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Report: #1326527

Complaint Review: Progress Residential - Nationwide

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  • Reported By: AngryBird — Atlanta Georgia USA
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  • Progress Residential Nationwide USA

Progress Residential RentProgress Unprofessional Scam Artists Mastering the Bait and Switch Georgia

*Consumer Comment: agreed

Show customers why they should trust your business over your competitors...

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Progress Residential would be that company! At worst "Thieves, flim-flammers, bait-and-switch practitioners, doublespeak specialists" and even "scam artists" are words that come to my mind to describe this company and everyone that works there. At best they are simply "unprofessional". This is my story and a series of mistakes...all with the hope that nobody else falls to the same mistakes: It starts with a phone call to the toll free number (calling was our FIRST mistake!). A very friendly person tells you they can schedule a viewing of the house with the local agent (Quenton Thomas) at a certain date/time. I later get a call from Mr. Thomas with something along the lines that "the office doesn't know my schedule" and he reschedules the viewing. Red flag number one: lack of communication between an agent and the office. I go to see the house, and am interested, but am told that there is the application fee (of course, that is standard procedure) and a $500 holding fee. Say what? Apparently because they are taking it off of the market for my application, they require a holding fee. Sounds a bit shady, but Mr. Thomas explained to me that if I am denied for the application, or if I choose to not accept the application, the MONEY IS REFUNDABLE. Note the emphasis. Those were his words. Only if I chose to accept the lease after being approved, the holding fee is then applied to the first month's rent. Trusting this agent was our SECOND mistake.

After viewing several other homes, my wife and I decided to apply. Before applying, we called in to the toll free number posted outside the house, and were connected with one of their "Representatives". We point blank asked if we could get our $500 fee returned if we did not lease the property and were told that yes it is refundable. Looking back, we made our third mistake and trusted the representative. When my wife filled out the application online, she read all of the fine print and saw that it states that the holding fee is non-refundable if the application is accepted. This contradicts what Mr. Thomas and the representative told us, but our third mistake was trusting them. We were accepted/approved for the lease (good credit and rent history, etc.) and yet we were not notified. On Monday 8/08/16 I called in to check on the progress of the application, and it was then I was told of the approval. The lease was scheduled to be signed on that Thursday (8/11/16) with Mr. Stephen Vaughn (emails says he is the property manager).

Wednesday 8/10/16 I emailed and called in multiple times to Mr. Vaughn and Quenton Thomas to request that the signing date be moved, since I was having issues with my future employer's offer. I was unable to contact anyone (more red flags!!), and kept getting transferred through their automated menu system. Finally spoke with a very young, inexperienced "Representative" who promised to "pass on the message" about needing to move the date. In the end I received a 1 sentence email from Mr. Vaughan that the date had been changed to Monday 8/15. Terse, but effective I suppose.

On Friday 8/12/16 I received notice that my employment offer had been changed. The whole reason for bringing me to the area had been changed, and I would no longer be able to pay for this rental! I called and emailed Mr. Vaughan (multiple times), Quenton Thomas (multiple times) and even Dianne Ghezzi (kept getting emails from her with the lease to read over). Nobody ever answers. EVER. I kept getting routed through (the menu system) and different "Representatives" would take my message to "pass it on". Every time I explained the situation, I was assured my holding fee could be returned since I had not signed the lease. I finally received a short, terse, perhaps even brusque email from Mr. Steven Vaughan confirming the understanding that I would be unable to accept the lease due to a change in my employment status. After all, if I had signed for the lease, I wouldn't have been able to pay the rent....so my turning it down saved everyone much greater legal issues.

Fast forward 2 weeks: after multiple attempts at communication, dealing with inexperienced or rude "Representatives" and hearing different and contradicting answers, we are out $500 for the holding fee and all communication has ceased. NOBODY returns emails, calls, nothing. Save your money, headaches and frustration, and deal with any other company. NOT this one!

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 09/06/2016 05:17 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/progress-residential/nationwide/progress-residential-rentprogress-unprofessional-scam-artists-mastering-the-bait-and-swit-1326527. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#1 Consumer Comment

agreed

AUTHOR: Debm - (USA)

POSTED: Thursday, June 01, 2017

 I totally see them doing that, I have been renting from them for 2 years, I referred my daughter to them while her house was being built Time f0 For her to move so we went and moved all her things and cleaned up the house and left a super clean place, it was move in ready when we walked out the door. I even told my daughter you just saved that company s ton of money because they don't have to do a thing it's perfect not even a scuff on the walls. She even had the carpets cleaned that did not even need it. She gets the deposit letter that they will refund her 400 out of her 2000 deposit well she's is pretty smart due to leasing the majority of her life an She knows the laws. She requested an itemization, Yard needed to be relanscaped ( thank goodness she took before pictures ) there was no previous landscaping nor hardly had green grass, they said walls needed paint- thank goodness she had the lady right down during the walk through end date that it was move in ready second thing they charged 250 to replace batteries in one of the smoke alarms which is in the lease that she did replace but it's he said she said, she is still fighting that part but all money is Being refunded now except the 250 but it's taken months and alot of calls and emails to get That With me my lease ends in 3 months and I'm out of here , they work against you instead of making life easy for you, they send a ton of rent reminder emails like you are not capable if remembering y when your rent is due but when you need something you never hear from them until weeks later, it's an awful company and I'm not sure if it's the employees fault I think it's a management thing they are probably not great to there employees because I go to the office to pay my rent sometime and all the employees look stressed out so maybe that's what's happening, go down there and get your money it yours ........ it will be a fight but you should get it back.

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