Don’t Shoot the Messenger

I’m at work right now. I just got off the phone with a tenant. She screamed and called me names for something so simple. Remember I work In Property Management. (Enough said.)

Let me take a step back. One of our policies for rent is; let’s say your rent is $700 per month. We have a program where if the rent is paid on or before the 1st of the month there is a discount of $30. It’s called Early Rent Credit. So the rent would be $670.00. The tenant moved in last month during the middle of the month. We had her pay for the full month rent and this month she will pay a pro-rated amount based on how many days she live in the property. So if you take the rent $700 divide it by 30 then add how many days she was in the property which is 25, you have the pro-rated amount. $575.00

In other words. If the tenant pays on or before the first of the month they get a discount of $30 but if they pay after the first they don’t get the discount, have to pay the full amount and a late full of $5.00 per day up to $25.00. What happened is the tenant came in and tried to pay the pro-rated amount based on the first but it was the 7th when she paid her rent. Based on the program she will have missed the Early Rent Credit discount and the amount would have been more.

Well I have over 100 tenants to keep up with and I cannot always be correct. I tell the tenant what I think is owed based on the information I have at the time. Well I wasn’t correct and the tenant was billed the balance of $9.00.

She called up this morning and left a bad message on my voicemail. I got all the information in front of me and called her. I explained what happened and she yelled. She was extremely belligerent, said I was a damn liar. I asked her why would I lie about her amount. Then I got the feeling she was upset because I didn’t have the correct amount. So I apologized to her saying it was my fault. She wouldn’t accept my apology. She went on to state we were very unprofessional and we should have known better and etc… She just kept on yelling.

I am still shaking from it. The thing is people are not perfect and I make mistakes. I explained that I am not perfect and that mistakes will happen. I apologized three times for my mistake. After a few tense moments the tenant just said in an exasperated tone this conversation is done. I said yes it is and hung up.

What I want to say is two things. 1. Don’t shoot the messenger just because they are there. The tenant said to me that she owed this amount. Like I said before, the amount she said and the amount showed in my paperwork coincided. However when the bookkeeper looked at it, the amount was wrong. So we billed her the balance.

2. If you believe it is incorrect don’t put that person down. It only shows what an ass you are, (I mean my tenant.) because believe me, with that attitude I was picturing years of having trouble with her. (It was bleak.) We try to get good tenant but sometimes people fool you into thinking they are reasonable.

The tenant did call back and apologize to me; she was upset at something else and took it out on me. I accepted but I get yelled almost everyday for stuff that I didn’t even do just because I’m the one that answers the phone.

My plea is if you are upset about something please don’t take it out on the person who answers the phone. And don’t tell me that is the way it is. A lot can be accomplished with calm reasoning and talking. We have made compromises based on that calmness and just asking for a break this time. You would be surprised. The last thing we want is to loose tenant.

And if you don’t understand it, and even if you think that it is crazy, one thing you don’t do is tell that person they are a liar. That is offensive.

There are a lot of unjust thing going on in the world, the sad part is it doesn’t have to be. Would it be so bad if there was a compromise? Think about it.

Get the best of people and unjust things could go much better if a little honey is added to the mixture.

If you have something happen like this or want to rant about something else, share you story with us, join the discussion. Share, laugh, cry, learn, grow and bond with other women. Until next time.