Unfortunately, I can only confirm the long chain of problems and negative comments raised by the previous reviews. The Avalon properties in New Rochelle have a lot of problems (I can't speak for Avalon as a whole, but if New Rochelle is a representative example then this company is a mess).

It seems obvious to me that, in these reviews, the reason that 7 in 10 residents said they were unhappy and wouldn't recommend living here is the simple fact that Avalon charges luxury prices, but only delivers a much less than luxury product. There is of course no official definition of a luxury building, and any apartment company can call their buildings luxury buildings even if by the market's definition of luxury it's not up to standard.

If a roadside motel branded themselves as a 'luxury' hotel and charged luxury prices I think you'd get tons of complaints and people feeling like they've been ripped off. That's what these reviews seem to be saying about this property and personally I'd also have to agree with that view.

A luxury building uses nothing but the highest quality materials and craftsmanship throughout the building Avalon doesn't even come close in this regard. The surfaces and materials in my apartment are of quite low quality and over time it shows.

A luxury building has utilities that work and rarely experience problems. Avalon seems to always have something breaking down at any given time (again, probably due to the poor quality of the building). The heat breaks, the air conditioning breaks, the hot water breaks, the elevators break... rarely a week goes by without being inconvenienced by some sort of breakdown.

Regarding the workmanship of the building, there are just some really elementary errors that actually cause residents big headaches. For example, there is a fundamental flaw in the way they designed the heating and air conditioning system for the rooms. In short, there is usually an air extraction vent that constantly sucks air out of the apartment. The systems are not probably setup such that the vents suck air out of the apartment faster than the heating and AC unit brings fresh air in. The means, for example, that in the summer months air is constantly drawn in under your door from the hallway. Avalon doesn't really air condition the hallways (they're really hot in the summer) so you have a constant flow of hot air into your apartment on one end while the AC units pump out cold air on the other end of your apartment. So not only do you end up spending a lot more money cooling your apartment, one part of your apartment is always too hot and other parts are always too cold. That s just one issue, but an example of a simple problem that would not happen if Avalon was actually operating a real 'luxury' property.

Others have also mentioned the extortionate fees that residents are charged.

I once tried to take a check into the office to pay for a bill two days before it was due... they said that they would take the check but that it still might get charged as 'late' since they get processed in another state. Sounds like a scam to me (surely the date the company physically receives the check, eg when I hand it to them, is the date when payment is made-not when they decide to get around to processing it).

They tried to get me to use my credit card to pay (to avoid the "oh we didn't process it till too late" scam) but that seems to be another scam in itself. They pushed me in the direction of paying by credit card (and there are signs in the office to encourage you to pay by credit card) but what they don't tell you up front is that they'll charge you about $35 (yes $35!!!) simply for paying by card. It was on the news the other day that such charges are illegal (apparently some local gas stations were trying to charge customers who paid by credit card such a charge and the authorities went after them, and they were charging fees only a tiny fraction of what Avalon tries to charge you) so the whole thing seemed like a huge scam to me and, according to the local news station, illegal. Again, not something I would expect from a 'luxury' building.

It seems to me that if Avalon wants to be a bit more successful with these New Rochelle buildings (I, for one, would consider 7 out of 10 reviews [almost 9 out of 10 for the Avalon building next door] being negative to be quite a failure and a strong hint for potential residents to look elsewhere) then it seems clear that they either need to recognize the fact that these buildings are not up to the standard to be called 'luxury' and stop branding them as such, or they need to totally overhaul everything about these places to make them live up to what's advertised. However as things stand at the moment it's a total rip-off. I join the many others that are literally counting the days until our leases are up and we can escape this nonsense.

If you operate a non-luxury building, advertise it as a 'luxury' building and charge luxury prices then what you get is the sort of reviews found on this site! ;-)

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/21/2008
Actually, a $35 credit card fee doesn't sound that bad. Was that for rent? What you don't realize is that the credit card company charges the landlord a hefty transaction fee which is the reason why many landlords don't accept credit card payments. One of the reason I am looking at Avalon is because they accept credit card rental payments. Even with the transaction fee this is a good way to rack up airline miles.
From: Anonymous	Date: 02/17/2009
"Even with the transaction fee this is a good way to rack up airline miles." Ermmm... this statement alone only highlights that you haven't got a clue. If you're charged $35 every time you make a rent payment then, even if you get a bunch of airline miles, you'll end up paying far more in fees that it would cost to just purchase the same airline ticket with cash!

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