dwell The Towers on State Apartments — Local services in Madison

I rented here. It is EXTREMELY loud & stressful until 3 or 4 am, Thursday- Monday, if you have an apartment by the street. Also they lie, do not trust anyone who works here farther than you could throw them. Many people who live here end up having to sue in small claims. Homeless creepers crash in the lobby and use the public computers to jack off. I had to call the police on one who was repeatedly approaching me, to stare at me from around the corner and Jack off. It definitely has a reputation for being a party spot. The printer is often out of paper for days. The management is unavailable and will actually call the police on you for making a complaint. They illegally enter apartments as well. I have paid for cable TV and never got it despite complaining over 15 times. They have hired and fired managers 3 times over the last year. They have just rebranded their management company as a different name each time they get in trouble. It is quite the ripoff. The building is owned by a company in CA, which is owned by a NY company, and the company which owns that is based overseas. The front door is broken and anyone can push through the key lock. Homeless people or residents have peed in the hallways, and the elevator. People get their packages and deliveries stolen regularly. The fire alarms go off randomly. My apartment was stained and a lot of things didn't work when I moved in, but they never had me fill out a damage report. There is definitely no 24 hour desk presence, sometimes they are unavailable for weeks. The "free coffee" machine is never refilled, so there is not going to be any coffee after a day or less, and it is never kept up with after. There was still construction going on during move in. The ELEVATORS were broken during move in and were not fixed for 2 weeks! During the winter dont expect to have hot water, not even in the early morning or late at night. The winter was so cold I had to bring an electric heater. It is sometimes hard to get something fixed, and they might cancel your request without explaining. Whenever I run my vacuum, the lights may turn off. I do not at all like the maintenance staff, they have a tendency to mutter off-color comments under their breath while they are in your apartment. Inappropriate. I've had a really awful experience, others have had it even worse. The management simply ignores most (if not all) emails. They really dont care. The staff gossips and curses about residents, sharing people's personal info and would rather tell you about their problems than help you. They make private issues public, every day. They give lip service and appear to listen but they like to pretend to be available. Generally, they dont really work, just screw people over and run their mouths constantly. One manager, Jason, who has been fired, said some nasty gossip about me while my mother and I were waiting for help. Not the kind of introduction I would have loved to have from Madison. Drama. It made my mother upset. I have heard some really wild stories about how these people ripped them off. You have been warned. For weeks I would walk past the front desk and see another parent trying to get answers about some issue, and the employee they were dealing with, just gave them the same old lies and side eyed glances, like the parent is making a scene. When they were not. They try to make people uncomfortable if they dont like them. Also, they room matched me with an awful, toxic woman who absolutely made my life hell just because she could. Really harassive and unpleasant, like I was being literally hazed by a jail cellie in prison. She was a complete jerk. Catty. Not to mention never locking the door when she left and blaming me for almost anything she could come up with. So awkward, so many strange people over at all times of the day or night. I did not apply for college to be back in middle...

If I could give students at the University of Wisconsin one pieve of advice, it would be to not live at The Towers. By far, worst experience I've ever had with an apartment building and its management.

First of all when I tried to move in on a pre-approved day, I find out that they switched my apartment from the one I signed the lease for, to another one. Not a big deal I thought, I had a randomly assigned roommate so it's not like I was looking forward to living with a friend. I ask the man working the front desk about my new roommate and come to find that he is several years older than me and barely speaks english. A little worried now, but I could still make it work.

I go upstairs to meet my new roommate and begin moving my stuff in, and there were 3 squatters in my apartment. The manager kicked them out quickly and then proceeded to tell me that it was ok for me to move in now. The only problem was the huge mess all over the apartment which included whole thawing fish on the counter (not a pleasant smell), and a refrigerator covered in raw chop meat. It took well over two hours before the manager got some people (including people from the leasing office) up there to clean it. Then they all left and the poor custodial staff was left apologizing to me for the mess, even through it was in no way their fault. So end of day one, I arrived at the building around noon with all my possessions in tow, had my roomed switched (illegally based on the lease I signed), had squatters evicted from my apartment and room, finally moved in and had the apartment to myself by about 10 pm.

