Hello! I will warn you that this is a long one but it is well worth reading. I wish I had a review such as this before I moved in. Before I moved to Beacon Hill I read all of these reviews and brushed them off as people that were too needy, like to complain, or people that had one bad experience and inflated the actual problem. So I moved there, as I am not one to complain, and I do not expect a perfect apartment, perfect staff, etc. and for the cheap rent, you can't expect too much. However, I DO NOT RECOMMEND that anyone moves in here! Please read my review and take it to heart. The 4 months that I lived there was pure hell (actually, we now refer to it as "Beacon Hell"). Before I visited the property (I had just gotten out of the hospital and we were in a very limited time frame to find a place to live) I was told that they always keep a model available for viewing. However, after I made the 2 hour drive to Rockford, I was told that she didn't have anything to show me, but she showed me the floor plan. With literally 2 weeks left until the time we had to move, my boyfriend and I decided to just go ahead and give it a shot. The apartment we moved in to had water stains and mold all over the kitchen and bathroom floors. We thought that even though it looks terrible, we could cover it with a rug or something. I thought with the right decorating it would be fine. As I was unpacking, I opened the closet door and it fell off! There were rips and stains all over the carpet. The carpet has no padding underneath so it's like furry concrete. Upon move in, our heat (it was December), dishwasher, and oven/stove were not working. They give you a green sheet to fill out when you move in detailing anything that is wrong. I wrote everything, even to the smallest thing so that we would not get in trouble for it. Nothing was ever fixed. I ended up calling the heating company myself and have their people come out to check it out, and I called the gas company for their person to come out and check out the stove/oven. And the dishwasher....it looked like it was from the 70's and probably was, but you had to stand beside it and hold the door shut the whole time for it to work. The little door on the soap thing never opened so we eventually had to just hand wash the dishes all the time, even though having a dishwasher means an addition on to your monthly rent. Well finally the maintenance guy came to fix it. He was very nice and professional. But after he left and we used it the first time, it leaked all over the kitchen floor and into our storage room. We tried it again with the same result. Considering that it took a month for them to fix it the first time, we just left it alone and stopped using it. We paid extra to have central air/heat and it never worked. The heat blew cold air ALL the time, so we just turned it off as well. At one point the arm in our toilet broke so it would not flush. I was on my way out of state for the week when this happened. I reported it to the office on my way out, and he said they would fix it. I returned 7 days later and toilet was never fixed. I went to the office about 3 days later after it was never addressed. I was told that they would come fix it, I told them that I wanted a notice of when they were coming b/c I do not feel comfortable having people in our apartment when we aren't there b/c of our dog. I was told that the dog barking is the reason why they hadn't come yet, even though the dog was with me in another state (which he didn't know) so they obviously never came and he lied to my face. Eventually we figured out that we could pull up on the ball in the back and it would flush, but the tank was disgusting and moldy. For TWO MONTHS they didn't fix it until we gave them our 30 day notice to vacate and break our lease and threatened to call corporate, stating that the toilet was one of the reasons, and then they fixed it. We had tons of bugs, not natural insects likes spiders, we had huge beetles among other things. The spiders were in the kitchen cabinets crawling on our dishes. One time I took a plate out and as I was about to put my food on it I saw a spider sitting in the middle of it. They were in our cups! The office staff (Norma) said that they have an issue with bugs when we called and asked about it, but the problem was never addressed. We asked to be let out of our lease without penalty considering our situation. We were told that we could get out, but we would have to pay rent through the end of our lease. We dealt with the office for a few days before we finally called corporate. Corporate was as rude and inconsiderate as the office staff. They dont care about satisfying their customers, they defend their employees and property regardless of anything else. After calling corporate, they finally told me that I could talk to Matt, the "district manager" (when actually he is not the district manager) so I called him a couple times and left a voice mail, which was never returned. My boyfriend called the office a few times and was told that Matt would call him, and he never did. So one day my boyfriend called the office and Matt was there but he "was busy" and would have to call him back. Since I was home and Matt was in our office, I just went to the office. They welcomed me (they didn't remember who I was) and was asked what they could do for me. I told them that I wanted to talk to Matt and they said "okay, let me go get him! What's your name'" When I told them my name, they went to tell him, and when they came back from his office they said "he is with someone, he'll call you." I said "no he wont call me, I can wait." (keep in mind that there are only two doors in and out of the office, and I could see both - nobody ever went in or came out of either). After about 10 minutes of waiting, the property manager came out and took me into his office. She sat down and I asked her to leave. Matt and I started off our talk by me explaining to him some of our problems and that we didn't feel that it was safe or healthy for us to live there (they have an extremely high crime rate). He made our problems seem insignificant and like I was wasting his time by being in there. He had our file out with our work orders and everything and said that they never had the order the first time for the toilet. He said "Buck might have forgotten to write it" but still put the blame on me and said that sometimes they forget to write the orders. I went on to tell him that I have lived in two other EdwardRose properties and enjoyed them, and had no issues. He said we must have "gotten lucky" both times, even though it was 2 years at each. He was very rude and didn't do anything, and said that he would "love to hear from my attorney, the health department, and the better business bureau." He said that we only have two options 1)move into a different apartment in their complex or 2)pay the rent through the end of our lease. Oh, he said that we had bugs b/c we were on the ground level, but I told him that we never had bugs at the other two properties and we were on the ground level there too. He said "who cares, they are just bugs." Like it was no big deal. Our water in the bathroom sink/toilet/and shower was yellow and had sand or something in it. That was "well water, just added minerals and nutrients." Well after getting nowhere and desperately needing/wanting to move out, we decided to just pay it all and move....so in the end they got their way, and they WILL ALWAYS GET THEIR WAY. So that is why I'm writing this review, to warn everyone before moving in. Don't be attracted to the cheap rent - it's not worth it. Oh, and then i looked on BBB website and saw that they had already received an "unsatissfactory" rating and didn't respond to past allegations, so of course he didn't care if we contacted them. anyway, just be cautious and please heed my warning.

Oh! one more thing. Even though the water was yellow because of "extra nutrients and minerals" my hair and my boyfriends hair was falling out in clumps. My scalp would burn when i was washing my hair. Since we have moved out, our hair has stopped falling out and it no longer burns. The health department also told us that "we shouldn't drink the water" when we called.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/09/2009
Amen sista!!! Denise, Buck, Norma, corporate--they're all criminals and cons. I can tell you too that you think we're all just b*tching and it's not really that bad, but it IS!!!!!!!!!!!!! My boyfriend and I lived there, too, and we feel your pain. Con Hill, you effing suck!
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/02/2009
wow!! and to think i was looking into this place as a possible living quarter!! thaaank you!!! ok lol so has anybody heard any bad new with arlington place??

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