Avalon Autumn Woods is located in the Fairlakes area which is what drew me to it in the first place. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the community. Don t get influenced by the recently decorated leasing office, model apartment or the staff that will help you BEFORE you sign the lease.

Complete this list of companies/ agencies which either have the worst customer service or which care about their vested interests more than the society-

Enron, Halliburton, Adelphia, AOL, FEMA, WorldCom, Sprint and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. My choice for this blank would be AVALON BAY Communities.

What initially drew me to this community was the low rent and spacious apartments. But, believe me, you are better off staying in a slightly smaller apartment with slightly higher rent. Read on to know what I mean.

Avalon Communities uses-
1. Bait-and-switch tactics
2. Have extremely poor customer service
3. Now they also have very high rents.

P O S I T I V E S
1. Located in Fairlakes
2. Apartments slightly more spacious than some other competitors.
3. Apartments are being renovated with new shiny appliances (it s another issue that they have chosen black appliances this time to hide the poor maintenance. My white appliances had become yellow when I moved in)
4. No need to set the alarms. Your neighbors will wake you up (even at night). You can also sync up your schedule with your neighbors since you can hear them talking, taking shower and walking on the creaking floorboards.
5. If you trying to give up smoking, drinking or clubbing, this is the place for you. They will fleece every last penny from you and you will spend so much time trying to resolve customer service problems that you won t have time for anything else.

N E G A T I V E S
1. Very poor customer service. Their corporate office has shamelessly claimed (I have an email to prove it) that their rents reflect the inconveniences residents face.
2. Bugs in the apartments and mold in the bathroom. They have not been able to fix it.
3. Unsafe- Poorly lit, resident profile questionable, frequent police cars (not cruising but coming to address complaints of residents)
4. Parking is an issue
5. Unsafe for children- Police cars are one clue. Other things include speeding residents and blind corners.
6. Not Peaceful- you can always hear your neighbors through paper-thin walls (loud music, loud parties, loud arguments, neighbors screaming at each other etc).
7. Avalon Autumn Woods is renovating the community resulting in loud banging/hammering noises. Each apartment renovation takes 3 weeks and they have recently started renovating this community with a couple of hundred apartments. Now you calculate the number of days you will hear the noise. As pointed out in #1 above, I was specifically told by Avalon corporate office that noise will be there and it is factored in the low rent that residents pay.
7. Unhygienic and an eye sore- Overflowing trash compactors. Many residents don t bother picking up their pet s poop.
8. Customer loyalty does not matter. Previous residents have been told to move out or move to renovated apartments with 20-30% higher rents.
9. Rent increases significantly every time you renew.
10. Have to pay amenity fee EVERY YEAR when you renew lease.
11. Earlier they had relatively modest rents but now they have high rents. $1300 for a one bedroom in a community with the above negatives. Totally not worth it.

Just don't rely on my review. Read other reviews as well.

Firstly, these guys have a strange policy. Say you need to sign a new lease and you reach the office just 30 seconds past the closing time, you won't be allowed to sign the document. It doesn't matter if the office is open and the entire staff is sitting there. Isn't that weird '

They showed me a model apartment and promised a similar apartment. At that time the rent was lower than neighboring communities. When I moved in, I found my apartment was completely crappy- appliances were rusted, nails coming out of various places, closets were jammed, counter-tops were badly scratched etc.

These guys have a so-called move-in guarantee which means that if you don't like the apartment you can move out in 30 days. They also (supposedly) have a repair guarantee to fix problems in one day (yeah right !!). I spoke to the manager and was told not to move it. She promised that ALL issues will be fixed asap. I trusted the manager but nothing happened for months despite reminders and repeated promises. My job required me to travel and later I started facing health problems (not yet sure if the mold in the bathroom was responsible). As such, I was not able to follow-up.

