Island Club

Decent, but keep looking. **EDITED: AWFUL!!!!"

From: -Anonymous-
Date posted: 7/18/2009
Years at this apartment: 2009-01-01 - 2009-01-01
1 response

***EDITED TO ADD: I wrote my initial review a few months ago and have since changed my opinion entirely. I wouldn't move back to Island Club if you PAID me to live there. They completely jack you out of your money once you move out! Though they were supposed to only charge us a couple hundred dollars in prorated rent for our final month living there, they wound up charging me the FULL amount plus utilities. When I called to demand that they refund me the nearly $1,000 they took from my checking account without authorization, I was told they wouldn't be able to help me for five days, and even then she never once promised me that I would get my money back (in fact, she said it was possible that I was lying to her and just trying to cheat them out of money-- that was rich!)! FIVE DAYS they wanted to keep my money when I had rent to pay on my new apartment (they'd left us with less than $300 in our account), and when I explained my situation I was essentially told that it wasn't their problem. Not their problem that THEY over-withdrew my final rent when I was told both in person and on paper that it would only be a couple hundred. We'd even gone in when I got a questionable bill from them and double-checked the amount that I would be charged! On top of all that, I was even talked down to by the staff member I spoke with when I implied that they'd stolen money from my husband and I. Please, go somewhere else. We thought it wasn't that bad living there until it came time to move out-- then we saw how incompetent the office staff were! My husband used to roll his eyes at these reviews, saying people only come to review something online if they've got something to complain about. "No one reports the good," he'd say. I tried to report some of the good in my initial review because I didn't think it was all bad. We were both wrong! We should have listened to the reviews! ***

My husband and I have lived at IC for five months now, and we already are looking for a new place to live. I won't say that we've had a really horrible time living here, because we haven't. The grounds are beautiful, the apartments are (on the surface) very nice. We've never had a problem with loud noises (we live on the ground floor so we often hear our upstairs neighbors clumping down the stairs and talking, but that's apartment living anywhere). Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves. I've never experienced anything really bad with the office staff, but then again I have pretty much steered clear of the office in general. It's mostly military families here, but we're military so I kind of like that. The only people we've thought were annoying (as in, being sort of loud) were actually non-military.

The one thing that bothers me the most is the bugs. I am a neat freak, scrubbing our place down every single day. We never leave food out, and yet I've seen two cockroaches in our apartment. BIG cockroaches! I've tried calling management to inform them of the problem, but they've only offered to do a surface treatment, which I know won't help since the bugs have to be coming from some other unit. The whole place really should be fumigated.

Another problem we have is the RIDICULOUS pet deposit and pet rent! We have the smallest apartment they offer, yet we would have to put down a $600 pet deposit and add another $50 in pet rent every month just to have one mid-sized dog. I have no idea where they get off charging us that much. And that's on TOP of the $500 security deposit we gave when we moved in. Seriously, if you have pets or are planning to get any soon, please keep looking. They sell you the idea that this complex is "pet friendly" but there are SO many more affordable places in Oceanside that accept all kinds of pets. Just today we found a place that is twice as big as the place we've got now, and only charges $250 for a pet deposit, and $40 in pet rent.

We also were told that we would get an end unit when we signed our lease (we signed, against my better judgment, without touring the actual unit because we were living 2,000 miles away). We signed the lease and one month later moved out here, and wouldn't you know it-- we're smack in the middle of the complex, definitely not an end unit. It's not a huge deal, but it bugs me that they were dishonest.

We only have one car but I know lots of two-car families have trouble finding a decent parking spot after dinner time-ish. As far as safety goes... eh. It could be better. I've never had a problem, but I wouldn't stay here while my husband was deployed. We're shoved back in a shady little spot where you can't see the door. There is no gate, which makes it so anyone can (and does) walk in as they please. We've never heard anything firsthand about break-ins, but I wouldn't be surprised if we ever did.

I've also read a lot of reviews about the outlets sucking, and ALL of those are true. When we moved in most of our outlets worked fine. Now there is only half of one outlet that can keep a plug in it in our bedroom (of course, in the most inconvenient spot), and two outlets (one half of an outlet on two different walls) that work in our living room. It's horribly frustrating. Also, the dish washer SUCKS. Seriously, it doesn't matter what we do, what kind of detergent we buy, it can't clean our dishes properly so we mostly wash them by hand.

Overall, it's really not a "bad" place to live, but it's so not worth the money. We pay about $1200 including pet rent for our 1 bed/1bath that is like 560 square feet. There is no washer and dryer in the unit, no sliding glass door, no view of anything but the parking lot. Really, what are we paying that much money for? The San Diego area is pricey, but it's not THAT pricey. I wish we'd kept looking when we moved here, because we've found plenty of complexes who charge the same amount for double the space.

Last updated: 11/5/2009

Recommended: NO Overall Rating

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