digging out of a stinky pile of debt after realizing we are well past fucked

Getting your contributions out of a Roth IRA is easy and there are no nasty tax complications to worry about. I have my Roth IRA with Vanguard. Here is what I had to do.

1. Call Vanguard at 800-805-0614.
2. Verify your identity with the person that answers the phone.

3. Tell them you are calling to withdraw some of your contributions from your Roth IRA. They will then transfer you to a retirement withdrawl specialist.

4. You will be told that there may be tax implications, etc. They HAVE to say this regardless of whether or not your situation has any tax implications.

5. They ask if you want the money deposited into your attached checking account or if you want it in a different one.

6. They verify your request and tell you when to expect the sale and transfer of funds. It only takes 2 business days to get the money in your checking account.

First, an update on the intercom/speaker situation here at the Parkland View Apartments in Breinigsville, PA. It’s still not working properly. When you press the buzzer for our apartment it still goes next door and vice versa. We have also discovered that even when someone presses the buzzer for next door (to get us) that the button to buzz them in does not actually work. The door stays locked. Last week I was told it would all be corrected by noon on Friday. Apparently I should have asked “which Friday?”

And now, on to today’s drama at Parkland View Apartments in Breinigsville, PA….

Less than 30 minutes ago I saw a construction worker walk past the living room windows and turn onto our patio. And he didn’t leave. After peering through the blinds on the patio door it seems that he is eating over a hot plate that is plugged into our electrical socket on the patio. Now, he wasn’t carrying the hot plate when I saw him so there is no telling how long it was plugged in and we were paying for that electricity. Sure, it can’t be too much to heat up a hot plate but that is not the point.

After a call to the apartment maintenance guy, Tim - who seems like an awesome guy that is doing the best he can here at Parkland View Apartments in Breinigsville, PA - I learn that this is totally unacceptable (duh) and that he plans on ripping them a new one (the construction guys). Again I left wondering why they moved us and the few other people in to this building when all of this construction stuff is going on. There are six apartments in this side of the building (3 on bottom and 3 on top) and we are the only people on the bottom and there is still one empty unit upstairs. So, clearly there wasn’t a huge rush for everyone and I really wish they had let us move in later. You know, once some of these growing pains were over. Of course, the super helpful and intelligent girl in the office (insert sarcasm here) told us that the construction is expected to last at Parkland View Apartments in Breinigsville, PA for TWO YEARS!!!! As someone that works from home all day, this would have been super helpful information for them to have disclosed upfront. Why? Because I likely would have made a different choice in where to live.

Oh, and the clubhouse still isn’t open. What happened to “It will be open in 2 weeks” that I heard when we moved in? Fortunately, it does look close to being open though.

I have a Roth IRA with Vanguard. I chose a Roth IRA so that I could withdraw my contributions at any time. I looked on the Vanguard site for 20 minutes trying to find out how to do this. Finally, I clicked on the chat button for assistance. Here is the response I got:

Due to the complex nature of your question, it would be best for you to speak to one of our associates by phone. You can reach us at 800-805-0614.

Not helpful at all.

I managed to safely make it through the construction area with no nails in my tires and arrived at the leasing office around 1:30pm. The only person in the office was the girl that checked us in the day that we moved in.

She initially wanted us to write down our maintenance woes on the move-in checklist and bring it back to her. When we asked why no one had notified us of the paving her reply was “Well, they have to pave the roads.” I went on to explain to her how a note on the door of our apt. alerting us to the paving the previous day would have been beneficial so that we could have parked elsewhere and not had to drive through the construction - then I saw the lightbulb go off in her head. Her response: “Oh.”

She ended up writing out a maintenance request and took down our phone number.

No call and no visit from maintenance Thursday afternoon.

No call and no visit from maintenance Friday.

After hours on Friday the maintenance guy is in the building and ask how things are going and I ask him if he got the maintenance requests. He says “no” and asks what the problem is. I tell him about the smoke detector and shower and he comes into the apt. to look. Tells me he will be back on Monday during work hours to take care of things for me.

Sunday at 2am the smoke detector goes off. Twice. For no reason. This angers me as it seems to me, in my opinion, that the girl in the office could have prevented this by giving the maintenance guy the work order on Thursday that he says he never got. I fire off angry email to apartment manager.

