Complaint Review: Dustin Doebber

Dustin Doebber put an ad on craigslist to rent his condo. Contacting him was easy when we were interested in coming to look at the unit. He contacted us in a timely manner and set us up for a showing. The showing went so well, so we decided to put a security deposit (one months rent) down right away and turn in our applications. After everything went through, we met up with him again to sign the lease (wrote him a check for 1st months rent). During these two meetings, Dustin had told us he will be out of the apartment early August and have the apartment clean and ready well before Sept 1. He also said it shouldn't be a problem for us to move in the weekend before the 1st, so we don't have to take off work. After signing the lease, Dustin became almost IMPOSSIBLE to get ahold of. We would have to contact him in several different ways and wait days to hear back from him. Call, e-mail, text, you name it! Of course he would never answer his phone, only text. Meanwhile, we noticed he reposted the exact same ad on craigslist (recently). Same pictures, same sq. footage, even same description. At this point, we knew something was wrong. With the lack of responses and the ad, we thought this was a scam. He finally reassured us he had another unit in the building that he was remodeling and just didn't have pictures yet. Seemed like a good excuse, so we let it go after that. 

The DAY BEFORE we were supposed to be moving in, he text me saying due to a family emergency, it was going to delay our move in by a few days. We already had told our current apartment that we were moving out, had the u-haul scheduled, and friends and family coming to help us. All things considered, we were very patient.  As the weekend went on, he barely gave us an update as to when we could move in. The weekend came and went and still no answer as to when he'd let us move in. We were stuck LIVING OUT OF A UHAUL. His response was "I'll let you know shortly" for about a week. August 31st rolls around and still nothing. He said he wasn't moved out yet and didn't know when he'd have the unit ready. So, by 6pm that evening, I said I either want my keys or I want my money back. Of course, he didn't respond to one phone call this whole time. All calls went to voicemail and would only contact us back via text and e-mail. (what kind of business man does that?!- not a very good one, I'll tell ya that!) He offered to give us our money back, which he did in the form on a cashiers check, but of course didn't have the courage to face me. He left a few thousand dollar cashiers check on top of a mailbox. How ridiculous! Also, NOT EVEN ONE APOLOGY. 

Maybe this man was telling the truth about his family emergency. Maybe it really was the perfect storm. Or maybe he keeps reposting this craigslist ad to make innocent people fall for the same shitty situation.