For those who are considering renting at 55 West End Avenue, I would recommend against it. If you're going to pay to live in a doorman building, you want to live in one where the doormen are courteous to you and your guests. I recently had an experience in 55 West End Towers with a doorman who was so unhelpful and nasty that I feel the need to write this review to let people know about it (in case you're wondering which doorman I'm talking about, it's the big fat one with the really pale hair).

I stayed with my friend for a month at his 55 West End Avenue apartment. When I accidentally got locked out (my friend was away for the weekend), the doorman did not let me back into the apartment. I had been coming and going for three weeks, he knew that I was staying with my friend, but he insisted that he needed written permission to allow me back into the apartment.

It was 2:00 in the afternoon, I had no shoes on (I had just stepped out to make a phone call) and yet, instead of just letting me back into the apartment, the doorman made me wait in the lobby until my friend called. Unfortunately, my friend did not get the message and call back until 6:00 in the evening. By that time, the management office had closed so my friend could not give me official permission. So I had to wait around all day with no shoes and then find another place to sleep for the night because I could not get back in the apartment; not only did I have no shoes, I also had no money or i.d on me, which made the whole situation worse. All of this because the doorman would not just do an act of courtesy and let me back in the apartment, when he knew very well that I was a guest and not some random intruder.

This is an example of a power-hungry doorman creating difficulties in peoples' lives --- just because he can. You don't want to spend your money to live in a place where you or your guests will be treated in such a petty, mean-spirited manner.

User Responses
From: star14jen	Date: 07/26/2007
that is unfortunate that you couldn't get back in and had no shoes/money/i.d. however, the nasty doorman- he was actually doing the right thing. It is a law, that if you aren't on the lease, you don't have permission to enter without a lease holder. the mean doorman could have been sued if something went wrong. i know you mentioned he knew you had been staying there, which, you know, if he knew that and took the situation into consideration, yeah, he could have done a generous act..but in all fairness...he was following the law. and probably trying to keep his job.

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