I have lived at the Bristol for nearly 2 years now, and I have to say I have grown increasingly more unhappy. I am a college student, though I do not get a reduced price, so my rent for the smallest 1 brm is outrageous! I don't even have a damn bathtub! In fact, I have found more reasonable rent in cities twice the size.
In terms of safety, while you are in the complex you might feel some comfort, but come night fall if you walk outside the gate you are risking your life. It is true that anyone can follow a car in. Also, in the past year or so parking has gotten much worse. Unless you arrive before a certain time you end up parking on alternate floors than you live. It can be a nightmare on some weekends. At this point I would say a quarter to fifty percent of the cars are not of residents.
The ad says the Bristol is "pet friendly", but what they should say is that they are friendly towards the money they receive if you have a pet! Nothing about it is pet friendly. If it rains, and it does alot, you can't even walk your animal around the grounds because it transforms into a retention pond. Residents don't pick up poop, and it says there for months. It's disgusting, and after this winter the landscaping looks horrible. Now they have even tried to have residents play Personal Investigator with each other and rat each other out for not walking their pet in the "designated" areas, which I explained are impossible because to do so I would have a muddy mess of a pet every time I went out!
NOISE! Ugh! First of all I have what sounds like a dance club above me. Worst of all they play awful music with bass pounding at random hours of the day and night with no regard for neighbors. More importantly, this past year the management failed to let residents know that they would be essentially under construction for the entire year! Instead they would put occasional flyers in the door knocker, which would block the peep hole, and claim a 2 week construction cycle for some unnecessary project. Too bad those came for 9 months straight! I was woken up to drilling, a man washing the outside of my bedroom window, etc. Not to mention when they did repairs to the garage there was considerably less parking, sometimes no spaces left, and it was impossible to get in and out.
This management makes EVERYTHING the residents fault. There is no accountability. Important notices will be left in the cracks of doors for anyone to take. They are LIARS, and the managers come and go without any warning. Get EVERYTHING in writing. They have a ridiculous 60 day notice policy, which in essence nullifies your lease agreement, but they are too stupid to realize that. If you don't give them 60 days notice that you are leaving on the date you signed then you will pay "market price" which is a bull ---- made up quote, for the remainder. 60 days is an insane amount of time to "get the apt ready" for a new tenant. I am dreading the move out, and I will be gone nearly a month before I will stop paying. The whole process is backwards like everything in Memphis, but particularly at the Bristol. All they care about is getting your money.
Don't try to get any answers from the office staff. While all very sweet, they are useless. They don't even understand the policies they preach, and they are not given any authority. They are basically messengers and gatekeepers for Sentinal the leasing company. As mentioned before they "can't" show you the apt prior to the deposit, and they DON'T know the dimensions. I was told my place was a certain size, and it clearly wasn't. I had to return furniture that didn't fit!
I came to these apts because they were the only ones I had physically seen prior to moving to Memphis. If I had to do it all over again I can promise you I would be somewhere else. DON'T TAKE YOU CHANCES ON THIS PLACE, TRUST ME!

User Responses
From: London1492	Date: 04/12/2009
Yeah, I finally escaped that hellish place. Way over priced. Would not suggest to anyone. Very deceptive from the street view. Thought it would be awesome but it wasn't. I could echo much of what you stated but it would be pointless for me to do so. And I don't know about you, but the neighbors weren't friendly. With residents in such close proximity to one another, ironically, everyone kept to themselves. Seriously, I can't think of a single thing I miss about that place!!

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