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Ah yes, the classic "it don't work, pls fix" issue report.
- What is the nature of the issue? Is there water pressure? Is the water cold? Does it look/smell/taste contaminated?
- What is the extent of the issue? Does it only affect a single faucet, multiple faucets, the apartment, or the entire building?
- When did the issue start? Is it constant or intermittent?
- Does the cold water present the same issue?
- (optional) What steps have been taken to remedy the issue?
And asking for a picture resolves any of these questions... how?
It doesn't, both sides are dumb.
(edit) Actually, it confirms that the water is clean and that there is water pressure.
It could also be the landlord meant a photo of the water heater / boiler / whatever they use to get hot water. But he should have been more explicit. Most of these devices have a light or a display that indicates if there's a problem and what the problem is, so the landlord can take appropriate action.
This is a common issue in tech support, not realizing what the other person doesn't know. You don't want to treat the person like a small child and tell them what to do. But on the other hand if you make assumptions about what they know how to do and they don't, it can cause a lot of miscommunications.
It's really a everyone sucks here situation. Sending a picture of the water obviously isn't helpful, a simple response could have been: "Alright I'll take pictures, can you specify what exactly I need to take pictures off and where to find that". Then again the landlord just saying need pictures isn't really helpful either.
No. It is not the tenants responsibility to troubleshoot issues for the landlord.
Id the tenant says the hot water isn't working, the landlord needs to show the fuck up and do the work to figure it out.
Which translation do you prefer?
I'm not responsible for fixing it, so I'm going to go out of my way to be as unhelpful as humanly possible
or
It's not entirely my problem, so I'm making it your problem, and I'm making sure it's a problem.
That mentality is immature and anyone who thinks like that is a bit of a dick.
Going out of their way to be unhelpful? Oh please, that's not what's happening here.
Have you ever been on the other side of customer service?
Solving the underlying issue, I'd agree.
But you don't go to a doctor and say "I'm broke, fix me".
There's a basic expectation that the patient/tenant will describe why its not broken. What is expected, and what's it doing instead. (sometimes that needs to be reiterated back to the patient/tenant in order to move, and that's where the landlord failed here.)
Your body is also extremely good at telling you that there is something wrong with you and where something is wrong with you. A faucet is not. Poor analogy.
Your body is also extremely good at telling you that there is something wrong with you and where something is wrong with you. A faucet is not. Poor analogy.
Sometimes asking for a picture is just the easiest way, instead of going back and forth describing something in words, especially if it requires technical detail or nuance Remember, not all tents and landlords have 100% mastery of the language.
Neither are dumb. Just limited by assumptions and possibly jaded by past, frustrating experiences.
I mean...those are all valid questions.
Any or all of which could've been asked.
It boils down to experience with diagnosing that kind of problem when reported by a common person.
The amateur landlord so common in our age isn't going to have that experience and unless they work in an area where it's common to have to diagnose and fix technical problems they're not going to be used to the kind of sistematic step by step approach used to pin down the exact nature of a problem so will have trouble even improvising it effectivelly.
Too bad this isn't tech support and it's the landlords job to show up and troubleshoot it himself. The tenant bears no responsibility here besides informing the landlord there is a problem.
It's the tenant that has no hot water though. The more information they give the landlord, the faster they will get hot water again.
but just a bit of cooperation from the tenants side could help him prepare a lot better for the job
They’re not responsible for fixing the problem, but they are responsible for ensuring that the problem is fixed, since until it’s fixed the don’t have hot water.
In this case ensuring that the problem is fixed most importantly entails telling the person who has to do the fixing as much about the problem as possible.
If you need help with something, you have to help your helper if you want it to be effective.