I read the latest (one of the only) posititve reviews and I can only think, "This person's been here less than a year and hasn't had a problem arise yet. Just wait." Really, the complaints don't happen until a problem arises that isn't dealt with. When a problem arises, and they can be big problems, good luck.

I know I'm not a "problem tenant". I've lived in over a half dozen apartments since college, all of far less esthetic quality and luxuries than Archstone, and I had little or NO complaints. Even when I began having issues living here, I was pretty laid back. But things just added up to the point where, quite frankly, it was obvious that management does little to remedy their tenants' serious problems.

I would just love to cut and paste the vast series of different email correspondence with Archstone management, but it's literally 50 pages of emails.

Out of all of the problems, I'll just give the most serious examples:

Archstone advertises their 24 hour service gaurantee, their off-street gated parking, and security. Trust me, if your lightbulb goes out, they'll replace it in 24 hours. That's all. Enclosed is a picture of their "repair job" to our kitchen floor where the tiling came up and they fixed it with concrete that was pink rather than dark brown that matched the rest of the floor.

Security is the worst. I had the front half of my bike stolen, along with a bunch of other tenant's bikes from the bike racks a year and a half ago. The bike racks are behind 2 different security checkpoints in the (double) gated parking area and 10 FEET AWAY FROM THE SECURITY CAMERA. I went to the manager at the time (I've had 5 managers by this point) and he had no idea how to use the camera. He never got back to me, and the footage of the theif had deleted itself. It works like a DVR. Recently, the current manager had told me that the incident reports showed theft about once every month or two. Not exactly shocking, which brings me to my next point.

The security gates for the parking area (there are 2 under the main complex) have broken an uncountable amount of times. The guest parking gate has been broken in the closed position for 4 months now. It's still not fixed. The main gate for the tenets has been broken numerous times to the point where they just left it unrepaired in the open position for at least the last 3 months. They're just now getting around to installing a working gate. In that time though, there have been endless occassions of theft. I even had parts of my bike stolen AGAIN, and AGAIN the manager I spoke with had no idea how to work the security camera, and no way to see who's stealing the bikes. The footage has deleted itself again.

Here's the irony; in all of the different places I've lived in, none of them had security cameras, electronic entry keys, double gated parking, or fence segrated guest/tenant parking. NONE OF THOSE OTHER PLACES SAW THE CRIME/ABUSE THAT ARCHSTONE HAS SEEN.

The WORST OFFENSE OF THEM ALL:

Parking Network Solutions (PNS) is the company Archstone contracts to enforce parking rules. It's a racket. Basically, the rule is that a guest that parks inside Archstone must have their vehicle called in by the resident for up to a 7 day period, regardless of the fact that they get buzzed in at the security call boxes (1 for the car, then 1 for the individual prior to entering the elevator/stairwell.) So if the resident has a boyfriend/girlfriend/family member that comes over all the time, the resident will occassionally forget to call that person in. PNS then comes by and used to simply give out a $25 parking ticket to the guest, which of course you pay for them as a good host. Think that's ridiculous' Keep reading.

In mid-2006, PNS decided (or so we thought it was them) to "boot" cars for anything after the first offense...even if there weren't outstanding tickets. That's $135 per boot, plus $25 for every additional day the boot is on until it is flat out towed away for god knows what additional money. PNS was hell to deal with, so I complained to Archstone Management. They did nothing. Then I complained to Archstone Regional Management, and he did even less, saying "We can't change policies based off of one tenant's complaint." Apparently, numerous tenant's complained.

Next...

...my girlfriend and I wrote out an extensive complaint and petition. 30 residents in all 3 building signed the complaint petition (no tenants opposed it) which included 3 specific suggestions to remedy the problem and individual victim stories from each of the residents that signed.

Basically, there were 97 guest parking spaces NEVER more than 10% full, and there was no need to even have PNS hold our guest's cars hostage. There was no parking crisis other than that which PNS produced. This ended up being dealt with by Archstone's Colorado-based Vice President in charge of customer service for all Archstone apartments in the United States.

What they came up with was insulting.

Instead of allowing guest cars to be called in permanently, or significantly increase the registration day-limit, they increased it from 7 days to only 10 days. Gee, thanks. They also realized that 80% of their guest parking spots weren't being used, so they converted 25 of those spots into spots for regularly visiting guests to park at for $50 a month. WTF' The whole reason for our complaint about PNS's ridiculous fines was about tenets not wanting to pay even more money than we're already overpaying in rent by paying even more money to Archstone than we're paying in rent. It's just a money making racket and Archstone doesn't care about tenant satisfaction.

Also, if you're considering moving to Archstone Westside and you think you may barely be able to afford the rent, believe me, and the rest of the posters, you will not be able to afford to live here after a year or two. That rent SHOOTS up. My girlfriend used to live down the hall with a room mate in a 2 bedroom before I moved in and we downgraded to a 1 bedroom. Her old apartment now goes for $1,000 more than it did 2 years ago. Insane. In two years, I've seen AT LEAST 6 different sets of neighbors in the 1 apartment to the right of ours.

The only way Archstone can build as many different complexes, in as many different states, in as many different cities they do is to get as much money out of you in ridiculous fees for simple services, overpriced rent, overly increased renewals, and when you're unhappy enough and move out, they raise the rent even more for your replacement tenant...especially in the Southern California market.

They seem extremely nice at first, but Archstone Westside management is awful. It will always be awful, and I say that because every new manager has been terribile. It goes up to the regionial management as proved before, and the VP of customer service. When the people at the top of customer service are incompetent, the incompetence breeds more of itself all the way down the line.

User Responses
From: Winzie83	Date: 06/28/2007
Well said! I lived there for 2 years and you've pretty much summed up their incompetent and insensitive management.
From: AdamSonOfJohn	Date: 07/05/2007
Thank you. It's just been awful here. Living in Archstone Westside is like dating someone who is ridiculously hot and made up. It's fun for a while, then comes the drama.
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/24/2007
thanks for the info. i was this close --- to signing a lease with them. glad i read your review.
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/30/2009
Wow! Thank you for the review. I've been driving by this building for a while thinking, "I wish I lived there." Now I know to stay far far way. My one question is why is there such a problem with crime in this building? I've lived in the same neighborhood for years and have only seen very minor issues.

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