Windsor Encore Apartments — Attraction in Vinings

I resided there for 13 months and recently moved, happily, to a new apartment. I understand that some of the details included in this message may seem trivial, but when added together the sum leads me to believe that staying at the Encore is a waste of money.

First, there was a broken fiber optic cable, so access to the Internet was initially unavailable from my ISP. Also, there was no cellular phone service from Verizon. So I had no phone and no Internet upon arrival. While this seems only a minor nuisance to many, I work from home and need both, or at least one, to complete my work. I estimate it took at least 2-3 months to get that issue resolved.

The phone and Internet were issues 1 and 2. The third issue was the ants. I had an infestation of ants upon moving in. They were throughout the cabinets, refrigerator, and stove. When I contacted The Encore about pest control, they literally had a guy show up with a can of bug spray. I asked how was he going to treat tens of thousands of ants with one can of spray. He said he would just spray it everywhere he could. At this point, only a week in the brand new apartment, I was already regretting this decision to live there. On a side note, if you are reading this and have an ant problem, use the Terro ant bait that comes in the containers that look like little plastic hand-i-snacks. The ants come, eat the bait, and kill the nest. It worked great.

The parking garage situation at The Encore is ridiculous. Maybe this is due to the spaces which are used up by cars that are either broken down, or sitting idle with one, two, three, and even four flat tires.

The roof and pool area was really nice. I don’t have too many negative things to say, however, if you invited more than two guests to the pool, they would ask you to leave. I have never once seen the pool so crowded or over occupied that an actual two person max rule should be enforced. If fact, I’ve had more than one resident state that they were asked to leave because they had more than two guests and the pool area was not even that crowded. So if you invite two people over, and they bring their child, be aware you cannot use the pool!

The reason you will get to know your neighbors is because you will see them regularly during fire alarms. I travel a bit so I probably spent about 50% of my nights at home. I can remember many false alarms going off late at night, early in the morning, and sometimes a couple of times per day. It is no accident that the alarm that is inside your apartment sound like it is straight out of a horror movie. I can sing you the fire alarm sound and it will drive you mad. This happened so often, we even had a running gag, which we’d state “see you at tomorrow’s false alarm!” The other reason you will get to know your neighbors is because the walls are so thin you can hear conversations, fornicating, and 24/7 dogs howling in the nearest apartments.

The final straw and the reason I am issuing this grievance is the additional rent payment I am being charged. When I signed my lease, I was told I would not need a hard copy as my documents would be accessible online. No big deal. I’m savvy with the Internet. Now, I must say that this is partially my doing as I did not demand a hard copy, nor did I follow up with getting an electronic copy of my lease. I got a notice about 50 days before my lease was up that I needed to give 60 days notice of my intent to move out. Well, gee, you see where this makes very little sense. So, that very day I wrote my letter of intent to move out the day my lease was up. However, The Encore in its entire typical disregard for common sense is charging me well past my move out date. I have not decided if I’m going to pay the extra amount, yet.

It this letter sound like I am being picky, then so be it. Any place that claims to be “offer the best” should be held to such a standard. I hope that if someone is considering residing at The Encore that they will weigh my experience into making...

Be sure to ask about what happened to the first floor about 9-10 months ago. HINT: there was a smell.

BIGGER HINT: i "dropped a number 2" star rating here for a reason.

Fine, I'll tell you... sewer pipes were crushed under the concrete foundation, flooding the entire first floor with, "waste water", as the term was "floated" to the residents from "leaks" in the containment that management tried to put in place surrounding the incident, under as much as 10 inches. Understandably, the owners and property managers didn't want this slimy little work of a PR nightmare to get out about their new property. So informations was very hard to come by about this incident.

The flooding prompted a massive mitigation effort, relocating of occupying tenants, and renovations. All very good things that had to happen.

Hold on, I spoke too soon. Massive isn't really the correct adjective to describe the renovations. See, I didn't really understand what happened to the first floor. I didn't ask questions. My girlfriend and I saw the apartments and thought they were quite lovely. The lipstick and rouge put on over all the cheap and shiny fixtures and sloppy craftsmanship make the units look great, just don't expect use out of them. The area was right next to the battery, which is fantastic by the way, (I'd rate them 5-stars), and was also very convenient for both our work commutes. We moved in and started noticing things on our inspection. Nail holes in wall. Pieces of flooring that didn't quite fit perfectly, the dishwasher didn't work, a door that looked like it had water damage. Etc... small things really, things which management promised they would quickly fix. We actually told them not to worry about anything other than the dishwasher... oh, and the outlets in the second bedroom that were not working.

