I knew I shouldn’t of left my apartment. I knew it!!

Just when you think things are going to get better… you decide to go grocery shopping.

Garrett and I left our apartment on Thursday evening to grab some dinner and experience our first trip to a Chinese Supermarket. We eat at a local Mall called Metro City everything was going so smoothly. Then we went grocery shopping, bought a ton of stuff and walked home. The grocery store was farther then we anticipated and next thing we knew we had walked a solid 8 blocks with a dozen grocery bags, pots and pans and my brick of a purse. We get to our compound, into our building and up the elevator and down the hall to our door.

Now let me back track, earlier that day, the landlord stopped by and dropped off a set of keys, since she had originally only given us one set. As I mentioned before our doors are very complicated. It’s like trying to get into the Gringotts Vault. For those of you not into Harry Potter, it’s basically impossible to penetrate our doors. That is unless you have a set of keys. To get into our apartment (assuming you’ve passed security to get into the compound and you’ve entered the access number to get into our building) you have to first insert a key into the metal door, which is locked via deadbolt. Once you’ve unlocked the deadbolt for the metal door you have to swipe a magnetic card in front a small access pad that sits at the bottom of the door, IF that works it will release a magnetic lock that is placed at the top of the metal door. Once that magnet is released, you have the front door that has a deadbolt lock as well. If you unlock that, YOU’RE IN!! Ha!

So there we sat at 10 pm with our dozen grocery bags and our numb fingers. We unlock the metal deadbolt, we get down and swipe the magnetic card, and it beeps. We come up pull the handle to the door and nothing. The door won’t open! We try again, and again and again. Nothing. We have neighbors and Security Guards try, nothing. We try to pull the door open, nothing. We call Cherry (our broker) she says she will call the landlord to see if there is any way in. The landlord doesn’t answer. She calls again, no answer. At about 11:30 pm Cherry lets us know that the landlord has turned off her phone. Mind you cell phones in China don’t have voice mail, so you can’t leave messages, you just have to keep on calling. When someone turns off their cell phone the pre recorded message will tell you in English and Chinese that “the subscriber you are trying to reach has turned off their mobile, please try again later.” Imagine how frustrating that is to hear when you are locked out of your only home in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language.

We inform Cherry that we are going to go to a hotel and that we expect the landlord to pay for it. So we go to the only hotel we have stayed at and know of in Shanghai, The Baolong. We take a 60 RMB cab ride to the hotel (they are booked except for Suites, awesome!!) 850 RMB a night, we get into our room and throw away all of our perishables which we had no place to store, probably about 200RMB, this experience, PRICELESS!!!

The next morning Garrett and I wake up at 7 am, call Cherry, wake her up (sorry… but) and ask her to call the landlord. Still nothing. Garrett and I only have the clothes on our backs and the groceries we bought the night before, he needs to go to work but he needs things, which are in the apartment. The night before Garrett had awoken his boss to let him know the situation at hand, he understood that Garrett might have to come in late and that we were locked out. At about 10:30, when we still haven’t heard from the landlord, Garrett decides to go to work and I am left at the hotel to try to figure this out.

11 AM, no word from the landlord and the hotel has a noon check out time. I call Cherry, she has spoken with her boss and they have decided that they will hire a company to break down the door, but the only appointment they can get is for 4 pm. What am I going to do with my grocery bags, nowhere to go, no phone and my noon check out time? So I call the front desk, beg and plead and they agree to let me check out at 3 PM!!! I call Cherry and let her know that I have until 3; she says she will meet me at my compound at 3:30.  I begin to relax a bit.

