Upon arriving at the Willow Brook Apartment complex my boyfriend and I were pleased and excited about possibly becoming residents at such a nice place. When we entered the office we were greeted by a very nice lady named Wendy. After she showed us our apartment we were more than ready to sign a lease. We were sitting down to sign the papers and Wendy was going over policy and deposits. We gave her a $350 deposit and a $350 non-refundable pet deposit she called it. After all the paper work was signed we moved our stuff in. We were happy and excited to have such a nice spacious apartment as our first apartment together as a family. One thing we noticed after signing the lease was that there was no overhead lighting in the bedrooms or the living area so we went out and purchased floor lamps. When we brought them home we couldn t find any outlet that corresponded to the switches on the walls of the bedrooms and living room. This became an incredible nuisance seeing as how if we came home at night we would have to feel around in the pitch black for a lamp or waste electricity by having a light on all day. We got used to our 6 month old son pulling out the plugs and having to pay more in electricity but what we couldn t get used to was the rudeness of Crystal the office manager and Ken head of the maintenance crew. My boyfriend s first trip to the office to pay rent Crystal didn t say How are you today' or even Hi she just looked at him and said RENT' Ken was always rude to us. There was one incredibly nice maintenance technician who left, Wendy left, Rachel, her replacement was so incredibly nice, she too left, so did Suzanne, who was also incredibly nice. It seems kind of strange that all of the nice people friendly employees have left in two years, but I don t blame them because I couldn t stand working with two people who are so rude. In the two years I lived there I only had complaints about three things our neighbors above us, residents not cleaning up after their dogs, and our neighbors having a propane tank in their breeze way. Our neighbors above us were overly loud when it came to walking and unloaded their moving truck from 9 PM until 3 AM, we both have to get up early to be at work at 5AM. Our neighbors continued to be loud. The dog poop wouldn t have gotten on my nerves as much if my son hadn t rolled in it several times playing outside of our apartment in the grass. There were also doggie bags in boxes all around the complex, residents were just too lazy to use them. I ended up just not letting him play in the grass because the office did nothing about my complaints even after I complained several times. When we first moved in we were told we could be fined for having our bike tucked under the stair well outside of our breeze way by Ken. Our neighbors facing the parking lot not only kept a propane tank in their breeze way, but they used it up there which was a severe FIRE HAZARD. Again I complained about this several times but that propane tank remained up there until the residents moved, I should have just called the fire department, they would have done something. After moving in I became pregnant with our second child and couldn t lift anything over 10 lbs. So I would leave our trash tucked away outside until my boyfriend returned home but it was complained about and they took my neighbors complaints seriously and told us they would fine us if it happened again. Well I was on my way to take it out one day and tripped on a bad crack in the sidewalk (which I had previously warned the office that it was a hazzard) and I landed with my wrist and hand pinched in-between myself and the steps. I could barely bring the bag back to my house being very pregnant and in pain so I left it outside our door, when I returned back from the hospital it had been broken into by animals and there was a note on the door stating we would be evicted if it happened again. When I went into the office to tell them that I had fractured my hand and wrist in several different places and literally had to leave it there to go to the hospital I barely got an apology. I deeply feel like my boyfriend and I were discriminated against seeing as how our neighbor who made a complaint against us was of a different race, social class, and age than us and the neighbors we made complaints against were also of a different race, social class, and age. Not only will I never recommend Willow Brook Apartments, but I will never recommend or rent from Equity Residential because of how rude their employees were. As far as the apartments themselves, they were incredibly too expensive for how cheaply made they were. There was no molding along the baseboards and carpet, no overhead lighting in the bed rooms and living area, the appliances were so incredibly old I had to call maintenance every time I removed the burners on the stove to clean it because they I couldn t get them to work. After living there for two years I wish we had picked a different place to start our family, but at least when we were looking for our next apartment we made sure there was overhead lighting in every room! The reason I gave it such a low rating for savety is the fact my car got broken into, which is something that would never happen where I'm at now eventhough the neighborhood is "worse" because they have a security gaurd, and there was a fire in the building. There are many more reasons why I would never recommend/ rent from this property or company but I am tired of writing, but if you want to know the rest of the story my email is Euphoriangodess@yahoo.com

User Responses
From: whatthe264	Date: 08/23/2007
I was reading the previou review and I realized that I don't know any of the people that the last person was talking about. The management (Armando and Rachel) are both super nice and although I've only been living here a month, I've enjoyed it thus far. Sure, there is only overhead lighting in the kitchen and bathroom, but Walmart floor lamps are only $8.89 each.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/27/2007
Equity Residential kept my security deposit plus they are charging me extra to replace the carpeting. I cleaned it before I left; the apartment was emaculate! I even washed the windows! The carpeting had normal wear after a New England winter. This is a scam! A great way to keep money!
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/14/2007
They may have lived there some time ago b/c the people that are in the office are not the same. I think that the writer is sour that they did not keep their end of apartment living.
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/15/2007
We also lived in Willowbrook and have had some of the same experiences - really really loud upstairs neighbours (we were told before moving in that you cannot really hear your upstairs neighbours!) , them leaving bikes, trash and other stuff in the stairwell (blocking part of the entry way into our apt) Even in our apt, the outlets that one plugs the lamps in dont correspond with the switches on the wall - not sure what is up with that! Our apt was not cleaned properly when we moved in! Kitchen appliances are old and so we have had similar problems like the burners in the stove not working properly due to loose contact Crystal was not the friendliest person around The dog poop the above reviewer is talking about is not really dog poop - it is the geese that roams around the apt complex. Cant really blame anyone for that. SAfety wise - didnt have any problems We got a good deal on the apt, but with their regular rates, I doubt if I will live here

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