Oh god, why apartment hunting is so hard??

In the end of last September, I moved back to Chicago and has been staying at my husband's parents' house  since then. We started apartment hunting in Chicago in the middle of November after my husband got a job contract and found my dream apartment in Logan Square area. The place had everything we wanted, such as amazing kitchen featuring beautiful white cabinet, brand new appliances and in-unit washer/dryer, spacious bathroom, prime Logan Square location, quiet and beautiful neighborhood(bedrooms were little bit small, but it wasn't a big problem for us) We put an application for the apartment without hesitation and was told the apartment would be ours if the result of credit check was okay. Since my husband's score is perfect, we didn't see any problem.

However, the owner of the apartment started acting really weird on the phone and at first he said he had no idea how my husband's job works(he is a contract nurse btw) My husband explained to him about the job and even offered to tell him a phone number of the nurse in charge. He said "okay, I'll call her tomorrow" and hanged up on us. Next day, he called us and asked if he was able to check my husband's bank statement. We were like "WTF?!" and asked him if he had checked my husband's credit score already. Then he suddenly started dancing around the question so my husband asked him "Answer yes or no, did you ever check my credit?" And he finally admitted he hadn't done it yet and explained there was another party who showed an interest in the apartment and they agreed to show him their bank statements, so if we couldn't show ours, our dream apartment would theirs. I have no idea why he had no idea how to do credit check(I'm a foreigner in this country, but even I can figure out how to do it) My husband was so confused and answered "I'm not comfortable about showing my bank statement to a stranger. Why don't you do credit check? It's more simple and sounds legitimate" Since then we started feeling suspicious about him and wondered if he was a legitimate landlord because he looked way younger to be a landlord. We explained our situation to my husband's family and everyone advised him to trust his instinct. So we decided to not to take the apartment.

After Christmas, we found a great 2 bedroom apartment in northwest Logan Square area and decided to check the place. My husband sent a landlord email first, but received no reply. But it was totally understandable because it was still on holiday season. And few days later, he finally got a reply from her. According to her email, she stayed at her family's house longer than she expected so she was not able to give us quick reply but able to show the place soon. At that time, we didn't think something wrong with her and made an appointment of seeing. The apartment was at little bit gritty area and walk about 15 minutes from nearest train station and the carpet looked nasty, but she promised us to get rid of the carpet and we overall liked the spacious layout and the great amenities. Our first impression of the landlord lady was little bit young, but polite and nice. So we didn't expect she would bring us a lot of troubles. After researching about the neighborhood, we concluded that the area should be fine if we'll be careful at nights and decided to choose the place. However, it was a beginning of our nightmare.

After faxing an application form to her, she got M.I.A for a few days. My husband sent her email asking if everything was okay and  she finally wrote us back and excused it would take longer to receive a result of credit check. She told us the store was great so we could move anytime. We're excited about our new apartment and we agreed to move in 2 days later. We started packing really fast and even loaded our bed to his dad's van. We were totally ready to move out his parents' house. However it turned to nightmare. He called her what time she would be home couple of times, but she never picked up the phone. So our moving was cancelled and ended up sleeping on our bedroom floor. At that night, she sent him a polite apologize text and excused SHE TOTALLY FORGOT OUT MOVING IN DATE! Seriously?? It was totally unprofessional and unacceptable. Then, she explained she hadn't got the carpet removed yet and would take few more days. He asked her when the next move in day would be, but she didn't reply him. Few days later, he send her another email asking her what was going on. She wrote him well written apologize email and said that she found nasty stains under the carpet, so it would take extra days to finish everything and went M.I.A. AGAIN. We were tired of sleeping without mattress, we were tired of living with limited items since we packed up everything, we were tired of waiting replies from her. I mean, we were SO frustrated. Another few days passed and received no messages from her. We finally decided to wait few more days and if she couldn't finish everything or write us back in few days, then we should have started finding another place. As we expected, she was still M.I.A and we received no replies. That's it, he told her that we wouldn't take her apartment. Then I joked him "I can swear, she will take at least 4 days to write us angry email" And as I expected, she sent us well written angry email a week later. lol Basically, it was full of excuses, but didn't explain why everytime she went M.I.A. for few days after sending us polite apologize/excuse emails.

That's it, it's over. We started checking Craigslist frequently again and the result is not good because nobody wanna move out in the middle of January. But sincerely hope third time will be the charm.

F**k you, Travelocity!

I know controlling you anger is important, but I can't stand for Travelocity!

Well, here is what happened to me today... I decided to stay at  my parents' house in Japan for 3 weeks and booked a flight at Travelocity because they were offering the cheapest straight flight tickets. My husband had purchased tickets from them and we had no issues with them. But this time was different.

About 5 hours later, I received a email from Travelocity saying my reservation was cancelled because I didn't reply to their phone call or email immediately. I was so shocked and checked my phone and email inbox, but I didn't receive any phone call or email at all and had no idea why they did that without my permission. The email also says "if you call us, we're happy to explain the reason of the cancellation" so I did. I was not sure how long I waited, but at least 10 minutes later finally an operator named Michel picked up the phone. Her tone was obviously RUDE, but I tried to be nice and explained what happened to me. She asked my ID number. I couldn't find it immediately and told only I knew was reservation number. Then she suddenly hanged up the phone on me! WTF? I couldn't believe that she even didn't give me 10 seconds to find my ID number. I was so pissed, but to know the reason of the cancellation, I found another customer service number and called them again.

The next operator was Indian guy, but he was nicer than Michel and explained what happened, my family name on my Japanese passport(using my maiden name) and my family name on my debit card(using my husband's family name) were different, so they thought someone stole my card to bought the ticket. I asked him if they ever called or  sent me a message me about my 2 different family names. He said "I have no idea, but it would have happened due to the miscommunication(I doubt they had ever tried to communicate with me) I sincerely apologize. You might be able to get the ticket back, so I'll put you through to another service representative"

Unfortunately, Michel picked up the phone again(hello, another representative, anyone?) I asked her for help, but she kept saying she couldn't help me because the ticket was already cancelled so I had to go online and make another reservation after getting refund. I asked her politely if I could talk with manager, but her answer was "I'm sorry, here is no manager today" Then I understood kept talking with her was waste of time and energy and said hanged up on her after saying thank you for your help.

Afterwards, I sent them a complaint message and received automatic reply promising up to 72 hours reply from customer service immediately. However, I haven't heard from them yet even though they keep sending me promotion emails. After I received refund, I called Japanese tour agency in the neighborhood. The agent was so polite and respectful to me and arranged my flight in less than 10 minutes. Comparing with this Japanese agency, Travelocity is a joke. If you google "travelocity complaints", you'll see TONS of similar complaints from angry ex-customers. I can't believe they're the 6th biggest travel agency in the US.

I'll never ever use Travelocity again.