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<\/a>The view – its only redeeming feature<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Here I am again…I hope you enjoyed Bob’s travel logs as much as I did.\u00a0 While he was enjoying the midnight sun in Iceland and playing the Old Course in Scotland<\/strong>, I had planned to spend a month in Nipomo, a small community on the Central Coast of California where we have spent time over the past seven summers.\u00a0 We have always rented through VRBO and have had wonderful relationships with the homeowners.\u00a0 It was a good deal – they provide us with a nice house and we treat it as if it were our own.\u00a0 A win-win for everyone.\u00a0 But the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em> ran an article this past winter cautioning against renting directly with homeowners.\u00a0 They cited all manner of problems, from “phantom” houses<\/strong> where people would arrive at the given address to find no house at all, to owners who weren’t responsive to plumbing emergencies or insect infestations.\u00a0 Instead, they advised, go through one of the professional rental agencies<\/strong> where you were assured 24\/7 care and responsiveness.\u00a0 So, since the house we normally rent had been sold, we rented a three bedroom condominium at Blacklake Golf Course through TurnKey Vacation Rentals<\/strong>.\u00a0 We rented the unit for the month of July and eagerly anticipated getting the heck out of the Arizona heat and over to some cool, coastal fog.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Cups from 1985<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n We have been to Nipomo so many times that we had seen the outside of these condominiums countless times.\u00a0 Our unit was adjacent to the fairway of the ninth hole and has a beautiful, expansive view<\/strong> overlooking much of the golf course.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that is it’s only virtue.\u00a0 As we entered the unit it all looked okay – dated, but comfortable.\u00a0 Kind of like me.\u00a0 It was only as we began to settle in the following day that we noticed how grungy the place really was.\u00a0 Clearly the unit had been “glamour shot”<\/strong> on the TurnKey website.\u00a0 The coffee pot was grungy and the coffee cups weren’t any better, as you can see from the photo.\u00a0 The pots and pans were filthy and scratched, the potato peeler didn’t peel, and worst of all, the “pry open” wine opener had pried one too many bottles. \u00a0It took both of us 10 minutes to open a bottle. \u00a0I was getting so desperate I considred cracking the neck on the edge of the table and guzzling wine straight from the bottle.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 The sink that died 20 years ago<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n As bad as all that was, the sink was straight out of a horror movie<\/strong>.\u00a0 In all of my rental apartments, as a starving student or poor working girl who could only afford bologna sandwiches on white bread for dinner, I have never had a sink this disgusting.\u00a0 I tried to recall when we last had a tetanus shot.\u00a0 So…what to do?\u00a0 We decided to suck it up.\u00a0 We drove to the local Ace Hardware to buy a coffee maker, pots, pans and coffee cups.\u00a0 As for the sink, I scrubbed it within an inch of it’s life.\u00a0 But cleaning it was futile…its life had been snuffed out long ago<\/strong>.\u00a0 We made do and ate out.\u00a0 A lot.\u00a0 Four days after arrival the Wi-Fi broke down.\u00a0 A representative from TurnKey came to fix it later that day and acknowledged that the unit was a bit “dated” and had the good grace to look embarrassed. \u00a0She said someone from TurnKey corporate offices would be in touch with us on Monday to discuss compensation to make up for the condition of the unit.<\/p>\n Of course, Monday came and went with no phone call<\/strong>.\u00a0 On Tuesday I went to the mailbox as I was expecting a package and found a letter addressed to “Occupant” from the City of Nipomo.\u00a0 The letter was pink.<\/strong>\u00a0 I don’t know much about utility company billing but I’m pretty sure that pink is not a color you want to see.\u00a0 I opened it, hoping that the city was simply notifying us of upcoming road work or utility repairs.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 The owner was delinquent in her payments so they were going to shut the water off within the next week<\/strong> if they didn’t receive their money.\u00a0 So, again, I called TurnKey.\u00a0 They were shocked, SHOCKED!, to learn of this.\u00a0 It was going to be taken up with management and someone would get back to me.\u00a0 Long story short, I finally heard from someone who said they would refund us $100 for our troubles and “not to worry” about the water bill.\u00a0 Sure…these owners hadn’t replaced a coffee cup <\/strong>in 35 years but I was supposed to sleep soundly knowing they would pay their delinquent water bill.\u00a0 Two days later I called again, raised hell, and they offered us another $300.<\/p>\n They specialized in LOUD<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n So now we had $400 to offset our “inconveniences”.\u00a0 But we weren’t done yet. Every Wednesday evening they have band concerts on the lawn outside our condo.\u00a0 Not real <\/em>bands.\u00a0 More like garage bands comprised of Baby Boomers<\/strong> who, “back in the day”, dreamed of becoming the next Beatles.\u00a0 Now, they are just off-tune and loud.\u00a0 But “loud” was redefined the following Saturday night when a wedding reception took place outside our window.\u00a0 It featured a live mariachi band and a DJ who played heavy metal.\u00a0 The windows (which of course were vintage 1985) had all the soundproofing capabilities of Saran Wrap.\u00a0 For FIVE \u00a0hours the windows shook and the music blared. \u00a0Surely this is\u00a0how we torture ISIS<\/strong> prisoners.\u00a0 Needless to say, we were miserable.\u00a0 We tried to put the best spin on it<\/strong> but our normally pleasing personalities were getting a bit testy.\u00a0 Finally we realized that it was better to forfeit two weeks of rent and go home than to stay and be unhappy.\u00a0 That is when, after 30 years of marriage, you know you’ve married the right person.\u00a0<\/strong> So we packed up and got out of there. \u00a0 I called TurnKey to let them know we were leaving early.\u00a0 The person had no knowledge of our previous calls.\u00a0 Over the course of two weeks I spoke with seven different TurnKey “customer experience” people and – at their request – sent them photos of the unit.\u00a0 Most never bothered to look at the email exchanges<\/strong> or the pictures of the unit.\u00a0 To say the right hand didn’t know what the left was doing was an understatement.\u00a0 The best example is when a manager called – at last, someone with some decision-making responsibility! – only to have him tell me he was from Florida<\/strong> and was calling about the water problem in the master bedroom.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Not even close.<\/p>\n We ended up spending the remainder of the month in Scottsdale<\/strong>, where the weather was blessedly under 100 degrees.\u00a0 Of course, the monsoons arrived which made my hair frizz and my thighs stick together.\u00a0 But it was still better than looking at that sink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson Here I am again…I hope you enjoyed Bob’s travel logs as much as I did.\u00a0 While he was enjoying the midnight sun in Iceland and playing the Old Course in Scotland, I had planned to spend … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/2017-07-13-09.35.12-Small-300x169.jpg\")
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