Maybe it’s because I don’t always say “hello” when I walk by him at 2AM.
Maybe it’s because I didn’t give him a Christmas bonus.
Whatever the reason, there is one concierge in my building that is less than friendly towards me on a regular basis.
And this is a growing trend in condominiums across Toronto…
Quick! Answer this question without thinking first—-do you have a “security guard” at your condo? Or do you have a “concierge”?
Is there a difference?
Is there supposed to be?
You know what? I don’t even know the answer myself.
A quick trip to www.dictionary.com reveals two common definitions of the term concierge:
1. A person who has charge of the entrance of a building and is often the owner’s representative; doorkeeper.
2. An employee stationed in an apartment house lobby who screens visitors, controls operation of elevators, accepts deliveries to the tenants, etc.
Judging by these definitions, I would say that a concierge is somebody that works for you, if you live in a condominium where your maintenance fees help to pay his salary. Right?
In my recent experiences in my own building and a few of my friends’ buildings, I have found the concierges to be extremely unpleasant.
It seems that many of the concierges in Toronto believe themselves to be security guards, and not concierges. In the extreme cases, these concierges neglected to get the memo that they are NOT, in fact, police officers. Because it seems that many concierges act like police officers, from their interrogations of your friends and family when they come in the door to their extreme level of power.
My brother does a great impression of one of the concierges in my building. My brother walks through my lobby a couple times each week, and has done so for the last year. Every time I buzz him through the front entrance, he passes by the concierge, who says, “Excuse me?” Then my brother says he’s coming to visit David Fleming in unit 223, and the concierge gives him this long look of uncertainty—it is this action that my brother perfects in his impression! Imagine a person slowly cocking their head backwards as they peer at you with one eye in that “I don’t trust you” kind of manner. The concierge then says, “Oooooooo-kaaaaaaaay” as if to say, “Alright….but I’m watching you!”
Why the need for this? Surely the concierge recognizes my brother when he comes in the door. Does he really need to go through the same motion every time?
A few weeks ago, my girlfriend came over and was interrogated by the concierge. After first saying, “I know you! You’re going to unit 223,” he asked her questions I found to be extremely inappropriate such as, “How many times have you been here in the past two weeks?”
My issue here is that my guests should have no contact with the concierge, whatsoever! They call me through the intercom, and I screen them, and then buzz them in the front door. Why should they check in with the front desk? And even if they must do so, why must he interrogate them?
Last week, I helped my brother drop off some gardening supplies in the back of his building. He buzzed the concierge, who opened the gate for my car. After unloading the supplies, I buzzed the concierge to let me out. There was no response. I buzzed again, again, and again, and finally got out of my car and waved at the camera. He still didn’t let me out. Finally, I called my brother and asked him to call the concierge and tell him to open the gate.
Being the person that I am, once I was let out, I immediately parked my car and went inside to have a word with him. I asked him why he didn’t answer the intercom when I buzzed, and he told me, “You don’t live here.” I agreed with him, but asked him what he was doing while I buzzed the intercom and waved at the camera. He just sat there and said nothing. I got really upset. I reached over the desk and pointed to his monitors and said, “You were watching your goddam TV’s!”
I asked him why he didn’t open the gates! What did he think I was going to do? I was leaving! I wasn’t trying to illegally enter! And besides—-he’s the one that buzzed me in!
But he just sat there with a blank look on his face. “You don’t live here,” he said.
I then launched into my diatribe: “You are NOT a police officer, and you are not a security guard. You are a concierge, and you are here to assist the residents of this building and their guests. People pay a lot of money to live in this luxury building, and you are sitting there watching your monitors like it’s a reality-TV show. What solution did you have to my problem, I wonder? Were you going to let me sit there all night?”
He answered, “If you lived here, you would have been able to get out on your own.”
I realized it was a lost cause. This guy knew nothing, which is probably why he has the job that he does…
It also strikes me as odd that concierges these days refuse to accept anything at the front desk. For example, if you tell your concierge that you’d like to leave a key with them for your guest to pickup later that day, many of them say, “Sorry, we can’t accept keys or anything else.”
