As everyone here is saying, Bear Creek is just awful. There isn't a creek to be found and there certainly aren't any bears around (but there is a creepy albino pigeon) and that's just the beginning. The place is very outwardly appealing, but don't be fooled. Inside it's just "Office Space 2 - The Dorms". This place is indeed just a dorm that is passed off as a normal off-campus, independent apartment complex. However they fail to mention that they're subject to the iron fist of the university. I'm not complaining about some of the things others are, such as the inability to easily, legally drink alcohol and whatnot but I think those that do care about such issues deserve to complain just as I deserve to complain about how the staff here couldn't manage a vending machine in the middle of the desert with a robot. I'd like to stress the mail issue that has been brought up, as it is truly appalling. The office not only fails to handle the mail properly and timely, they're just not around much at all, period. During the winter break interval in December, they had posted a set of adjusted office hours (that were painfully brief and unacceptable to begin with) but were around maybe 50% of the time these posted hours suggested. They frequently leave early or don't show up at all. They weren't even around to collect the monthly rent. The first day of January I went down to pay my rent when I thought the office would be open, just to find it closed and cold. At the same time I was recovering from disbelief another guy with the same intention came over and we both just stared at eachother, checks in hand, wondering what kind of landlord doesn't want to get paid. Additionally, during that time period, they never "did" the mail. Towards the end when everyone apparently came out of hibernation I inquired about my packages and other mail only to receive a response that some girl, on whom the entire responsibility of a month's holiday mail lied, hadn't "gotten in yet" and therefore, I had to wait until she did to receive my mail. Among this mail was a package of food sent from my family that sat in the mail room for three weeks.
Not long after that, I was curious to know if I was to get a roomate for the new semester since I had luckily been without one (I'm in a two bedroom apartment) the previous semester. The response I got when asking that simple question (which they should damn well know, at any given time) was indeed very "office space"-like and incredibly rude. I was told once again that "I don't know, but that guy does, come back and talk to him". This is common with them as they always act like you're bothering them. No one knows anything here. Throughout my time without a roomate I was called more times than I can remember by the office asking me questions like "Is there anyone living in Room B'" and "You're , right'". The management is also quick to deceive you with things like ...your key and your room lock. Don't be surprised to come home to see a sign on your door that says "we changed your locks, come get your new key in the office". That happened to a lot of us. I was lucky I got back before they closed or I'd have been homeless that night.
The living conditions themselves suck as much as is indicated by my peers here. The furniture is cheap garage sale 3rd-hand crap and their cruel little joke of slapping some gigantic bed in your room that literally takes up 65% of the space is less than amusing. I personally don't like beds, but value my space even more than I hate beds, so I dismantled the monstrosity, stored the ginormous mattress in my closet (there went my closet space) and now sleep on the floor where I want to but I shouldn't have had to do "deal with" a piece of invasive furniture. As for repairs and such, the maintainence guys will do the job but they just come in whenever they want/need. It's actually in the lease that they're allowed to do this. They're constantly entering to check your smoke detectors or replace AC filters for the 90th time. Once, a pair of them woke me up at 8am by knocking on my front door, shouting, then unlocking and opening it anyway, coming in, then knocking loudly and shouting on my *room* door...and unlocking it, opening it and entering, as I was sleeping in my room, to confirm my smoke detector was "on". If it wasn't so early I would've strangled them. It also took them half a year to fix my door (they had to do it twice) that just fell off its hinges due to normal "open and close" wear.
The fire alarms are horrible as well, as is mentioned. They're so much more annoying, and honestly, louder than they need to be. (they're seriously painfully deafening to the point of being sadistic) They go off more than I go *out* and are a serious anger-trigger to us residents. I'm sure the local fire and police workers aren't too happy about responding to a call everytime someone makes some kitchen smoke. Even the elevators are sub-par. They're slower than you'd expect for a 6 floor system and make this obnoxiously loud tone every time they open or close their doors. You can hear it from within your room. They also sometimes just halt on a random floor, for whatever reason, and stay that way for the next day or more.
Perhaps the worst grievance I have about Bear Creek would be their disgusting, greedy, and irrational (as well as irresponsible and inconsiderate) internet usage policy. If you're a nerd like me, then all you want is a nice, fast reliable connection. Well here, they put you on a 250MB daily transfer cap, after which you lose bandwith. I've managed to slow my connection down to sub-dial-up speeds under this policy. This is so horrible to a person like me that I now make trips to campus just to download. For this much money they should be running at least an OC3 with unlimited access for us. And forget about getting your own service, cable is through a satellite-to-cable provider so Cable internet is out of the questiron, and local DSL service through Qwest requires specific permission from the apartment to use the phonelines, something you can be sure they'll never give.
As for the lease, read it thoroughly. Read it so you can see where it allows staff to just enter your apartment whenever they want. Read it so you can see what the *good* parts are so you know when they're not being upheld, like the off-hours access and the quiet hours policy. Someone on our floor had to call the cops to get my adjacent partying neighbors to shut up one night since the only figure of authority is the CA, who, needless to say, has a less than impressive feeling of power and assertiveness about her. I also never received a copy of my lease as they were legally obligated to provide. I moved here from out of state, needing a place to live quickly, and signed a temporary lease first. I went, after a month, to find out where my copy of *that* one was only to receive a response that was along the lines of "oh...uh I'll see if we still have that", and I never got my permanent lease copy.
The Buff Bus and parking issues are valid as well. Although I have a vehicle, I choose to park a ways away from the building and walk to and from it to avoid paying their parking fees. But mainly, I walk to and from school to avoid the buff bus, which , as others have said, is really just insulting and irritating. If you live here, trust me: walk (or cycle) everywhere. But don't live here. Don't give them any of your money

Recommended: NO Overall Rating

Parking: Maintenance: Construction: Noise:

Grounds: Safety: Office Staff:

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