Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Oh Dear.....

How could things go so wrong within three months of Mckinley Property Management taking over The Magnolia at Sandy Springs?

I don't know, but at http://mckinleyssdt.blogspot.com/ (just click the link to your right) you can check out my most recent posts.

No one should have to deal with below-average service...especially from a company that prides itself in delivering "W.O.W." customer service.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

HALLELUJA! NO MORE LYND!

I just found out that a new property management company has replaced Lynd! There's been a total regime change. The office staff is new. The maintenance and security workers are new. Even the answering service is new.

For now, this blog is officially closed!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Really?

Do I really need to live under a convicted drug felon and wigga ("w" as in wannabe), who:

1) is only here because his mother's nice enough to put him up?

2) got himself fired from his part-time job?

3) will only do certain types of labor in certain types of weather (leaving him with oodles of time to blare his tv and/or dope-a** hip-hop CDs, right near the open living room window, causing the sound to travel as far as it can go while his mommy's at work)?

4) seems offended - with little formal education, appropriate on-the-job training, or effective communication skills - by being advised to apply for truck driving jobs instead of $40-50k office jobs (No offense, truck drivers, I know there are a whole bunch of you who are beyond book- and street-smart and drive because you love being on the road instead of being stuck in a cubicle.)?

5) and who then takes his frustration out on employed Latinos (via loud phone calls to his friends on his porch using a volume that can clearly be heard without even opening a window, which is how I learned about the other info I just listed). Employed Latinos who will take whatever type of job in whatever type of weather?

And to think that this "man" descends from a non-European immigrant community that no one around here's very fond of because this particular non-European immigrant community is being accused of taking jobs in the US (better jobs than the Latinos are "taking"), and because a considerable amount of US labor (again, good-money-making labor) is being outsourced to their (i.e., his people's) country. Wow.

What an unfortunate person. May he find the courage to crack open a book so he can educate himself on a few things (like "divide and conquer" strategies, among other things) and stop embarrassing himself.

And big ups to the greedy puppets in our apartment community's leasing office who were obviously more concerned with making a sale than anything else (like the welfare of the residents -including children - who already live here). Because, come on, we all know the route ex-convicts take when they can't get/keep (or are too emotionally/spiritually broken to keep looking for) work. Too bad our bathtubs are plastic (I didn't think shielding myself from stray bullets would be necessary in a suburb with strong schools.). This'll be an interesting 12 month lease to live through.

p.s. I highly doubt this is the only (ex-)criminal here, but he certainly is the loudest...and we all know what happens to innocent bystanders within bullet-spray range of loud-mouth (ex-)criminals.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Word Associations

Paid rent (EARLY) today. Left the leasing office singing this song to myself:

"Premadawnutt" by Fishbone

Seems like you don't really care, you never really did
Maybe it all started back when you was a kid
And not a whole helluva lot has changed from then til now
But the illuminated speak of a voice that goes pow

Seems like it's been a long night, in the premadawn
Now that you've showed your ass, seems like all the lights are on

[CHORUS]

Excuse me, am I tripping over your ego or mine
Or is it out your ass that the sun does shine
Does the sun rise and shine out of your behind
Excuse me, am I tripping over your ego

Actions speak volumes that words can't express
Being sad in the cosm, or fearing the rest
Run for Goliath, and jam for the weaker
Lost your headlight and came back with no speakers

I can see clearly now, just like the light of day
You showed your ass, and suddenly I have found my way

[CHORUS]

It's so deep, how the one that you love or the one that you constantly beat
And you sit there and wonder why everyone's in retreat
Every action you take is connected
There's no way to delete, the deceit
The way that you treat people
Illuminate your conceit, until it can fit and make it complete

____

If you live or have lived here, I'm sure the chorus strikes a chord in you (no pun intended). Last time I checked, the words are "thank you" when someone's giving you their business, which wasn't the only crap I had to deal with when I went in (note to self: do business with people who have at least an average level of reading comprehension and understand the basics of customer service.), but it was the cherry on top of an unnecessary interaction between me and Pinocchio Fluker the Community Director.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Lease at Your Own Risk: The Top 16 (not in any particular order)

1. The Magnolia advertised having a fitness center on at least one website (ForRent.com was one of them) before and shortly after I applied to live here, when they really didn't have one available to use. This isn't the only lie they'll tell to get you to sign a lease, but it's an example of how The Magnolia likes to start their business relationships.

2. Not all units have cell phone reception. This fact is not something that the leasing office advertises (at least they didn't advertise it to me), so test your cell when you visit the unit you ll be leasing.

3. Ask for confirmation that your unit was recently tested for mold before you move in. And understand that if there is a mold problem, dealing with it will come out of your pocket regardless of what your lease says.

4. The unit you've leased may not be completely turned over by your move-in date (if it s turned over at all), so take pictures - with time/date stamps - of anything that's not functioning or not in decent condition. You don't want to be charged for someone else's damage.

5. Make sure the keys given to you on your first day are the ones that were actually used to open the door. You don't want to move in (especially in the evening) with no food in the house, no idea where to call for decent take-out (if you have a functioning phone to even make calls), and no way to lock your door if you choose to leave to find some place to eat - unless you've moved in with someone else, and that someone is old enough to be home alone.

