I lived at Whispering Oaks from July 2006 to July 2007 and it was the worst year of my life. Upon moving into the apartment, I was already faced with issues. As we were moving in, the A/C was broken and it was 90 degrees outside. We had to stay the night at my mom's house that night because it was too hot inside the apartment. You'd think that they would check something like that before letting anybody move in. The apartment was also in terrible shape. There were broken shelves in the closet, toothpaste crusted all over the walls, piles of dirt in the window sills (probably from the ant infestation), and there weren't any screens on the windows or screen doors. I called the office wondering about the screens and she said that you have to request them because apartments don't come with screens'! How cheap is that' Seriously. It took about a month for them to get them to me. While we were living there, our dishwasher never worked even though we had maintenance in to look at it like 10 times. You'd think that they would just replace the thing. So we had to do dishes by hand the entire time we lived there. We lived right by the pool and there would be parties all night long. I even had to go outside one night because I had to work at 5am and there were about 12 people sitting in lawn chairs RIGHT outside my bedroom window, just carrying on all loud at 2am. The little kids like to ring doorbells and run. There were always loads of trash littering the grounds. I'm talking, dirty diapers, tampons, whole trash bags just chillin under a bush. You could tell that the people who live at these apts. are just trashy people who care nothing for the appearance of there community. The access gate was completely smashed open one night when this schmuck decides to drive through it and tear it down, taking out a tree and a couple of bushes as well. It took about 3 months for anybody to do anything about it, and as soon as they finally started to repair the gate.....some other drunk plows it down again. There were always people driving too fast in the parking lot. There was a stabbing, a car jacking, a murder and the guy who lived next door to me beat his wife all the time. Oh, and did I mention the crazy guy who would always walk around with just a t-shirt and his underwear' And I mean breifs not boxers. There were always random drunk people just wandering the complex. Twice when we came home in the evening, we saw a guy peeing in the bush near the laundry room. I definitely did not feel safe there, at all! Anyways, I can really go on and on about this place. If you guys are looking for a super nice place to live, go check out the Audubon apts. That is where I moved after I got out of Whispering Oaks. I've been a year now and absolutely love this place. It's very clean. I have never seen garbage laying around. It's very quiet with lots of very respectable people who live here. Lots of green grass and pretty landscaping. The management is awesome. I've never seen a cop car here. Never heard loud music or parties. I love it here. I finally found an apartment that I can call home.

By the way, I had already posted a review of Whispering Oaks when I first moved in. It was titled "been here a month and already want to move". I just felt the need to add a little to that review and also suggest a nicer place to live.

Manager's Response
From: Manager	Date: 07/16/2008
This is a great forum for personal opinions. I am glad to hear that you have been happy in your new home and I regret that this has not been the case while you were at Whispering Oaks. I can assure you that we have long term residents who have been happy at this community but unfortunately, apartment ratings is typically used for venting purposes only. It is seldom that positive reviews are posted. Our maintenance team take work orders as they come in and any emergencies always take priority. The maintenance staff take pride in taking care of work order issues as soon as possible and to the best of their abilities. Please note that as I get reports of any unauthorized activities, I do address on an individual basis. Unfortunately, I cannot control the actions of others. I do greatly appreciate information given to us so again I can address as needed. Thank you again for your opinion. I hope that some of our current, long term and happy residents will also take advantage of this open forum.

