I am still living here only because my husband and I are moving to another state this summer and really don't feel like moving again in the meantime. This apartment complex is an empty shell of a place to live. Basically, we just sleep here. (bad sleep most of the time-interrupted by honking all night and loud neighbors.) We've been here almost 2 years and we have never felt like this is "home." The community center has yet to be opened to the community. Just the other day, I walked over to check it out and there are still saw-horses and construction equipment inside. When we moved in, the office told us that the community center would be open in a month. (yeah right!) A few months ago, I met someone at my work who lived at Valley Stream Village back in 2002-2003, and she said they were using the community room as a selling point back then. Alone, the delayed construction is not that big of a deal. Though, it would be nice to be able to have a place to work out or swim (not that those things are even being promised anymore.) The problem here at Valley Stream is that there are so many false promises. We, too, had multiple things wrong with our apartment. The biggest thing was our dryer. One night, when it was running, it actually fell off of the brackets and started on fire! It did not set off the smoke alarm or the sprinklers (thank goodness) and we got the fire out quickly. There was a lot of smoke so we wondered why the smoke detector right above the washer and dryer didn't sound, so we pulled the face off and realized there was NO BATTERY in the thing! This happened on a Sunday night, so we waited until the next day to call the office about it. It ended up taking them 6 weeks to even come look at the dryer and a full 9 weeks to repair it! Even though it could have still been a fire hazard, we were constantly told that we were "on the list" and that they were short on maintenence men. When we offered to call a repair company and send Valley Stream the bill, they started telling us (over a several day period) that someone would be to our apartment "first thing tomorrow." The whole repair process at this complex is a sham. You get treated like you are a jerk for reporting a problem and then you have to keep badgering the office staff to send maintenence out. For the price you pay per month, the maintenence staff should be full time and NOT shared with other complexes.
As another review said, when we moved in, our keys did not work either. We had to wait for 2 and a half hours for a very annoyed maintenence man to come and let us in after we went to grab some dinner on the night we first moved in. The man said nothing to us. He simply took our old keys and literally tossed them off of the balcony into the parking lot, then he abruptly unlocked the door for us and stormed down the steps back to his truck. He didn't even hand us the new keys; he just left them dangling from the door knob.
The last thing that I want to pass along (before my ranting becomes excessive and makes me just seem like a crazy person) is that my husband and I have had to call the police in the middle of the night. We witnessed a fight break out in the parking lot below our bedroom window. First we heard screams and yelling. Then we saw one man being beat up by five other men. I am not an incredibly sheltered person, but it was certainly gut-wrenching and scary. Luckily, the police found our complex after about 15 minutes. Nevertheless, it has made us weary of this place at night and even more untrusting of the office staff. When we went over to the office to let them know what happened, and to request possibly better lighting in the parking lots or something, the response we got was not apologetic at all. We were matter-of-factly told that violence and fighting happens in all apartment complexes, not just Valley Stream Village.
If you are desperate for a place to rent, and you have no other choice than to come to Valley Stream, please learn from other people's mistakes. DO NOT agree to pay full rent--insist on some sort of discount at least- when we moved in, the scam they were running was "one month free or one month's rent deducted from a full year lease." DO NOT assume that something will be "taken care of." You need to stay on top of the staff here. And, DO NOT have anything of value delivered here. All packages go to the leasing office for residents to just walk in and pick through.

User Responses
From: sweetness33	Date: 02/12/2007
if you don't like it move
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/25/2007
Normally people looking at apartment ratings don't leave harsh comments directed toward those who made a review. However though this apartment complex seems to do this if you leave a negative review.
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/01/2008
I know the person who posted the original review seems to go on forever but I will agreee with her, I lived there for 9 months and I experienced most of what she's complaining about except the police comming to the complex but I was there in 2003-2004. My stay in the unit wasn't all bad but any interaction with the staff was always a problem after my first complaint. It was like we were blacklisted for making a complaint. It is NOT WORTH ALL THAT MONEY!!!! I didn't hear of a whole lot of break ins and car thefts and such, I don't know about all those claims but beware of the staff, you have to stay on their good side, and they do show favortisim and do things for some and not others-that is true. Over all it's a gamble.

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