Lofts at USC

Location :

211 Main St, Columbia, SC 29201, USA
Added by Jopie, at 13 January 2017

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• Melanie Deal

  03 January 2018

  UPDATE to below: I did get contacted back, and Amy was the person I dealt with. She was very professional, and she got the situation taken care of very quickly. I updated my review from 1 star to 2, because we did still have a bad experience. But Amy certainly was a gemthey need to keep her around and give her a raise!
  
  I am less than happy with the experience my daughter had living at this place. During the 1.5 years she lived there, she had several issues with things breaking in the apartment. When her refrigerator broke, it took 2 months before it was fixed! That's TWO MONTHS of not being able to store fresh food in her own apartment! My husband had to call several times while she lived there to get issues addressed, because they couldn't be bothered to respond to my daughter when she called. When she moved out in July, the apartment was in good condition. We received something in the mail in September saying she had a credit of $329.13. I called and asked when we could expect to receive the check, and was told that it could take a couple of months because it was coming from Corporate, which is located in a different state. It's now December, and we still have received nothing. I called again this morning, and the person who answered couldn't help me. I sure hope I get a call back, but based on what I am reading in the reviews, I doubt I will.

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• Alexander Epps

  26 December 2017

  The location is great, especially for engineering students, and all the maintenance requests have been taken care of in a timely manner. The staff there currently are much better than the staff from when I moved in, and have been nothing but helpful. The budget allowed for electricity ($35/month) is really easy to use up if you don't manage your consumption well and a lot of the building and provided appliances are old and stuff does break rather frequently, but in my experience, as long as you report it, it gets fixed within a week or so. One major issue I have is with the package delivery system. I ordered something and usually it's supposed to go to the office but I had it thrown at my door 3 weeks late and ripped open. The lofts isn't the greatest, but it's also not the worst imo.

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• Aleah Singleton

  13 November 2017

  I lived here for 3 years (only because it was convenient, hence the one star). For starters, management changes OFTEN( 5 times over the 3 years I was there). So trying to get information or asking to see you old leases is impossible( with all of the management changes they lost my move in inspection list and then tried to charge me for damages that I notated when moving in )! As far as cleanliness , it's 0! The halls are painted with dog feces, vomit, and urine! When I first moved in , I was place in one of the un-renovated 2 bedrooms. The carpet was filthy, the dishwasher had mold in it, the bathroom ceiling had SEVERE water damage, the tub had black mold, and the flooring in the kitchen was torn apart near the refrigerator. Over the years, I requested maintenance to come fix these problems( to no avail! ) I made friends with the maintenance crew and soon learned that The Lofts told them to patch and jimmy-rig appliances instead of FIXING them!
  Move out was a DISASTER! They will not allow roommates to check out at different times. Everyone in the room has to move at the exact same time because The Lofts will only do 1 inspection. Also, for those moving in, The Lofts will not repaint or clean carpets unless the whole apartment has been vacated ( for example, if you are moving into an apartment and your roommate has been there since last semester, they will not clean the apartment for you to move in). That is what happened to me. My roommate had been there for 2 years so the apartment had not been professionally cleaned in 2 years( including the room I moved into )
  
  To be fair I will give you all the pros: It is SUPER close to USC campus. The bus picks up right outside of the apartment. They provide free parking. Rent is cheap compared to other place with similar location. Lastly, they have good looking men working in the front office. Other than these aforementioned qualities, this place is complete trash!
  
  Will post pictures soon!