User Responses
From: eviljedi25	Date: 07/23/2008
To the Manager; I must take my hat off for the very professional responses to all of the comments posted on this site... some good and some (ok mostly) bad. I am very impressed by your prose and demeanor when addressing some of these issues as most of us surely would have lost our composure. However, being a former resident of Whispering Oaks, I regrettably have no choice but to favor the negative reviews. I understand that you have a job to do and part of said job is to repel any and all negative publicity away from your employer. Particularly in a public forum. I also understand that, as you correctly noted, for every praise there's a dozen denunciations. I am under the assumption that you do NOT live within the complex grounds. I may be incorrect on this one but I'm taking a stab in the dark. The grounds for that assumption, I'm afraid, is that it appears you have a somewhat narrow (read: limited) picture of what's really going on around you. Here are my grounds for this assumption as well as some points worthy of note: 1) I was what, in Whispering Oaks terms, would be considered a long-time resident. In fact, I lived in two different apartments. With that said, you can rest assured that I am not going to lambast the complex for the entirety of this message. Point in fact: Whispering Oaks does have its share of positives that ought not be glossed-over or discounted, especially relative to its neighbors. This is the reason why I chose to live there for the time I did as I'm sure is also the reason why so many of the folks posting comments chose Whispering Oaks in the first place. Whispering Oaks is situated in a great location within one of the most affluent and desireable sections of the city. It offers a decent selection of very spacious floor plans to choose from. Residents get plenty of square-footage for their money. HEB and other conveniences are within walking distance without being "in your face." Nearby schools are bearable. The complex has a great recreation room with internet access. The offices are very attractively decorated. Lastly, one cannot forget the staff at the 'Oaks as being very dynamic, and eager to help. So what could all of this fuss be about? Frankly Sir/Ma'am, all of these good points have an equally, or greater, evil that counteracts them. One point I would like to stress before I proceed; in regards to the comment "It is seldom that positive reviews are posted;" as a manager, surely you understand that in this type of forum, there can only be two possible positive situations for an apartment complex in this website: 1) an apartment complex with VERY few comments (positive or negative for the reason you stated) or 2) an overwhelming amount of good reviews. A complex with little to no reviews can indicate a number of things: It may not be established enough (new), may not have the type of resident that has/can afford/cares about the internet, or may not have scored badly/well enough to merit a post. Whispering Oaks, however, has a fair share of reviews (31) with only 26% being positive posts. Furthermore, an ever-present theme one cannot afford to overlook is that a person would not take the time out of their day to look up a review site, read through the reviews, and post a lengthy message to the world at large if they felt indifferent about the place. Rest assured; everyone that has posted, albeit some more articulate and logical than others, feels very strongly about what they've experienced. This is not, as you inferenced, a website for merely ranting; it is indeed Whispering Oaks' "report card" as it were. As I understand it, you are the manager of a business. Your business is to provide a product as well as service and support for that product. Perhaps the question a manager ought to ask themselves whenever he/she is faced with such feedback is: Are my customers wholly satisfied with the product I am selling them? It appears that; judging by these ratings...the ratings given to you by possible, current, and past residents; Whispering Oaks is not doing so well. At the outset, all of your responses are very promising, and inspire hope to those who are at the end of their rope and frustrated with Whispering Oaks to take a step back and reflect upon how maybe they are missing some small detail. But, and perhaps my logic is somewhat flawed, is it possible that, if you first sifted through all of the libelous comments, there exists some common complaints that may actually deserve some serious attention? For example: isn't it about time Whispering Oaks did something about the substandard air-conditioning units which; when combined with very poor insulation, large square-footage, and large air-space (in the case of lofts), add up to an exorbitant amount of money in energy bills? I hope that by the time I post this the security gates that were a selling point in the Whispering Oaks brochures have been repaired/replaced. I say "hope" because for the few years I lived there, they were functioning for maybe two weeks (no exaggeration). I happen to become good friends with some of the maintenance personnel at Whispering Oaks while I lived there and can honestly say that they do their very best...rather they do the very best with what's made available to them. I hope that apartments have been made more secure from theft/intrusion by repairing the rickety sliding patio doors that couldn't keep out a strong wind much less a burglar (which there were plenty of when I lived there), or by permanently blocking off sections of attic space between second/third story apartments (one can get from one apartment to another by going through the attic of one unoccupied unit to an occupied one... a fact brought to the attention of management by a few tenants while I lived there), or by permanently patching the endless holes in the cheaply-built picket fences around the complex with more substantial gating or fencing that wont rot, mildew, or otherwise fall apart; or by installing new/repairing old lighting around the complex so it doesn't feel like a Gotham City alley after dark when walking your dog or checking your mail, or... All things considered, a person must make an informed decision when deciding where he/she will hang their hat. I, for one, made the decision to stay at Whispering Oaks for as long as I did because it was all a compromise, a give and take sort of thing. I, at one point, could afford to live with/without the items mentioned above. In reality, for you who are looking to this website for the ultimate answer to your question as to whether or not to live here, it is all relative to you and no answer will exactly fit YOUR needs or situation. Some have had good experiences, some bad. You must read between the lines and ask what is relative to you and what compromises you are willing to make. Do you mind loud music at 3am? Must you live in the most secure/safe spot in the city? Must your kids attend the best schools? Are you scared of a little bit of heat in your house/or a high electric bill? Conversely, Do you need 1200 sqft for less than $1200? Is it important to you not to travel 10 minutes to the store after work? Do you want to keep your pets? etc... In my opinion, for the size of the complex, size of apartments, price per square foot, floor plans, and part of town; I give Whispering Oaks a C-. It's not the best by a far cry, but also nowhere near the worst. On the other hand, ...Mr./Mrs. Manager... I score the management of Whispering Oaks at a generous D . Why? Because at the level of apartment complex Whispering Oaks should be, with the same criteria mentioned above... you are regrettably the most eloquently spoken/written, substandard, super composed, defensive, professionally under-developed, narrow-minded, "C.Y.A.-centric" manager I've yet to come across. Perhaps, the concerns bubbled-up by these residents should reach the shores of an owner, share-holder, etc. instead of the person so eagerly and elegantly answering all of these posts. I imagine they have a tangible vested interest in how consumers view their investment instead of the detached disposition and skewed sense of loyalty you pass off as genuine concern for the resolution of the so-called "venting" of residents. P.S. Am I right... do you live in the complex? I wonder...

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