Terrible customer service from a so called luxury apartment building
I have lived at the Jefferson for two years and we have definitely experience some service issues. However, I would never been compelled to complain until my experience this last weekend.
I have been planning a small baby shower (6 – 8 people) for the last month. Weather permitting, I was interested in using the outdoor courtyard on a Sat afternoon from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm. I have stayed away from the public spaces during my pregnancy because it is usually occupied by rowdy partiers. But it seems like the courtyard is usually empty, especially in the afternoon. A month in advance I tried to clear this small gathering with the management of the building. I was given a lot of conflicting information. First I was told that they do not rent out the pub room during the day, only in the evening.
However, each occupant of the building is allowed to sign in 3 guests, so between my husband and me we could have a total of 6 guests and use the public space. Then just to double check, I spoke with someone else in leasing, and they told me that any event had to be registered and on the calendar, unless I received special permission from Melanie Martin. I e-mailed and called Melanie and never received a response. I was not surprised because I have left messages for her in the past on leasing issues with the same lack of response. I was tired of hunting everyone down for such a small issue, and decided to proceed with the baby shower outside. Just as we were bringing some food and presents down to the courtyard, two leasing agents came out to stop us.
I explained the situation to them and they could not have been ruder and less helpful. All they kept saying is that the pub space is a “leasing tool” used to attract prospective renters and not available during the day…and that just because Melanie has poor response time that doesn’t give me the go ahead to use it. I can understand if the answer was no, but perhaps they could have been a little more empathetic and offered some kind of alternative. After they left, as my last ditch effort I ran after them to see if they could somehow get in touch with Melanie. I was told she was not working, but they reluctantly agreed to send a text. If they were able to reach Melanie they would let me know, otherwise if I did not hear do not follow up directly but consider the answer “no”. I gave them my apartment number and asked if they need my phone number. They said they would find it on file.
I moved everything upstairs to my apartment. A few minutes before my guests were arriving I went down to the concierge desk so I could sign people in without a hitch. The concierge (who was very sweet) said she was more than happy to direct people out to the courtyard. Apparently the leasing agent did get permission from Melanie, but never relayed the information to me. I popped into the leasing office to see what happened and the phone number on file was my work number. Again, they were completely aloof and obviously didn’t really care enough to maybe knock on my apartment door and share the good news (which would have really made a 9 month pregnant woman happy).
The poor customer service really left a bad taste in my mouth. It seems like a lot of people have already decided not to renew their lease. You would think management would try to cater to people who have been there since the building opened. Although it is a huge inconvenience to move, I plan on leaving as well when my lease is up in February.
Signed,
Disappointed occupant
This does not surprise me in the least. I have been complaining about an issue that needs to be fixed since the middle of July, and while maintenance has acknowledged the issue several times, and have made several attempts to fix it, it's just now apparently being rectified.
ReplyDeleteThis is after I told the property manager they would have to move us to a new apartment if it couldn't be fixed. The property manager was supposed to be keeping me informed as to the progress, and when the date for the work being completed passed without any notification, my emails went unanswered for a week until I went down to the leasing office twice, demanding to know what was going on.
I rented the pub room out ($350? Really? I could swear it wasn't that much when I moved in...) and trash from the previous occupants was left behind for me to take out. When I confronted the concierge about it, her answer was that it was my trash, because she wouldn't have turned the room over to me with trash. Of course, one of the bags broke, spilling a disgusting slop of beer and food all over the floor, which of course I had to clean up. The concierge on duty couldn't unlock the closet with the mop, so I had to gather up my own sparse mopping supplies at 1am to clean up the mess.
A missing package (that I had delivered to me on a Saturday so I could evaluate it for work over the weekend) took them 4 days to find. Varying levels of concierge service from "it's not here" to the one gentleman who works the desk on some early morning shifts tearing the room apart looking for it. It was placed in an area for another apartment because whoever signed it in failed to look at the apartment number on the shipping label.
We love our apartment for the most part, and really weren't planning on moving (before or after our lease is up) but there's only so much we can put up with. An apartment should be something to come home to and relax in, not be a constant source of stress. I have a job for that.
I've been at Jefferson for about 6 months and I too have had issues with reserving ammenities. I have received conflicting information from each staff member in the leasing office. It appears that further training is needed for the staff since this is considered to be a "luxury" building. I had higher expectations moving in!
ReplyDeleteYou aren't the only one who is completely disgusted with management. I'm surprised they let that many guests in your apartment with the bizarre and ever-changing rules they employ. We pay A LOT of money to live here and shouldn’t be hassled and inconvenienced by management as much as we are. What a disappointing living experience. I’m sorry your party was ruined by management. I too, hesitate to have guests here. I won’t be renewing my lease in the spring, that’s for sure.
ReplyDeleteHaving trouble posting comments from the office, but I have to say, I’m not surprised by this person’s experience. I’ve had similar issues with the surly folks in the office (Michelle has intervened in issues before…thankfully) but other than her (and the recently-departed Laura), I’ve had poor experience with the leasing folks in the office, Melanie aside because I’ve only spoken with her a handful of times (as a manager, she just is the overseer, but ultimately, the buck stops somewhere).
