***It is important to note that this is the Amber Apartments that have the yellow awnings and have their rental office in Clawson, not the Amber in Royal Oak with green awnings.***

I am a month away from moving out of my apartment at Amber's Timber Lodges. If it weren't for the school I'm transferring to, I would definitely stay at Amber. I live in a ground floor studio. It's very small but cozy and fits my needs. I, however, got lucky and snagged a handi-capable apartment (not sure why they rented it out to me. It doesn't seem exactly fair but what are ya gonna do), so there's no wood paneling that tends to make a small space feel even smaller, and the bathroom is huge. The stove and fridge are extremely old but work fine. They're a 70's goldenrod color and are certainly from that time. I say as long as they work, they're great for the kitsch factor. Lots of closet space and built in shelves. I have no problems with storage.

Any problems I had were fixed the same day I reported them. I only had two things that needed fixing anyway. There are a few things wrong that don't really need fixing, but are definitely broken. A few of my vertical blinds don't turn, so I have to twist them manually before I can open the blinds.

The office staff is average. They're not annoyingly pleasant but they are always helpful and get the job done. Who likes ever-cheerful, grinning idiots anyway.

The average tenant around here is in their 20's. My building had a problem with two young guys that had loud parties until 6am every Friday and Saturday. The hallways are not carpeted, therefore every sound seems ten times louder, and these people would let the party spill out into the hallway. Oh, they were terrible. A few complaints later and they were out of there. Had I known it would be that easy I would have said something sooner.

Amber is EXTREMELY PET FRIENDLY. There isn't even a pet deposit or fee. You just say "I have a dog" and they write that on your lease so when ---- the maintenance guy comes over he knows to watch out.

Some complaints:

-These apartments are REALLY OLD. If you want something up-to-date and nice to look at, don't move here. Move here if you think the 70's were awesome.

-There's no carpeting, so if you live on the ground floor and someone above you has a dog or wears heels, you'll hear every step they take. I got used to it pretty quickly. Aside from that (and those annoying frat boy rejects) I never hear a peep out of my other neighbors. I suspect the walls are made of lead :)

-Rent is a little high for such outdated apartments, but then again a lot of the utilities are covered.

-The cleaning crew didn't do a very good job. When I moved in there was a glob of cheese on the floor of the kitchen, popcorn in the cupboards and dog food in the linen closet. C'mon, guys.

-Be sure to check the new listings even when you've made up your mind and are ready to sign a lease. They're not necessarily going to tell you if something better has just become available. This happened to me. I looked at one of their lower quality places and figured it was good enough and signed a lease (stupid!). That night I checked the listings again and found a place that was way better had just become available. I got them to let me see that one and change the lease. They were very nice about it.

Are you still reading this!'

I'd recommend Amber to young people that want a cool apartment in a good neighborhood. It's not fancy but it's nice!

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 04/11/2007
This is my review! I thought I should let folks know that when I was preparing to move out I sent them an email giving them 60 days notice. I got a response right away, saying that they usually only need 30 days. "Well," I said to myself, "You got 60 days." So when it came time to pack up and turn in my keys, they claimed they never received that email from me, and made me pay rent the whole month of July, even though I'd moved out at the end of June. That was when I learned a valuable lesson about saving emails! So, my review of Amber remains the same. But keep in mind here, more than anywhere, that their policy IS NOT "the customer is always right."

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