"The only proof that he's been here (for 3 hours) is the broken glass in our fireplace!"

Overall, we are really enjoying our new place in Reno.  My mom drove out with me last Saturday and has been a HUGE help in unpacking (what seems like) thousands of boxes, making trash runs (we live on the 3rd floor of our building), cooking with our amazing new kitchen toys, and exploring the area with me (i.e. shopping for fun things with our wedding gift cards).  Our apartment is quite amazing and I am pretty sure that I smile each time I get to load/unload a DISHWASHER, clean our granite countertops or walk to the clubhouse for a free hot beverage. 

The retail employees are super friendly here and we've been pleasantly surprised by how customer-oriented most places have seemed to be...until today.

Today was the first time I've been really disappointed in Reno.  We were scheduled for an 8:00 AM appointment with Charter (cable/internet) and got a call at 8:30 saying that the technician was on his way.  He showed up at 8:45 and began installing our cable/internet.  Since I know NOTHING about this process, I assumed that him seeing him walk around our apartment, make random calls and climb the stairs outside to get to our electrical box (for about 2 hours) showed that he was working hard!  Not the case.  At about 10:45 I heard him on the phone telling someone that he "forgot his meter and isn't quite sure if this apartment has any signal for cable...at this rate I will be here all day, man." This was after he asked to borrow our barstool to reach the back of the TV and broke our cute new candle decorations for the mantle.  I hear this conversation and get quite furious.  I felt dooped!  My mom and I had plans to get out of the apartment and sightsee, but put this on hold once we realized it was going to be a quick process to watch some television and browse the 'net.  I text Aron the title of my blog and he heads home from work to see what the H is going on since Clowny McClownerson can't seem to tell me what's taking so long.  Aron gets home at 11:45 and inquires about the length of the process.  Sure enough, the tech. can't get a signal and hasn't called for help.  He's simply been calling around to see if anyone has a meter he can borrow since he left his at home!?  He tells Aron that "normally you can get through your day without a meter...but, gee, not today I guess?" (as he's hardy-har-har'ing)  After Aron inspects the box with him and discovers that every other person in our building magically has cable he politely asks the technician to leave and have us re-scheduled for Saturday. 

In the meantime, I decide to make a corporate complaint since 4 hours of our day was wasted without a single ounce of progress being made and the supervisor on the other line takes 30 minutes worth of notes and tells me that someone can be out as soon as next Tuesday.  After some stern disagreement about this arrangement (since it took us two weeks to get someone out here in the first place) he tells me that they can try to "squeeze us in" on Saturday, but there won't be any guarantees. 

I'm hoping that my next blog post will be made from within the confines of our apartment, instead of the lovely clubhouse I've been walking to daily.  Oh well, at least I have my free latte.