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• Andrew Wunderlich

  30 October 2017

  Do yourself a favor and never, ever live here. I stayed here for the location, but I assure you, no matter how convenient it seems, it is not worth it.
  When I moved into a 2-bedroom apartment, nothing was renovated or even cleaned. See included photos. The toilet was completely covered in mildew and bacterial growth. Nothing had been painted or cleaned at all, in the common area or my own bedroom. Carpets were disgusting. Rest assured that the model apartment you see when you tour the place is NOTHING like the one you will be assigned to live in.
  There were endless pest control issues. I had yellow-jackets flying into my room every day because the windows in the apartment were not properly sealed. Then, a few months in, I got bedbugs. A week and a half later, when pest control came they informed me that the apartment was completely infested and "uninhabitable." So I was transferred to a new, equally disgusting apartment. Still had yellow jackets in my room frequently. I know others who got bedbugs here as well.
  The office staff, with one or two exceptions, are some of the most incompetent people you will ever deal with. Sometimes they were friendly, other times they were downright rude. They were a constant hassle to deal with and no one that I knew in the complex had good things to say about them. They frequently do not keep their supposed office hours (except during leasing season).
  When I finally finished my lease and got to move out, they charged me for $300 worth of cleaning and repairs, despite the fact that the apartment was quite literally cleaner and in better condition when I moved out than when I moved in. However, they made absolutely no legitimate attempt to contact me with the bill before sending it to collections 30 days later. These clowns had my cell phone number, my email address, and my permanent mailing address, but rather than making any effort to contact me with the charges, they sent the bill to the mailbox of the same apartment I had just moved out of. So the first time I found out about the charges (which also never showed up online in the rent payment portal) was from a collections agency. This was clearly intentional, because I could no longer dispute any of the bogus charges once they made it to collections. Reading Yelp reviews, I now see I'm not the only person they have done this to.
  TL;DR: Incompetent and dishonest management, over-inflated prices, awful living conditions, frequent pest control problems. I wish I could give this place less than one star.

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• Logan Finley

  22 October 2017

  Management doesn't care about customers, and they will try to scam you out of money when you move out. My room was very dirty and paint was chipping all over my bedroom when I moved in. These damages were all listed on the form i filled out when i moved in, but they conveniently "lost" everyone's move in forms, so they charged everyone for the damages they didn't cause. My friend moved into a room with BED BUGS. They were able to switch him rooms, but then they tried to make him pay both room's rent. Overall, just a very dishonest business.

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• Jay Menees

  09 September 2017

  UPDATES ADDED: I had a ton of yellow jackets office staff said "we ran out of hornet spray, but you can buy some yourself." And followed up with "they came out because we cut the bushes." No attempt to deal with the yellow jackets (which were really really mean by the way). Also, I heard my neighbor doing the dirty as if he was in the same room, can you say "paper thin walls."
  
  UPDATE: The apartment complex only called me after a year and a half after move out--- via a collection agency--- to say that I owed a 145$ “cleaning fee.” I informed the collector that I had not received a phone call, email, letter, forwarded letter, or any other form of communication to inform me that I was being assessed this amount. Additionally, my father---who was a guarantor--- did not receive any other the aforementioned notices.
  
  I informed the collector of this fact and they told me that “I had to pay it at that moment.” I replied that I would pay it once I received a copy of the bill. The collector refused to provide any form of documentation that a “professional cleaner” was hired. I continued to assure the collector that I would pay the amount if they could produce pictures and/or a cleaning bill--- which they refused to accommodate. In most states, landlords are required by law to produce receipts and photos for charges accessed after move out. Again the collector refused to produce any of the following and additionally refused to contact the complex to request the documentation. Scammers!

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• Kirsten Delanie

  13 July 2017

  One star for proximity to campus. Been here for 2 years because of convenience. The management is not good with individual communication or being helpful/empathetic to your needs. In my 2 years, we have gone through about 4 changes of management and each time it gets worse. Maintenance people are nice but will only temporarily fix things IF they fix them at all. My tub was never fixed because they had to "order a part" a year ago Laundromat in the basement is super hot and musty but don't assume the prices will stay the same. They have gone up in price twice since I moved in. If you are late on rent by the 5th of the month, it is a $50 charge, plus $50 each week you're late. THEY ARE PHASING OUT PET FRIENDLINESS. It is no longer listed on their leases anymore that you may have a pet. New management is charging current residents with damages or cleaning from previous tenants. MAKE SURE YOU LIST EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG/NEEDS TO BE REPAIRED IN YOUR APARTMENT IF YOU ACTUALLY MOVE IN. If you move in with a resident that has already resided there before, your room/apartment has most likely not been cleaned or repaired. The parking lots and road flood during most storms, so don't park along the back half of the lot. Having an outside-facing window is not worth the extra cost; they have not been resealed in some time and you will find yourself with an overage electric bill due to compensating for the hot/cold air leak. AC units tend to go out every once in a while also. Maintenance never changes your air filter - MAKE SURE YOU REQUEST THIS UPON MOVE-IN. WiFi provider (TWC) is not great, WiFi tends to stop working frequently. The only reason I would recommend living here is if you don't have a car to get to campus or if you are an engineering student - even then, there's other places close to campus I would recommend before this place.

