This office staff is horrible. They are nice and great until you move in. Once you are in, they forget that they make their money from the people paying rent to live here. When my wife and I moved here, we thought it was so nice. The staff was great, the ducks seemed harmless, and the apartment that they show you was off the charts nice.

Wow! Were we in for a surprise! Since then it has been all down hill, and we have been looking forward to our contract expiring for the longest time! (I would be interested to see what their retention rate actually is! It's gotta be low!)

1st problem -- After we signed the contract, (which is the official time that they begin to treat you horribly) we requested to just see the apartment that we were to move into. We just want to make sure that we aren't doing something stupid. Now, I understand that if someone was living in it, that we wouldn't be allowed to go in. However, they said that we couldn't go in because it was being prepared for our move in. I tried my hardest to take a look, and they just wouldn't do it. This should have been the red-flag!!

2nd problem -- The security of this place is horrible. I used to live at a place where the security gate was actually a security gate. This gate acts as more of a deterant than actual security. It would be nice to know that I live in a secure place. In fact, the apartment above us for the first 5 months would have parties late into the night (I would go up at 2:00am and request that they be quiet). They would have between 10-20 people there each night, running up and down the stairs, shaking the whole building basically, and playing their music as loud as possible. I requested office staff to help out, to no avail. I then resorted to calling the police after the 10:00pm quiet time hours, which would solve the problem for the short term. But whenever I would talk to the staff, they would give me the answer that our quiet hours start at 10:00pm, and they would warn the people but that they can't do anything else. They were very UNHELPFUL!

3rd problem -- As mentioned in posts here, the duck crap is all over the place! It had been honestly at least 1 week (probably 2) that our sidewalk was totally destroyed by a family of ducks. We would literally have to tip-toe our way past the mailboxes to the stairs so that we didn't get crap all over our own floors. So I called the office and requested that they clean up our sidewalk, and our great (note humor!) office staff suggested that I clean it on my own!!! I was beside myself, and of course couldn't believe that they would say something like that. I understand that the ducks are uncontrollable to a point, but I would think that if there are special requests that they could make that happen.

4th problem -- The walls of this place are THIN! I can hear basically every word that is said by our neighbors. So not only do you not get any peace and quiet due to the ducks, if people walk, talk or sneeze around you, you hear it. No privacy at all!

5th problem -- Maintenance people are worthless here. It's actually pretty funny, I drive through often in the afternoon and they will be sleeping under the shade of the trees. They hire and pay for only the top people here! Then when they come in to work on your place, first of all they don't do ANYTHING after 6:00pm, so you either must be home or allow them to enter and risk things being stolen! I was here when they came to fix my shower, and I showed this guy what was wrong, and he basically just shoved his body into it to put it in place. Now it makes funny noises when I open and close it! These guys are useless! When we first moved in, they were re-doing the counters that had been cut up pretty bad by previous residents. They told us that it would be best to not stay over night here after they did the work, so we complied. However, I went in while they were working on the counters because I needed to grab some things, and the guy working who was supposed to be working was watching my TV!!! It was unbelievable. So I have tried to be here whenever they do work now, no trust at all with the maintenance staff... there are other instances, but I have been going on now for a long time!

6th problem -- The staff sucks, they could care less about anyone here, and they don't like helping people when you go in to the office. It seems as if we are a burden on them. Our contract is coming due in a few months, so I gave my 60 days notice as is requested. I guess I should mention that I am on automatic withdrawal for monthly rent. Well, unknowingly I was discontinued from the automatic withdrawal program, and 3 days into the new month I was given a notice on my door of 3 days to pay rent $65 or vacate. It happened to be a week that my wife has been in the hospital and so I actually was just dropping by the house to pick up the mail. Thankfully I did, otherwise we might have come home to see new residents living here! So I called the office to see what had happened. The office staff person (I have names, but will withhold them) said that my ACH was cancelled, and that my rent was due immediately the late fee. I told her that I was never informed that they would cancel the automatic withdrawals, and she continued to say that it was written on the paper when I signed the 60 day notice. Now, I understand that I should know what I am signing, however this 60 day notice (it's only a 60 day notice!) had all kinds of stuff that you were supposed to read, and then sign. I read over it briefly, obviously missing the point about my automatic withdrawal being cancelled. I then spoke to the manager of this office and she would not even listen to me. She wouldn't even consider making a concession on my behalf. It's as if they really honestly like to simply stick it to their own customers. I have never been involved in such an operation or had such problems with a landlord. They think that they are more important than anyone, and they obviously don't think that keeping their residents happy will make for a nice environment.

