I have not lived at Kingston, but am currently trying to set up a lease for the 2002-03 school year. So far, speaking to the manager (a woman) has been hell. She almost always sounds dead on the phone, and I have called numerous times; besides that, her "telephone manners" are found wanting. Also, quite often the answering machine picks up during office hours and when I have left a message, I receive no reply and no indication, when I call again and the woman answers, that she received my message. I live in another state at the moment, so these phone calls, in addition to the calls to other complexes to find out what's available, are becoming rather burdensome financially speaking for me.

What is most troubling is that I have had to ask twice for an application to be mailed to me. The first time, the woman was quite pleasant and promised it would be in the mail the next morning. I waited a week and a day, and it had not yet arrived, although applications from other apartment complexes had. I called Kingston again and the woman promised she would send a second copy in the mail the very next day. The first one must have gotten lost in the mail. I was not happy with that explanation, but knew it was possible and decided to wait for the second application.

Having waited another full week and two days, I called again, having a local copy shop fax number at hand so that I could propose that method of getting the materials to me as the second application had not yet arrived either - and the first was still AWOL. After several tries, as I was not ready to deal with the answering machine again, the woman finally picked up and I explained to her that the second copy had not yet arrived.

She told me she hadn't put it in the mail until the day before.

I was livid, but kept a civil tongue.

She continued by excusing the situation: she had been sick for several days, she said, and so hadn't gotten around to or hadn't been able to send it until the day before. I tried to explain to her that I was on a tight deadline: I had received offers from other apartment complexes, and they needed to know rather soon whether or not I was planning to take their apartments so that if I wasn't, they could put the apartment back on the market. Because of this, Kingston was putting me in a very difficult situation, I explained to her, hoping some sort of business sensibility in her brain would kick in. Perhaps, if that sensibility kicked in, she would recognize the problem in the situation, would apologize in some manner, and possibly offer some sort of compensation for the inconvenience or offer to fax the paperwork to me, which at this point, I would have been happy to accept, although it would cost me a significant amount of money if the application and lease agreements were as long as some of the others I had received. If that sensibility and reason kicked in.

It didn't.

Throughout the conversation, there had been long pauses, as if she really had to think about what she would say next; it was as if she had never dealt with a potential or current customer/tenant before and had also never been one herself and had to fully come up with her responses then and there. This was the longest pause. When it ended, she said that if I was running up against such a tight schedule, perhaps I should accept one of the other offers.

That was certainly not what I was expecting, though I cannot fully say what I expected, as this is the first time I have rented an apartment, having lived with my parents or in university dormatories until now. I said something along the lines of I would let her know and hung up. I have yet to make a decision; the Kingston apartment is both more convenient location- and price-wise for my roommate and I, especially in consideration of price, as it is a full $150/mo cheaper than the next apartment on my list.

While I have not yet seen the building or the part of Davis that the complex is located in and therefore cannot comment on any of those factors, I can say that my attempts at dealing with this woman - who I must assume is the manager, as she has never given me her name or title - has been quite uncomfortable and frustrating. This does not mean that I am giving up on renting the apartment from her, as I would much prefer to rent it than the others, with consideration to price and location.

No, it simply means that I will have bruises on my hands in the coming weeks from smashing the telephone on the wall after speaking to her.

If anyone has any advice or comments, please post them here or email me at churchofjoss @ yahoo.com BuLYzGcKAVo8MQPlcXJq

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates