Aston Apartments — Attraction in Wake Forest

Aston Apartment Homes in Wake Forest, NC, is where I have chosen to make my home for the the active years of my retirement. The well-kept, attractive buildings, set within a spacious, park-like, wooded tract of land, affords opportunities for pleasant walks through the woods with my wife, or to check the mail, or to walk my canine friend. Life at Aston makes my home feel like a bucolic respite from the traffic and noise of the rest of the research triangle.

Yet, the conveniences of a large city, including shops, restaurants, even a gourmet grocery superstore, Wegman's, a Walmart, and a Sam's Club are all within half a mile of my front door. Then, there is the sense of well-being that comes with knowing that several world class hospitals clinics, and health care centers are nearby.

Aston Apartment living includes first class amenities. A well maintained, climate-controled fitness center with private access for all residents is available around the clock. A family-oriented community center with a salt water pool for the warm summer months is set in a luxurious tropical courtyard. Its covered patio with casual seating areas is ideal for casual conversations or watching a game on television. I can have fun playing a game of billiards or ping-pong, or spending a relaxing morning at poolside, soaking in the warm sun or an afternoon listening to the children play while preparing a family meal in the granite counter top stainless steel poolside grilling ares, which a prove that family recreation is important at Aston.

Besides all this my life is enhanced by having a car-wash, a trash compactor and recycling center right on the property. Keeping my Aston Apartment home in tip top shape was never easier. If something wears out, needs to be repaired or replaced, all I have to to is go online to our convenient community Web page and send an e mail request for maintenance which is normally handled in just a day or two. After the job is done, I have an opportunity to provide feedback so that the job is done right the first time, every time. Nightly doorfront trash and garbage removal gives me the freedom of disposing of an entire bag of household waste five nights per week without having to take it to the compactor myself.

The helpful, friendly staff in the rental office are always available to answer questions or listen to my concerns. Even six months after signing my initial lease, they offer a friendly greeting, smile or wave every time I walk by, making me feel like I'm really important as a resident.

My dog, Buddy can also get plenty of exercise. In addition to all the walkways there is a small dog-agility park. Convenient stations for properly disposing of pet waste, well away from living areas, ensure that our serene surroundings are kept clean for all my fellow community members.

When I chose Aston, did I pick the perfect community for myself and my family?

What do...

The maintenance crew is great. They respond quickly and usually able to correct issues. The only issues that could not be fixed were a dishwasher that occasionally spits out dishwater onto the floor, and a wasp infestation that was coming through the bedroom vent.

The most negative points were related to moving in and moving out. Due to a work transfer, I will be moving out next month, but have found it difficult to hand off my notice, because the office is always closed, and they don't have a drop box.

Moving in, they require you to purchase their internet and cable service. I was OK with the cable service, because in this area, there is no free TV reception, so you won't be able to watch TV without cable service. However, the internet service that they offer is insecure, so I and a few other residents have had to purchase an additional spectrum account to ensure security. When I first moved in, they assigned a password to me, which can not be changed by me. So the office always has access to your internet account. In fact, they screwed up and gave me my neighbor's password, so I was able to view their activity, and we took turns kicking each other off the system, until I decided to get my own internet service. Although I believe that being forced to buy an insecure internet service sounds illegal, apparently it is a common practice in the Wake Forest area. Eventually, I expect to learn about a class action suite related to this.

In response to the owner response, keeping access to everyone's private internet affairs is considered a breech of security and in no way gives you an opportunity to provide better service to your customers. Most employers consider sharing your password , even with your boss, to be a termination offense. It serves nobody except the owner, and could only do so for illegal activity, such as identity theft. You can provide no justification for keeping everyone's password and having a system that doesn't allow residents to change it. Forcing this service onto everyone is an wrong in itself. Using it to spy on your residents is an even greater offense.

As follow up to my move, the only hic-up has been getting my final bill. I requested it a few times to ensure that it was paid on time. I moved out on July 30th, and finally got the bill by email on Aug. 16 along with a threat to be turned over to collections on the same day. The amount seemed correct and fair, however, the itemized list of charges was a mess. To get the final balance where they wanted it, they had to charge me renter's insurance for time after I moved out. This may or may not be a big deal, but a correct itemized list ensures that all financial obligations...

RENTERS BEWARE!! Since Trade Street Residential has taken over (mid January), they have completely ruined this place. While the units are nice and it's in a good area, the staff is almost useless. Upon the transition from Greystar to Trade Street management, they adopted a new payment software. This new software only allows for 1 user, whereas the old one allowed for multiple users. Apparently the office agent didn't understand this, since we spent 3 days trying to set up another account. Because of this, we were late on rent. The normal thing to do would be to waive the late fee after the realization they had made a mistake, and I'd just pay the remaining balance. However this is not case for Trade Street. I was told that because there were other methods of paying (i.e. missing work to bring them a check because I have the power to see the future and predict that they wouldn't understand their own payment system) that it was my fault. On top of this, you could call this the icing on the cake, we don't have heat. We told this to the staff and they had a maintenance man come look at it. Unfortunately, instead of fixing it, the maintenance just turned on the emergency heat and said it would be fine. That was until we received a $200 power bill for an 1100sqft apartment that we're hardly at. The staff at the office said they "sympathize" with us but that since it stopped working under Greystar's management, they would not take responsibility for the increased power bill and actually told us to contact them. While they claim to have notified the new maintenance team of the issue and are going to fix it, I have heard nothing. Even today after talking to the agent on duty, she asked if they had fixed it yesterday implying they are even more disjointed than I originally thought. While I understand transitioning pains, their sophomoric lack of responsibility is almost laughable. I definitely would not choose to...