West Quad — Local services in Champaign

Many of the reviews on here are from West Quad employees, so I'll be 100% honest about living here. I lived at WQ the 2015-16 school year, and there are definitely some positives and negatives.

Positives:

The amenities are great. There is a nice gym (with a sauna) which we got plenty of use out of. The outdoor space with the volleyball court, grills, pool, hot tub, and jumbotron were awesome. Not many apartment buildings have things like this. The staff was also willing to put things on the jumbotron if you asked. When it was nice out in August, September, April, and May, this area was packed, and was usually a lot of fun.

The apartment was also pretty nice. The furniture is modern and somewhat comfortable. The kitchen is spacious and is really nice. We had basically no problems with the appliances. I lived with three roommates (4x4 unit) and we often had friends over and we still had more than enough room for everyone. The apartment is definitely big enough. The bathrooms are also big. We each had our own bathroom and shower, which not many college students have the luxury of. The bedrooms are definitely big enough. I had the smallest style of room West Quad has (I think) and in addition to the full size bed and desk that come with the room, I was able to fit my TV stand, TV, small cabinet, guitar, and amp in only about half of the room. I have no real complaints about the apartment itself.

Negatives:

I cannot understate this... This place can get very, very loud. I'm convinced that they screwed up something with the walls during construction, because they are paper thin. You can hear anything going on outside, even just conversations. And I'm not talking about only outside in the hallway, I'm also talking about outside the building. It often sounded like there was no wall at all. The people that party here not only on the weekends, but also during the week, can get so obnoxiously loud that you cannot fall asleep. Many of the people making all the noise aren't even students, they are townies.

I understand, this is a college town, people party and it can get loud. But this was over the top. People blasting music out of giant speakers in their cars at full volume with the bass all the way up in the driveway of the building at 3 AM on a Wednesday night is not normal. Literally my room would be shaking. Just constantly people yelling, fighting, and blasting obnoxious music ALL. NIGHT. LONG. It's horrible, and management does nothing about it because they know that if they stepped in and took action and made an effort to control the noise, people would live somewhere else.

Also, the day before finals started, WQ decided to have a full on rock concert in the courtyard all afternoon, so there's that. I love loud concerts, but not the day before finals outside my window.

The ventilation in the hallways is horrible. People would smoke out there all the time, and the smell would linger for days. There was one time when we could smell the smoke in our kitchen.

West Quad advertised that the building would be a private community, but literally anyone can basically walk right in. People often put things like bricks or floor mats in front of the doors on the side of the building, so how is it a private community?

One minor note: the manager (Brian) told me he would help me out to collect information about West Quad's construction for a class assignment. He told me to pick a time in a certain week, and when I went to the office to make the plans in person (because he was slow to respond to my emails) I found out he was actually on vacation that entire week. He then completely ignored my attempts to set up a meeting, leaving me to scramble to find someone else to gather information from in the couple days before the assignment was due.

If obnoxious people do not bother you, you'd probably enjoy West Quad. The building itself is very nice and the amenities are great. My roommates and I just could not stand the noise any longer and chose somewhere else...

Paid for assigned parking however when I went to park in the parking spot someone else was in it. I called management 3 times (waited an hour and a half) for them to even call the tow truck company. Spoke with some guy named Cody--he was extremely short with me on the phone. I also spoke with someone in management named Anthony Frassier--I explained to him that Cody told me to park in someone else's spot since mine was occupied, and he replied "I don't know why someone would tell you that because now your car is at risk for getting towed". When I went to the garage to move the car I saw that the person's car (who was in my spot for close to two hours now) was still not towed. I called back Anthony to check the status of them calling the tow truck and he yelled at me stating, "I just spoke with you 3 minutes ago! I am in the office trying to 'investigate' whose car that was!" I went to the office to meet with Anthony and he continued to speak forcefully towards me. I asked him to be understanding and empathetic towards the situation (i.e. I pay to park here, someone is in my spot and I'm in someone else's spot, he was telling me my car may get towed, but it has taken them over an hour and a half to even call the tow company). I told Anthony that parking spot aside, he has a terrible attitude. I explained to him that he got angry over my inquiry within a matter of minutes and that it is not appropriate. He said I was the one who "flipped a switched". I reminded him that even if I "flip a switch" I am the customer and he as actually the one working (not me). As I was walking out of the office he was yelling, "everyone has a breaking point". I will say when I spoke with Angela Proffitt, the manager over Anthony, she was very understanding and agreed his actions were not appropriate. If this is the frontline management on duty, I am...

Not Recommended. Honestly, this place is not worth what they charge.

I want to start off with the only bright spot, which was maintenance, especially Harvester. He worked long hours, was always willing to help, and really did everything he could to keep things running. Without him, the place would honestly fall apart. He often fixed problems before management even got involved. They should be incredibly grateful to have him.

As for the rest: the amenities were almost always broken or “under repair,” so you end up paying for things you can’t even use. The pool gates were constantly left open, which meant random people could come in and use the facilities. Even when security was around, they did not do anything to address the issue.

The apartment itself was more than disappointing. There seemed to be mold in the AC vents, the walls had just been painted over instead of properly repaired, and they’re so thin you can literally hear your neighbors breathe. When we moved in, the place wasn’t even cleaned, there was dirt in the dishwasher and grime in the showers. We had to complain several times before anything was done, and even then it felt like the bare minimum.

Management was the worst part. The student staff at the front desk were nice and tried to help, but the actual management team was almost never available and did not address residents’ problems. The way the property is shown online and during tours was very different from what we experienced, our real apartment was a lot more run down. Overall, it felt like profit was prioritized over the resident experience.

Bottom line: Aside from the maintenance staff, living here was an incredibly poor experience overall. You’re much better off looking for housing literally anywhere...