Poor Service in Central Australia

     I've been told to expect poor service and to be surprised by good service here in central Australia. Where have I heard that before...northern Canada. I think it's a bit of a cop-out, same as it was in northern Canada. Now for the ridiculous tale of the stove...

     So I moved into my new flat 16 days ago. Prior to me moving in, the flat was empty for all of May. The flat was definitely clean enough when I moved in, but there was a few things that needed fixing. Minor things for the most part, and the most worrisome was the back door that leads from my bedroom out onto the patio and beyond. The doorknob was very loose and could easily be jimmied open, so I asked for that to be fixed along with a few other things, and for the most part, a lot of them were done about a week later. I'm not sure why these things weren't fixed before - lazy landlords? Passive real estate agent? Uncaring former tenant? But the one big thing I wanted fixed post haste was my stove. I was happy to discover there was a gas stove in the unit, as cooking with gas is so much better than electricity, particularly those solid burners that seem to be common here. (I hate them) However I soon discovered the stove had only one working burner, and no working oven. Yeah, I was left with just one burner to cook on. I felt like I was back in the cabin in the woods, but at least there I had a bbq to grill on. I'll talk more about what Australian's call a barbecue later.
     So I put in a work request with Kelly the property agent. Kelly is brand new to the property agency. It shows. The request was put in on Monday. Tuesday I had a sparky (Aussie word for electrician) ring me and request access to my apartment to fix the stove. Um, what? What is a sparky going to do with a gas stove? He didn't know either. So I emailed Kelly. Ooops, your unit has a gas stove? Sorry, I'll get someone out to look at it. Wednesday comes, no plumber. Thursday comes - plumber wants access. So does the handyman. None of the keys the property agent gave them work in the doors. Great. So I have to get the handyman to meet me at my office building downtown to grab my keys as I don't have time to go over and let him in, then go lock up. The plumber takes one look at the stove and tells me it's not worth fixing, and I should get a new stove.
     Okay...go tell Kelly that and see what she can do about it. Friday comes. No sound from Kelly. Saturday comes - I ring Kelly only to find out she doesn't work on the weekends, just the others, and am promised someone will call. Didn't hear a sound. Monday I ring Kelly who tells me the plumber called her and told her I need a new stove. She would put the request into the owner and let me know in a couple of days what the owner said. Um, what? It's a no brainer. If the stove doesn't work, and the plumber doesn't think it is worth salvaging and too risky to keep - GET A NEW STOVE. So Tuesday comes. Then Wednesday. Then Thursday. Finally I hear from Kelly. The furniture store is going to deliver a stove today, can I let them in (because their keys don't work). Sure. I'll fit that into my day. I head over and let them in on my way to an investigation with police. It should only take a minute as they are not the ones who will be hooking it up. That job is for the plumber. They offload the stove, and roll it on into my flat. I'm excited until I take a look at the stove - it's an electric stove. There is no place to plug in an electric stove. WTF? So I let the furniture guys know they have to take this stove back. I have a broken gas stove. Bring me a gas stove. I ring Kelly and she blames the furniture store for delivering the wrong stove. Bullshit. I think she forgot once again that I had a gas stove. Her story now is they don't have any gas stoves there, but one might come in on the truck tomorrow. Great. Send me that one, and get the plumber to install it before the weekend.
     Of course, Friday comes and goes and no damn stove. I email a strongly worded message to Kelly. She blames the former tenant for not telling them the stove wasn't working. Bullshit. You had the apartment empty for a month and not once did you inspect the stove to see that it was working properly? It was bad enough you don't supply a fridge and I had to buy one for a rental property, but now it's been over 2 weeks and I still only have one burner and no oven to cook in. Kelly sure knows how to pass the buck and shift the blame. Doesn't matter. I still blame her. Sigh...
     So then today I head to Kmart to pick up some more soil, pine bark and a bunch of bushes/plants for the garden. They are all on sale, 25% off. Great! I don't look as the prepubescent boy checks them in. I head home, plant them all and just happen to glance at the sales slip only to discover he has charged me full price for all 9 of them. Sigh...so I text a friend that I'm going back to Kmart to get my money back for the overcharging and he tells me I shouldn't bother and to get used to lousy service here in central Australia. Bullshit. It is a cop-out. Poor service is poor service and unless you call them on it, how will they ever improve? They won't. So off I head to Kmart and get my $22.40 refund on my plants. If it was just a couple of bucks, that would be one thing, but $22.40 is a bit much to let go.
     And I am still without a stove...look out Kelly, I'm going to be good and surly next week if I don't finally get a damn stove. I may even see if I can make you cry for being such a twit. Bring a tissue.

     Now for the barbecue - we went camping last month and I was happy to read that the campgrounds generally all come with complimentary gas barbecues. Great! Only their version of a barbecue is a flat grill, just like in a greasy spoon, like a big oversized frying pan. No open grill with flame. Just a flat piece of metal. I went in search of barbecues here in Alice, only to find most of them are flat ones, with the occasional one having a bit of open grill, and the prices for those are just ridiculous. For a portable barbecue, it was $399!!!!! I just wanted a cheapo one like I've had for years in Canada, bought at either Walmart or Superstore for $25. I even left one behind and now wish dearly that I had brought it with me. I may even get one mailed to me at this rate. I am missing a good barbecued steak...
     So here I sit on a windy Saturday night in Alice Springs. The Finke Desert Races are on this weekend and there has been a mass exodus to camp along the race trail. I had planned on going camping, but it's been quite cold at night -3C last night...brrrrrr...I don't mind cold weather, but I don't camp at -3C at home in Canada, so I'm not up for it here either. I'm heading out tomorrow morning at 5am though to catch the start of the race. The gates close at 6am, so we have to be there early or we won't see the 7:30am start. There's to be over 500 motorbikes, and over a hundred cars, and dozens of dune buggies so it should be both noisy, and exciting. I'll be sure to take my camera for live action!