Really, you just need to know how to manipulate the management. If you want something fixed, making threats/calls regrading the Sanitation Department or the Better Business Bureau works very effectively. Haggle with them about their prices - just because they try their best to rip off unexperienced renters doesn't mean you have to let them.

We were in a bit of a rush, so we let them rip us off - $990 for a three bedroom that they were renting out for $840 the previous year, and it was worse off when we rented it than when they did.

We had a revolting sanitation issue when we moved in: the upstairs bathroom leaked into ours, giving anyone in our bathroom a nice little shower of sewage whenever someone above us flushed their toilet. We complained the day we moved in about it. They said oh yeah, they knew about that, they'll get it fixed as soon as possible. A couple weeks later, we called again, and they said they'd fix it soon. Two more weeks later, we called again, and they said they'd get around to fixing it sometime. Two weeks after that, a month and a half from the initial reporting, we called the sanitation department, scheduled an inspection, and called Zamarro back to let them know. The leak was fixed the next day.

If they promise they'll fix stuff when you move in and you list all the things wrong with the apartment, feel free to laugh in their face. They'll fix one or two simple things, and forget about the rest unless you harass them months later. For instance, our doorbell didn't work, and our internal doors didn't close. The doorbell was fixed immediately (the maintenance guy swapped it with the neighbors since they hadn't moved in yet), but the doors required complaining over and over again for three months before they actually did anything to fix them (which they only did after a threat to call the BBB).

Uhh, good luck. There aren't many wonderful choices close to WPI, but Zamarro definitely isn't one of the best.

Regarding parking - each apartment is supposed to have a designated space. The three apartments in our building, and the three apartments in the building next to us, had to share a three car driveway. Six cars did not fit in there, so we always had to park on the street... two streets over.

Can't say safety was wonderful, as there was a drug raid on our street the day we moved in and the police mistakingly thought a friend who was helping with the move was involved. He was tackled, thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and screamed at. Not really Zamarro's fault that the street is the way it is though. The fact that our door didn't latch well, and the lock could be trivially picked in a neighborhood like that is though. A roommate of mine broke into our place when he locked himself out. Only took a screwdriver and a credit card.

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