The Hangout Starkville — Hotel in Starkville

October 9, 2024

In September 2024:

I had to email Michaela about Bree. Bree still hasn’t apologized for her behavior in turn season when she was brand new. Like she has a name but refused to tell a current resident. Bree isn’t direct. I’m not sharing confidential stuff here.

We have great events that old and veteran employees attend. Sam Baker and Cody are still here. It’s sad that our amazing staff graduated or left.

I hate Billy left. “Telling another property manager of Bree’s action , I’m not surprised look and oh that’s her.” Bree is customer service friendly. For the brand new residents and potential residents. She’s nice to me and older veteran residents when we have food. Sales and comfort , the new residents and potential residents adore her.. I hope she gets better in 10 months more of my lease.

Mr. Lewis still always makes it the best. And our cleaning lady who helps with phase 1 left. Now I’ll be cleaning again the first floor. She left in September, And I will be the mama bear again half way cleaning the commons at the main entrance and door.

Michaela and Mr. Lewis make it the best. Update- October 2024. BTW - Cooper was great today at the desk. Taking my rent. 10-9.

————————— May 2024

My post saved in drafts and never posted or was hidden! I am so proud that we are growing and have 8-9 maintanence men now running both phase 1 and phase 2. I don't like the disheartening posts. Consistency is key as a resident. Take care of your stuff and your building and be nice to your neigbors and the office staff and Mr. Lewis do indeed notice! I am so glad as of March 2024 we have a second custodian for the commons and hall area of each building. Before March 2024, I cleaned my stairs between the 2nd and 3rd floor 4 times as a volunteer and nice resident, and swept the entrance laminate flooring too. By no means did I clean the entire hall and stairs but I take pride in where I live as if it is literally my house and mine. It is to an extent. Go to the events! It is disheartening that numbers are low and they give variety on the calendar, yes! I have missed like 4 events. But this staff cares! PS. Billy Brewer has stopped the weed smell and less smoking in 2022-23 year ( Feb 2023) when I smelt it a lot my first 2 months again , and he has done it again post exams in May 2024 when our stairwell cause me some dizzyness here recently. The gates may be a big complaint to parents, but we have 14 to 17 cameras around property and one more was added last summer ( near maintenance) summer 2023. And we have night time patrol as of May 2024 as of now. Yes, I counted cameras etc at many properties before determining that I wanted to sign the lease for 2024-2025. Adulting is fun and a sense of accomplishment when I know I picked the bestt and safest option for me and my family.

Summer 2023 Tiffany Fulgham made my day! She remembered me from 3-5 years ago when she was the property manager at 21 . TODAY 2023 she said HEY EMILY. hmm Tiffany, Tiffany from 21 and now you work remotely? Yes! I told her how great Billy Brewer was at 21 and NOW HERE at the HANGOUT. Billy brewer was patient at 21 and is so kind and patient at the hangout. He has met with me and my husband 3x since March 2023, July 2023 to address concerns and issues ensuring that we do things the right way as residents and as a worker himself. Julia is good. She might not always respond to emails but she gets the job done and she has a staff that gets residents the messages we need to know or requests made and the result gets to us fast by mouth etc. Hats off to Billy Brewer for getting better and better, fair and listens. It has been a joy and a surprise to know after the fact that he has had 2-3 promotions in 14 months etc at my first encounter with him at 21 to now at...

Strap in. I now work at an apartment complex in Columbia, SC, so my opinions have changed somewhat since a year ago.

I moved to The Social in 2020, and I enjoyed my time with them. They had only been The Social for about a year or so (previously known as "The Pointe"). They were then repackaged as The Hangout my second year of residence. I enjoyed living here for two reasons: I was good friends with my roommates, it was close to my classes on campus. Here are some general complaints that never were fixed:

The gates never closed, and the roads are incredibly narrow. I hear they are charging for gate operations, which is pretty ridiculous. There was a pretty destructive shootout my last semester of residence, and the suspect was able to just leave the property despite not being a resident.

The locks on the doors to the buildings? Either don't work or never close. That's all I'll say about that.

The lack of parking for residents is astounding. I can think of countless times when I would have to park ON CAMPUS because that was closer to my apartment than the next available spot. This tells me one of two things: it's a fault in the design of the property, or the towing company is not checking often enough. But what did The Hangout decide to do most recently? Offer "premium" parking at an exorbitant cost, further limiting the amount of spots available for residents who are already struggling with rising rent.