Then I realized something talking to another person who lived there during the Great Poo Flood of 2017. If there's still nail holes in the wall from the previous tenants hung pictures, water marks on a door that looked like it had been standing in several inches of water, and outlets and appliances not working, not to mention plates and kitchen items still in the top cabinets of the kitchen, then how good of a job on those renovations did the actually do?

I believe they did as good a job on the renovations as they do with their customer service. 2 stars. Lots of window dressing and promises of working, but it's all just sound and fury signifying nothing.

You see. Every time I go to the office, which I'll admit, is quite a lot. The property manager has to ask my name. (I've been there 3 times in 4 hours before, twice because they called me. Same thing every time. This is real.) I'll ask in my most polite tone, when can I get my dishwasher fixed? Her most recent response, after asking my name again, was, "Well, we're waiting for a part to come in because the unit is under warranty. In the mean time, I know it's not what you're paying for, but you have a sink. I promise you, that we'll get right on this as soon as the part comes in."

That was 2 weeks ago.

First off, I'm fairly certain, in the 1910''s here in Atlanta or in developing areas of the world even to this day, when people said or say, "you have a sink," they say it more like, "YOU HAVE A SINK!" I imagine that must be a joyous moment! Not so much in this context I'm involved in. This manager telling me I have a sink to do my dishes is the same thing as them questions my intelligence. Did they not think I knew one possible use of a sink is to wash dishes?

You may ask yourself if they've addressed any of the other issues? Sadly, no. They haven't. We still have a "waste" water damaged door, electrical outlets that don't work, (or can be considered safe for toddlers, depends on which way you look at it), and windows that don't lock. Whoops, forgot about that one earlier.

We're a month and a half into this 14...

Since moving in we have had several unfortunate experiences and have not been impressed with the complex. I want to start with the security concerns because I feel this is most important and a standard expectation for any apartment. There has been a series of breaks in that we found out through talking with fellow residents. It was not until someone's vehicle (Jaguar) was stolen out of the parking garage that the property management sent an email warning everyone to "lock their vehicles". Since then, there has been no sign of improved security and we honestly don't feel save in our home.

They complex is currently under construction and the build quality has proven be be poor largely due to the pace in which they are trying to turn out these units. From our first day of moving in we have had multiple issues with our unit and the overall complex. When we first walked into our (never lived in) unit the floor was dirty, the walls were not fully painted, trim was missing, and our counter tops were chipped in several locations. We chose this complex because it was new and were very disappointed to find all the flaws. During our two months we have had to submit many work orders to address things that were not done correctly during construction. The paint used to cover chips does not match the original paint and property management has offered no other solutions. On staff construction workers are rude to residence, excessively loud, and have made inappropriate comments to my girlfriend. Again, not an environment we are proud to call home.

We recently got our first rain since moving in and water began leaking into our unit and it has been 6 days with no action on repairing our wall. In speaking with fellow residents, roughly 5-8 other apartments experienced water leakage. Not something you would expect when you are paying a premium to live in a brand new luxury community. We have submitted multiple work orders but this issue still persists. When I contacted property management they indicated they would resubmit a work order, but when pulling up our file, they have taken no action.

We were offered a free month when moving in due to the construction and were told this is the best offer they will have; however, shortly after we signed the lease the offer was extend to two free months. I realize it is hard to predict what specials will be coming but we couldn't help but feel frustrated at how shortly after we signed the lease that the new special was offered. Other residents were offered money to assist with move in, gift cards, etc and we received none of these benefits despite moving in to a similar unit around the same time.

Lastly, the parking garage is an accident waiting to happen with no mirrors or ways to see if someone is around the corner. In speaking with a fellow resident they expressed this concern to property management who was not receptive.

When I first moved in a shared pictures with friends and co workers and many came to tour the complex, but now I cannot in good faith recommend this complex. I will end by saying they staff here is very friendly, but with any lease up, their priority is clearly selling units not servicing existing residents. The location is not bad, and the facility's are in fact very nice. I would just caution you to not be too blown away by the superficial features of this complex and take time to check the details and speak with existing residents. If I would have taken my time I likely would not have settled...