Doesn’t this defeat the purpose of having a concierge? Isn’t a concierge there to assist you in manners exactly like this one?
A friend of mine told me about how his mother came to his condo last month and tried to leave his plane ticket for that evening’s flight at the front desk. The concierge refused, and she had to wait four hours for him to come home from work to pick it up in person. To make matters worse, he tried to tell her she couldn’t wait in the condominium lobby because she was “loitering.”
I just don’t understand it.
Have you ever tried to use the service elevator on short notice? It takes five seconds for the concierge to use his “magic key” on the control panel so you can spend ten minutes moving a few things in on a quiet Sunday night, but surely he’ll refer you to the rules and regulations. Don’t ever count on any “favors”…
A few months ago, the concierge at my building refused to let a guest of mine through the parking garage and into the visitor parking one night because he didn’t think I was home. I called him from my condo and informed him that I had been home for a couple hours, and then I politely asked him to let my guest in. He replied, “I don’t think there are any spaces left.” I went down and found FOUR empty spaces, and a video camera pointed directly at the visitor parking.
So which is it—did he not let my guest through because I wasn’t home, because he didn’t think there were any spaces, or just for the hell of it?
Yeah, I know….I’m ranting. I’m venting. But I’m not the only one who has stories like this to share!
Concierges in Toronto condominiums have too much power, and not only do they flaunt it, but they abuse it!
Maybe they’re upset because they’re not police officers, and they couldn’t even make it as a mall security guard.
Or maybe they’re just bored of sitting at a desk all day.
But whatever the reason, tread carefully next time you pass by the front desk of your building, or your friend’s building up the street.
And whatever you do, don’t forget to give your concierge a Christmas bonus…
Sanh
at 2:11 am
David, i gotta commend your patience.
I’d be at the next board/unit owner meeting pronto, asking that he be removed and replaced. I have done that in the past at the Opus.
We pay their wages, we shouldn’t have to put up with that nonsense.
Patrick Parkhurst
at 10:28 am
In my building there is a “Moving Room” in the back with a gate for loading from the back alley. Problem is, to use it we have to jump through several hoops. Don’t we OWN our condos? I don’t get it.
A few weeks ago I bought some new bar stools from a local shop. I figure no problem – I can just load them through the back in 5 minutes. Nope, I am told we aren’t allowed to use the back alley on Sundays. “Why don’t you just move your items from your car through the parking garage and into the elevators,” suggests my concierge.
“Well, I can do that and risk marking up all the walls in the garage and maze of stairwells. Isn’t this the exact reason we have a Moving Room?!” I ask rhetorically.
…Let’s just hope “Mike” isn’t on guard next time I decide to make a purchase. The other concierges are more easy going. They realize they aren’t COPS!
Dr. P. T. Tzurkov
at 2:01 pm
David,
I fully agree with you here -my wife and I lament about the poor ‘service’ offered to us and our guests by our “concierge”…In my building, the explanation is simple: they’ve contacted the service out to a security company who have several employees on rotation who most definitely view themselves as ‘security’ and not ‘concierges’…To ask one to hold a set of keys for your wife to pick up on the way home (because she forgot hers) would be met with a blank stare. I don’t know what the answer is -perhaps none of us would want an extra $100 per month tacked onto our condo fee to support the cost of a staff of 5-6 full-time concierges in top-coats…not sure.
MichaelD
at 11:37 pm
I agree and have thought the same many times. Perhaps you could take the angle of asking why condo developers use the word ‘concierge’ to make living there seem more luxurious, when in fact they really are just glorified security gaurds. A hotel concierge (which I was one for 7years) and a condo “concierge” are very different. The word has been appropriated somewhat as a trick to make you think you are buying into luxury that you are not. Developers as you know have many tricks to this effect. Hotel concierges were not happy when this trend began. I think they should have another name to differentiate from hotel concierges.
