Equity Residential destroyed and threw away my bike without remorse. In March of this cold year they supposedly posted notices about the bikes being abandoned at the bike rack. These notices were at the bike rack, the mail boxes, and delivered to my door.
Except they weren't. By that I mean that I never went to the bike rack because it was cold and I wasn't going to ride my bike. I never paid any attention to the fliers that have been next to Jeff's Fitness for the last few years by the mail boxes. And I never got a notice about it at my door. I've gotten other notices and emails about other topics though: the car wash, robberies, fire alarm testing, an auction, air conditioning filters being replaced, every monthly statement, apartment complex parties, etc. However, I never received a notice at my door nor an email about the bikes.
When the complex finds an abandoned car, they wait for six months and they give several notices before towing the car and giving ownership of the car away. Even though I didn't receive any notices, Equity feels justified in giving me one imaginary notice. I have heard from the employees that the notices were displayed for about 1 month. During a cold winter there is little chance that I, or anyone else, would look at the bikes and therefore a notice at the bike rack for a month is unjustifiable. Somehow the management is surprised that zero people claimed their bikes.
The bike locks were torched off and many bikes were accidentally cut in the process and thrown away. Others were put into storage. Mine was not in storage and was therefore torched. Soon Equity will auction off those remaining bikes and earn money. The management refuses to pay me back any kind of compensation towards getting a new bike.
This apartment complex has been excellent in terms of almost everything I have wanted in a home. The management staff is very nice and down-to-earth. Things get repaired on time, and the site is clean. Everything else is good. However, I am greatly surprised that the parent company Equity feels justified and is unremorseful in throwing away so many bikes.
I know that I am the only one who complained about his/her bike being trashed and so this review isn't anonymous. Also, my bike was more than 10 years old. Therefore, I would be happy to remove this review or even change it to an overall fairly positive review for the price of 50% of a new bike.

User Responses
From: tech7471	Date: 05/20/2009
The sign was by the bike rack for quite a while. It was also some kind of neon color. Also, those were the most disgusting, filthy bikes, ever. Luckily, I have a car. I quit riding a bike after I got my driver's license. Cars are faster, and safer. It's hard to ride a bike to work in August, unless they were to put in showers at work. Also, bicycles do not have air conditioning, heated seats, a decent stereo, or air bags and safety belts. The seat on a bike kind of cramps my style, if you know what I am saying. If we were to run out of gasoline, I would sooner stay home all day and wait for Judge Judy and Jerry Springer to come on, then ride a bike. P. S., Maybe Obama will bail out Schwinn, and you can get a free government bike, although you will probably be forced to bike-pool, to save wear and tear on things like bike tires, which are made from crude oil. P.P.S., The manager lady can torch my bike any day.
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/21/2009
I saw the dingy notices by the bike rack and didn't read them. I think You should sue. The least they could do is cut You a check for their negligence. I think they should do away with the bike rack. It is the perfect hiding spot for a thief and kind of creeps me out. I hate the apts. The gate is always busted, they tell You where to walk Your dog and then plant shrubs in that place. There are no speed bumps to slow people down so You can't safely pull out of a parking space during busy hours of the day. I've probably said all this before on here but I really don't want anyone to move here.
From: Raysajam	Date: 05/21/2009
You live alone, right? So surely you wouldn't have minded coming home after a "long" day in front of a computer to an apartment with a bike just inside the door.. or in a closet... your parents' place could have just as easily worked, too. While I don't agree they should have gotten rid of the bikes without first removing them, storing them somewhere, and maybe charging you a fee to collect it since they'd notified people for such an extensive amount of time I don't really feel sorry for you if you had room to store it SOMEWHERE (it could have been at Tech even...) and chose not to do that. They should have kept them all and charged you a fee to get yours back if they had it in storage, required that you register it in the first place so that they would have known all along it was yours, or posted those poor little "Have you seen my owner??" signs with a sob story about how the poor little bike was going to be humanely recycled for some sort of profit if the owner didn't come forward within X amount of time...

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates