Glenbrook might be a good starter apartment, and it's conveniently located near the Galleria and close to the bus lines, but I still wouldn't recommend the place to anyone -- unless you like noisy plumbing, a very hot upstairs apartment, the constant smell of cat poop every hot evening, and not getting much of your deposit back.

We started planning a move back to Riverside last summer and thought Glenbrook would be a nice place to land owing to its proximity to the mall and to lots of public transportation. One of the things we asked the management there at the time was whether we could hook up our icemaker, and we were told that was not a problem, ditto for having a super capacity washer/dryer. Management changed before we arrived after which we found out they no longer allowed icemaker hookups and never really did, and I'd also found out that the measurements for placing our already-purchased washer and dryer were not right, so the fit was way less than ideal, having to mount one of the machines at a right angle to fit into the small utility closet off the dining room. As for the icemaker, maintenance would allow us to hook it up BUT would need to turn off water to the whole building for several hours if we wanted that done. The heck with that!

Next, we discovered the joy of an overly hot apartment no matter how much we ran the noisy air conditioner. You just couldn't get the apartment to cool down!

We also experienced the joys of smelling cat poop practically every night. We never did find the offending cat but obviously someone let their cat leave presents out in the grass somewhere and the smell seeped into our apartment. Opening windows only exacerbated the problem.

And what fun we had hearing "boop boop boop" all day long from the bathroom sink! When you would run the air conditioner, it causes air in the water pipes to make loud noises through the pipes that you could hear everywhere in your apartment. The partial solution was to close the stop on the sink. I've NEVER heard of an apartment where you would have to do this. And it wasn't just in our building, either. I think it was all over but I also think there was no solution.

Banbury Drive is a pretty street but the east side (opposite the rental office) usually has some puddles and mud slicks making it impossible for blind people like my wife, and for low-vision people like me, to safely walk up to Magnolia to catch the bus. The numerous puddles and mud slicks were often almost knee deep. My wife and I slipped many times trying to walk up the block. One day it rained so hard that we were literally stranded on our block, couldn't even cross the street without getting totally drenched. That's when we knew it was time to start looking at another place to live so we would never be stranded again.

Now the fun part. We needed to get out of our lease and move to a safer area where my wife could travel by herself to the bus stop if need be. Oh sure, management said we could just pay one month's extra rent, but we were told we would get all of our deposit back if we left the place clean. We did, they didn't. Out of the $550 we paid altogether including gate keys, guess what we got back' $197. The check was sent being billed as "move-out refund" not as a "deposit refund" so I called inquiring when we might get our deposit back, explaining that all I got was the $197 for "move out refund". First I was told the check had been sent out to our OLD address even though I gave my forwarding address. A week or more passed, I still didn't get my check and was told "we sent the check out but didn't have your apartment number so it came back". Then I was told last Thursday "they're going to overnight the check to you by FedEx" so all Friday I waited, nothing. All Monday, I waited, nothing. Then I called to say the check hadn't come. I was told "a check has been cashed with your signature and your wife's signature." I said "the only check I ever got was the "move out refund" of $197." Then they said "oh that's it, that's your refund!" But gee, I didn't get any itemization of why that $550 went down to $197 other than the manager saying "you guys broke your lease and we said we would try to rent your apartment as soon we could." Still, we got no itemization, and we left the apartment spotless, and we had to move for safety and medical reasons, and we were told that the move-out would not affect our deposit. Yet NOW we were being told that it DID affect our deposit. So gee, just because we left early, we went from $550 to $197. We needed that $550 and now we're not getting it! Oh that's great. I cleaned the apartment for nothing then, and for keeping it so nice this is the thanks I got.

Management has probably improved a little bit since I first moved in, and I know they are being tougher in enforcing the tennant rules than the previous management, but it's still a very noisy place and there's still a long way to go in making it a quiet, comfy place to live.

One thing they need to change though is their unavailability at certain times of the business day. Many times I've called over there when they should be open, only to get their voice mail. There should be someone there for the tennants during all business hours.

I did find management staff to be friendly, in particular the manager always sounded very cheerful and upbeat, and other staffers did the same.

But all that said, I don't like the runaround I got about my deposit and being shafted out of most of it, even though we did not damage anything in the unit, and tried to be good quiet neighbors. If this is how they treat people, then one can only wonder if occupancy will continue to slide.

I was really hoping to be able to write a nice positive report on this place. I was hoping to be able to say that they had really improved and that all the other things I've read about them were false, but I'm just the latest victim. I cannot and will not recommend Glenbrook to anyone, rather, I will tell anyone who will listen, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT GLENBROOK!

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