The NZ way of putting someone on hold

When you are renting a property in Holland, the house is completely empty when you move in. The first things you will be doing is lay down carpet, hang drapes, put wallpaper on the walls and paint the doors and framework of the house to your own taste. Not so in NZ. In NZ you rent a house including carpet, drapes and electric stove. You are not allowed to adjust anything to your own taste; you are not even allowed to put a nail into the wall. The landlord is responsible for doing all that. If you are lucky, the carpet is somewhat to your liking and not very dirty. If not, you’ll just have to live with it, or rent another house.

Our little rental home has a few problems of its own: a few net curtains are torn, there is something wrong with the electrical wiring, there is no key to the garage door, one window cannot be locked and a large bin with garbage of the previous tenants is still standing in the garden. Our agent from the property rent shop promised us before we signed the rental agreement that all of that would be fixed by them shortly. However, we haven’t noticed any change thus far, so I called the agent to find out what’s up.

I don’t know if you ever have gotten annoyed when someone puts you on hold for a long time, well, with the rent shop you don’t have to worry about that because you will never be put on hold. If the agents are talking to someone else on the phone (which is almost always the case), you will be automatically transferred to their voicemail. That is very efficient, because you can leave a message so they can call you back. The only problem is, they never do.

During the last week I have called the rent shop about 15 times. On the voice mail I have left my home phone number, my work phone number and my mobile phone number, however, they just do NOT call me back. Each and every time I call, the receptionist tells me very politely that I can leave a message if I want to. Well, not really… put me on hold, PLEASE put me on hold…