Friday, August 8, 2008

Fox Management Group and the BBB Part 3 (94179735)

Continuing the startling saga...
Fox's comments are in italics for easy reading.
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
"It has never been my practice, although I have the right, to bill a unit owner for special requests of documents"
She does?
At $75 per hour?
Without advance notification of a rate change after NOT charging for time on any previous request?
Where in the Condo Code is THAT?

"...it has become very time consuming."
She billed for 30 minutes! That's "time-consuming"???

"The Association's monthly management fee does not cover special requests from unit owners."
Actually, it (and the generous holiday bonus Ms. Fox received) DO cover ALL tasks REQUIRED by law, including providing information to unit owners.

"As stated in the condominium Act those special requests are billable to the unit owner. I have charged Fox Management Group's hourly rate at $75.00 plus copy costs."
Only the "copy costs" are "actual costs" allowed by law.
Ms. Fox's time is ALREADY paid for by her fee from the Board.

"The Association has a written contract that stipulates Fox Management Group's monthly fee and additional costs that are charged monthly. I reiterate, the requests are not part of the services that are provided in my contract and by law Fox Management Group has the right to charge for time and materials."
Where in the contract does it state SPECIFICALLY that providing information to unit owners as REQUIRED by law Sec. 19._RECORDS OF THE ASSOCIATION; AVAILABILITY FOR EXAMINATION._(a)(9) & Municipal code of Chicago, IL 13-72-080 is NOT part of the services provided?
You'll note she does NOT provide ANY written evidence (such as a pdf excerpt of the actual contract) to validate her statement.

"As stated in my previous e-mail, my time is valuable. There will be no retraction of this invoice. If there are additional requests, Ms. A can expect standard charges of Fox Management Group's hourly rate of $75."
Since Fox has NOT charged ANYONE ELSE at Claremont the $75 per-hour rate, her claim that it's a "standard rate" is ridiculous!
It's a punitive measure purely to discourage information requests!
Imagine, a service provider who doesn't want to provide service already paid for!
In addition, the rate for an accountant with a BS doing clerical tasks is $10-15 per hour.
Since Ms. Fox has only a BS in accounting, and this is a simple clerical task, how is her time more valuable than $10-$15 per hour?
Answer: It isn't.
And, considering the recent accounting mistake she made in billing non-existent late charges which she then had to retract and apologize for, Ms. Fox should be a bit more circumspect in her utterances.

Tomorrow: Fox responds! (or does she?)

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