This letter is being copied and pasted to the corporate offices that manages this complex (www.NALS.com). I hope anyone that has problems with these people will report the problems, because as much as posting this message helps, it is limited. The actual management of this place needs to know what is going on and how their customers are being treated.

Contact Person: -----------
Email: residentrelations@nals.com
Phone: 1-------------
Address: 920 Garden Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101

User Responses
From: cobble_management	Date: 09/05/2008
We apologize for the miscommunication and would like to clear up a few issues you have posted above. Problem 1 (from above): It is our policy that a future resident is not able to view an apartment before it's available move in date. Before the lease was signed, you had the opportunity to view the apartment. We want residents to look at their new home before they move in because we don't want surprises for anyone on their move in date. We like for things to go as smoothly as possible so you will enjoy your stay here. Problem #2 (from above): We have not implied that the front gate is a security gate and we are unable to stop other's from entering while the gate is open. Everytime a concern is filed against another resident we do send out notices to the resident in question. If we do not hear back from the resident that has filed the concern, we assume the matter has been resolved. Problem #3 (from above): We did get your concern regarding the duck feces. We did have a special request for maintenance to stop by that area twice a week to spray off the sidewalks. The wildlife is a challenge in itself and it is important to us to maintain the sidewalks however, we put resident work orders on first priority. Problem #4 (from above): This is the first we have heard of this concern. Problem #5 (from above): We pride ourselves on the quality and efficient work that is done by our maintenance staff. We had an outside vendor resurface your counter tops and after you informed us about the incident we immediately discontinued their services and found a different more professional company to handle the resurfacing. Problem #6 (from above): We strongly recommend reading a document prior to signing it no matter what the case is. It is unfortunate that the office staff is subjected to yelling and name calling over something that could have been avoided by just reading the documents before it was signed. Unfortuantely we have policies in place that do not allow us to bend the rules. Fair Housing rules do not allow us to make concessions for anyone. We do not have the luxury of making special exceptions for anyone. We do care about our residents but sometimes circumstances that arise will conflict with the lease agreement causing one to become unhappy. Cobble Creek
From: Anonymous	Date: 02/25/2009
I also lived at Cobble Creek Apartments!! Worst Rental Apartments EVER!! The staff were so rude and the previous renter who wrote the letter is EXACTLY DEAD on! Yeah, they will be all nice to until you sign the lease...then after that you get treated like crap. The 1st month I went to pay my rent, I needed to find out how much Exactly I needed to write the check out for. Well I caught her while she was "busy" reading her check returns in the mail stating "I can't believe how much money I made in bonuses last year!" Then she continued to quiz me on how much taxes she would get back the next year. The girls in the office are completely unprofessional. After losing my job, I needed to get out of my lease. The girls in the office told me I would need to pay for 2 months of rent (60 days notice) and $1400 to move out plus a $150 concession fee. I asked if we got to stay there during the two months and they told me no! I tried for a week to try and talk to a manager and the girls in the office came up with a different excuse of why they couldn't call them. This was just one of the MANY things that are not explained but fine printed in your lease. PLEASE, use your judgement wisely and listen to the people who have spent there hard earned money at this place. You can COUNT on being treated disrespectfully. I hope that this will help you with making your decision on whether to rent here or not.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates