The Quarters Oxford — Local services in Oxford

I've lived at Campus Creek for three years. The first apartment I moved to was absolutely filthy. Everything was covered in dirt, dust, and mold. (The best part being, they claimed it was cleaned before I moved in.) The dryer was a piece of crap and didn't dry clothes very well at all. I put about six maintenance requests in for this dryer and no one ever fixed it. It would make this god awful noise when it was on but since it sometimes took ten minutes to start, and they only stayed to listen to it for five, it was "fixed" and the request was closed. My door. Oh man my door. The locks are electronic and a card like in hotels is used to open the doors. These key cards are awful. This first apartment had a specific trick to get it to open. Nothing else would would. The only thing they ever do to try and "fix" the doors is give you a new card. Which also doesn't work.

I moved to another unit later on. They claimed I couldn't move in at the normal time because they were cleaning. They did not clean crap. My floor was filthy, the door was broken and still is, and the bathroom was a mess and unusable. The sink and tub were clogged and the toilet handle was broken so it couldn't flush. We also didn't have proper hot water for months. The water only lasted a total of ten minutes. For the whole unit. Now onto my favorite part about this unit. Bugs. Not only did I move in with three other humans, but also a million ants. At first it was carpenter ants. The huge ones. They were massive and seemed to really like being under my bed. Then came the small, black ants. I put in request upon request upon request. They did nothing. The only thing that helped was the cold when winter finally came. Once spring hit again though, they came back in droves. They were all over my window sill and getting into by bed. It was unpleasant to say the least. I had to have killed dozens by hand every day. It was ridiculous. Bugs are a problem in the whole complex from what I've gathered. Ants, roaches, wasps, etc.

Moving on to the complex itself. As stated above, I have lived here for three years. Every single year the water pipes bust. Sometimes more than once a year. And every single year they cut the water off at peak use times to fix it. Even if they're just replacing the faulty sprinkler pipes, (which also bust every year) they choose the peak use times to shut off the water to the whole complex. Hope you didn't want to shower before you went to work or class. The gates are another problem. They never work. Half of the time they're stuck open. One year, the pedestrian gate was broken to the point that the button to open it didn't work. You had to kick the gate open just to leave. Half of us just propped the gate open to end the hassle of kicking the gate open. Parking is a pretty annoying issue as well. The only building that has enough spaces is building 3. I went from building 3 to building 6. I can't move my car after a certain time for fear of having to either park outside of the gates or park across the complex. When bringing in groceries, that's quite annoying. There are only two dumpster in the complex.( Six technically, but not spread out.) Between Building 3 and 4 and near building 1 and 2. If you live in Building 5 or 6, have fun walking across the complex to throw your trash away. Hope you don't live with lazy roommates that put the trash outside the door and let it sit there for days on end in the dead of summer. Smells great, let me tell you. The staff is alright. Nice enough. Not always helpful though. The maintenance staff don't seem to want to do their jobs half the time. They're easy to talk to but never take them on their word if they say they'll look into fixing something.

Oh and now they expect the unit to be sparkling clean when we leave. Not like we moved in with them like that. They're always filthy. I guess they gave up on hiring cleaners.

This complex is crap and you should really look into moving into a...

Let me tell you about my experience here at Campus Creek. I was wooed by their proximity to the campus and all the free things they give you at on-campus functions. Don't be fooled by the pictures. I'm just going to enumerate the problems:

Incompetent maintenance staff - They didn't know the difference between a thermostat or thermometer. Upon moving in, we burned both a lasagna and a roast in the oven. Not believing we were terrible cooks, I bought an oven thermometer at Walmart which read that the oven was going above 600 degrees when set at 350. Being a decently intelligent individual, I recognized that this meant the thermostat was broken. I filed a maintenance request, and when they finally came to fix it, we were informed that it was fine. I informed them that it was not fine, as it was still heating to above 600. I had to file another one to no avail, and finally just went to the office and had to talk to the maintenance guy there. (Apparently the tanning beds hadn't been working, so he was busy fixing them.) It was explained to me that the "thermostat" (really a thermometer) that I had purchased was working fine, but there was a second thermostat malfunctioning, which had to be ordered and would be there by the end of the week. In the end, we went three weeks without an oven and had to do all cooking in skillets and griddles on the oven.