Next day I go to the leasing office to find out that the person I was supposed to be living with ( the one who barely spoke english) was in California and was now being evicted because the squatter thing was somehow his fault. I don't really care at this point and ask when I'll get a new roommate. They tell me sometime in the next week. Few days later roommate finally comes in, he's a grad student and I'm a sophomore. I was told when I signed the lease that they would match me with someone my own age. But the lease is void at this point anyway and I figured why even bother arguing. Roommate turns out to be a nice guy and we get along great, so no problems there.

It's important to know that I didn't move in when the lease started, but a few weeks after that because the lease started early August, but school didn't start until September.

Now comes the problem of the electric bill. If you didn't know, on top of the astronomical rent you pay at The Towers, you also pay for electricity. So I get an electric bill for the time period of when my lease started until late August. I was living in the apartment for about 4 of these days, the rest of the time the apartment was occupied by the squatters. This electricity bill is almost 200 hundred dollars. No way in hell I''m paying for the electricity the squatters used. I go to the leasing office and after a 20 minute argument they decide that they can pay the bill. Great. Problem solved. Or so I thought.

I got this same bill from the electric company 6 more times. Every time I got it I took it down to the leasing office and explained that they had agreed to pay it. Every time they put up an argument but eventually conceded. This bill wasn't paid until February.

Add this entire experience onto mediocre rooms, with light switches that do nothing, no over head lighting, tiny doorways, cheap furniture, uncomfortable beds, and astronomical rent, and what you are left with it The Towers on State.

Do not live here. Live on the streets before you live here. Live in a crack den before you live here. You'll be...

Terrible services, inconvenience location, unstable wifi connection, troublesome equipment, unreasonable charge, not recommend at all.

Terrible services: the manager of this apartment has been changed all the time, so it's hard even to track down the person who is in the charger of the apartment. I spent my whole past year in one of the units at this apartment and try to submit work orders more than five times. The workers would either not fix the problem in the end or not show up at all.

Inconvenience location: on the advertisement, it said the location is perfect for students. Although the apartment is not too far from the main library, I have to cross the whole campus to reach the engineering building, for example. It's so noisy and chaotic downstair near the streets that people get drunk and shout loudly till 2 or 3 am. On top of that, it's impossible to find a nearby available parking space. When you choose this apartment and own a car, it's either paying the 250$ per month parking fee on the nearby garage or ending up selling the vehicle.

Unstable wifi connection & troublesome equipment: I believe most people want their apartment to have stable wifi, especially the towers on state charges the rental fee above average. However, the wifi would go down not occasionally but frequently. I have experienced the terrible wifi connection situation almost once or twice a month. Sometimes the wifi would be totally offline for a whole weekend. During the COVID-19, we could only stay at home all the time, and the wifi is not working for the entire 24 hours, at least. That does not happen to a single unit but the entire floor or whole building of units. I bet that case so much trouble to all the residents. At the same time, all other equipment would bring surprise to your life and make it never boring. There is always something in the unit which is not working. Maybe it's light blub this time, the heat top next time. The AC would not be expected to work in Summer, and the heat never gets up the temperature you want. I tried to fix them and report all those to the apartment, but I learned never to expect them to make it right. So I end up purchasing the AC and heater from the mall.

Unreasonable charge: to be honest, none of the above would be a problem if the rental fee is cheap. But they charger 1250$/month for a 1b1b and 925$/month for a unit in 2b1b. Which is at least 150$/month more than it should. Residents pay that extra money because we expect the better quality of the apartment. Besides, it seems they don't want to return the deposit check in time. I moved out before the end of July, but I get nothing after more than a month. On top of that, they even charge my roommate and me 300$ each just because I return the key a little bit late. We are supposed to move out at 4 pm on July 24th, and I have too much stuff and end up moving out at 6 pm. But I finally empty the room and clean it for them. No matter I make a phone call or send the email to the manager, I get nothing but anger.

That is a horrible experience when I spent my past year at towers on state. I'm so glad I finally move to somewhere else. If you haven't decided which apartment to choose, please consider X01, Lucky, James, hubs, and so on. YOU WILL REGRET if you choose...