The Vintage

"You are not allowed to ask questions they cannot answer or you will be accused of "making them feel uncomfortable". Rock Hill apartment complex using deceptive tactics to confuse elderly residents. The Vintage Apartments (recently purchased by Sunbelt Multi-Family Properties) wants all residents to pay the rent using a 3rd party service which they charge a fee to use. Auto payments from a bank are somehow "lost" and never received with the new ownership. This payment method never had an issue in the previous 5 years. When you set up the payment center on the 3rd party billing site, you can select the day you want the payment to be made, and we chose the 4th of each month. For the month of March they decided to take the money out on the 3rd. Since my father lives on social security, the money was not available. So The Vintage sent him a letter informing him of the situation but does not list a phone number to call and the only address on the letter is somewhere in Omaha, Nebraska. The letter states that the matter must be resolved within 24 hours but the payment must be mailed to Nebraska? So we went to the leasing office, which is only staffed 2 days a week, to try to understand the error. Because the person working in the office that day was unable to answer any questions, she said that we (myself, my 10 year old daughter, and my 78 year old father) were making her "feel uncomfortable". When I asked to speak with someone else, I was referred to her manager, but I would need to drive to another location to speak with that person. We then requested a phone number to call the main office to hopefully find a resolution within the stated 24 hour time period. However, the phone number is a general voicemail which will be returned within 2-3 days. Now they have charged my father an additional $150 fee with no resolution in sight. This appears to be a trend happening to the elderly residents who are on a fixed income. My rebuttal: 1. Flex Rent did not charge a $150 late fee. You did. Do we think Flex Rent is going to refund the money? No. Just more hassles. And the system we were directed to use is "Active Building". Not sure what Flex Pay is. Active Building is not a payment assistance plan, merely a residential payment portal. 2. If your part-time associate would have explained this and directed me to a proper solution, we might not even be discussing this. Instead, the associate was too busy being condescending (trying to explain how web site payments work, continually repeating the same response over and over) and when they could no longer provide assistance, their response was "this conversation is making me uncomfortable". A lack of professionalism is a major contributing factor in this situation. 3. The Vintage has stated, via letter, that payments are no longer accepted at the office. When I find the letter I will upload a picture of it. The letter explained that "Active Building" was the preferred method for payments (including the convenience fee!). When we tried to continue to pay by using our bank to send a check every month (Bill Pay) which was successfully done for the previous 3 years, the checks were mysteriously misplaced and/or lost. After this happened the 2nd time, and the associated late fee's, we decided to set up the payment on Active Building. The payment history shows a deduction on the same day every month, except March when it was deducted on the 2nd. The tenants are your customers so it would be nice to provide the necessary support. A 'general voicemail inbox' in Omaha should not need to be a final resort. But, alas, that voicemail has not been returned either."

"Visited family. Even though this place is doing upgrades, the constant barrage of going into my relatives apt for spraying and so called upgrades borders on harassment. They rarely give a 24 hour notice. A tenant has the right to free and peaceful living conditions! For the high cost of rents they charge, going into Apts more than once a month is unacceptable! I would not recommend anyone moving here."

"I have lived here since Sept and I have to say the experience has been pretty poor, I don't have many nice things to say. For the last 3-4 months there has been no office staff, laundry room has been closed a few times, the office manger seems to be working at another complex and residents were not informed if there was a new person of contact. I have had to call maintenance a few times and they aren't so bad but I did have reoccurring water leaks for about a month. The phone number they tell you to call never worked (even for CURRENT residents) but randomly one day my call went through and then I was able to leave a vm and at that point the "property manager" called me from the new complex and said they would have someone out there, with that said it did take about 7-10 days for them to fix the water leaks. They did make renovations to my aprt and they are nice but with that they raised the rent about $500 but in my opinion it is not worth it. You can find a better aprt complex w the same rent but with newer buildings and way better amenities and a office staff that will actually pick up the phone. They say they are now are under new mgmt so maybe things may change but I will not be renewing my lease."

"Move in 2 weeks ago. Quiet complex right in town but on a dead in street. The studio apartments are across the street from the main complex and are a great value."