michael59
Celestial
I am disabled. I receive a monthly payment from Canada Pension Disability and another smaller amount from a provincial program called Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped. I live in subsidized housing that states I am only entitle to rent a 1 bedroom apartment or a bachelor suite. It's a long story but, I was forced to move in here. I had no other option.
When I first moved here 12 years ago, the rent included:
-all utilities
-cable TV.
-one parking stall.
-a full library on the 4th floor
-gym equipment for all the tenants to use.
-a storage room on each floor that we had a key for.
-lots of common spaces where we could go sit and converse with others.
-you had to have a criminal background check before moving in.
-you had to sign a form that was like an affidavit that said you had no bed bugs or cockroaches and there were none in the residence where you were moving from.
-there was a Christmas dinner served up to the tenants every year.
-you had to be at least 50 years old to live here.
It was how they justified making me pay 64% of my monthly disability income to live there.
Every single one of those "perks" has been taken away. Without even so much as a notice. The only notices we received were 30 days to remove our belongings out of storage or they would be disposed of and the cable company sent notice through the mail offering us free hook-up transfers if we wanted to continue using their service. They'll let anyone move in here now including bed bugs and cockroaches. Although, they do fumigate as soon as they receive a report.
And yet the rent increases every couple of years.
I have never missed a rent payment nor have I ever been late paying rent for the 1st day of each month. Some tenants have and when I asked they told me that we had until the 5th of every month to pay and after that it was a fine of $75 a day.
Why do they get to do that? Shouldn't they have had to reimburse me by lowering the rent with each perk that they remove?
__________________________
I am a member of Alberta Motor Association. I pay a yearly membership fee.
One of those "perks" is that I can call them and they will come to where ever my car is at the time and test the battery. If said battery needs changing, they will do this for a small fee plus the cost of the new battery. They even deduct the recycling fee for the old battery.
Last week I called to get a new battery installed and after talking to a computer voice over the phone for 15 minutes it finally put me through to a live person because it could not understand what it is that I wanted. When I was put through I was told by another computer voice that all agents were busy and the wait time was up to 2 hours or I could press 1 and they will call me back when it is my turn. I pressed 1. The call was returned in 15 minutes.
Kerry, the agent told me that AMA was overwhelmed by the amount of service calls they have been receiving because of the cold weather so, they have suspended battery testing/installing new batteries for the time being, but I can take my car to Lube City and they will install a new battery for me and if there is any difference in the cost AMA will reimburse me. When I said, okay so how do I get the car there when the battery is dead? She went silent. Will AMA give me a boost? She said, there is a 3 day waiting list for a battery boost.
This is a massive corporation that spans all over Canada and the United States. This is Alberta. It gets cold every fucking year, especially in January and February. Why aren't they prepared?
As far as I know, nowhere in my membership agreement does it stipulate that if AMA is feeling overwhelmed, too bad for me, I'm on my own.
I've been paying my membership fee on time in full every year since 1996 and this is the treatment I get for being a loyal customer? Why do they get to do that?
When I first moved here 12 years ago, the rent included:
-all utilities
-cable TV.
-one parking stall.
-a full library on the 4th floor
-gym equipment for all the tenants to use.
-a storage room on each floor that we had a key for.
-lots of common spaces where we could go sit and converse with others.
-you had to have a criminal background check before moving in.
-you had to sign a form that was like an affidavit that said you had no bed bugs or cockroaches and there were none in the residence where you were moving from.
-there was a Christmas dinner served up to the tenants every year.
-you had to be at least 50 years old to live here.
It was how they justified making me pay 64% of my monthly disability income to live there.
Every single one of those "perks" has been taken away. Without even so much as a notice. The only notices we received were 30 days to remove our belongings out of storage or they would be disposed of and the cable company sent notice through the mail offering us free hook-up transfers if we wanted to continue using their service. They'll let anyone move in here now including bed bugs and cockroaches. Although, they do fumigate as soon as they receive a report.
And yet the rent increases every couple of years.
I have never missed a rent payment nor have I ever been late paying rent for the 1st day of each month. Some tenants have and when I asked they told me that we had until the 5th of every month to pay and after that it was a fine of $75 a day.
Why do they get to do that? Shouldn't they have had to reimburse me by lowering the rent with each perk that they remove?
__________________________
I am a member of Alberta Motor Association. I pay a yearly membership fee.
The Alberta Motor Association (AMA) partners of CAA & AAA serving Albertans with Roadside Assistance, Insurance, Membership Rewards, Travel Bookings & more.
One of those "perks" is that I can call them and they will come to where ever my car is at the time and test the battery. If said battery needs changing, they will do this for a small fee plus the cost of the new battery. They even deduct the recycling fee for the old battery.
Last week I called to get a new battery installed and after talking to a computer voice over the phone for 15 minutes it finally put me through to a live person because it could not understand what it is that I wanted. When I was put through I was told by another computer voice that all agents were busy and the wait time was up to 2 hours or I could press 1 and they will call me back when it is my turn. I pressed 1. The call was returned in 15 minutes.
Kerry, the agent told me that AMA was overwhelmed by the amount of service calls they have been receiving because of the cold weather so, they have suspended battery testing/installing new batteries for the time being, but I can take my car to Lube City and they will install a new battery for me and if there is any difference in the cost AMA will reimburse me. When I said, okay so how do I get the car there when the battery is dead? She went silent. Will AMA give me a boost? She said, there is a 3 day waiting list for a battery boost.
This is a massive corporation that spans all over Canada and the United States. This is Alberta. It gets cold every fucking year, especially in January and February. Why aren't they prepared?
As far as I know, nowhere in my membership agreement does it stipulate that if AMA is feeling overwhelmed, too bad for me, I'm on my own.
I've been paying my membership fee on time in full every year since 1996 and this is the treatment I get for being a loyal customer? Why do they get to do that?