Sunday at 11:30am maintenance guy is knocking on the door. Apparently the apt. manager sent him. He takes a look at the smoke detectors and declares that it is faulty and switches it out with another from a nearby empty apartment.

We bake several items and the smoke detector never goes off. Hooray!

Today the maintenance guy returns to fix the shower. At one point he brings in a slip that UPS had left on the door. There is a buzzer/intercom system in this building similar to NYC apartments and our buzzer never rang. This is when I go out and test it to discover that it does not work. Maintenance guy assures me that it will be working by the afternoon as they are turning it on today. I ponder why they moved us in over a week ago if they did not intend to get the speaker system working until today.

It’s now 11:30pm and the speaker/intercom system was never worked on today. I’m not surprised. Just wonder what’s next.

Disclaimer: All text in this post is my opinion.

Less than a week ago the Bumblefucked household moved back across the country to the Parkland View apartments in Breinigsville, PA. This west Allentown apartment complex bills itself as a luxury apartment complex. I found this complex on the web. They had ads on Craigslist as a new complex and the prices were reasonable so we signed a lease without ever seeing the place thinking that it was brand new, so how bad could it really be, right?

I had a few conversations over the phone and via email with people at the apartment complex and never once did anyone mention that the majority of the complex was still under construction. Imagine my surprise to arrive and find my building surrounded by other buildings in various stages of construction. Heavy machinery, building materials and construction workers are my daily view thus far.

Today I awoke to see that a paving crew is paving the road and parking lot at my building and that I am blocked in.

The only way out is to drive through the construction debris and chance getting nails in the tires. Oh, and there actually isn’t a road out through the debris, you have to scale a pile of dirt to get out. No one has called or stopped by to let me know they were paving today. And no one rang the buzzer this morning so that I could move the car. Shortly I will be driving through the construction and praying that no nails get in the tires.

The frustration is not limited to just this though.

Each time that the gas stove/oven has been turned on since we have been here the carbon monoxide/smoke detector goes off. Did I mention that there are a total of three of them and they are hard wired together? So when one goes off all three of them go off and it’s not like the old school smoke detectors where you can just take the battery out. At first, I just attributed this to the fact that turning on gas stoves creates carbon monoxide and that some idiot had put one of these detectors less than 10 feet from the gas stove/oven. I found a fix online of putting shower cap over it. So I went to Rite-Aid and did just that.

Unfortunately, it still goes off. After looking up the model number (SC9120B) online I found a user manual that told me that this should never be this close to a stove/oven and if it constantly goes off like this then it is in a bad location and needs moved. I can’t wait to tell the apartment office about this and see how they react.

I also get to tell them about the faulty plumbing in the bathroom that is leading to soggy drywall each time we shower.

Oh, and if you look at the apartment website it boasts on the first page:

The 5,000 sq. ft. private clubhouse features a fitness center, swimming pool, hot tub, business center, putting green and recreational areas.

Yeah, that is still under construction as well. But they did install a gazebo outside yesterday!

In my opinion, Parkland View Apartments in Breinigsville, PA is a major FAIL thus far. Shortly I am attempting to drive over the dirt pile to get out of the path of paving and will be visiting the leasing office to have some words with them regarding all of these things.

Disclaimer: All text in this post is my opinion.

Today I purchased some tickets on Ticketmaster. I’m used to getting screwed by their fees. For instance, I bought two $30 tickets and it cost me $82.40.

What surprised me was that they are now apparently charging for Will Call pickup!!! See, Will Call wasn’t listed as a pickup option. Instead it was listed as “Retail Outlet Pickup” wtf? Here’s what it said:

Pick up your tickets at a participating retail location near you. You must present your order number, a picture I.D. and the credit card used to place the order. The cardholder must be present in order to pick up the tickets. If you intend to pick up your tickets on the date of the event, you may go directly to the venue box office and they will be printed for you.

See that last line? Will call pickup. The fee? $1.00. Wankers.

When I moved to the Los Angeles area I ended up at Archstone Warner Center. Why? Because I have a long history of renting from Archstone in multiple states. I’ve never had a problem with the Archstone brand and thought it would be a safe bet. This is my Archstone Warner Center review. It my all my opinion.

