"4"^^ . "1"^^ . . "2008-09-25T00:00:00"^^ . "29"^^ . "0"^^ . . "Since my sophomore year, I have been a tenant with the University Group. Overall. I find myself very unhappy with their service. \nYes, their apartments are cheap- they're also rather dirty and old. (When they say they clean the apartment before you move in...they don't really. The first time I moved in, there was a wrap around the toilet seat that said \"cleaned\" but there were bits of old throw up all over the seat). \nTheir apartments are also probably in the best locations around campus (close to the quad). \nIt ends up being a trade-off between a landlord you trust and a cheap apartment in a good locale. \nSeveral instances that really upset me in my time (3 years) with U Group not including my toilet seat cover story:\n- I signed a contract with them to transfer apartments after the summer was over and upon my return from summer break, BEFORE MY LEASE HAD ENDED all of my roommate and my things had been completely cleaned out. They admitted that it was their mistake and \"reimbursed\" us for a fraction of what everything they took cost (clothes, TV, lights, desks, cleaning supplies, dishware, etc...), and that was only after constant in-person and phone badgering for about a month. \n- This happened a few times, maybe three times; I would place a maintenance request in August when I got back to school, and no one would show up unless I called again and again. \n- They do this thing where they show your apartment (which is fine!) but they do it at weird hours of the day with no warning. One October morning I woke up at 10 am to a tall man standing in my bedroom doorway with about 3 other people by his side. (I'm just saying, they could call or something right before they get there; they have all of our numbers on the leases- and, its fking 10 am.)\n- This past summer, when I called the office to ask when our official transfer agreement was finalized before school started (I'm from California, so its a bit of a hassle when summer rolls around to deal with apt stuff) and at first they told me they would tell me in a week. A week turned into two weeks, turned into the next month. As you can imagine, it gets frustrating because I have to buy my plane tickets- when I eventually told them about my situation with the plane tickets, the lady that I was talking to told me that I needed to be patient, and that I needed to give them a chance blah blah and then HUNG UP ON ME. (I think ALL OF SUMMER is a pretty good \"chance\". I wasn't able to buy my plane ticket back to school until about the second week of August.)\n- There seems to be a lack of communication within the employees in the office. And I say this completely neutrally. They \"lose\" documents very easily. One of the summers I sublet my room to another girl, and U Group complained that she wasn't \"technically\" on the lease, even though previous to subletting another employee told me that it would be fine.\n- This happened to my roommate: U Group called and told us that they didnt recieve rent from one of the girls in i think September last year (that would be my roommate), which was strange because on my roommates online bank statements, the check was shown as cashed. This problem, I remember, took a while to sort out as well. Even after my roommate physically walked over to the office with her computer in hand and an online scan of the cashed check. \nPros: relatively cheap apartments and locations very close to main campus. \nCons: Management that could use some improvement. Due to their good locations, they know that people will always occupy their units, and hence the shoddy service. \nAvoid if you can, but I don't know if thats possible given the limited options on campus. JUST BEWARE AND TAKE PRECAUTIONS WITH YOUR THINGS!!"^^ . .