Alexan Back Beach Apartments review: Customer Service 1

My husband and I were one of the first renters in the ALEXAN BACK BEACH apartment complex in September 2007. At that time, customer service and management were prompt, courteous, and most importantly, reasonable. Since such time, we have found management and customer service to be neglectful, disdainful, and unreasonable.

Since approximately May 2008, this apartment complex management has been a nightmare to deal with. Some examples include, their own automatic internet payment system changing, without notice to the tenants, and they demanded I overnight them my rent check at my own expense or I would incur a daily late fees as they were no longer accepting internet payments at that time. (Mind you this was after I went to the office to double check that my rent had been received as I was going out of town and it had not posted to my checking account. I was assured it was). Multiple requests for service/repair were “noted” but never actually repaired. Complaints regarding illegal parking, including in the handicapped space, were never addressed. The apartment complex recently “realized” that there were no handicapped wheelchair access (ie: no ramps on/off the sidewalks) and have been doing extensive, loud sidewalk repairs starting at 7:00 a.m. Monday-Sunday. It took them approximately 10 days to remove my neighbor’s rotting, maggot filled garbage that they left outside their apartment during last summer. The security gate (one of the features that made me select this “luxury” apartment complex), is constantly broken and in the past year has been broken more often that it was working. Other than that, it is open to let whoever cruise through. The parking situation is not monitored, and on the weekends the tenants cannot park due to everyone and their friends using the tenants’ parking as their personal parking lot. No parking passes or stickers are available, and non-residents have been known to park their cars their for days/weeks at a time. Noise complaints are also pointless, as the office has admitted that they will not confront loud tenants and will direct you to call the PCBPD. Their choice of tenants now seems to be partying young kids, who pack into these apartments with multiple roommates to share the rent. This is not the professional luxury apartment complex I signed my first lease with in 2007.

I also find their billing practices unscrupulous. They have double charged for water/sewer utilities, without any apology. Actually with the accusation that I was wrong, and if I was correct, then it only happened to my bill and I shouldn’t discuss this with other tenants. They back bill 60+ days for water and sewer, and no matter what size the apartment you are charged approximately $35 a month + “administration fees”. Whether you are in a one bed/one bath or a three bed/three bath, the cost of water/sewer is the same. Although if you ask management it is based on “usage”. However the base gallons allotment is so high that no one can reasonably use that much water - especially in a one bed/one bath.

Attempting to call the office is pointless, because 9 out of 10 times, you get a voicemail. And they seem to concentrate on selling to future residents than attending to current paying renters. Additionally, when I renewed my lease in 2009, I was offered a free carpet cleaning through the company that Alexan has contracted with. When attempting to schedule the cleaning it was a high-pressured sales consult to add additional services not included with my free cleaning. Although not dishonest per say, I found the experience extremely distasteful. I ultimately passed on this “free” service.

When we moved in, we paid over $700 in deposits and fees, including but not limited to a Redecoration Fee which was supposed to ready the apartment for a new tenant. We recently moved out and were shocked to find that they were charging against our deposit items that were to be addressed by the redecoration fee, such as cleaning of the kitchen, entryway, and bathroom. Mind you, we cleaned this apartment (mopping, vacuuming, oven/stove cleaning, cabinets, ect.) prior to leaving - a cleaning job that has been acceptable when we have left other apartment units. When meeting with the office manager, she claimed that there were photos of the areas needed to be cleaned but never produced them. As the new management/ownership does not charge a redecoration fee, (it is now an non-refundable administration fee) they have refused to honor the claims made to us when we paid our money. They have refused to apply this money to the approximately $66 in cleaning charges they have assessed against us. In addition, they are charging $25 per spot for carpet repair, when we were previously advised that the carpet is replaced due to normal "wear and tear" after three years. They refused to address if they were replacing the entire carpet, since it has been 3 years, even though they are charging us $100 for carpet repair. I am also being charged for a bathroom repair fee regarding the grout around the tub which is coming up. We have repeatedly complained about this (as it is a MOLD issue and evidence of the rushed, shoddy construction), and been told my maintenance it is “on this list”. We also attempted to schedule a walk through prior to moving out to understand what they expected, however that was unable to be arranged with maintenance due to their “scheduling conflict”.

I am exceptionally disappointed in this apartment complex, and although they are recently under new management and ownership (and will be going by the name ASHLEY at BREAKFAST POINT), it is more of the same. I would never recommend this apartment complex to anyone looking to move to Panama City Beach. Their treatment of renters is neglectful and their business practices are dishonest, to say the least. If you are a current tenant of this complex, don’t expect to get your deposit back.