After renting apartments regularly since 1998, and never renewing a lease in the same place,  I can honestly say that, in my opinion, Archstone Warner Center is my worst apartment experience. They even beat the place in Maitland, Florida where my refrigerator door fell off on move-in day, the air conditioner did not work on move-in day (and it was July) and there was such a gap on the patio door that flying ant-like bugs invaded the apartment nightly until I caulked the door shut.

Archstone Warner Center seemed like an awesome find when we moved in. Sign a 12-month lease and get 2 month free rent! The complex looked nice enough and I had always had pleasant experiences with Archstone.  Within the first month of moving in, the fire alarms sounded three times. Archstone has a 30-day move-out policy that we thought about taking advantage of that first month. The apartment office said that the fire alarms were sensitive. Apparently if people try to come into the garage with a vehicle that is too high they go off. If someone is smoking in the hall or balcony they go off. Sometimes I think they just go off because they haven’t in a while!

If had to guess, it would be my opinion that I seem to recall the fire alarms going off about an average of twice a month the entire duration of my lease. I have even experienced the fire alarms sounding in the middle of the night. Once around 3am and once around 5am. Not once has there been a real fire when the fire alarms have gone off her during my lease term.

If you Google “archstone warner center reviews” you will see many reviews complaining about the fire alarms. Sites like ApartmentReviews.net list several complaints from residents at Archstone Warner Center.

You’ll also see some complaints about the move out charges that they spring on you when you put in your 30-day notice. One reviewer on Yelp.com says he was charged $1000 when he moved out for painting and cleaning. This is where my other major problem with this complex comes into play. In the lease, like in all apartment leases, it states that you are liable for normal wear and tear. In all my years of apartment renting I have never had to pay for anything to be cleaned or the like. Well, today I got a little move out packet from Archstone Warner center where they are estimating that my move out fee will be around $400!! In my opinion, this is beyond ridiculous. They forsee needing to paint, clean and either clean or replace the carpet. That’s great except the carpet was crappy when I got here. I forsee needing to tell them to suck it. One of the sheets they gave me details how they charge for labor and materials upon move out. Never have I heard of an apartment complex charging someone to paint the place.

In my opinion, here are other problems with Archstone Warner Center that I wish I had read in a review that would have kept me away - even though the garage is gated there are always transients dumpster diving in the complex, vehicles get vandalized and are stolen out of the garage - motorcycle theft seemed to be an issue, after the forest fires they took forever to clean up the walkways but then refused to clean people’s patios, they let people have huge loud dogs and they don’t make them keep them inside at night, huge gaps between the doors and the door frames that result in loss of cold air or heat depending on the season, the parking garages are incredibly dangerous as people fly around the corners and they don’t have mirrors up so that you can see people coming, there is not enough parking available on each level and they let motorcycles park in the large spaces leaving empty compact spaces and no spaces for larger cars.

In my opinion, the pool area and fitness room are nice. So is the business center. But in my opinion, Archstone Warner Center closer to a dump than the luxury complex it claims to be. If you are considering moving to Archstone Warner Center, it is my opinion that you should look someplace else and at least read the reviews on the other sites.

I will do a follow-up post once I move out and let people know if I get bumblefucked by Archstone Warner Center and their move out fees.

**this Archstone Warner Center review is my opinion**

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The download is in PDF format.

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I don’t think it is any secret that the state of California is hurting for cash. Their latest attempt at raising money leaves a sour taste in my mouth. What is it?

The CHEATERS program.

The California Highway Patrol wants people to call them when they see an out of state license plate. Apparently someone forgot to inform the geniuses at the CHP that Cali is a big tourist draw and there are likely to be a lot of out of state plates here.

I clicked through to the CHP CHEATERS page to see what they were looking for. Here is what they want the tattletales to give them besides license plate number and make/model:

Comments / Evidence (Please include in the comments field any relevant information that might help with the investigation: specific addresses where the vehicle is observed, how long has the vehicle been seen in California, any information about the owner, why you feel that the owner is attempting to avoid California registration, local decals/bumper stickers/license plate frames, etc.):

Invasive much?

It’s precisely things like this that are contributing to the list of reasons that the Bumblefucked household will be vacating the state of California when our lease is up.