A few months ago we finally reached the end of our communal tether and ditched our gardener/pool maintenance company, because of their general bad attitude and poor standard of work. Every attempt to talk to them about the poor state of the garden was met with the attitude of "if you don't like it, tough". The straw that broke this president's back however, was when the gardener actually damaged our (expensive) automatic irrigation system with his lawnmower, but refused to cover the cost of the repair - even though they are supposed to carry insurance for this purpose. Ironically, we had even offered to pay them more, thinking that perhaps the garden would improve if we paid for more hours. But it seemed money did not motivate this gang. They just didn't want to do the work.
So, having obtained wildly varying quotes from several other companies, we selected one that we felt had the right attitude. The monthly cost was more than the previous one, plus they charge IVA which we didn't pay previously, but we thought that it would be better to have everything correct and above board from the offset with this new outfit. So I signed their accepted proposal as requested, and hoped for the best.
Although I don't have much of a personal interest in the garden, I would say on the whole it has improved, but not hugely. Nevertheless, as long as my neighbours aren't knocking on my door asking why that bush hasn't been pruned or this flowerbed is not blooming, I'm a happy president. Until today at least, when I made my monthly visit to the administrator to sign cheques. I noticed (thankfully) that the gardener's bill was more than usual, and questioned it. The secretary, never one to get involved if possible, rang the company's office, who explained that as usual, their bills had been increased for the new year to take into account the Cost of Living Index, or whatever it's called. To which I politely pointed out that a 12.5% increase could hardly be thus justified. They backed down without a fight, and agreed to implement a more realistic 4% increase - although I still feel miffed that after just a few months we should face an increase at all.
What really annoys me, though, is that I am absolutely certain that they just tried it on, because they know that most communities won't even notice such increases and will just pay up. Another president may not have noticed it, or not bothered to pick up on it, particularly in a larger community, and the administrator clearly doesn't bother looking out for our interests. But I felt personally offended by this blatant attempt to scam us, just as if they were gardeners for a property I owned individually. On top of this, I don't think they even do a particularly good job - again, because I think they view community jobs as easy pickings. It's hard enough to keep a community running well, without having to contend with what I feel is a lack of respect or professionalism. With this sort of practice, it's also not difficult to see how easily community funds can get diverted into the pockets of corrupt administrators and/or, dare I say it? presidents. I've no doubt they would have agreed to "come to some arrangement", such as splitting the difference. (If only there were sufficient funds left over to consider becoming corrupt!)
OK, rant over. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest! 