I should have realized before moving in that I was in for a horrible experience.
Upon first calling ParkMerced, 90 days before my move in date, my roommates and I were informed that pricing for the apartment we were looking for was 1900/month and that they never hold an apartment for rent any earlier than 30 days out, but we could send in the paperwork at that time to at least get it out of the way. I explained our situation, how much money we make, credit scores, etc etc, they said there would be no problem.
We called again at 60 days to ensure they received our application and find out if there was any other paperwork needed. At which point we were informed that the price had risen to 2000/month and they still couldn't hold an apartment or a price until 30 days out. They also told us that, even though I had already spoken to them about it, we did not make enough money to not need co-signers, apparantly All Four of us needed to individually make 3 times the monthly rent if we didn't want to have to deal with co-signers.
We called at 45 days to ensure they got the co-signer information, and they told us NOW we could hold an apartment and lock in a price of $2177/month a good $277/month more than we were originally quoted, I understand though, when we first talked it was middle of 4th or 1st quarter (apartment low time) and we now were dealing with mid-summer, of course prices would be more.
Upon moving in we discovered that our lease had not been completely approved until 3 days before our move in date (something we had not been informed of earlier), and that they couldn't find it, we had just driven 14 hours from San Diego, and had to wait another 2 hours for our lease to be found and to read through and sign every last piece of information on a 32 page lease.
This amount of disorganization continued as our fourth roommate arrived to sign the lease and they could not find it again, every last announcement we received came to one of our co-signers and not to anyone who actually lived in the apartment, and we often had to call multiple times to speak with someone, or wait as they "attempted to find the right person for that request" (once I had to call three times over a 2 month period leaving messages but never getting a call back regarding a charge I didn't actually owe).
They recently put in a new fire alarm system, and we were reminded at least twice a month when it would go off, the fire trucks would come and it would be a false alarm, it became normal practice for people NOT to leave the building when the fire alarms went off, I was waiting for the day that the fire alarm was actually going off for an emergency and tons of people died because of shoddy alarm settings lulling us into a false sense of security.
My piece of advice is to speak to a single person every time you interact with the Parkmerced offices as everyone who works there will give you different information, and get what people say in writing just because no one seems to agree on policies procedures and house rules.
My final complaint was the lack of information, we were not informed that there was an additional montly rent for having a pet, that we were required to get a lot of information on her that we did not have on us and had to make phone calls and get things faxed to us just so that we can move in. We were not informed that there was a 30 day required written notice that we would be moving out (something I came across while reading through the lease due to another point of confusion)we were not informed of how utilities would work, we were not informed that there is an additional charge just to use the fitness center on site and many times we were not given information that we specifically asked about.
Parking cost to much for still having to hike 3 blocks from my parking garage spot, (in the bottom of the garage, far back, no lighting) to my apartment, and the only places that offered parking longer than 1 hour were constantly over-run by students at SFSU going to class, if I hadn't gotten a parking garage spot, I would have to park as much as 7 blocks away, and by the time I got to my apartment would have to go back to the car to move it so I wouldn't be ticketed for parking somewhere too long.

If I can give anyone wanting to move in here one piece of advice it is this, RUN! RUN AWAY AND NEVER RETURN!

UPDATE: After moving out it took Parkmerced 2 MONTHS before they refunded my deposit (something that should only take 21 days by california LAW) and the only reason I got it when I did was because I sent a fax to the President of Alliance threatening to sue if I didn't.

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