MichaelD
at 11:39 pm
Lol 2008? Old entry, don’t know why this came up on my flipboard.
Spand A
at 2:33 am
I’m a concierge. I don’t dispute there are people who do this job poorly, but I want to point something out: a lot of your complaints have nothing to do with the concierge, and everything to do with the board of directors. As a concierge, I am bound to obey and enforce the rules set out by your condo board, no matter stupid they are. Many boards come up with genius rules such as “no pets going through the lobby”, “no moving ANYTHING AT ALL on Sundays, not even 1 chair”, “no placing the elevator on service after 5pm, not even for a few minutes”. Some boards forbid people from placing chairs on the their balconies. Also, that complaint about not accepting keys? Yeah, that’s not the concierge’s call, that’s your board of directors. In reality, the concierge has no power. They are told what to do by your board. You should keep an eye on what your board is doing and it will go a long way to solving many of your problems.
Ash
at 8:09 pm
Truly Said!
TR
at 2:54 pm
This is a great article for a number of reasons. I have been working in security for nearly 10 years now, mostly Condominium Concierge Security, and I too have seen my share of pleasant and unpleasant guards. I always do my best to be polite, respectful and professional even when I need to remind a resident of one of our condo regulations. First thing I’d like to address here is the definition above for a concierge. It is correct, however Ontario Laws require anyone acting like a guard in anyway to do so under the Ontario Security Guard Act, which means that all condo “Concierge” are in fact security guards. They have to be!
The next issue is in the way a particular building’s security post orders are written and how the contracted security company trains their guards to interpret those post orders and how the condo’s Board of Directors require the guards to enforce their building’s regulations.
If they want guards to be strict, then they must do so. However, a militant, arrogant and authoritative stance by the guards rarely goes over well in a condo. In buildings where we are told to act more like a Concierge and focus on service we are permitted to be more accommodating in receiving keys, parcels etc. Thankfully, I work with a great security company, and I’m at the best building they’ve ever sent me to. Our team has a great relationship with the residents, the Board of Directors and the Property Manager. We all believe building rapport and strong relationships goes a long way.
Fed Up With Assholes Who Throw Tantrums When They Don't Get Their Way
at 2:23 am
“This guy knew nothing, which is probably why he has the job that he does…”
–
Such a condescending attitude. And you still wonder why these people aren’t fond of you.
“It seems that many of the concierges in Toronto believe themselves to be security guards, and not concierges. ”
–
Every concierge must possess a valid security guard licence issued by the ministry of correctional services and public safety and that is enforced by the Private Security and Investigative Services Act. We are security guards despite being referred to as concierges.
“Have you ever tried to use the service elevator on short notice? It takes five seconds for the concierge to use his “magic key” on the control panel so you can spend ten minutes moving a few things in on a quiet Sunday night, but surely he’ll refer you to the rules and regulations. Don’t ever count on any “favors”…”
–
I would get fired if I ever allow anyone to use the service elevator without a fully signed form 3 days in advance, a deposit cheque and prior approval from the property management. And yes, moving on Sunday is strictly forbidden.
“I asked him why he didn’t open the gates!”
–
Working as a concierge can be a very demanding job. For example I have to monitor 50+ cameras, deal with hundreds of individuals on a day-to-day basis, go on long patrols, and respond to any concerns no matter how petty or serious. People get unreasonably irritated when I don’t open the door remotely within a few seconds, as if they are the only visitor in the entire residential complex.
People like you make my temporary position as a concierge very painful.
“And whatever you do, don’t forget to give your concierge a Christmas bonus…”
–
When you work for minimum wage and are surrounded by people living in condos that cost $400,000 +, you expect a small amount of generosity for the amount of service that is performed.
Ash
at 8:08 pm
Agree with all the answers and phrases you shared!
Nicks Jame
at 7:02 am
armed guards san jose or security professionals can pose well as customer service ambassadors. A guard can handle the front desk, and they can even lead the customers to where they need to go. This means they will be interacting with the customers and even employees pretty often.