The Griffin

leslieb

Resident • 2012 - 2013

Where should I start? I moved here to be closer to my job. The rate was within my budget, so I figured it couldn t be so bad! Guess what? I m SERIOUSLY thinking about breaking my lease! It s only been 3 months! Like many posters, we ve all experienced pretty much the same problems! Let s start with when you first walk in the office. I m huge on customer service. This office lacks it completely! Secondly, parking is a HUGE joke! The parking spaces are so tight and I have a compact car! They have towing signs all around the complex and trust and believe, I ve YET to see anyone towed! There are people parking in handicap spaces with no tags nor plates! The hallways and stairwells. Well, let s just say it doesn t smell all rosy! I believe the pet owners take their dogs in the stairwells and let them go so they won t have to take them outside. Since management apparently knows this, why won t they power wash or clean them? Guess what? I m a pet owner!! I have 2 dogs and no way would I do this! If you want to wash your hair, thank about every other day. The hot water spotty! If you re a light sleeper, you may want to get an apt on the 4th floor. I m on the 3rd and every step my neighbor makes, I m right with them. Oh yeah, someone mentioned security. What security? Thank goodness I have a permit to carry! Yeah, it s the ------! This place is a joke! Seriously, I m thinking about breaking my lease. I can t tolerate another 8 months here. I m not exaggerating.

cheresinclair

Resident • 2013

I wish I had more time in my day to devote to telling others how terrible it is to live here. One of the elevator was out for about 3 weeks and they didn't even want to tell us that it was because THERE WAS A FIRE in the elevator shaft. Another elevator breaks down often, forcing me to take the stairs up from the parking garage. As a single female, it is a safety hazard to take the stairs alone at night. The bath rooms next to clubroom have recently been locked and now they want us to go down to the leasing office just to get a key to open them! Things are ALWAYS broken in this place, it's gotten so bad that the FRONT DOOR was broken and wouldn't open.... the front door! That's a definite fire hazard! I have had outstanding maintenance issues since moving in last July. I have told the front office about this and I am ignored.

Current Resident 555595

Resident • 2012

DO NOT LIVE HERE!!! Trust me! They raise your rent a ridiculous amount every year, the noise is unbelievable, the parking is HORRIBLE! The hallways always have animal crap or cigarette butts everywhere. And it always smells so bad! The traffic and noise from the aquarium is so annoying and will only get worse when the new museum of nature and science opens in Dec 2012. The vendors you are required to use for cable and internet are so uncooperative and the cable constantly goes out because the cable comes unhooked on the roof. The front office staff is TERRIBLY RUDE. They will not even acknowledge you when you walk in sometimes. The only good thing I can say is that the service calls are answered pretty quickly. I am so glad I finally left.

Current Resident 938104

Resident • 2010 - 2012

I never had a problem living at the apartments. When something broke I called maintenance and it was correct same day or next day without a hitch. I never did much communication with the office because I paid my rent on time and that was that. That being said.....With the renewal of our lease coming up they increased rent $350.00. With no renovations this was quite an asking price when we lived there comfortable for a year with a significantly lower rent. We opted out of the new lease price and moved out. Our move out date was 9/28. On 9/30 we went to turn in our keys and the office was closed. We came back 10/1 to turn them in and discovered the how rude and condescending the management truly is. I walked in happily handed the manager the keys. She looked up from her salad and snarkily said "Now I have to change all the paper work because these were due 9/28". She then crossed out 3 words on the paper work (wow that was tough). I told her we tried to turn them the day before, but no one was in the office. She then said "well we are closed on sunday, it's been that way for a year now". (why would I know that I don't go to the office regularly to say hi). I told her the sign says its open 1:00pm -5:00pm on Sunday. She then snapped, that's our winter hours, which don't go in effect till the winter solstice (yea I guess I forgot to mark down the winter solstice on my personal calender, I guess the first week of OCTOBER is still summer???) then she went on and said "I know for a fact that the office sign is correct because I checked it today". This angered me so much because I wasn't questioning her intelligence or saying she was a liar, I was merely pointing out why there was confusion and the keys were 1 DAY late. I don't know the name of the manager, I guess she didn't have time to introduce herself or thank me for being a valued customer, she was way to busy chomping on her salad and making condescending remarks out loud and under her breath. She is obviously the main manager and also in the wrong career field. (I would know, I am in the customer service business!) Basically the apartments are great, way too pricy now if you ask me. The office staff who handle maintenace inquiries are very nice and polite. The Manager however needs a reality check and to be taken down a few notches. She is terrible! No communication what so ever and everything is the residents fault! She continuely talked about how she sent notes out with hour changes, rent changes, etc. and I should already know everything. These notes are pieces of scrap paper they stick in the crack of your door....very professional....I'm sure 3/4 of these notes never made it into my hands. Maybe someone should teach her how to use email, the mailbox, or a telephone.

