Palm House II Assisted Living AKA Irina Buzea 100% refundable deposit suddenly NOT refundable Phoenix Arizona
Recently my mother-in-law expressed an interest in moving to a different group home. So we did a search and contacted Palm House II. My fiancé and his mother went to view the home and were satisfied. I contacted the owner of Palm House II, Irina Buzea, to discuss what I needed to do to begin the process of moving my mother-in-law to Palm House II. She told me she did not have a room at the time, but she did have a patient who she expected to pass away soon (which I found a bit distasteful of her) and she would be back in touch with me. She called me back about a week later and told me she now had a room available, and we would need to put up a $1,000, and I quote, "100% fully refundable" deposit – something she stressed to me several times in our phone call. Ms. Buzea also told me that my mother-in-law’s check would not even be cashed because it was simply being held as a deposit. I told her my mother-in-law would be moving in at the end of June, approximately June 27. I had my mother-in-law write a check to Irina Buzea in the amount of $1,000 for the "100% fully refundable" deposit, and I dropped it off on June 10 at Palm House II. A few days later, my mother-in-law decided she didn’t want to move after all (she has dementia), so I called Ms. Buzea about getting her check back.
Word of Caution: If you give Irina Buzea a $1,000 deposit, make sure you RECORD the phone conversation when she tells you it is "100% fully refundable." Because if circumstances change and you decide against moving there, suddenly her story changes to "Oh no, I meant that it is only refundable if you definitely move in.” I told her that is NOT what she said, that she had said the deposit was 100% refundable – period. Then she actually had the audacity to ask me if I had recorded her saying that!!! She then admitted that she probably hadn’t actually said that the deposit was only refundable if my mother-in-law definitely moved in, but basically too bad because that’s the way it is. She cashed our deposit check the day after I gave it to her, despite having assured me that she would not cash the check. She ended the phone call by telling me to have my lawyer contact her lawyer.
I had a bad feeling about Irina both when I spoke to her on the phone and when I toured Palm House II, and I should have listened to it. Then my elderly mother-in-law with Parkinson’s and dementia wouldn't be out $1,000 for absolutely nothing. We had also put a deposit in at another assisted living home and they cheerfully sent our UNCASHED check back when we told them she wouldn't be moving there.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Barbara M
Surprise,Arizona,
USA
My experience was the opposite with Irina Buzea
#4Consumer Comment
Mon, July 24, 2017
I am an in-home social worker and had a patient stay at the other group home owned by Irina Buzea. He was a difficult gentleman. Not only was I incredibly impressed by the treatment of this patient by Irina and the staff, but the visiting RN, Dietician and Psychologist were equally impressed. I've been in dozens of group homes with my work and this was the best one I have ever seen. The care, the respect of their dementia patients (Irina took me aside and educated me on one patient's behavior and how to be kind to her - I shamefully admit I ignored that patient when I came in and it hurt the patient's feelings.)
I had a patient in the hospital and the hospice team came in and said he did not qualify for hospice and they were going to release him home. His daughter and son-in-law were hysterical and called me. I went to see the vet. He looked very bad to me. I told the daughter to call Irina Buzea. In two hours, Irina was at the hospital, agreed to take him right away. He arrived via ambulance in another 90 minutes, with a hospital bed, Irina, and a hospice worker there to greet him. He was put on hospice immediately and died three days later. I told Irina I was sorry I got her a three-day placement. She said she was so happy to help this man be safe and comfortable during his last days.
So when my parents needed a higher level of care, I was very upset and asked my coworkers what to do. The RN gave me the phone and said "Irina Buzea". A light went off. Of course. I took my dad to see it and he fully agreed it was great. My folks moved in together. When my father arrived, he was suddenly very weak. I was thinking emergency room. Irina pulled me aside and said she was confident he had a Urinary Tract Infection. She called the doctor who came right over and ordered a prescription, which arrived in two hours for the UTI. He was feeling normal again in a day. In a few weeks, my mother's health declined. The medical and personal care she got during her 4 months there was fantastic. There were the same caregivers who treated them like loved ones. My mother and father were sophisticated and proud people. They never lost their dignity at Irina's. I was there often and near the end, my sister and I were allowed to stay at the group home at no cost. We saw one caregiver come in every 4 hours on the dot with her pain medication. We asked "how do you know? and he said "I just know. I won't ever be late. We want her comfortable." When my mom passed, we wanted my father to move close to us, as it was a 30 minute drive. He refused to leave. He said "they treat me like a king and when I go, like your mother did, I know I am in the best hands." He did die 6 months later. They were both 92. He got the exact same care.
