The deposit war

House rental agencies can be such swindlers. We moved out of our previous apartment at the end of November 2006. We waited patiently for them to return our security deposit (we had invested a good couple of hours dusting the apartment back into a presentable state, and I'd be darned if we were going to lose our deposit over that).

Erm, we waited some more.

Then a month later, we called. Went straight to voicemail, we left a message.
No response.

Called again, left another message.
No response.

Called and left a third message.
No response.

And the pattern continued like this for a couple of months, with no conceivable result. Finally, three months after we'd moved out of our previous apartment, I lost patience and stomped over to the agency office. I was placed in front of a snivelling finance clerk, who mumbled excuses about inefficient filing systems and incomplete administrative processes, and how he would be sending out the check the next day. "Why can't you give me the check right now?!" I demanded, with a dramatic (and effective, I thought) show of foot-stomping. But apparently the powers that be were not in the office at that moment, and the young chap did not have the authority to do more than give me muttered platitudes.
Fine, but we wanted the check next week.

Waited a week, left a voicemail.
No response.

Left another message.
No response.

Summer came along and in our excitement, we forgot about the whole check affair.

Now wasn't that exactly their intention?!

Doobs suddenly asked me the other day out of the blue. "Hey, did we ever get our security deposit back?!"
Instantly my blood was boiling again, and all the forgotten fury pulsed through my body. "He never mailed us that check, the @#$#$%!!@." And I would have gone on in that vein, had not Doobs stepped in with a more constructive suggestion.
"Let me call and give that fellow a talking-to," she said calmly.

And she called and gave that poor fellow a yelling-to. I tremble in my shoes when I even try to imagine the situation. And she gave the owner of the entire enterprise a yelling-to. And rightfully so, too. Because today, bright and shiny, our checks arrived in the mail.

All of the deposit, along with the interest. I was so impressed. That Doobs can work some magic.

Now all I have to figure out is what to spend this windfall $800 on for the summer!