matt00000

Resident • 2010 - 2011

DO NOT move here. My car was broken into twice--once in the visitor lot, once in the gated lot. They would not do anything about it. Parking, in general, is a nightmare. The visitor lot offers minimal spots with "un-parkable" squeezes. MOST IMPORTANTLY, no matter the condition of your carpet, they will say it needs to be replaced when you move out. Fight this. They have to show you why it needs replacing. This saved us a ton of money. Do not be a pushover with the office. They are worthless. The rent on our apartment shot up to $1870 after a 15 month lease. DO NOT MOVE HERE

Current Resident 640376

Resident • 2009 - 2012

The parking is horrible and the increase in price is not logical. Yes, I do have a problem with the smell of illegal drugs every time I walk outside my apartment. It is not my job to say anything, but we have a clueless security guard on property who is either getting high himself or afraid to do anything about it. Now there are a couple of things out of their control, but I am a light sleeper. The fire station is across the street, and the noises of the fire engines drive me crazy at 2 am. Also, they are building a sandwich shop across the street, and they begin construction at 6am. On my days off, I like to sleep in, and it is really hard. Despite everything, I can deal with these issues because I like downtown, and I would be open to paying more in rent. Actually, I am moving to a place that charges more in rent. MY BIGGEST ISSUE IS THE NEW MANAGER WHO SEEMS TO BE COMPLETELY RUDE. For the past 3 years, I have ignored many things...yes, it is downtown and an apartment complex with many different types of people. I refuse to give my monthly rent to a person who cannot treat me with respect. She does not belong in a business that involves customer service.

dfwautorestoration

Resident • 2010 - 2012

New Manager is the epitome of STUPID!

I have lived on property for two years. I was apprehensive about resigning my lease that ends within 60 days because of a rate increase that is not justified by any improvements whatsoever if anything the building is falling apart and the demographic is reflective of the ------ that is within walking distance from the Dart trains across the street. I went to the office to speak to the new manager Amanda Wood. Management has changed recently and BEWARE! The previous staff was profeccient enough to get things done and they werent as racist, contradictive, and flat out ingorant as the new manager. My neighbor down the hall went to speak to the new manager to discuss a renewal and she offered her the same rate for a 15 month extension with no increae. I live in the same floor plan and have lived here longer then my neighbor and pay even more then her so I figured Amanda would not have a problem, especially since I have NEVER been late in rent. The moment I walked into the "leasing office" I noticed she was frazzled and overwhelmed she honestly seems like a cracked out over worked and washed up employee with too many obligations and not enough capability to do more then one thing at a time. When I asked to discuss the rent increase of $75 and the option to renew at a lower rate she was completely RUDE and UNCOOPERATIVE. She said that new residents would pay more for my apartment and that was the reflection of market rent. She also was very disrespectful to me and did not have ANY effective communication skills. Since she has taken over management the office is filled with overwhelmed and a frazzled staff. The old leasing agents are no longer there and the new girls have no idea what they are doing. From work orders to noise complaints EVERYTHING IS A MESS! They seem to follow by example and their rude condensending attitude is reflective in their tone and body language which just makes it irritating to even call or go down to the leasing office, especially the new girl Erin. Therefore as a resident it is extremely frustrting to live in a property so poorly ran. Now that I have the option to vacate my apartment I will gladly be looking at many other alternatives. Market Rent may be higher in downtown dallas but don't settle for this ------ poorly ran excuse of an apartment community!! BEWARE!!! ALSO: Parking is supposed to be assigned and it is nothing but a headache, the door system NEVER works and the office staff dosn't even know how to fix it, Work orders are never fully completed, dog feces and urine throughout the hallway, loud neighbors, drugs and late night domestic disputes....AND MUCH MORE!! JUST DONT CHOOSE TO LIVE IN A PLACE LIKE THIS, BELIEVE ME, ITS NOT WORTH IT!!!!

Jaytayturboz

Resident • 2010 - 2012

Horrible place to live!!!

I can't name one good thing about this property. From management to maintenance it was a horrible apartment experience!!

Current Resident 974151

Resident •

Not that good

Lived here for four years. Pros: location isn't bad but don't get sold on the idea of living downtown,not that fun; price is good; haven't had any problems inside my actual apt.; no bugs Cons: management isn't as good as old management; parking is horrible; basically no great security features or enforcement, quite a few immature tenants and they do immature things; poor overall cleanliness (don't walk out of your apt and expect not to see trash somewhere or even maybe a turd in the halls, also avoid stairwells at all cost); nowhere great to walk pets; etc.

Current Resident 240811

Resident • 2011 - 2012

Not Bad!

I have been living here about a year now and I have really enjoyed my stay. There have only been two negatives concerning my stay here. There is virtually zero visitor parking on the weekends and anytime during the week after five. Also, the parking spots are very tight. Even with my first assigned spot in the parking garage, it was so tight that I could not park in it and be able to open my car door. The people at the front office were very understanding and moved me to a better spot that was a lot wider and closer to the garage. Also, some tenants think its okay for their dogs to pee and crap all in the hallways and elevators then leave it there.Other than that, my stay has been really nice. I live in a 1br/1 bath unit with a balcony facing the swimming pool and hot tub. My balcony area is huge and I have a lot of space in my apartment. I see a lot of people have said the staff are rude, but the ones I have encountered were really nice to me. If you do move here and you have a packaged delivered, just know that they wont call you to let you know the package is there as most apartments do, so keep your tracking number handy. Other than that, I have really enjoyed it! I am only moving to move into a house, but really nice apartemnts.

Current Resident 265760

Resident • 2011 - 2018

Lived here since 2011 and the management changes about every year or so.. Sucks because they change rules from one extreme to another.. The one that bothers me the most is that the office now closes at 5 PM which makes it inconvenient for most of us that work 8 or 9 to 5 and if we have some business to discuss with the office they are closed by the time we get home.. Now today I came home today to see that they are putting up a curtain for the office so that nobody can see them still win there after 5.. Sucks when you have an issue to discuss with them or pick up a package!! I have put up with a bunch of there -------- with past management but this bunch we have now is the worst!!! I would not recommend this place to anybody!!!

EugeniazO

Resident • 2011

Don't miss out on this property!!!

I have lived here for a little over 6 months now and have had the best customer service. The office staff is very professional and so extremely nice. The maintenance have always completed my requests the same day and the landscaping is always so nice. The village keeps a great image especially during the holidays with all the lights. I would recommend this place to anyone. Uptown Locators (http://www.uptownlocators.com/) really did a nice job. I want to say specially thanks Yana.

rs1976

Resident • 2010 - 2011

Love living here!!!

I have lived here for almost a year now and I must say that I love it. Yeah the parking is a little tight but it's downtown for Christ's sake. I love the location, I love the nearby restaurants and bars. The apartments are beautiful. The staff has always been friendly to me. I have walked around numerous times at night and not once did I feel unsafe. Love it!!!!!

Current Resident 774555

Resident • 2011

Will not renew lease...

I would not advise anyone to move here. I have lived her for almost a year and overall it has been a bad experience. I wish someone would have advised me before I moved here. I liked the location but looking at this site I see there are plenty of other apartment complexes within a mile radius that have much better reviews. Parking is horrible. There are not enough guest spots to have any visitors. Plus, I often find someone parked in the parking spot that I pay for. Management does not do much to assist when this problem occurs. In fact overall management does not do much at all. They are good at promising things will get done but then fail to follow through. They are very unprofessional too. When I moved in management was much better but there seems to be high turn over and always new staff. Another problem is the overall cleanliness. Pets are allowed and other residents often let their animals go to the bathroom on the elevator or in the hallway. I have found urine puddles way too many times on the elevator. The only thing the building has going for it is their maintenance department. They respond quickly and are nice. I can t wait to move out of here.

Current Resident 287853

Resident • 2008 - 2011

Typical Downtown living

I have lived at 1001 Ross for almost 3 years. I had some issues with some of the previous staff, but most of them are gone, so things have definitely improved as far as the attitude you get from the office.