I am sorry about the miscommunication with the $1000. Mostly, I am sorry your mother-in-law did not get the opportunity to live there. I am 60. I hope Irina will be still in business when I reach those final days.
Wildheart
Phoenix,Arizona,
Deposit refunded - thank you
#4Author of original report
Tue, October 01, 2013
All of this has been over for quite a while, so I don't see the point in rehashing anything. Ms. Buzea did refund the deposit, as she should have, and I apologize for not amending my complaint when she did, but I had forgotton that I posted this.
NOTE: The deposit at the other nursing home referred to in my complaint took place before the situation with Palm House II.
Chris
Phoenix,Arizona,
Dear RipOff Representative
#4REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, September 30, 2013
I am very surprised that Ripoff.com allows anyone and everyone to write everything they want on this website, without verifying if that information is true!
How is it possible to allow this person to write such a complaint when almost everything she said is not true, and Ripoff never contacted our company to check with us if the information is true, before expose it on internet!?
Do you believe this is an ethical way to do business, by allowing everyone to write everything they want without verifying and checking with the other party to find out what have to say about it? My personal opinion is this way of conducting business is completely wrong!
This lady stated a lot of untruthful information and that caused a lot of damage to our reputation. And this is so unfair! This information supposed to be verified before it would be made available online!
BY CONTRACT OUR COMPANY HAD THE RIGHT TO RETAIN THE $1000 SECURITY DEPOSIT!
HOWEVER, WE ACTUALLY REFOUNDED HER THE $1000, EVEN SHE WAS WRONG, MAKING THAT FULISH DECISION! OUR REPUTATION IS WAY MORE THAN $1000! WE REFUNDED THE MONEY WHEN WE ACTUALLY HAD THE RIGHT TO KEEP THEM !!!
We have an A+ accreditation with BBB ! We never had any compliant in 12 years of operating this business. We do have hundreds upon hundreds of appreciation and referral letters for hundreds of very happy customers! This lady was not even our customer. She liked our facility and placed a deposit to move in her mother in low. She did the same thing with other facilities in the same time, intending to move in those facilities too. How can a person place a security deposit in multiple locations in the same time? Can someone be in multiple locations at the same time?
By the United States Law, a security deposit also known as an earnest payment, is the course of a rental agreement, and the receiving party retains the right to insist upon repayment in cash. The party making an advance payment retains NO RIGHT to insist upon the return of the funds as long as the recipient fulfills the contractual agreement.
When this lady paid $1000 security deposit, that was part of an agreement therefore I will never rent that room to anyone else. The following week I had 3 other families coming over to check our facility, and they were interested to move in that only room available, but I had to reject them because the room was already secured by that agreement with this lady in a form of $1000 security deposit!
I did tell her the security deposit is 100% refundable, but that's at the end of the agreement when they will move out of our facility if there is no cost of repair in relation to any damage explicitly specified in the agreement! All this details are in writing in our contract, and has been like that forever!
I never said "the check would not even be chased", because that does not make any sense to take the check in the first place anyway! I am doing this business for 12 years, and I do agreements with people every month. I never had any complaint like that since I started my business. Our reputation and our integrity is at the highest level, and we are very well known in this industry in the state of AZ!
We do not play around with our customers, and we expect the same way from our customers too!
When someone make a payment in a form of a security deposit, they have to be accountable for that! I did not offer the room to any of the three clients willing to move in and I lost business because she changed her mind, and broke the agreement we had to move in on June 27. I am not the one to take advantage of her money, I am actually the one that I'm losing money because she was irresponsible with her decisions.
And to prove that, I would like to ask some questions: Was she intended to move her mother-in-low in more than one facility in the same time? Or she actually did play around with everyone? Is a "security deposit" something that she supposed to play around with? Is a "Rental agreement" something that we should play around with? And if the answer is "NO", and everyone in this country knows that the answer is "NO", in that case, who was actually the person that was playing with her mother-in-low money? ME or HER?
I am a person in charge of multiple Assisted living facilities, and I do not take advantage of anyone, I actually take care of a lot of people, and that is a very hard work, a tremendous amount of responsibilities, and I do that with a lot of compassion for all this people.
All our customers are very happy, they all respect me and they all appreciate a lot the level of care we provide!
With that being said, I will suggest Ms. Karen to be more carefully when she is managing her mother-in-low money, and be accountable for her actions and decisions, and when she makes a foolish decision, please do not blame those that are doing business in very honest, correct and ethical way!
And I suggest to Rippof.com to verify the authenticity of the information before posting it online, as it does a lot of damage to innocent people or reputable companies!
Thank you for taking the time to read to find out the truth!