I am considering submitting a complaint to the BB regarding the management of this particular property. My husband and I feel that we were treated unfairly by the manager of this property, Melissa. I have never been one for claims of this sort, but it's unfortunate that business is run this way. My husband and I are a Caucasian couple in our late twenties. We are both young professionals, well-dressed and very kind people. We visited the property on our lunch break a few months ago hoping to get some information and potentially see a unit. We were looking to move closer to downtown and this looked like nice, well-kept property. The normal manager was on vacation and someone else helped us. She showed us a unit and was quite friendly. We needed to take another look at the place a few weeks later to help with our decision. This time Melissa, the manager was there. Immediately Melissa turned her nose up at us. It could have been our age or the fact that we are from the North. She began to speak negatively about the apartments, referring to their age several times as if to deter us away from wanting to rent the property. She then took a long phone call and while we waited we looked through a photo album. We noticed that most of the residents were older and white. It seems that this is the type of residents they strive for. Once she came back she once again was not trying to sell the apartments again. We asked about seeing a 2 bedroom unit and she proceeded to tell us "that they were booked to capacity and had nothing to show." That's funny because we looked at another place a few weeks ago that sure looked like a show apartment. She told us that an apartment would be empty in a few weeks and available for showing. She would call us then to set something up. That was November and we have not heard anything. A few weeks ago I e-mailed the property manager and was told something entirely different and was not told about the "age of the apartment" or the "lack of w/d hookups in some units." Funny how that works. Another poster here commented on this place being racist as well. If you see two posts about that, I'd think twice.

User Responses
From: kayleigh00	Date: 03/04/2008
im confused. You say that you're a white couple and that the majority of the pictures show white people, where is the racism you're having an issue with?
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/11/2008
I don't understand how this is an issue of race. Like the above post states, if you're white and the majority of the pictures you saw were of people that were white, where does the racism come into play? I lived in Granby Oaks for a time and Melissa is also white, so I don't really see the validity of your statement. Also, despite what you may have seen in pictures, I honestly do not think that racial descrimination is an issue at the complex. During my time there, I had neighbors who were Asian, ------- American, Indian, Mexican, and Caucasian. I will not deny that many of the elderly individuals within the community are predominantly white. However, that is only a small swatch of a larger community. As for feeling that the apartments were presented negativley to deter from renting, I would also have to say that I feel that statement lacks valid substance. Based on my own experience, it sounds like Melissa told me some of the exact same things. She informed me several times upon showing me different areas of an apartment that the complex was dated. She immediately explained that the one bedroom apartments did not have washer/dryer connections and that even some of the two bedroom apartments did not either. If anything, I felt like she was being completely honest with me in an effort to make sure I was aware of what I was potentially considering as a future place of residence, not purposefully trying to ward me off from renting property there. Are you honestly saying that you wouldn't want to know these details before leasing an apartment? Consider for a moment that some people may prefer a newer complex with certain conveniences. Lack of a washer/dryer connection may be enough to sway the decision of some to rent elsewhere. Lastly, I can tell you that you weren't shown a "show apartment" because Granby Oaks doesn't have them. You will be shown an apartment as it becomes available because vacancies aren't as prominent there as they are in other areas. Trust me. I know. When I visited Granby Oaks for the first time, Melissa showed me an apartment that had just been painted and cleaned. The previous resident had recently moved out. I wasn't 100% ready to move at the time, but decided I wanted to go back to view the apartment again a week or so later to get a better feel for the complex and the apartment's floor plan. When I asked Melissa if I could see the apartment again, she informed me that it had been leased since I saw it and that someone was already moving in. She explained that she showed what was available, when it was available because they didn't just keep vacant apartments around for showing. Good business sense and a waste of space if you ask me. However, when I expressed serious interest in moving there, she made a point to keep me informed about apartments as they became available. I would recommend Granby Oaks anytime. If my job had not taken me elsewhere I would be renting there still.
