I am amazed every time I see people at the rental office filling out leases. A part of me wants to run screaming into the office, "Don't do it! Don't do it!!" And shred the papers and push them out the door, but I hope this review suffices enough to keep you from even stepping foot here in the first place. Don't be fooled by the new fancy rental office or the pretty girls they have working there, most of the residents are unhappy and I can't wait to move out of there. So, my top ten reasons are as follows:

1. Management is professional, but not very effective
Sure they will have a peppy, happy voice when you talk to them. You hang up the phone thinking something is going to get done. But you quickly realize that these people are trained to sound like they're doing something about a situation but really they aren't. I m not sure if it's because they're understaffed or just lazy, but either way, they can surely afford to hire more people to manage three buildings. I once had a huge problem with my apartment and even talked to the head manager Ben. He was nice, but the next day when I saw him, he made no effort to follow up to make sure the work that needed to be done was completed.

2. The construction has been insufferable
Yes, it has gotten better.. but seriously'' It took them MONTHS to redo the hallways (which by the way, went from terrible to mediocre) and we were all woken up for weeks in the early morning. They propped our doors open to paint while we were gone, which means whole hallways were left unlocked at one time. They redid a PERFECTLY fine parking lot which made parking be terrible for days. People were parked in the firelanes, alley, street for days and guess what' The lot looks EXACTLY the SAME. They relined the circular driveways in front of each building and we were all woken up at 7-8am to concrete being drilled. They also like to cut the grass before 8am.

3. What's wrong now'
When I enter my apartment and see a white paper on the floor, I have to say I'm scared. Either the hot water is out, something is broken, something is getting fixed, someone's coming into my apt, some change in policy is happening or some other scary thing. But you never can tell and I must say, these white papers have been popping up more and more frequently. Don t worry though, they say they re sorry at the end of each letter.

4. ALLOCATED UTILITIES!
I know a lot of people have complained about this in previous posts, but this is probably one of the worst things about the Wellington. I went from paying about 25-30 dollars a month to paying a little under 100. I live in a small studio alone, and I have one air convector unit. The first month had some of the winter weather in it, which is why the gas bill was so high. The next month was better bc it was just A/C, but I can't imagine what the winter will be like when the gas is in full use. We're probably looking at about 130 dollar bill. I don't even want to know how much the one-three bedroom people are paying. Wellington changed this because they were probably footing the bill for all the communal areas, but now we are. Out of town for 2 weeks' You turning your ac or heat down makes no difference, bc you're still paying for the guy next door who likes to keep his apartment at 70 degrees.

5. Noise is BAD
This is definitely worse during the summer because people tend to like to congregate outside, but it gets pretty bad, especially if you re a light sleeper. Groups of people will sit outside in the sidewalk, smoke, talk loudly until about 12am, sometimes later if it's the weekend. My neighbor likes to watch TV until 1am every day, which I can hear very well. My other neighbors like to have their baby walk the hallways to play. She screams.. a lot.. and cries.. a lot. Oh and the kicker' There is a group of carpoolers that meet at 8am. How does he let them know he's here' A loud HONK every. morning.

6. Here is your parking space served with a side of dents
Parking is fine at the Wellington. I've never had a huge problem with parking (besides that week when they stupidly decided to repave it for fun), but I have come back to several dings and scratches. It almost makes me want to park further just to avoid this. Some of the spots can be quite narrow, and it seems as if people don t really care if they ding your car.

7. Packages, rent, security guards
The security guard in the north building seems to have a big task on top of the normal ones. He has to hand out parking passes, packages for all three buildings and take care of all the other basic concerns. It seems as if convenience for the management team trumps convenience for the residents. For instance, we used to be able to get packages in each building; now everyone has to come to the north building. This creates long lines, especially after work. Yet, at the same time we have to turn rent into the south building. Why not try and cohesively unite the three buildings a little better instead of having people run from place to place. On top of this, instead of normal apartment buildings that have full-time security, our guard leaves at midnight. So, who do we complain to if someone is being super loud or something is going on' You don't, deal with it.

8. Mold
I was told by one of the construction company employees that a pipe burst in the central building on the 6th floor and the water basically ran down from the 6th all the way to the basement. That means: MOLD. Again, this further shows the idiocy of the Wellington and how they try and get things done but they don't do the best job at it. Who knows what else is being covered up around the apartments.

9. Laundry costs are out the roof
Not only are we already paying for the electricity and water that runs these washing machines, we're also paying an arm and a leg to just wash our clothes. I am fine with the $2/load wash (kind of), but the fact that it costs another $2 to dry is ridiculous. Don't most places charge a quarter for 15 minutes'' What other way are they going to try and squeeze money out of us' Parking' Package pickup' I'm sure they will figure out a way.

10. Fix up the exterior things but forget the important stuff
Yes, they have made some major renovations in the last 6 months. The hallways look better and there is some weird fountain thing. The signs (THE W, how lame) are new and updated and the driveway has brick laid down instead of normal concrete. But how about updating things we as residents actually rely on' Like keyless entry, fix our call systems, fix the water system so we actually get warm water, fix our ac units so that they re not blasting air every 2 minutes, clean up the stairways a bit. There s tons of stuff to do, but they don t really care bc as long as they can get you to sign on the dotted line, you deal with it.

So anyway, I know this has been long, but I hope it helped and I have convinced you to look elsewhere for a place to live. At first I realized you get what you pay for. But now that the rent has gone up, utilities skyrocketing, there is no excuse for so many of the bad things going on here. Don't be fooled by the glossy facade the rental agents give you. Interview some residents and you'll learn the truth quickly enough.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/15/2008
WOW. Thanks so much. I saw a Craigslist ad for a great price, but there is no way I'm going to look at the building now. Thank you for being honest!
From: Anonymous	Date: 11/08/2008
THERE IS ONLY ONE REASON TO MOVE HERE IS LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION AND THE TRANSPORTATION (BUS, ETC.NEAR PENTAGON).

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