Current Resident 959561

Resident • 2009 - 2010

My advice..don't rent here

I have lived here for nearly two years. At first the office staff was great and that is why I rented here. However, they are now rude and uneducated. All of the great staff have quit due to the poor management from above. On more then one occasion when I have gone into the leasing office, to pick up a package, I have had to wait until after the agent finished her phone call on her personal cell phone. The parking is beyond horrible. You pay for a spot but often guests park in it and you are left having to pay for overnight parking across the street. When I have complained to management about this problem I have been told to park in another tenet's space. Safety is also very bad. They seem to be allowing anyone to rent here and there is very rarely a security guard on duty. Overall this has been a horrible experience for me and I can not wait for my lease to end. I am considering breaking my lease just to get away from this nightmare.

d4v1d25

Resident • 2009 - 2010

Fantastic Apartment, Great Staff, Not so great Parking

I just want to start off by saying that I absolutely love these apartments. My neighbors seem very nice, with the exception of the people above me who show little regard for anybody. I can hear their bass, and they're very loud foot steps at all hours of the night. They also throw cigarette butts down outside my patio. The apartment they show you is they apartment you will get. I didn't even have to fill out the checklist with any defects of the apartment when I moved in. The maintenace staff is amazing. The office staff is pretty decent. They're nice for the most part, although at times they can come off as a little pretentious. But they remember who you are and will talk to you by name instead of asking who you are and what apartment you're in. The parking is however a magor negative. I'm on my 3rd parking space in less than a year. The first time, I requested the space to be change to a space in the center so my car would fit. The second time I had to change spaces because the office gave a new tenant my space without checking their records. They were very apologetic and let my choose my new spot, but it was a bit of a headache. It does seem like they've been letting somewhat trashy people move in lately. They get kinda noisy at the pool, but for the most part, I really do love my apartment here. I say, if you have a tolerance for people, and a car no larger than mid-sized, then you should definately rent here.

Current Resident 13673

Resident • 2006 - 2007

Do not do it!

Do not do it, do not even think of renting from them. Unless you are ok with not having a car that is ruined by living here (parking). Unhelpful staff, and a security guard that spends his time sleeping (and coming onto girls). Thin walls, and loud hallways. Also if you are any other religion besides Christian do not move here! They make it very obvious with their fellowship meetings and bibles open when you walk in. DO not be anything besides someone that is a yuppie or corporate, or they will run you out of there. Do not even think of it if you are gay! Never and I say never allow your personal life to be known in any shape or form to anyone that lives here. That means come home and sleep alone if you are single. DO not use the public computers (if they work) because the other tenants will gossip about you, and make things up. Seriously it is even worse.

Prospective Resident 72449

Prospect • Visited 2009

Turned Away

I believe that my partner and I were turned away from this complex because we're couple and we're both men (ApartmentRatings censors the word "g-y"). We entered, asked the woman at the first desk whether we could tour. She immediately told us to leave, saying that they were appointment only, though there were no signs of such a policy either at their website or office, and that she was "very busy". We were the only people I saw in the office. We asked if we could at least get information on the apartment we were looking for. She then gave us a price quote that was $250 more per month than had been listed at their website for the same two-bedroom plan. She again asked us to leave, suggesting that we could "Maybe call back and make an appointment". No other apartment complex we visited immediately asked us to leave. No other complex had an "appointment only" policy. I can think of no other reason to be shown the door so rudely than taking an issue with us. Ask yourself if this is the kind of apartment management you want to deal with.

Current Resident 305259

Resident • 2010

Do not step into this Apartment Building

for the simple fact that the staff/employment is unstable and unprofessional in that they always seem to be changing staff, i would not recommend this place. Break-ins all the time and the staff will disagree with you. Its managed by a company I lived before moving to this place and it seems to have the same problems. Do not waste your time in looking here because once you move-in everything will start to crumble around you.

Current Resident 117633

Resident • 2009

I'm Loving It

I have lived in 1001 Jefferson Ross for 4 months after moving to Dallas from New Orleans for a new job. I live on an outward facing apartment on the 2nd floor facing Lamar Street. Since I live on the 2nd floor, you can here more noise outside, mostly the sound of buses passing, however you get used to the noise really quickly. I hardly ever here my neighbor upstairs (maybe you can here them walking ever once and a while, but nothing frequent), and I have NEVER heard my neighbors that live next door to me. I read a previous post stating that if you live next to the stairs, you can here the door slammimg. I live next to the stairs and I never heard it slam, not once. I must say if you plan to have friends over the parking is not ideal. However parking for tenants is wondeful as your parking spot in the garage is in close promixity to where your apartment is located. And it is true that everyday people come to the aquarium, but I have had no problems getting to Woodall Rogers freeway. I love where I live. It is close to everything. Very convienent and not super expensive. Which is definitely a plus. I live in a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom and I love how much space I have. The bathroom is huge and so is the closet. I lucked out since I am on the second floor and I have stained concrete floors. My electricity bill during the time I lived here during the summer has been 70-80 dollars (I have reliant). The only thing that I have noticed is that during the weekends large trash that is not able to fit in the trash chute tenders to collect in the garage next to the locked trash chute door. But it is cleared ever morning religiously. I have no complaints at all. I have had no maintanence issues. When i first moved in there were ants, which was solved quickly. Its pretty quiet. Do not know my neighbors b/c I hardly ever see them or hear them. Overall no complaints.

