Moving?

This is a bit of a long story… hope you have some time.

The other day I was heading downstairs to do some laundry and the people across the hall happened to be leaving at the same time. They're a nice couple that we've spoken to on a few occasions so we said hi. The conversation then went something like this,
Her - "So you two are moving?"
Me - "Moving? No… we plan on staying here for a while."
"Oh, about a week ago I saw them showing your apartment"

That means that they illegally, without our knowledge came into our apartment and showed it to someone else… for whatever reason. They're required to give us 48 hours notice before they can enter our apartment.

Needless to say we're not very happy about this.
We found out that info on Saturday and didn’t have a chance to do anything about it that day or on Sunday so yesterday was the day. Brad picked up the phone to make the call to our landlady…

I haven't mentioned this yet but we have an AWFUL landlady! She's loses her temper extremely easily and is very difficult to deal with. We've had a few run-ins with her and prefer to keep our contact as minimal as possible, we've heard from quite a few others that they feel the same. This situation was something we weren't willing to drop though.

So Brad very calmly explains to Susan* how we heard that they'd showed our apartment. She immediately and very sweetly apologizes saying they were supposed to show one on the third floor but accidentally showed ours on the fourth. She states that mistakes happen and she's sorry. Brad agreed that mistakes happen and said he appreciated her apology. He stated that we were most unhappy that we weren't told about the situation from her and that we had to find out from a neighbor. I guess that was her breaking point because she's suddenly screaming at Brad (I was sitting beside him and could hear her shrill voice). She screams that she apologized, what does Brad want.. Blood? She's sorry she's not perfect like we are… this whole time Brad is trying (still very calmly) to explain that all we want is a written apology with confirmation that it won't happen again. He doesn't get that far though as she hang up on him.

So we start to draft a letter thinking it's a better approach than the phone call. I've enclosed it below.

Dear Susan,

After our phone call on Monday night I was unhappy with the way the situation was left and the direction the conversation went.

I understand that a mistake was made and that mistakes happen. The problem I have is that I wasn’t informed. A simple phone call would have appeased me but hearing about it from our neighbour was surprising.

I’m disappointed that you were unwilling to speak with me long enough for me to calmly explain what I’d like from you. I was surprised at how easily you were upset; that was not my intention. I tried to apologize multiple times.

What I would like is a letter of apology stating that a mistake was made and confirmation that it will not happen again. This would completely resolve the situation in my eyes. I have no intention of pursuing this further assuming you grant my request.

I hope this misunderstanding doesn’t negatively affect our business relationship.

Sincerely,
Bradley Wiebe

Just as we finished the phone rings and Brad doesn't recognize the number. It's Bill*, Susan's husband; the one who was actually in the apartment. He again apologizes saying that Susan told him the wrong apartment number, again Brad says he appreciates it and we understand. He tells him we would appreciate a written apology and Bill says that's not a problem, they'll write one up and slip it under our door.

There… was that so difficult? We like Bill and would prefer to deal with him in the future. We've also decided phone calls may not be our best course of action when we need to talk to Susan. We think we'll send letters from now on.

L
*Names have been changes to protect the identity of our really crappy landlady.