and she rolled her eyes knowingly and said, “You get points for this, right?” AND I DID.

I earn points the way some people used to clip coupons. I plan my grocery shopping around what items will get me the most points that week, and I use the points I’ve accumulated to buy other things, like really expensive face cream that I wouldn’t bother with otherwise. The other day, I was in Shopper’s Drug Mart, and the deal was ‘spend $50.00 and get back 15 000 points’, which is equivalent to fifteen bucks. That’s like (at this moment, I am desperately trying to figure out the percentage so as to dazzle you with my math skills but sadly, I’ve come up short) a GAZILLION percent discount. Or maybe 30-ish. Who’s to say? Math is a strange beast. But it was a great deal nevertheless. But then, the points didn’t appear on my statement, and my recourse was to talk to the points people. I was on the phone with ‘Carlos’, a lovely man with a delightful accent, for over half an hour, and he was finally able to restore them to my account. Half an hour on the telephone, you say? Hey, it was fifteen dollars. And I have to buy my baby new shoes.

Also, a couple of weeks ago, I entered a comedy writing contest. I don’t know why. But I did, and the first thing you had to do was come up with 5-10 headlines/titles that would explain your premise. They gave some examples and they were all very long and detailed titles, for instance, “I Want A Man Who Understands My Need For Grocery Store Points And Only Shops At President’s Choice”. And I was like, What? Why would I want to give away the point of a story ahead of time? I mean, I could have called this post “How I Made An Asian Woman Give Me A Parking Discount Using My Knowledge Of The Landlord/Tenant Act” but would you bother reading it since the headline already told you exactly what happened? It’s like those long trailers for a comedy that show you all the funniest parts of the movie, and then what’s the point of even going to see it? So the other Sunday, Ken and I were staffing the local Heritage Museum because it was our turn, and since it’s extremely rare that anyone EVER visits the local Heritage Museum, I enlisted Ken into helping me write catchy headlines:

Ken: How about ‘Fax Machines Are The Future’?
Me: Is that supposed to be ironic? I don’t think I can write about that.
Ken: OK—how about ‘Automatic Doors And How to Use Them’?
Me: No.
Ken: Um…’Quilts Are Hard To Make But Easy To Hang On A Wall’–
Me: You’re just looking at things in this room, aren’t you?
Ken: I think the fax machine one has some potential. Like, why is there even a fax machine here? Who faxes anything anymore?
Me: This is pointless.

So there you go. Aren’t you glad I didn’t give it all away with the title?

43 thoughts on “My Week 258: What’s The Point?”

  1. I can’t believe that they threw away his stuff like that! I lived in a flat with 9 other people and while we had our own bedrooms, we all had the shared communal areas to deal with. It was gross, but at no point when we had annual visits from a professional cleaning service did any of our stuff get thrown away!

    I’m with you on the points. Mine is for Boots – a drugstore here. The points are a bit rubbish in that it’s usually 4p for every £1 you spend, but they send through vouchers and offers throughout the year offering hundreds of points on certain items. Normally I save up all my points and then redeem them on Christmas presents to give to others…

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  2. I’m all into points, I get mine are for Albertsons, I go there all the time. I love my points. I’m with Suzie I can’t believe they threw away all his stuff those bastards. I’m thinking a title might be “My Sons Apartment Dilemma I will Make it A Point.”
    Ken makes me laugh, you guys have such good chemistry when brainstorming, lol.

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  3. I used the points I’d accumulated to buy other things too back in Canada. After doing that for over 5 years in Germany, I gave it, coz I got zero. I knew they were stingy.

    Btw, it’s weird you were asked to give a title to an unwritten story. The title usually comes in between or in the end. Funny those comedians.

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  4. I’m one of those people who collects points endlessly and never uses a one. I’m pretty sure when Circuit City went out of business I had, like, (doing the math … 10k a year multiplied by 25 years equals) a GAZILLION points sitting in my account. I could have used them to purchase a new speaker set, a stereo to go with ’em, a stand to put them on and quite possibly a living room to put them all in. But … no … I save my points because you never know. When the apocalypse strikes and money becomes useless if there is a footnote in the calamity that reads “except your saved points, those can be used anywhere, wherever you accumulated them” then I will be the richest man in the badlands!

