Landlords and other such annoyances

So, for the most part - I have never had an issue with renting vs. purchasing a house. Will we own one someday? Sure. But we've had some decent luck with landlords; there was really only one (in Potsdam, of course) who was a real douche.

The people we rent from in Denton have been getting on my nerves more and more consistently. About 2 years ago, we had a tree in our front yard that had some dead branches, so we asked them to have someone come and trim them so they didn't fall on the house. We come home one day a week later, and the ENTIRE TREE is gone. We called the office, and let them know - and their response was "Oh well, we told them only branches - but no big deal". Well, now we have a big ol' stump sitting in the front yard and our electricity bill is $40-50 higher in the summer because there's no shade on the house any more. Then there was the issue of the A/C - it would limp along, break down 2-3 times a summer. They kept telling us it was fine, and that it was normal for people to set their house temps to 80-85 degrees or so in the summer. Well, it turns out the repair guy they had was full of shit, and they finally replaced the unit this year after it broke down again and I bitched about it to the owner. What do you know? It keeps the house at about 75* on the hottest days of the summer.

Today, I am sitting around doing nothing because they've decided to have annual appliance checks. Of course, everything works fine. If it didn't WE WOULD TELL THEM. We get a form letter addressed to "Resident" (I've only rented from you for 8 years - its so hard to look up my name, right?) telling me they would be here between 9-5. So, yeah. Day wasted. Thanks a lot.