Complaint Review: RPM Exclusive Andrew Garcia

From day one of dealing with RPM exlcusive, it was nothing short a a complete NIGHTMARE.  Upon renting a fully furnished house, they showed me a file of 1,600 photos (yes, 1600!) pre-move in photos.  I looked at them laughingly as 65% or greater were blurry.  Looked like a child went crazy with a digital SLR lol.  This should have been my first clue.  No matter, this comes up again later.  So, after I see they charged me a 300 dollar cleaning fee before moving in...  I was less than plussed to see I had to clean the place myself, again.  Ok no matter...  Soon after moving in I see that nearly every light bulb in the entire house is burned out.   Did the crazy camera guy not think to check the basics during his photo shooting rampage?  Oh well, so I get a tall ladder and changed them in the 12 foot ceilings (at my own cost); having dealt with rental properties before I knew better than bother them for simple things like light bulbs.  After about 2 weeks of living there I had a pretty decent size list of things going on with the property that needed proffesional attention; and I also noticed that none of the outside lights were working either, and not only was it going to be 200 dollars or greater in light bulbs, they also needed a new switch so changing them myself didn't matter, nor was I going to spend any more money getting a rental up to baseline standards.  

As days became darker heading into fall, it became a bigger and bigger problem.  Numerous emails and phone calls went know where as the owner of the company, Andrew Garcia, cannot keep employees on staff long enough to learn the system, develop relationships, or see problems through, let alone be organized.  While this wasn't immediatly annoying, it became so very quickly considering how many times I had to repeat the same explaination, phone call, activity, etc to finally get (about half) of my problems resolved.  Finally, 2 months after living without access to the master closet  (yes, the owner had locked this as storage for themselves and Andrew and his master photographer never thought to check this apparently, or if they did for some reason thought the renter wouldn't need access to the master closet in the house I was renting??).  So I lived with my clothes on the floor and couch, and chairs, with no outside lights, broken oven, broken gate, and a growing frustration.  Finally, after talking personally with Andrew on the phone (he tends to hide behind his employes, doesn't return calls or emails personally until first getting permission from his mother who makes all of his business decisions), I got Andrew to get off his tush and get something done.  The remaining months were relatively quite as I just handled problems myself and avoiding calling into the marginally staffed office.  

Moving out was relatively easy as I didn't have much stuff, and the place was furnished so everything stayed.  I did a nice job cleaning up, except for the tall shelf dusting and windows, but that should be easily covered by my 300 dollar cleaning fee that I paid prior to move in.  During the move out phase, Andrew sent a brand new employee (with the title of "Field Inspector Extraordinaire") who ironically had NEVER done a move out inspection before in a fully furnished house, let alone maybe had half a dozen or less non-furnished walk throughs under his belt (I'm guessing here but if I'm wrong it's not by much), come and do the walk through.  You would think given all the drama of the start we had, Andrew would have wanted to handle this one personally (considering it's his reputation and business).  Of course I politely entertained the new guys posturing when he showed up for the walkout inspection to avoid completely embarrassing him as it was painfully obvious he had not a clue what he was doing.  He even scheduled the walk through the day after all the utilities were shut off so there was no way for him to check the light bulbs.  Wait, did you jsut say check the light bulbs?  Do you mean they were going to charge me for a light bulb being out?... "It's like 60 dollars per bulb" he said.  What!?!?!

"So you don't know anything about me or my history with this rental do you?" I asked.

"Ummmmm" he said.

"LOL Did you review the 1600 photos before coming out?" I asked.  

"Huh, what?.... derrrrrr, ummmmm  9ner".    

"Ok thanks, that's kinda what I figured".  

So chaulking the whole thing up to life and just wanting to move on, I figured it would be good to leave well enough alone and after I had my security deposit back (I'm a single guy, no pets, don't smoke, and frankly barely touched the place as I'm away for work a lot).  So about 27 days after I moved out (they have 30 days by law to get your deposit back), I find out that ANDREW is charging me 460 dollars for a cleaning fee!!  When I called to ask for a copy of the invoice from the cleaners, I was told "they don't do that?"  Ummm What!?  What in the world cost that much to clean, and if so show me the evidence!  I was simply told over the phone (again after multiple calls with Andrew hiding in the shadows) that the place was very dirty and the carpet fee alone was 140 dollars.  The carpet fee?  The place is nearly 85% tile, and the only bedroom I used (the guest was never used) had barely a 10 foot section of carpet which probably did benefit from a vacuming, but in no way needed 140 dollars worth of whatever work they lied about.  Andrew finally got on the phone and tried to kiss my butt, but essentially couldn't explain the charges so he agreed to cut the fee in half... However he did say, "Well the sink was pretty dirty, and ummm...."      Now wait, you mean he walked through the house without me after the official walkthrough was over?!  Yep.  And no coorellations were made to ADHD boy's 1600 pre-move in photos right?  Nope.  Wow!  How long did it take for me to get my security deposit back?  73 days, and about 25 more emails and phone calls.  I even went in person to get it, but Andrews staff isn't allowed to sign checks because he doesn't trust any of them, and he's never in the office... Hmmmm (scratching head...)  

"WELL, That's 43 days late, Andrew.  According to RPM math, if I had been that late on my rent, I would owe you 460 dollars.  You owe me 460 dollars Andrew lol.   Your lucky I don't have the time to sue you, nor do I want to deal with you anymore!   Good luck with your business or whatever you call it.  RPM should be embarrased you are displaying their brand-