When I approached the community management again, the original manager had been transferred to another community. The new temporary manager promised to help me but again, NOTHING HAPPENED. A couple of months later, a new manager came in. When I approached him, I was told that my move-in checklist had mysteriously disappeared. Fortunately I had maintained a copy. I approached the corporate office. Now I was told that Avalon software was changed and previous records had been lost. Is that really a resident's problem ' I don't think so. They refused to try to make up for all the trouble I had been through and almost a YEAR after I had moved in, they finally fixed the problems.

Soon, my dishwasher was leaving plates greasy, the water heater dispensed cold water and I could feel the nails below the carpet; and I had to deal with this nonsense all over again.

Recently Avalon Autumn Woods started renovating the community and I had to endure continuous loud noises/banging for a couple of months. When I approached the community manager, I was told I could sit by the pool or in the clubhouse. Am I paying the rent to sit by the pool ' I WANT TO STAY IN MY APARTMENT. Again, I approached the corporate office. Believe it or not, they told me that the Avalon Autumn Woods rents take into account the inconveniences residents will have to face. huh '' What is that supposed to mean ' I was unable to use my apartment for most of the day for a couple of months and they shamelessly tell me that it's okay and factored into the rent (I have emails to prove this). When I asked them to tell me where this was written in the lease agreement, they had no answer.

Avalon management severely restricts and controls access to their supervisors and senior management. Normally, if a customer has a problem and the manager has not been able to resolve it, the customer can approach a supervisor. Avalon only allowed me to approach a certain level of management. After that I was told I cannot speak to anyone else (because she would not allow it). HUH '

They were callous and shameless enough to tell me to feel free to pursue other external alternatives (e.g. legal alternatives, better business bureau, Virginia attorney general). Now you see what I mean '''

Parking is generally a problem if you come after 7-8 pm and the community is poorly lit. Security is an issue. There are surely some good residents here but the general quality is suspect. I see police cars frequently. I would not advice anyone - especially women and children - to venture out late at night in this community.

I have personally faced noise problem from some of my neighbors at all times of the night- loud music, loud parties, loud arguments, neighbors screaming at each other etc. In the middle of the night, you can even hear conversations through paper-thin walls. I know the schedule of my neighbors because I can hear them talking, taking shower and walking on creaking floorboards.

This is also NOT SAFE FOR CHILDREN because of reasons above speeding residents and blind corners. Additionally, I have almost had head-on collisions many times.

Avalon Bay Communities have almost non-existent customer service and Autumn Woods is one of the worst examples. There is way too much aggravation staying in Avalon Autumn Woods. No wonder I see tons of vacant apartments. STAY AWAY !

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/02/2007
We used to live at Autumnwoods and it looks like management is still up to their old tricks of "losing" copies of documents. Ours was a lost copy of the signed lease and they wanted to increase the rent after we all signed it. Uh, hello? This is a huge corporation and you manage to "lose" copies of legally binding documents? If you live here, document, document, document! Make sure you get copies of the documents you sign.
From: Hello1983	Date: 10/09/2007
I totally agree this is not a place for families with children. Cars speed through stop signs, and I almost got hit twice by a car while pushing my baby in the stroller. Staff people are inconsiderate they leave all sorts of things outside of your door while doing renovations which isn't safe for children. They have a rusty old little swing set that is about to collapse which they have no intention of renovating. I have nails sticking out of my carpet which is very on unsafe for my infant when she is crawling on the carpet. I complained to maintence many times and finally when they came to fix it, they did a quick fit. The following day the nails came out and there is a carpet lift. I also agree there is mold in the bathroom. Staff is rude and I mean particularly the maintence supervisor and mangers. Also, there is this one recent new hire maintence guy who is as ghetto as can be. They must of picked him off the street because he is rude and lacks people skills. You also have a butch of snobs that work in the leasing office. They are giving me the boot because they are going to renovate this apartment and they want to charge me $200 more for the same apartment renovated which bring us to $1610 a month. This apartment is not worth the price so we are out of her. I am happy to say that I will be leaving next month.

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