Property upkeep issues - The gates worked half the time, which made them basically useless. At one point, one set of gates completely stopped responding to the cards, so the other set of gates had to be used. The tennis courts only had two of the four lights functioning, so if you volleyed the ball diagonally across the court in the late evening, you could continue to play. The cards used to get into the apartment will randomly stop working, which happened with two of the three in our apartment. In the computer center, two of the computers would not work at all, which left two functioning computers. When you could actually get on a computer, there was no paper 90% of the time, so the free printing is only free if you bring your own and can actually get on a computer. The gym and pool were decent, but you can find much better at other apartment complexes or the Turner Center.

Nothing done about problems reported on check-in sheet - There were many problems that I enumerated on my check-in sheet, and no action was taken to correct them. Namely, the middle drawer on the dresser in my room would barely open, the drawers that hang from the refrigerator door were taped together from where they had broken and frequently fell out of the refrigerator, and the hot water handle for the kitchen sink was unscrewed such that it had to be turned a certain way every time so that the water would turn off.

Unprofessional office staff - Upon leaving, all three of us were charged $100 for a chair replacement fee. Apparently, the love-seat was damaged, but was unreported on the check-in sheet (of which they do nothing about - see above). I emailed them questioning it, but did not get a response until I emailed them again a full week later. It was stated that the reason they didn't respond was that they were just too busy answering emails in the order in which they were received. Somebody must not have been doing their job, because almost anyone can answer 100 emails a day, and not until I wrote a strongly-worded email did I get a response.

Lack of appropriate pest control - The amount of cockroaches found in rooms and bathrooms by me and my roommates was ridiculous. At one point we had ants pouring out of the ancient phone jack in the middle of the kitchen wall during a hot spell in the summer.

I'm almost out of characters, but I could go on. Make a...

First, let me just say go see D'Andre ("Dre") if you shoot pool; he's a standup guy and will shoot a game with you if he's not working on something. Professionally, Dre is a very invested manager and makes an effort to develop relationships with tenants instead of being one of those arrogant big-shot managers (you know what I'm talking about), and Dan and Sammy (another maintenance associate) will take care of any maintenance needs that may arise. When I was searching for an apartment in Oxford while I was in school, Campus Creek (former name of the apartment complex) had the cheapest rates you could get with good quality facilities. During my lease, a larger company bought the property and renamed it The Quarters. Immediately, they announced they'd be renovating all the units and the community clubhouse and amenities, which will be complete before Fall 2022. The inside of the apartment units got a major facelift, including new composite wood-like flooring, granite-like countertops, cabinets, stainless steel kitchen appliances, and repainted walls. Rent rates did increase a bit, but you get what you pay for. You may be able to find cheaper places but at much lower quality with appliances that barely work or bills for all your utilities separate from your rent payments. At the Quarters, water, trash/sewer, and internet are included in the rent payment. Power is split evenly among tenants in each unit and must be paid separately through a third-party intermediate, BUT each tenant gets a $20 allowance each month that's automatically discounted from their portion of the power bill. I don't think I have paid a penny over $20 for a month's worth of power, which is ridiculously rare. Most maintenance requests submitted in the morning on weekdays are usually completed the same day, unless you need an appliance replaced or something that can't be done the same day. University transit buses stop right outside the gate every 15 minutes or so. As far as I know, the clubhouse amenities will be accessible 24/7 beginning Fall 2022. There's only a few minor drawbacks for me. First, during renovations, all ceiling fans were removed. The bed frames that the units are furnished with are very poorly designed and unstable. They stand high, and most of the legs are about to cave due to the way they attach to the frame. Also, guests have to park outside the gates in the parking lot across the street from the complex. (They do have the option to purchase a 3-day guest parking pass for like $50 I think.) Overall, though, I was satisfied with my stay and would recommend to students looking for the cheapest good-quality living arrangements in Oxford. One of the best things about it is proximity. It takes like 3-4 minutes to get to the commuter parking lot by the stadium, and Jackson Avenue is literally like 300-400 yards down the street one way, while Highway 6 is right down the street the other way. It doesn't get much better than that unless you're in the market for one of those high-class places near the square that cost like $2,000 a...