Wednesday, May 13, 2009

E-mail of the day - from me

Dear xxxxx -

Please, please tell me what I have to do to get my light fixed. Place yourself in my shoes and imagine what it is like to know all day - EVERY DAY - there is a light on in your living room and you can't do a damn thing about it.

I have begged. I have asked for this to be fixed since April 6. I have no idea what more to do.

Honestly, I want to move out. This place is poorly constructed and was sold to us the way the Khabisi apartments were. We are buzzed by airplanes all day long and it is a 20 minute drive into town. We all agreed to come here because Khabisi was that bad. Now we are here and realize this place is only a step up in size. In every other way this place is the same, or in terms of location, worse than Khabisi.

I know the goal was to get us new people to shut up and stop complaining. I would *like* to stop complaining... BUT THERE IS A LIGHT ON IN MY LIVING ROOM THAT I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT SHUT OFF. What else can I do?

Sincerely,
Steve Kranz

If your first reaction is "hire an electrician yourself" understand that I've been told that I cannot have anyone outside of the university do electrical or plumbing work.

5 comments:

  1. I can't come up with a safe way for *YOU* to do this repair Steve.

    Looks like you'd be served well with one of these: http://www.elightbulbs.com/catalog_product.cfm?source=NexTagCSE&prod=AF66200

    My steps for (hopefully) getting this installed (and living) would be:

    1. Untwist and pull bulb in current light.
    2. (dangerpart) Short the contacts in the light socket together, with something with a rubber handle, make sure not to touch the metal part of the device you are shorting.(likely a screwdriver would work great) Assuming there's a circuit breaker (a risk considering the build quality, i admit) you should hear it click in the background. Go to that circuit breaker and make sure it's off.
    3. Pull the light assembly down, untwist wire nuts 1 at a time and inst---

    ...You know what, this is just a bad idea. If the build quality is what you say, there's a chance that:
    1. You've got no circuit breaker, and would start the building on fire when doing this, or
    2. They have the neutral on the breaker, and you end up shocking yourself anyway when replacing the light, or
    3. The circuit breaker you pop ends up being for your entire apartment and the breaker itself is located in someone else's place.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Chip, I appreciate it, but does your boss know you are spending work time writing this?

    ReplyDelete
  3. What kind of light is it. If it is a normal bulb here is a link to a solution. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220412849929

    ReplyDelete
  4. ^^^ That's exactly what you need.

    No, the boss doesn't know (or likely care), although I think he actually came in while I was writing it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. How about just unscrewing the light and going without?

    ReplyDelete