I lived here from summer 2006 to spring 2007. Not only could I not move in at the beginning of the month, moving in felt like such a pain. The freight elevators seem to be always booked, and when I moved in at my reserved time slot, someone else was already using it past their reserved time so we had to share.

Paid 1660 for a 1BR apartment, and plus utilites, cable and all that probably ran the rent close to 1800-1900. Only reason I moved here was for proximity to metro and DC for school. The crystal underground is great to get food and during snow storms to get stuff at the Rite Aid.

For the amount of money I was also paying, I felt like I got jack in terms of amenities. There is a gym yes and a pool, but the laundry services were raised to like $1.75. Sometimes the machines didnt work because of unscheduled outages. Also the building ran into a lot of water outages and hot water outages. This is bad esp. in the morning you have to shower to get to work and there isnt water. Also bad if you have to use the restroom, and there is no water to let you flush. And this would occur at hours at at time and during peak usage periods. Over summer 2006, building lost power several days in a row. Elevators are incredibly slow. Sometimes you gotta wait almost 5-6 mins for 1 of the 4 elevators to reach you. The lobby looks great, but once you go upstairs, the floors and walls are dull and mundane. The parking garage is safe and secure, but when you have repeated problems with the garage card tahts a problem too. I had repeated problems where I would get locked out of the gate because my card wouldn't read, and had to call security to again reset my card. Soem people also dont know how to park in garages. Ie. taking up 2 spaces with one car.

My roommate was scheduled to move out a month before me, and management gave us the wrong form to sign, ultimately causing us now to move out a month early. This is messed up since they gave us the wrong form to sign. Management just said sorry, you signed it. nothing we can do. So now both of us are being forced to leave a month early. We would have been charged an early move out fee too, if I hadn't talked them out of it. Managment simply did not care about my situation.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/30/2007
I get the impression that you probably won't really mind leaving a month early. I see most of the Crystal City apartments get low ratings. Try the Ballston-Clarendon-Rosslyn corridor. It's just as close to DC on the Metro orange line, and the apartments seem to be rated much better
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/02/2007
I don't know what to think. Is it really possible that all the companies owned by Archstone/Charles Smith are portals into Hell and every place owned by Dittmar is out of this world? I really think someone is abusing the service. Not this guy per se, but I'm just disenfranchised with the entire process. Apparently there's like 2 or 3 decent buildings in the entire DC area and everywhere else is complete and utter torture full of rats, bugs, cold water, high rents, small parking spots & construction that no one would ever deign live in.
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/19/2007
There is at least one major difference between Archstone/Smith and Dittmar and that is rent increases. I lived in Crystal Square for two years and my rent went up 230 in that time (170 after the first year and another 60 the next year--after which I moved). On the other hand, I had a friend in a Dittmar building in Courthouse, her rent went up 200 dollars in FIVE years--she actually thought that was a lot until I told her about mine and informed her that the rent she was paying in the Dittmar building after five years was still about a hundred dollars less than they had quoted me for the same model apartment. Conversely, as soon as I gave notice to vacate at Archstone/Smith, my actual apartment was listed on the website for 50 dollars less per month than they were going to charge me as a current tenant.
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/19/2007
I agree with the rent increase comment - my rent went up $200 after my 8 month lease at Crystal Square - the apartment is fine, but that's just crazy.

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