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/26/2008
I think you mean age discrimination. And yes, I felt some of that too when I was thinking about renting from there. I was a 20 y/o college student at USC. I happened to watch her (a lady, don't know her name) show an elderly couple around. I was waiting inside. She was very kind and offered them food. But with me, we sat down, had a 5 minute conversation about the apartment, and then left. She told me there was no room to show...but I ran into that before, so it didn't really surprise me, then. But, looking back and reading this, I understand where you are coming from.
From: Anonymous	Date: 04/10/2008
I think the point of the post was to point out that a lot of the locals, although friendly on the outside, are still fighting in the 'war' against northerners such as myself. I felt the same way when looking at an apartment here and other places around cola when I still had 'yankee' plates on my car. I bought a condo instead so I didn't have to deal with it anymore. Now only if I could put a 'we won, so just deal with it' sticker on my audi.
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/12/2008
I think its funny how your complaining because she actually did her job. In case you didn't realize- the age of the apartments and the availability of washer/dryer hookups tend to be serious issues with some people and in the interests of the Fair Housing Act all Leasing Agents must be consistent when showing prospects. If they mention something to someone, they have to mention it to everyone (unless the prospect asks directly for specific information). And since those two things are an issue most people would like to know about, well of course she going to mention it! Furthermore, if you were all you claim to be then shouldn't you know the difference between racial and age discrimination? Also please note that some former/current residents who have posted to recommend Granby Oaks are USC students- they tend to be younger than 'late twenties'. So much for your claim of discrimination. Finally, as mentioned above Granby Oaks doesn't *have* show apartments. You likely saw one that was ready for move-in and it was leased between the time you saw it and the time you came back. Granby Oaks doesn't tend to have much of a turnover so when something comes open, it goes fast. I think the real issue here is that you wanted her to bend over and kiss up to you and hand you everything on a silver platter. When that didn't happen, you got all upset and screamed discrimination: and incorrectly I might add. Frankly lady, you need to get over yourself. The world doesn't revolve around you, and your 'issues' wouldn't have even been so if you were capable of being a little more understanding of others and a little more patient. If you lost out, you've no one to blame but yourself. BTW, its just as much, if not more, your responsibility to keep up with Leasing Agents (even if they say they'll call you) simply because they can see up to 12 (or more) prospects a day, and in a few weeks time... well your lucky if they do remember you. Lets add to the fact that she's a Manager, that's a lot more on her plate than what a Leasing Agent has to deal with.
From: ferrellr	Date: 08/02/2008
I am a real estate agent specializing in changing cayce/west columbia renters into home owners. Email me and leave this problem behind you. rferrell@cbunited.com
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/22/2008
This review sounds like what happened to my friend Christina and her husband. She went and looked at these apartments, which is somewhere that they were looking at as well as my fiance and I, and came back and reported an awful experience. This same thing happened to her, so I am wondering if she posted this, or if this is a regular occurrence. Since she is very happy at her current place I don't know. Anyway, she said she got the "yankee treatment" there. She has a very obvious NJ accent, but is as sweet and well-mannered as can be. It's a shame that northerners are treated this way down here because we sure as heck aren't rude to them up north. Her experience was that the lady ignored them for 15 min, talked more negatively about the place than positively and so on. She said that the complex was full of retired white folks, some grad students, some young professionals and some other families and adults mixed in from what she saw. She also said my fiance and I wouldn't fit in because we are a mixed couple and she said the complex was lucky to have "some token" ------- americans just so they could say they don't discriminate. It also couldn't be more obvious that the post two above mine is from Melissa the property manager. Isn't it against the rules for you to post here? I mean come on who else would defend her like that? Maybe you should spend more time actually doing your job than coming on here and posting defending your crappy managerial skills. It's YOUR JOB to call people back and try and rent out the place. My friend or this poster if it's not her had a job of their own and a life of their own. They are supposed to do your job too? You get paid to do what? Treat people unfairly and pick and choose who you rent to based on superficial qualities? I'd say that's real fair and the best decision we made was staying far away from this place. I wouldn't want to deal with this manager.

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