2 PM, the hotels phone rings, it’s Cherry. She has gotten a hold of the landlord! The landlord is a horrible cow. Well, at least that is how I felt at that moment. The landlord will not authorize Cherry’s company to break down the door, she is “very busy” and can’t make it to let us in until 7 PM, and the hotel bill is, well “our problem.” I am pretty sure, had she been standing in front of me, I would of hit her. I was already so upset, and for her to be this way. WHAT WOULD I DO!! I had to leave the hotel at 3, what would I do for 4 hours!! With all my groceries, with dirty clothes, WITH NO MAKEUP!!! I tell Cherry that it is unacceptable. To tell the landlord to try again. When I hang up with Cherry, I call the US Consulate and speak with American Citizen Services!! Remember that name for any time you travel. I called and spoke with a very friendly woman who informed me of my rights in this situation. When I spoke with Cherry again, she let me know that the landlord could come at 6:30 instead. I let her know that I had spoken with the American Consulate and that I could file a complaint on the landlord. I don’t know if this would have even affected her but whatever, it sounded scary.

At 3 PM I checked out of the hotel and headed to my apartment. We got stuck in horrible traffic and I didn’t get to the apartment until 4:30. 75 RMB taxi ride. When I finally walked the 4 blocks to my compound, then to my building and up to my floor, I see Cherry, and my landlord surrounded my security guards trying to break into the door. I was so angry, but glad that my threat had worked. They shut off the power to the apartment, unlocked the metal door and gotten two security guards to pry open the door. Finally, I was in. Dirty, tired and annoyed I carried my grocery bags in and sat them in the kitchen. They all came in after me. The landlord had the security guards turn the power back on, and shut off that stupid magnetic device. I unloaded the groceries in the kitchen and Cherry sat in the middle of an angry tenant and a cheap landlord.

If you’re keeping track so far we’ve spent: 850 RMB on hotel, 135 on Taxi’s, 200 on spoiled groceries, Garrett’s salary for half a days work and later I come to find out Garrett’s taxi ride to work (because he missed his shuttle) was 125 RMB.

The landlord offers to pay 200 RMB!!!!! I nearly screamed. She claimed that the hotel we stayed at was too expensive!! Well maybe if she had answered her phone she could of provided us with a better option!! Maybe if she had given us a key that worked we wouldn’t have had to pay for a hotel. Maybe is she wasn’t so awful, I wouldn’t be so upset.

I told Cherry no. Bottom line no. The landlord agreed to pay for half of the hotel… No. We incurred too many additional expenses because of this fiasco to let her get away with that. I was too angry to deal with this, to tired and too dirty to try to figure this out. So, I tell Cherry that it would be best for Garrett to deal with this since it’s his money and since I am too upset. They continue to try to negotiate with me, I say NO! And that I want them to get out.

Finally they leave. I sit on the sofa and wish I could just hide. But it can’t happen.

Things are still unresolved. Cherry called Garrett earlier this evening, the landlord is offering to pay for an entire year of TV, that’s 400 RMB, less then half of the hotel. How are you going to make one offer and come back and offer some thing lower!! She’s crazy! Garrett said that we would let the landlord pay for half of the hotel and his cab from the hotel to work, 550 RMB, I think she is lucky. I wouldn’t be so nice!

Cherry also told us she is leaving the company, “for personal reasons.” I hope everything is okay. I also hope it’s not because of us, I would feel awful. We already felt bad about putting her in the middle. None of this is her fault. She is just stuck in the middle of a really bad situation. I feel awful that she has to be.

4 Comments »

1. 

   It’s gettin clearer & clearer,does something tell u ur not in Kansas anymore Dorothy?

   Comment by Tio Javie — December 16, 2008 @ 8:02 am

2. 

   OK I THINK ITS TIME TO COME BACK TO AMERICA AND EATS OME MEXICAN FOOD!!!! DAMN WHITE GIRL IN CHINA

   Comment by PILAR — December 16, 2008 @ 10:36 am

3. 

   holy f! garrett is hella nice! you shouldn’t get so worked up!, i know it’s overwhelming, but you were right and you handled it well! you should have gotten all of your $ back. if the fucking landlord doesn’t want to deal with shit like this, she should have her fucking cell phone on! jesus h christ! does the land lord NOT speak english? is that why cherry has to be your go between? btw, cherry is TOTALLY leaving over this. not to make you feel bad…

   Comment by Lordog — December 19, 2008 @ 4:43 pm

4. 

   did they at least figure out what the hell happened with the door so it doesn’t happen again?

   Comment by Lordog — December 19, 2008 @ 4:44 pm

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