The following is a letter that I drafted about my stay at Ringgold...It is kinda long but very informative....



I moved into my apartment in August of 2003. I was very excited about getting my apartment. At that time, Ringgold Towers was the only apartment complex that I checked into. My problems started the first day. When I moved in, the apartment appeared to be dirty. The carpet was old, torn and had a number of paint stains on it. The walls seemed to have been freshly painted in certain areas. In the areas around where they had painted, paint had splashed on the carpet, doors and any other part of the apartment close to where they had been painting. The floor in the kitchen was dirty as well. The stove was completely filthy. The bathtub had black stains in the bottoms of it. The commode was old and worn out. It would not stop running water. The commode had to be replaced within my first month. Everything in that apartment had to be scrubbed, cleaned and recleaned before I could use it.



Then there was the problem with the roaches. My first day in my apartment, I killed at least 5 roaches. I was hoping that the problem was just a freak occurrence and it would not last. But, my roach problems would be anything but a freak occurrence. In a span of 3 weeks, my apartment was sprayed by the exterminator 2 times. The first time, he stated that the problem should be completely gone now. A few hours after he left however, I was seeing roaches on my wall and in my bathroom. The next day, I went to Wal-Mart Super Center and purchased approximately $17.00 in various roach bombs and roach motels for my apartment. On a Saturday in August, I sat one of these bombs in my apartment and left so that it could work. Shortly after, I returned that evening, I saw a few dead roaches on the floor and to my amazement, I saw at least 3 live roaches in various places in the apartment. The building manager was notified again and I was told it would be 2 weeks before the exterminator was scheduled to return to my building. A week later, I noticed the problem getting worse, so I set another roach bomb in my apartment and left so that it could work. This time, it seemed to work and I didn't see any roaches for 3 or 4 days.



Then, one evening later on that week, I had gotten home from work to find a roach crawling across my counter top in the kitchen. As the night progressed, I saw at least 7 or 8 roaches in my bathroom and kitchen. Finally, at the end of that week, the building manager notified me that the exterminator would be back the following week to spray again. Now, keep in mind that when the exterminator sprays my apartment, he has to spray all in the cabinets and drawers in my kitchen. This means that for the first month I was in my apartment, I could not use any of my kitchen storage space because of the roaches and the spraying that was going to take place. I was so excited about getting my new place that I went out and spent a lot of money on new things for my kitchen that I was hoping to use. After the problems with the roaches and the overall dirtiness of the apartment, I just took all of my nice things to my mother's home for storage because they were too nice to use and store in the cabinets and draws. As a result, I had to start using paper plates and disposable of silverware. After the 2nd exterminator visit, the roach sittings were less.



As the problems continued to mount, Ringgold Towers was no longer as appealing to me. On December 10, 2003, I asked for a door sweep to be attached to the bottom of my door. I believed that some of my heat was going out under my door. I reminded the building manager an on few separate occasions of my request. The request was filled on March 1, 2004. That is over 3 months later. Around the time that I was asking about my door sweep, I started having some mysterious headaches and other health problems such as wheezing and chest pains. The problems persisted and finally in early January, I went to see my doctor. She ran some test on my and asked me had I ever had allergies. Since I had never had them, I told her 'No, I have never had a problem with my allergies'. She gave me some medication for allergies and said she believed that this was causing my headaches and other respiratory problems that I was experiencing. She asked me had I recently moved or changed residences. I informed her that I had moved into my apartment in August. Well, about a week later I spoke with a tenant that had vacated the premises because of a mold problem. This made my suspicions arise to the fact that I may have mold in my apartment as well. So that evening, when I got home, I started looking around my apartment. I noticed a few things here and there but I just thought it was old spots because the building is about 20 years old. I really didn't know precisely what I was looking for. Therefore, I contacted the health department to get them to come and inspect my apartment and verify that I had a mold and mildew problem. When the inspector came out to my apartment, he notified me that I did have mold problems that needed immediate attention. He also stated that he had been called to this building at least 15 individual occasions and found mold in each apartment that he has inspected.

Upon hearing this news, I returned to my doctor to let her know that the health inspector had confirmed that I had mold in my apartment. When I told her that the health inspector had been to my building on at least 15 separate times and found mold throughout the building, she stated that it was not good for me to be staying in this environment and that I needed to relocate. I know that I am a young ECU student but I will not risk living in an unsafe environment that is detrimental to my health now as well as in the long run.

I had various other problems such as the window leaked, garbage disposal didn't work properly all the time, and when I first moved in, I was given the wrong key my post office box located on the first floor of the building. When I notified the building manager about her mistake, she tried to get me to go the post office and pay to have a new lock for my box. Seeing as though she issued me the wrong key in the beginning, I refused to pay for this. After voicing my objections, she finally paid to have a new lock installed for me. These are the majority of the problems that I have had with this building since I moved in back in August. PS..... I FINALLY MOVED OUT !!!!!

User Responses
From: lrdhvmercy1999	Date: 07/25/2005
I also left my thoughts on that god awful place which can be found under the heading "the worst" i also continue to suffer from allergies due to my apartment and how about my boyfriend purchased roach bombs and raid in addition to a plug in roach sonar for a move in present how embarrasing i lived there from 2002-2003 and hated most of it fortunatly most of the time i was working and/drunk from partying undergrad style i too have moved on to bigger and better things still in greenville. but i feel your pain i laughed really hard reading this because of the similar experiences bombing my apartment prior to work. lol.

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