ReplyDeleteDear Leasing Office (because I know you read this), you’re in customer service. No matter if you like it or not, you chose this profession and this job, so please make the best of it, because the tenants (us) are paying your salary. My job has it’s up and down moments as well, but if I treated my companies clients how I’ve been treated before…I probably wouldn’t be working here anymore.
You know what I think would be a great ‘leasing tool’? Showing the pub room occupied by a baby shower rather than rowdy revelers…why you might ask? Shows a sense of community and cohesion, same thing you see when there’s a group of gents playing poker downstairs. A friendly, warm, inviting atmosphere that encourages the ‘right’ kind of tenants to rent here. Seeing that might steer a ‘bad tenant’ away. You know the kind, packed 4-deep in a two or three bedroom apartment…having loud parties on the roof and in their apartment, disrespecting the common spaces.
Just my thoughts, but what do I know? I’m just a tenant…
Excellent point Anonymous Reader! I too think a baby shower makes for a more attractive selling point than a bunch of rowdy party people.
ReplyDeleteManagement should figure out that the better quality the tenant, the easier their job will be.
What a shame. We need new management altogether. Those women have awful attitudes - surly is right. What does management respond to? From what I can see, nothing. What a crappy living experience this has been.
ReplyDeleteThis is horrible. Did you escalate the problem? I would. That's so wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't take much to notice that management only hires pretty, young girls. Has there ever been a male hired for the rental office. How about an average or plain looking woman? An older person?
ReplyDeleteNope! Nope! and Nope!
What if when management needs to hire another rental agent they advertise for someone with a charming, outgoing, sunny disposition, someone with extensive customer service experience who loves working with people.
I'll bet you there are a lot of folks out there that would love to have the job.
Looks and generalizations aside (sorry Anonymous, looks are subjective and beauty is only skin deep, and from what I see, it aint pretty), I think most of the tenants here would prefer friendly, responsive and transparent community managers. This shouldn’t be something we have to demand, but it looks as though it is.
ReplyDeleteContacting our managment office shouldn't feel as painful as it is. The anticipation of an unfriendly and unhelpful attitude is incredibly frustrating.
Thomas Jefferson, any thoughts on shaping up a community meeting for the tenants?
TOTALLY AGREE. How about instead of spending time planning Movie Night or Pet of the Month Awards management spends its time planning an event where they actually solicit input from people that live here (aka the people they convinced to live here)?
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear that you do not like the events that we put on for residents. I am willing to take any new ideas for fun postive resident events.
ReplyDeleteResident Services Manager,
ReplyDeleteAs the comment above states, how about you organize a bi-weekly evening gathering of tenants to solicit input from people who actually live here.
In addition, other "luxury" apartments I lived in had a more useful coffee area (with cups and mugs) - this would be nice. A monthly happy hour would also be nice.
There is SO much tension in the air here, would be nice for management to make some changes, listen to us, and respond.
I did receive a phone call from Melanie a few days later...and I appreciated the follow up and apology. It's too bad this couldn't have been prevented in the first place given that it tarnished what should have been a really special day for me. I agree with a previous comment that some people in the leasing dept could use some more training in customer service and problem resolution... as opposed to just focusing on leasing apartments to new prospective residents.
ReplyDeleteDisappointed Occupant
When I saw your post, I thought for sure someone had gotten wind of my story and posted it here. (I live in Axiom, not Jefferson.)
ReplyDeleteThe EXACT thing happened to me as well. Last year, my family wanted to throw a baby shower for me, and we thought the lounge downstairs would be nice.
I went down, asked about a reservations, and she got me on the calendar and I booked the room.
I was then called and told that I actually needed to pay a fee for the room (I can't remember how much, but it was hundreds of dollars) AND a deposit on top of the fee, in case anything got broken (also hundreds of dollars.)
When I went down to pay the fee, I was also told that I had to change the time of the shower (I had scheduled it from 1-4), because you couldn't rent the lounge during the day.
I asked why not, and they told me flat out because they use the lounge as a tool when recruiting new tenants. Sooooo.... you're telling me that showing prospective tenant the lounge is more important than actually letting a paying resident use the lounge, when they've paid additional for it?
I went around and around with management about it, even offering to let them show the lounge while the shower was going on; I thought perhaps this would be even more attractive to prospective tenants, seeing how residents got to use the room.
I was really annoyed, because I had been given permission TWICE to use the room on the specified date, and the invites had already been sent out. I had family flying in from New England to come.
How is this a way to treat residents????
I got a bit too upset to talk to them anymore, and my husband finally went down and spoke with management. After weeks of going back and forth, wondering if my family was flying down for nothing, it was finally approved.
I don't understand why I had to pay for the room, though. No sign was put up showing that the room was reserved, the front desk didn't tell my guests where to go, and no one followed up at all. If I had just planned the babyshower and used the room, no one would have noticed. I'm not sure what the fee was for, and I was sorely disappointed the miscommunication about renting this room. Considering this happened to me a year ago, you think they would have straightened this sort of issue out.
Clearly not, since the poster here had the exact same experience.