I wasn't gonna get into details, but I guess this will be practice for my review. Sorry to rant.
[rant on]About me. I've been to the DR enough times to know what to expect and more importantly, what not to expect. Still, sometimes I let the customs drive me a little bonkers. Anyway, in this case, I let my guard down and my normal suspicions about dealings in DR were mostly put on hold. The realtor got something like 64 out of 65 excellent reviews. He is an American and we hit it off on the phone when I first called about renting. As a result, lots of formalities were discarded with. For example, his website stated a $25 clean up fee and the invoice stated $35. There's more examples. But I called him out on that but did not ask to have it changed on the invoice. Never happened. Mea culpa.
Anyway, enough about me. Suffice to say I've learned to let the little things slide, including an extra $10 for clean up, a bull**** fee. First came checking in. I was in Santo Domingo at a hotel and tried calling and messaging the realtor about what time I could check in. It was not stated in the agreement. I kept getting messages back that he'd let me know and to that effect. Bear in mind this guy is allergic to the phone and addicted to whatsapp. Whatsapp and texts have their place, but sometimes a phone call can save lots of time and misunderstanding. Finally at 4, I was checked in by the realtor's assistant, a spanish speaking only handyman (I speak little Spanish) person. He knew nothing of the details of the rental and seemingly little about the apt. The apartment was a mess and he spent almost 2 hours cleaning it up while I was there. He was unable to show me anything, like the hot water switch, the safe which was very complicated, etc etc. I was left to figure things out for myself.
The TV was not working either. The handyman spent an hour trying to get it to work to no avail. At the time, I didn't realize there was no hot water.
Meanwhile, messages to the realtor were mostly ignored or I rec'd non-answers. All I got was VM when I called. The apartment happens to be big and very nice, though they cheaped out on all the furnishings.
The next morning, I realized there was no hot water when I took a shower. When I found the hot water switch, it did nothing. I called the handyman and told him. He said there was no hot water! Helloooo, they knew all along there was a problem. At that point I had it. My TV was still not working either. These were the only things I really cared about, mostly the lack of hot water. No, mostly the attitude. I messaged again a not so polite message - I had been very tactful up until then. No response. I said screw it and went to a hotel. I was literally at the reservation desk about to hand over my credit card when I rec'd a text from the realtor that he was coming right over - 20 minutes.
I cancelled the hotel and went back. 2 hours later he came. He proceeded to call me a complainer and was very disrespectful. It seemed he had a renter who wanted to pay a lot more than I was paying and he didn't care if I stayed. But I really had no desire to waste a half a day moving again. I should have. Again, mea culpa. But like I said, the apartment was nice in all other respects and is in a good area in Gasque. It took him 2 hours and he fixed the TV and several other things. He couldn't fix the hot water but promised to send someone later in the day. That was yesterday and the last I heard from him.
The only BIG problem now is lack of hot water. And frankly, I can live with that. It's not like it's ice cold. My beef is with this guy's attitude. An American with a bigger attitude and crap way of doing business than anyone I've ever come across.
The good part is I am able to put this aside and not obsess and enjoy my stay. I'll take care of this when I get back to the US. [/rant off]