Alanza Place — Local services in Phoenix

..... Had to shorten my review due to character limit. Review YELP for full review.

Finally, my worst experience was when I moved out. I did not break my lease, and I gave the proper notice to move out successfully without trouble. I spoke with Jessica and asked her what I needed to do to make sure I could get my deposit back, which was $600. She said have Arizona Carpet Care come and clean the carpets, which cost $75, and clean the entire apartment to have it be move in ready. I spent about 8 hours cleaning the apartment prior to moving out, and the carpets did not even look shampooed or any newer as promised. The last day of my lease, I did a walk through with the apartment manager, Jennifer, and a female worker from their maintenance staff. The first thing Jennifer and her staff member did was walk in and go to one of the corners of the carpet and lift up the carpet, and said this will have to be replaced. She then looked at one of the burners that had been used and said that had to be replaced as well. Jennifer proceeded to tell me that she would contact me via mail with the final refund/bill once they total the “damages”. I told her what Jessica told me and she said we can use the $75 towards the carpets, and that was the end of the walkthrough. I received the statement from Jennifer and Alanza Place along with a check for $60. They used all my deposit for the carpets to be replaced and then one burner. My close family friend owns a flooring business, and it does not cost that much for a one-bedroom apartment to have the carpet lay down. Furthermore, the bill included charging me for a water bill that I had already paid. I knew they were going to charge me an obscene amount for the carpets, because that’s how apartments scam to make any profit, but then going the extra mile to double charge me for a water bill was pushing it too far. The $30 did not mean anything to me; it was the principle behind it. When I called in, I asked for Jennifer and as usual her immediate attitude expressed her irritability and annoyance that she has to speak with any of her tenants. I had her pull up my closing statement and the water bill that she sent and compared the charges and she proceeded to tell me it was not the same charges, it was for something else- when to the cents the charges matched. I then had her pull my receipt that was paid for the exact amount and she still said I was wrong. We went back and forth for ten minutes or so, and I expressed to her how it is my profession to handle accounting and billing and that I know they are double charging me. She argued that she would have to review it without me to determine the charges, and so forth. I expressed to her how disappointing it was that they would sweat over $30 when they just gained $500 from me moving out, and how poorly that is for their business to treat their tenants like they are liars. She was argumentative, rude, and unprofessional towards me during the end of the conversation. True colors always come forward with businesses when you are done with their services, whether it is a restaurant, a bank, or even an apartment complex. Jennifer ended up calling me back that the $30 was an error, but she stuck to her story that it wasn’t the water bill. She could not live with the fact that I caught an error and she would not apologize for it. Again, she did not apologize to me once. Her pride is clearly more important to her than having people recommending the apartment complex. Your business is a reflection of the management staff, and as long as Jennifer is working there the poor reviews will...

The location of the apartment is great. The interior is basic. The management and front office are friendly but do a very poor job. If it was not for the people managing the apartment, my time as a resident may not have been so poor. A few examples of what I experienced in my year as a tenant:

Double charged rent to my account in error. The office refused to reverse and advised it would take 30 days to get me a check, so they'll just keep it for my next rent. I reversed through my bank and they tried to charge me a $60 fee.

Black residue clogs pipes and came up through the bathroom sink overflowing due to the apartments failure to do regular maintenance. I told the apartment immediately and it took 3 days for the maintenance team to fix it.

A residents dog pooped in the common hall way. I took the apartment 1 week to clean it up. Basically, it was dry and dusty by the time their slow team took care of it.

I transferred to a bigger apartment and scheduled a move out by the end of the week from my old apartment. The management team accidentally rented out the apartment I was in earlier and forced me to move out with a 3 day notice with no accommodations.

They gave me the down payment amount for the new bigger apartment. The rep was off by $10. Instead of telling me they put an eviction notice on my door saying that the $10 needed to be paid in 24 hours or they can change my locks, cancel my lease, sell my belongings, and take legal action. In between the statements in bold words the rep inserted (sorry about that), because they knew it was there fault. So WHY would they put the notice on the door, right?

They did a hard pulled on my credit 3 times in error. Working with them to get a letter to request the two done in error took 2 months and my persistence. It was like a job, because they don't take ownership for anything. In the end, it never got reversed and hard pulls have an impact on credit scores.

I found a new place in August and told the apartments that I would move out at the end of September before my lease ended Oct 31st. I asked if they could lease it out early. They advised that I would have to pay the last month rent because they don't do early leases. This is a lie, because they did it during my transfer to my inconvenience. So I paid the full October rent although I wasn't living there.

They billed me for utilities in October although I wasn't living there (okay, no big deal). They never told me what I owed or what was left to be reimbursed from my security deposit. I called to find out and they advised that I had a $70 balance, because they chose to get an OVERPRICED carpet clean company. I went down to the office on a Saturday to pay. They had no card payment option and told me that I could not pay online. I didn't have a check, so the rep told me to go to a store to get a money order - this would have cost me money. So I asked her to simply mail me the official outstanding balance. IT NEVER CAME. I called the office to follow up and speak to the manager. The rep advised that he was busy and she'll have him call me back the next day. I never got a call. I received a letter in the mail from collections and started to get collection calls a week later.

Needless to say - save yourself the trouble and rent any other apartment in this area but Alanza. The management team is friendly but they do not work and will make something simple like properly billing you complicated. You've...

UPDATE: I’ve now lived here about 10 months and there are a few things that made me rethink my desire to stay here. The elevator breaks often. I have a chronic pain syndrome that flares up worse more times than others and I depend on the elevator to get me to and from my apartment. I also get relief from the hot tub, except it’s been down more than it’s been working. That’s been really disappointing. We pay a community electric and water fee, which is fine except there have been extreme water leaks. So now our fees have doubled for water that is leaking, and we’re paying electricity to run a hot tub and elevator that don’t work. Things that seem trivial, but when it’s happening as often as it does here, and you pay as much as we pay here, it gets pretty frustrating. I was very much looking forward to extending my lease when it’s up in the next month, but I’ll be looking elsewhere.

I have lived in an apartment in Alanza Place for nearly two months now, and I purposely waited to write my review so I could give a full honest review after the excitement of living somewhere new subsided. Needless to say, I am just as impressed now as I was when I toured. First of all, Katie on the leasing staff was incredibly helpful, friendly, and down to earth when touring and applying. She has continued to stay this way, even after my move in. Previously in apartments, I find that this hospitality tends to disappear once you move in, but that’s not the case here. The maintenance crew are extremely professional and kind, I never feel stupid when asking a question or needing to put in a maintenance request. On that note, I’ve never waited longer than one business day to get a response to a request I put in, and have had them resolved and fixed in a very fast amount of time. I was very impressed by this. The apartments are beautiful, and everything is well maintained. Their bathtubs are HUGE, which was a selling point for me since I’m a big girl and rarely ever find a good sized tub in an apartment. The amenities are also very nice and convenient. I read the previous reviews before applying, and I was hesitant but I can honestly say I haven’t experienced any of the issues others have complained about. The fire alarms haven’t gone off once in my time here, and I never hear my neighbors. However, I do live on the top floor so I can’t speak for upstairs noises. The complex is extremely accessible for disabled folks, and has elevators on each end of the building. All of the residents I’ve met are exceptionally nice and it is very pet friendly— which was a must for me.

The neighborhood speaks for itself, if you’re looking for an apartment in this area, you already know what’s around here. Definitely keep this place on your list of homes to consider! You won’t be disappointed, I’m not, and I’ve been known to be very picky in other complexes. Alanza place has it all, and I feel...