My Shit List

Gunhill Residences is going on my shit list. So now the list includes:

• America Online
• Royal Rent-a-Car
• Gunhill Residences

Gunhill refuses to give me my deposit because my housemates and I are “jointly and severably liable” even though I’m not responsible for the damage. Additionally, they are taking their sweet time in getting the repairs started. Not only that but they’re repainting walls and replacing carpeting in second floor areas that weren’t even affected. Uhm, sure insurance covers it but you’re making us pay the deductible. That’s just wrong.

These crappy companies are ones I hope get run into the ground and seriously need to improve their customer service. In marketing they say that one happy customer may tell 5 other people, but one unhappy customer will tell 20 people. I fall into that latter category. I make it a point to tell everyone I know how these companies operate and convince them not to use their services because of their horrid practices.

America Online
America Online’s customer service just outright lies. When you want to cancel your service, they will put you through 20 hoops before letting you cancel. They ask countless questions, try to get you to downgrade to another plan, etc. And then they offer to give you a few months free since you’ve been such a good customer for so long. Well guess what, after those few months are up, your account isn’t cancelled and they start charging again without letting you know – even though they tell you the account is cancelled and the free months are just a “gift.” Additionally they will ban you from using your AOL screenname on AIM for a year and hold it for no reason. Have you seen their recent commercials about how much they care about customer service? ALL BULLSHIT.

Royal Rent-a-Car
Royal will arbitrarily disregard their own company policies and promises. I think it’s actually illegal. For Spring Break, my group made a rental reservation online through Royal’s website. This is a contract, both sides have expressly agreed to the exchange of money and services. Well, we get down there and they say you must be 25 to rent a car. They explain this by saying this is their policy during Spring Break. No indication of this was made anywhere on the site and they didn’t contact us beforehand to notify us of this. And there was a big sign on their wall that said “above 21.” We nearly got stranded there in the middle of the night. I called their manager the next day, he acted like that sign didn’t exist and told me he didn’t know what else to say – very unprofessional. Again, complete and utter BULLSHIT.

Gunhill Residences
I’ve been living here 2 years and it was okay I guess. BUT, their old maintenance guy was a complete jerk (Bob). This guy only greets the female residents too – make your own opinions about that. I know this joint and severably liable thing exists in most student leases in Ithaca, but I think it’s just so stupid. We’re individual people, it isn’t that hard for individual liability. Also at the end of each year they charge a whole bunch for cleaning and what not and then add on a 15% administrative fee. They expect you to leave the apartment in brand new condition. They should swallow the cleaning expenses if it’s not severe or at least not charge an arbitrary 15% fee. It just gives them more incentive to do all kinds of unnecessary cleaning or work on the apartment to increase the fee. Oh wow, you made one phone call and hired a cleaner, now you’re going to charge the tenant 15% on top of everything? BULLSHIT.

There you go. Avoid Americal Online. Netscape Internet is run by AOL too so be careful. Do not use Royal even if they’re cheap – they can very unexpectedly screw you over. They are mainly in Florida only. If you go to Cornell, do not live at Gunhill. It’s cheaper because it’s farther away but it’s not worth the hassle. It’s much more convenient to live in Collegetown and there are good bargains if you look for them.