The Pointe at SIU

"The Pointe will always be my second home in Carbondale, and I can genuinely say it felt like a home away from home. Having spent an extended period in Italy, I was initially apprehensive about adapting to a new environment, but The Pointe's management, especially Carson and Amanda, made the transition seamless. Their exceptional support and understanding were invaluable, making me feel welcomed and supported. I must applaud the management for providing student residents with opportunities to work during the summer, allowing us to contribute towards our rental payments – a thoughtful initiative that fosters a sense of community. I wholeheartedly recommend The Pointe to anyone, irrespective of their background, who is looking to stay in Carbondale. The friendly faces of BG, Mitch, Sean, Michael, and Hetty deserve a special shoutout. My gratitude is forever committed to the wonderful memories created at The Pointe."

"I stayed at The Pointe for two years. During my first year, the office staff were friendly, helpful, organized plenty of events, kept the premises clean, and dealt with troublesome neighbors. I didn’t have any issues. Furthermore the units come pre-furnished with (mostly) serviceable furniture. However, staff and management completely changed after that first year. The newer staff were unhelpful and unfriendly. Oftentimes, when calling in service requests, office staff would stall or just forget my requests, leading me to contact the maintenance team directly who would promptly fix my issues. This culminated in a week long problem where a rat bit into my vents, and “moved in”. During this week, I made multiple calls and emails to the office and property manager to either get no response or lackluster effort to call an exterminator. It took an entire 7 days for the issue to be dealt with, mostly due to the inaction of the office staff and administration. Separately, another issue arose when the office held a sponsored party event at the pool on the property. Very little warning was given to tenants before the parking lots were absolutely filled up, giving no space for the people who actually lived there to park. Once the party ended, the pool area was littered with empty liquor bottles, cans, etc. even though the rules state that glass is not allowed in the pool area. The trash stayed for weeks. These are just two of the issues I had while living at the Pointe at SIU, and I would advise anyone to be cautious when looking into The Pointe for a living arrangement. Edit: Months after moving out of the Pointe, I received a threatening phone call from office staff saying that I owed $90 for carpet cleaning fees. The lease agreement states that before moving out, the carpet must be professionally cleaned and proof of such should be sent to the office. I did exactly that, which costed over $150. Afterward, I printed off an extra copy of my invoice and gave it to the front office. I was told everything was set in stone. This was until a few days ago, almost 6 months later, where I was told I owed $90 for the cleaning fees, and if I didn’t pay it after January 1st, the charge would be sent to collections. I was told they had sent physical mail and email over the last few months asking me about it, yet nothing regarding the issue was in my inbox and the Pointe staff doesn’t even have my new address. Thankfully, I still had a digital copy of my original cleaning invoice, so I forwarded it to the property manager along with a strongly worded email about scamming previous tenants. This seemed to do the trick, as not only was the charge lifted, but there was an extra $60 that THEY owed to ME that I wasn’t notified about. Furthermore, I was asked for my current address (proof that they didn’t send mail to me earlier, as they never had my current address). I cannot stress enough, after my experience and reading other tenants’ experiences, DO NOT MOVE INTO THESE APARTMENTS. You will have frequent issues living here, and they will try to scam you out of money even months after moving out. Not to mention, they have raised rent significantly. Originally there was a saving grace that SOME of the units were nice and it was overall affordable, but this is ridiculous and borderline malicious. Seek housing elsewhere."

"I lived here for two years. The first year, my apartment was in nice condition, and I left it that way when I moved to a new unit. During the second year, I was charged $1000 for “damages” to my old unit. This money was directly taken out of my account, and no notice was given. I brought this up with management, and they just said I caused that much damage. I asked if they would like to see the photos from the day I moved out and explain which damages I was being charged for. Following my sending of the pictures, they stated, “oh it must have been a silly mistake.” If I did not have those pictures, I would have lost my money and not received a refund. After this incident, the new unit I moved into had roaches and many fixtures were broken. It took several months before we received our TV that was apart of our lease, and the air conditioning in my room was never fixed. I put in maintenance requests for the A/C problem as well as filled out the form with various issues. The carpet was torn and stained, the garbage disposal did not have a cover, there was no smoke detector in my bedroom, the blinds were broken, the walls were damaged, our chairs to our dining table were broken, the refrigerator had busted crisper drawers and cracked shelves, and the air vents contained mold. Additionally, the entrances to the buildings never locked properly and posed a risk to tenants. Throughout my stay, my roommates and I fixed many of these issues, but most were never fixed by maintenance. On another note, the pool never opened my first year, and it was only open for a couple of weeks this past summer. I would not recommend anyone to live at this apartment and be scammed of their money for damages they did not create or have to live in an unhealthy, broken apartment. Update: Apparently charges were placed on my account in August for carpet cleaning and damages a second time for my second apartment. We sent a receipt of our carpet cleaning July 26, yet still received charges that we were NOT notified of. I happened to check the tenant portal and saw they were posted."

"Please fix the windows on property. This place have increased rent to do what? I’ve been to my friend house so many times for a year now and this window have been out for a minute. I thought it was management but there’s been a new one for a while an nothings changed but a couple of things. I think that fixing windows on property isn’t a big ask. I wanted to stay at the pointe but there’s the little things that needs to be taken care of. Accidents happen due to this being a college town but for a window to be out this long is insane. First off safety but bugs."

"It has been one month since my son moved in (3 weeks since my first review). His washer is now leaking majorly and the building manager has promised a repair or a new washer. Neither has happened! No repairs mentioned in earlier post have been addressed. Plus, the pool is still black."