The Ceiling Fan Saga

Oh boy, I've been wanting to publish this for awhile now, but the whole thing has been so damn frustrating and exhausting. And I'm still very salty about it. I even kept track of my notes on the situation. Enjoy!

My girlfriend originally sent in a request back in mid November of 2025, when the lights in the ceiling fan shorted out. It's right over my desk, where I do most of my writing. It's also the one light source we have aside from the nearby kitchen and small lamp desk in the living room. It wasn't checked until late December. The maintenance guy who came by, Joe, said we needed a new fan and that he would be back Monday (3 days later).

I called the front office Monday for an ETA, but the property manager knew nothing about the fan and said Joe wasn't even there??? She was very unhelpful overall, only stating that he wasn't there. That was established. What are you actually going to do about it? Nothing, apparently. I emailed the next day just in case I called the wrong person. She promised us a new fan that we would get later that week.

They never showed up, but my gf did see a few maintenance guys cleaning up an empty unit. I didn't think much about it at the time, but I did see a guy in the backyard that I assumed was there to help install our fan. And he had a fan. So I thought they'd hit us up next. (They in fact did not)

A week later, my gf got a belligerent voicemail from the property manager, insisting that she'd been calling and sending out maintenance guys, but got no response. But this was the first call my gf got, and I've been home all day…no one stopped by our door.

Okay, so we got a new guy. Kevin. I thought he would come in to replace the fan right away, but he tried to replace the light bulbs (lmao??) and doubted Joe's opinion. He then determined that we needed a new fan (yes, we're well aware!!), and promised to get back to me in two days. Those two days turned into two weeks and still no fan. I complained to the prop manager, she apologized and said she would reprimand him, and sent him by the next day.

Kevin. Kevin. Why would you only try to replace the light fixture?? You know we need a new fan. You claimed to have ordered one. Why are you wasting time?? He also left his ladder behind, with the promise of returning the next day.

But it was Joe who came for the ladder. He apologized on Kevin's behalf. Poor guy also said he couldn't do any hard labor because he had a heart attack. I bet Joe would've been great at hanging up the fan!

In what I hoped was the final stretch, Kev came by to replace the entire fan. 12:20 pm on the dot. Kev disappeared an hour after arrival to allegedly help a delivery guy. Tell me why I spotted him sneaking in his lunch (from the backyard in full view of my window). Didn't see him again for another 30 minutes. Did I mention that he turned off the power to "work" on the fan? And disappeared for almost four hours after his brief return? Most of his time was spent fussing around with the fan and instructions. Can you guess that he might not know how to install a ceiling fan? My aunt jokingly suggested I show him a YouTube video.

Anyway kids, never let maintenance free roam your apartment when you're not there to observe them! Or invest in some good cameras…I should do the same to be honest, but I like being there for myself. Which is why I vehemently refuse to let them enter when no one is home. This guy was so irresponsible! And this happened during a rough winter. The weather was in the negatives, and he left the apartment freezing.

He finished assembling most of the fan and hung it up, but had to replace the remaining blades. Claimed the fan works (it did not spin, but we had light!), but we didn't trust it because the light fixture was dangling and the whole thing looked ready to knock my head in. Kev he'd get to us by the weekend. He called Sunday night to give us a date and time (Monday, 12:30). I read 2 1/2 volumes of Chainsaw Man while waiting for him to show up. But don't worry, he called to say he'd be late but that he was definitely coming over later.

He did not show up.

When I called him, he claimed to be swamped by repairs at the apartment. I suspect they were putting all their focus into restoring old apartments for potential tenants, cause fuck the people who already live here, I guess! I got another loose promise, and wasted another day waiting for him to show up. He finally got back to us Friday.

He got the light fixture properly installed and attached the remaining blades. Again, he claimed everything was in working order, and even turned on the horrible grating fan before he left. The fan almost immediately stopped after he left. I've since tried to get it working, but no dice. I also noticed that awful grating when I manually spin the blades.

This sorry excuse for a maintenance man fixed our light, but left us with a useless fan. I considered complaining to the property manager, but I don't want to if I know we'll just get the same incompetent dude again. I'll leave them to fix it when we move out, even though summer will royally suck without it.

Oh, and while this last stretch was going on, our hallway was being painted and new lights installed. The property manager wanted to update the interior of the building, which ties back to other units being renovated.

I fucking hate it here. This is our third property manager since we moved here...3-4 years ago? Our previous manager was actually good and had scheduled cleaning crews twice a week. Current manager is just hiring random contractors from wherever, and they come and go at odd hours at night or the afternoon. It's so unorganized. She's unorganized.

This whole process took over three months, by the way. We didn't have a working ceiling fan for months, because of incompetence and greed. I'm glad it was nothing major, as we would've been in worse shape. Our previous maintenance guy (who either retired or got fired by this current property manager), was a gem. Punctual, knowledgeable, and courteous. He never would've left a job for hours at a time.

We are hoping to ditch this apartment by the end of the year or early next year, but I would happily bail sooner, once I can afford it.