6. If repairs need to be done before you move-in, stay on top of it with the staff so they don't try to push the responsibility off on you as if the issues you're bringing to their attention don't have anything to do with their negligence. You're leasing property that doesn't and never will belong to you, not making mortgage payments on a house you own. You shouldn't have to clean up or repair anything after former tenants have moved out, or call (i.e., remind) maintenance and ask them take care of it as if they didn't drop the ball.

7. Don't bother with the quarterly pest control (even thought it s included in your monthly rent, a fee they tack onto your base rental rate but don't mention unless you ask). It's ineffective; you're better off using boric acid (or Borax soap) and roach traps.

8. At least two Magnolia employees live in the complex, and they're friendly with quite a few tenants (most likely people they haven t scr*wed yet); so be weary of anonymous posts at apartmentratings.com with stellar reviews. Maybe it's a Magnolia staffer, maybe it's one of their cronies.

9. The courtesy officer is a liar ("birds of a feather flock together". See item 1.). He's also incompetent enough to lie even when what he's saying is being documented and can be proved as a downright lie.

10. Community rules are not strictly enforced. Some of your tenants will be able to get away with almost anything (see list item 8), while others will be accused of almost anything.

11. Come with your own washer/dryer. The laundry facilities aren't always available when they’re supposed to be, and it’s not because they’re so good that everyone's using them. The machines either don’t work because of CoinMach (the ones who maintain the machines) or they don’t work because of The Magnolia (who provide the heat and water so you can use the machines). No worries though. There's a sanitary wash house near Roswell and Dalrymple and the family who runs it VALUES YOUR BUSINESS by not only providing good customer service and machines that work well, but by also providing extra goodies like: chairs for you to sit in, restrooms in which to relieve yourself, fans (right, more than one) to keep you cool, detergent and a change machine in case you've left either at home, and a television and a few arcade games to keep you and the kids entertained.

12. Bring an inflatable pool and some water weenies too. It can take up to six weeks past the normal re-opening time before you can take a dip at the Magnolia. And even though there are two pools, you might not be able to use but one.

13. Need to speak to someone in the office, but don’t have to time to walk-in? Be prepared to be put on hold for 15-20 minutes, or accept the “call us (as many times as it takes you), because we won’t call you” policy. You’ll have better luck getting E.T. to call you back (ooouuuch).

14. Wanna pay your rent on time? The Magnolia does too. The thing is that they don’t always open and close their office at the times they post (and at one point their online office hours didn't match the office hours on their door), so if you want/need to pay your rent in-person, you might be a day late. And good luck trying to convince the Magnolia answering service that the office isn’t open when it’s supposed to be; even though they’re not the ones standing in front of a locked leasing office with you, they’ll adamantly disagree about it being closed.

15. Wanna experience Atlanta’s infamous “too busy to hate” motto? Don’t move here. Unless you have your DOB, class status/salary, job title, education level, ethnic group, religious affiliation, sexual identity, and life purpose tattooed on your forehead, you might have to deal with a few unpleasantries until word gets around about you being from a pre-approved demographic background. Just think "high school", or (to a certain extent) if you've been in one, a "prison" or "street gang", to get an idea of the social dynamic certain people may want to suck you into when all you're doing is minding your business and trying to make lemonade from your lemon of a housing situation.

16. Don't assume that just because you're a pleasant, respectful, and patient person who pays rent on time that you'll be treated like a desirable tenant. There's more than one person on staff here who somehow thinks they're helping to line your pockets instead of realizing that you're helping to line theirs.

The only positive truth about living here that I can think of is that, if you're interested in learning what it's like to live in a THIRD WORLD country, this might actually be the place for you. Or maybe I’ve misspoken since the third world countries I've lived in NEVER had the problems listed above (except the cronyism and nepotism I hinted at in items 8 and 10), despite their old-skool thinking. Because, from what I've experienced, even if you're in a third world country that has an overt problem (like pre-US civil rights style or worse) with people who are darker than a brown paper bag (and yes, there are still places like that out there in the 21st century), or that equates single mothers as whores, or a place that simply doesn’t like US citizens, TRUST and BELIEVE that you'll have a better (i.e., decent, clean, pest-free, problem-free) housing situation there than you'll have here at the Magnolia at Sandy Springs, operated/maintained by no one but puppets (some of whom are or have been black single parents - who should know better than to house their own people, or anyone for that matter [even children for goodness sake! they simply don't give a *uck as long as they and their children are eating/living well!], in roach-infested moldy ISH, and then have unabashed conversations about who's the blackest in the office [no joke!] with their office windows wide open for anyone within earshot to hear [right, "hear", not voluntarily listen to] their self-righteous, quasi-socio-politico crap.). I mean seriously, how do you sleep at night knowing you make your money by reaming others out of theirs? Not cool.

So you wanna be a Magnolian?

So you wanna be a Magnolian at The Magnolia at Sandy Springs?


Well, above are a few tips I would liked to have read before I assumed that leasing property sight unseen (like property at the Magnolia at Sandy Springs) in a well-to-do suburb of a first world country would be as honest, simple and headache-free of a transaction as leasing sight unseen in a comparable community in the third world.


I'll post new info as new fiascos arise. Until then, thanks for reading.