Here is a specific gripe with The Hangout: the lack of communication. Two roommates and I moved into an apartment in the fall of 2022. Our couch was shedding black flakes and we sent that in our move-in report. We later placed upwards of three work orders to get it replaced. By December, it was almost completely bare. My roommates and I called a handful of times and received any number of excuses-- "oh our property manager isn't here today," "we have a shipment of couches coming (insert month)," "we don't see your work order in our system," "we can replace the couch but you have to pay for it to be replaced," etc. etc. My roommate finally got a meeting with the manager who told him she had no knowledge of this and would get something done. It got to the point where office staff was becoming terse and rude about the situation any time we checked on it in person or over the phone.

I moved out in July with no new couch. I assumed they would replace the couch next go around with the new move-ins. I received my Move-Out Balance about a month and a half ago--over $400. I was charged to replace the couch, a $50 deep cleaning fee (well-deserved), and a mystery $80 charge to replace something else, but I did not receive a picture to prove it.

My roommates who still live there received a charge to replace the couch, but the charge was removed when they contacted the office. I sent an email and never received a response except another email with my move-out balance. So I called and was told to fill out the dispute form (Yasmine is very nice and I feel for her.) After a week or two, I received another statement saying if I did not pay my balance, it would be sent to collections. I called again and was told to email the same email from earlier, saying I had sent my dispute form (why that would be necessary, who knows). No response. I even visited the apartment two weeks ago and slept ON THE SAME COUCH THEY WERE CHARGING ME TO REPLACE.

Last week, I received a new statement of $50. No "we're sorry for the confusion" or any reasoning for the mystery $80 charge. Just a metaphorical "here is your balance, pay it and get out of our hair." Gladly. I would have really appreciated any kind of communication at any step of the way, as this is something we at my current job strive for. I understand mistakes happen. I even understand that there are tons of disputes and people to deal with. But the way this whole situation was...

Awe Yes, the time with this complex has finally come to an end. I have received the zero balance move out letter after my daughters 4 years of residency. So where does this leave us? First thing first before I make a few comments about this business agreement, I’ll mention this: I don’t know if this review will get any response from local management but if it does, I just bet it will go something like this – “We are so pleased/disappointed with your (fill in the blank here). Please contact us directly so we can discuss this issue in more detail.” You know, let’s take this off line so it’s no longer visible to the public. The problem here is you will NEVER get to speak with a manager. You will always get a staff employee and the managers are always busy, in a meeting, off site or something. Maybe they are doing their nails but they will never call you back. On the surface these review responses sound so nice. They absolutely do not care about you, just your money. Be aware. For the record, I have engaged in several leases in my lifetime, either for me or my children as they have grown. I have never once been late with any payment. I have always been upfront and ahead of schedule with all payments. For this lease this year, I have actually paid what I thought was the full lease up front. That’s right, one check for the full thing. In the previous 3 years it would have been done at this point. For some reason, now in this final year we start getting charged a whole mess of other junk fees. “Sir that is covered on page 63 of your lease, that was on page 48 of your lease. Oh, that monthly subscription that we signed you up for, we can’t cancel. You have to finish setting up your account on line and then cancel it. I would ask a manager for an explanation but their nails apparently aren’t dry yet? In addition, I have been directly insulted by the 20 something staff employee that wasn’t even born when paper checks were the standard. The lack of grace period on a check virtually requires you to pay the convenience fee with online payments. The convenience fee is only convenient for them. Those kids are afraid to go into and actually make a face-to-face deposit in the bank these days. (Oh no, I can’t do that without my Phone). One employee still owes my wife and I an apology for the rude behavior there when all we were trying to do was pay the lease in advance. In this final year, I will add this nugget. I really only felt like I must contact them twice. My daughter and her roommates had several maintenance issues. I let them deal with it. The apartment maintenance crew would close the repair order without even coming in the unit. Some issues would take 3 months just to get looked at. I drew the line with 2 specific items. Both left my daughters ground unit open to the outside. One was the sliding glass door lock and the other was the window in her room. Just think, 3 college girls in an apartment away from home and its ok for this complex to allow the unit to not be safe from the outside. I got action but I had to be extremely direct in my communication in those instances just to ensure the safety of my daughter. Doesn’t this just make you feel good inside? Nails still aren’t dry yet. To close, I am so thankful this business agreement is over. My daughter is home safe and I have written, printed and scanned copies of everything stating our deal is done. I really liked the good old days when A handshake meant their word. Today this unit is everything other than that. They will smile to your face while giving your wife the reach around. You can’t shake a hand because…nails still aren’t dry. I am turning away from this outfit and never looking back. Just food for thought to all. I have so much more but want to be done with this. This complex is not worth any more of my...