We rented the vacation house, in the villages, July 3,2007. It was a pet friendly house. However, we were not bringing our dog, do we called the company, and talked to Rebecca, and asked for another house, she said there weren't any available, so you don't have to pay the extra $175. In November 19, 2007 we got a notice to pay the $175, even though we weren't bringing the dog. We called the company immediately and talked to Tammi, and told the problem to her, she said disregard the notice, so we did.
When we arrived in the evening of February 1, 2008, we couldn't find the house by their directions, so got help from The Villages personnel. When we found the house about 9:00pm, we found tne front screen bent open at an angle, so we could not open the door to get in. You can't contact the Rental Co. after 5:00 PM, so we couldnot have gotten in if a nice neighbor who had some tools had not helped us. Half the lights would not work, the kitchen set was old,rusty, and dirty, so we didn't use it for the whole month we stayed there. A maintaince man came the next day and fixed things that we found bad.
The place was dirty even though the cleaning crew was supposed to clean it before we came. The shower curtains were full of mildew and the bathroom rugs were dirty. We cleaned the place up so we could stay there.
We left on February 28, 2008. We left the place very clean, and left about $30 worth of cleaning supplies.
I had a lot of medical problems, after we got home, so we didn't realize that we hadn't received our refund on our $500 security deposit. We expected $310 refund whichwas minus the clean up fee. So in early June 2008, we called the Rental Co. to find out why we hadn't received our refund.
We talked to Frances, she said that oveer 100 checks had been lost,but none cashed, so they will send a check. The odd thing was they never reported it.After another call to them to find out what type of mail service they used, we finally got the check. It took three weeks to get it.
The check surprised us, instesd of $310, it was $70. With our check dated June 20, 2008, was a Credit Memo dated March 24, 2008. Listed as Minus $65 for stains on kitchen chairs which we never used because of their filth. Also listed was Pet deposit for $175. This was after we called Rebecca, and Tammi and said we weren't bringing the dog and got and ok not to pay.
Naturally we didn't waste any time in calling back. I might enter here, is I found out later, that they donot have a office in the Villages, only a drop box. Also they have a answering service so you can never get a live person, except once we got an obnoxious security guard who had the IQ of 1.
This is where we talked to Frances who made it clear she was the supervisor and she didn't appreciate being called on her lunch hour, which she seemed to always be on. She was very rude and arrogant, and seemed that we had no right to take her time. She did admit that the kitchen set was old , so she would refund the $65. She more or less implied that this might be a scam set, it would be interesting to find out who else paid for this set.
Frances said that two of the people who told us that we didn't have to pay the dog fee were fired and what they told us didn't matter . We protested that what they told us should be honored, she said they would honor their decisions. Further Frances said since we were bothering them, she would not now refund the$65 that she promised us, even though we didn't use the set, and that it old before we got there.
I would like to add that none of the people at the First Village Rental won't give their last names, nor would Frances give us a higher up supervisor's name, address, or phone number. She said that all coorespondance would come to her, and she would forward it- yeah fat chance.
This farce is quite upsetting, especially to people who are retired and live for every payday,and can't afford rip offs. Lets unite and go after the First Village Rentals, and thier lackies.
Lee
Huntley, Illinois
U.S.A.