    P.S. I work with property managers all the time. They’re a weird bunch. 🙄

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  5. That’s an appalling thing to have happened to your son! Personally, I’d have left the swearing in…

    I’ve not used things that have points attached to them, but have wondered about it in the past. Trouble is I have an ‘addictive personality’ (which means that people are addicted to my personality…er…) so have a feeling it’s not a good thing for me to get started on!

    The people who wanted you to write long titles sound like a bunch of comedians.

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  6. Is it weird that when I see a long headline that seems to give everything away it just makes me want to read the story because I assume there must be more that will be as good as or even better than the headline. Seriously, if the article’s titled “Everything You Need To Know Is Right Here And After This It’s All Downhill” I would read it immediately.
    So anyway everything funny I have to say has already been said and it’s all downhill now, but you are obviously a phone ninja. You can make people do anything you want over the phone. I’d like to see if you’re just as powerful via fax, at least with the .0003% of people who still get faxes.

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    • I have a feeling that if I’d faxed her, the whole process might have taken a little longer to resolve. Also, I’m very lucky to have a brother who is a very successful and fairly well-known lawyer–he coached me on what to say, but that email was really the a-ha! moment–she had no leg to stand on after that!

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  9. Suzanne,
    Okay, so I tried to comment on my phone and wordpress has kicked me off and won’t let me back on again until I figure out what my password is again. *sigh* So let’s see if I can remember what I wrote on my phone that didn’t go through…I think I said that the “cleaners” didn’t do a very good job if they were supposed to clear everything out because obviously, they didn’t. Except they made sure to take some very expensive cleats…dirty thieves! Yeah, you heard me right…I call it like I see it! I’m glad you were able to negotiate with the landlord. If it ever happens again, and hopefully it doesn’t, but if it does, negotiate for all the points because you deserve them! Mona

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    • Actually, we felt the same way, considering they only “removed” certain things and not others, like his toaster but not the rice cooker, and those very expensive cleats. Sorry WordPress is being a dick😞

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  12. I would have Lost. My. Mind. It’s a good thing you’re so smart, don’t tend toward fits of rage, and are gifted with the words—I’m happy you were able to talk and walk away with a resolution you could live with AND accrue points. Score! Semi-related, my favorite Canadian store 🏬 (did you know that this emoji comes in text prediction when one types “Canadian store?”) name is Shoppers Drug Mart. There is no ambiguity whatsoever about what to expect as you shop.

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    • Shoppers is the best–especially the ones with the Beauty Boutique where you can buy all the fancy stuff! Although I’m surprised that Canadian Tire didn’t come up in text prediction–it’s pretty great too!

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  13. I’m so mad on your behalf for all that! I don’t think I could’ve contained myself with just a phonecall – I’d have been knocking on doors! How inhumane and stupid of the cleaners? I’m a sucker for loyalty points. My two favourites are Superdrug (make-up, toiletries, perfume, everything useful you could ever want in your life), and Nectar points. Superdrug points really add up quick and they often do spot rewards just for swiping your card. We get lots of Nectar points through Ebay, petrol and supermarket shopping. We save them up and use them to buy all our Christmas goodies and alcohol. And I HATE spoiler alerts. I hate headlines that give away the winner of that show you’ve been watching for 16 weeks, or screenshots that spoil the ‘reveal’. I watched a YouTube clip recently, ‘You won’t believe how this famous actor looks in this clip’, errr, yeah, I will, BECAUSE THE STILL SHOT SHOWS IT!

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  14. For several years I ran the call center for New York University. The csll center was the main hub and go between for all property manager/housekeeping teams and the resident students. I have never heard of anything like this, tossing away someone’s personal belongings without permission. It is absurd. Happy you handled it the way you did. Bravo.

    As for shopping and discounts. I use Mypoints because I do so much online shopping. I earn so many gift cards to do more shopping. I could never understand why more people don’t use these little advantages to save money.

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  15. You’re right about math: It is a strange beast. It caused me endless hours of grief in high school.

    As for fax machines, I’m a little sad they’re out of fashion. I used to work in an office where we’d get spam faxes at least twice a week. Someone was always sending us deals, such as 10% off corrugated steel quonsets, 2 for 1 Caribbean cruises, and half-price safety vests. I always looked forward to these specials – it was an entirely new world of shopping!

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