Current Resident 893354

Resident • 2009

Not Happy

I've never disliked an apartment complex enough to actually spend the time to write a review on it, until now. The parking situation is atrocious. Whenever I think about having someone over, I decide not to since they will more than likely end up paying $5 to park across the street. The visitor's parking is ridiculously small. Management claims they are going to redesign that area, but nothing has happened yet. Also, there is a big problem with unauthorized parking. Unfortunately, the area is too small for a tow truck, so I'm pretty sure it's now well known that all they'll receive is an orange sticker telling them they're not supposed to be parked there. There have been multiple car break-ins since I've lived there. The elevators are constantly breaking down. I don't mind taking the stairs, but it's a pain when you're lugging up groceries to the fourth floor. The hallways are a mess. The carpet is stained and many tenants do not clean up after their pets when they can't make it outside in time. The trash chutes get backed up since they only empty them once a week, so the hallways can get pretty rank sometimes. I agree with previous posters about the gym, as well. It is entirely too inadequate for the size of the complex. I live in a two story loft, and have my thermostat set at 78 degrees. I'm still getting electric bills over $300 during the summer. I understand it's Texas, but that's still unacceptable. The engineering is awful. The traffic, which I'm aware isn't the management's fault, is frustrating, too. During operating hours, visitors to the Dallas Aquarium tend to think the street is a sidewalk, so navigating to Woodall Rogers is near impossible. Field St backs up everyday, so plan on sitting through that light at least twice. If you decide to go a different route to avoid these two backups, know everyone else decided the same thing. A lot of the traffic backup is cause by the bus station being just around the corner, which also leads to panhandlers and other not so pleasing crowds.

ChorusGirl08

Resident • 2007 - 2009

LOVE living here

I have not really had any problems or complaints with this place. I live in an outward facing apartment on the aquarium side and it's surprisingly quiet and NO you cannot smell the fish smell in the apartment. The construction of the place is great; very well insulated so my electric bills are super cheap and I've never once heard my neighbors! The maintenance crew is very responsive and polite. I had two messed-up outlets in my unit and they fixed/replaced them within the hour I notified them about it. The only irksome qualities are ones that you probably will run into anywhere. On big holiday weekends (New Years or especially TX/OU weekend) some people think it's cute to swap or hide your doormat, although I doubt tenants are the ones doing it. The parking is particularly tight in the visitors area, but what can you do? It's downtown: sucky parking is a part of life. (Tenant parking is slightly roomier and I've never scraped my car.) The trash rooms can get a little backed up towards the end of some weekends. They should probably have pick-ups more often. Other than that, it's great! The other residents are nice and the staff are helpful.

Current Resident 687132

Resident • 2009

Gym and Business Center Awful

The decor is nothing special but it is nice, the maintenance crew is efficient, and the leasing office personnel are---about the same as everywhere else -- not awful but not going out of their way to be helpful either. BUT the REAL DISAPPOINTMENT is the shortcomings of the common areas...the parking spaces are way too small, the computers in the business center/internet room almost never work (there are four; you're lucky if two work anytime you go there) and if they do work they are extraordinarily SLOW, and the "GYM" is not a gym...it is a very small room with an outdated, poorly maintained piece of old multipurpose piece of gym equipment, a small set of dumbbells, ONE TREADMILL, one elliptical, and one stationary bike....that's it...for an entire apartment complex!!! Needless to say, at peak hours...early morning, right after work, etc...this is not sufficient. It's extraordinarly frustrating, having had these benefits touted to you as selling points, to find that you seldom if ever can receive any benefit from them. I'll be moving and paying particular attention when i do, to these services.

Current Resident 855467

Resident • 2007 - 2008

I have lived here for about a year now. Here is what I have found: Good - Decor is nice. Maintenance responds to requests. Management so far has been OK to deal with. It is nice living downtown. Living on an inside apartment near the pool is relaxing, can here the water fall. Bad - Walls are super thin. If you have a neighbor you will hear them. You will also hear all the people running through the halls at night (No idea why they do that but they do). If you live near the aquarium side you will smell it. Parking spots are on the small side, and some are larger then others, but I have never had a problem where someone was in my spot. Guest parking is very limited.