This was our third trip to the Outer Banks. Our previous two trips were wonderful. The rental companies were wonderful. No issues with the rentals at all. They were clean, spacious and as advertised.
This year, however, we used Midgett Realty. This was a nightmare. One that we will never relive.
Upon arriving at our rental, Oh Hatteras, on Sunday, Sept 1, 2019, we saw that it looked to be an "older" unit and the outside looked to be as shown in photos. However, on the inside it was a twist and turn maze. That we could live with. Upon further inspection we found several issues as we spent our short day and a half there (2 nights).
Here is the condition of the unit:
Not all of these things were noticed at once. When we arrived we decided to fit in an evening at the ocean, since Dorian was on the way and we wanted to make sure we had some fun at the beach. We were notified on Monday afternoon (the next day) that there was a mandatory evacuation on Tuesday by 10 AM. So we spent most of the day at the beach once again.
Two members of our family are severely allergic to the black mold (1 with asthma) and began showing reactions to it.
We left on Tuesday, by the evacuation time. We even brought in the outside furniture as requested as a courtesy.
We did not contact Midgett regarding these issues at the time since there was nothing they could do with the impending evacuation. It would make no sense to send a cleaning crew over to do the job that should have been done in the first place. They could not upgrade us to a nicer, clean unit, as the area was being evacuated.
Upon returning home on Monday, September 9th, 2019, I attempted to email and contact Midgett realty. I did not receive a respond back until 09/17/2019. Emails were rejected and I finally had to message directly through their site. I provided the information above and requested a refund for the remaining days in the amount of $824.49 since they could not have corrected the above issues as outlined above. The unit was unacceptable. We were not requesting a refund due to being evacuated, but as stated, for an unacceptable rental.
Note: Not being able to obtain a response for 9 days also tells me that the chance of Midgett Realty sending over a cleaning crew immediately to take care of the issues would not have happened.
Our response, finally, came from Anthony Fletcher the "General Manager" of rentals. His response was as follows:
"I am responding to your request for a refund of $825.49.
I checked for notes in the reservation as to the cleaning issues to see if any were reported. I did not see any cleaning issues reported to our staff. We make every effort to provide clean homes to all of our guest but I realize we do have issues that we need to address at times.
It is a rather extensive list of cleaning issues of which most or all could have been addressed. As for the cockroach, regretfully they are very common in the area, all homes are treated but they are indigenous to the area.
I do not believe that the refund you are requesting is a reasonable request and there will be no refund issued."
We went back and forth regarding this and I requested to speak with those above him. His response:
"I am the General Manager of Midgett Realty and the owner that handles the rental division, so I am the last stop.
As I stated above the $825.49 is unreasonable and I would venture is based on you not having travel insurance."
It does not even matter if we did or did not have travel insurance. We would not have requested a refund, had the unit been clean and acceptable.
Anthony did not even make a counter offer when he stated the $825.49 was unreasonable.
So you see there is no concern for the client/renter. There is no apology for the issues we encountered. There was no concern over the health of the renters due to the black mold issue. Only excuses and blaming of the client/renter.
I asked him to respond to the questions/facts below:
"I want a response to the following questions:
I think we know the answer to these questions. No.
Your only option would be to move us to a cleaner unit nearby, if available. However, you would not be able to do that as well due to the pending evacuation.
Your only other choice would be to refund the existing days left on our stay, which is what I am asking. This is reasonable."
His only response "You have my final answer to all questions."
This is rude and completely unacceptable. This is poor customer service. It's not even customer service.
He takes NO RESPONSIBILITY whatsoever for the fact that they did not fully clean the unit.
We researched Midgett Realty across the internet and found 20 complaint reviews (including ours) with almost identical issues and complaints. Almost "word for word". Our concerns are obviously valid.
We have put these together for others to review with links to the individual reviews in a group on Facebook. Look for the group: Midgett Realty Complaints & Concerns.
I would venture to say they purposefully did not clean the unit, anticipating the evacuation due to the hurricane.
I do see where Midgett Realty likes to respond back to some reviews and point fingers, so I have tried to address all points so they are not able to do this.
We even tried repeatedly to give them a chance to make things right. If they worked with us the review could read "There were some issues with cleanliness, but Midgett Realty made things right." Anthony CHOSE to not work with us at all. Anthony call honest reviews "extortion" and he tries to take revenge. Watch the responses. We call it, trying to work things out. DO NOT use Midgett Realty. Home owners, think twice.
We will never again use Midgett Realty. We suggest you do not use them as well. If I were a home owner, I would not use this company to manage my rental.