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• Jay Menees

  05 July 2017

  I had a ton of yellow jackets office staff said "we ran out of hornet spray, but you can buy some yourself." And followed up with "they came out because we cut the bushes." No attempt to deal with the yellow jackets (which were really really mean by the way). Also, I heard my neighbor doing the dirty as if he was in the same room, can you say "paper thin walls."

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• Jonathan Neeley

  02 May 2017

  I couldn't recommend this place less. The ONLY things that are even remotely good about this place is the on-site parking and the fact that the only competent people here are the maintenance crew. Front office and administration people are lazy and downright disrespectful. The quality of the units (which I am paying $640/mo. for) is outright ABYSMAL. My A/C unit has gone out not twice, not three times, but a total of SIX times in the past 6 months (which maintenance does the best they can to fix each time, but what the place really needs is a renovation). When I moved in, the bathroom hadn't been touched by a cleaning crew (the floor was filthy and the previous residents' PLUNGER was left there on the floor). Paint job is absolutely terrible. I have experienced 3 different leaks in which I have had to call emergency maintenance for. The place has horrible ventilation, horrible lighting, and the units are TINY for what you're paying for. Unless you're lucky enough to get put in a "show-room" (AKA one of the 5 rooms they show you when you tour because the rest of the rooms in this "apartment complex" are downright shameful to have in 2017 when you're paying the money I'm paying) your appliances will probably be majorly outdated (our dishwasher is easily from the 1980s), no cleaning will have been done (see above comment about our bathroom, as well as our kitchen never been clean).
  
  What else can I complain about here while I'm at it? Our deadbolt and door are flimsy as can be, and probably don't offer any real protection, no natural light in the interior rooms (obvious), but they don't make up with that by having any good lighting in the interior rooms. If you have a resident above you prepare to hear everything they do (I hear my upstairs neighbors having sex every night). Leaky faucets, leaky appliances, bad acoustics, bug infestations (we have both a gnat and a cockroach problem), and if that's not enough they make you PAY to do laundry (absolutely ridiculous! I pay $640/mo. I should be able to AT LEAST wash and dry my clothes for free you filthy crooks).
  
  I don't know who's reading this, or if anyone ever will, but if you are reading this, do not, I repeat DO NOT rent at the Lofts. Rent at Aspyre across the street, rent ANYWHERE other than here unless you literally cannot rent anywhere else (that was my situation). Save yourself and your sanity.

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• Brian Pun

  06 April 2017

  Suffered through this place for 2 years because the only good thing about it is the location. It's a comfortable uphill walk to campus.
  The security of the building is questionable with homeless people around the corner and the "locked doors after 7pm" being unlocked
  Management is very difficult to deal with. One of the managers used his position to corner my sister in the elevator to ask why she didn't follow him back on Instagram. yes that's true and he still works there.
  The mold was bearable, but only because it didn't rain very much when I stayed there.
  The mushrooms growing from the roof were interesting, they might be offering college credit for a bacterial lab. (May be a Pro, I see it as a con)
  Multiple neighbors and roommates had their respiratory problems exacerbated due to the aforementioned issues and had to go to the hospital.
  The screening of its residents are minimal as I have seen people stroll in and move in carrying drugs of every sort as well as weapons.
  If you have no other options, ballin on a budget, and are ok with the possibility of your apartment being broken into, I'd say good luck.

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• Jennie Kim

  20 January 2017

  The location is the best thing about this place. Other than that, it can get quite noisy here especially with the trains that runs through here. The rooms are sort of clean but this is an older building and bugs have been an issue.
  My biggest complaint is with the management. They're inconsistent, unprofessional, and rude to borderline hostile to residents. The girls who work in the office are always on a lunch break or close the office early. Good luck calling or walking into the office for help because they don't always follow the office hours posted on their website. They're very diligent about those lease renewals, annoyingly so.
  I feel that if you have a car, find a better apartment off campus, this place isn't worth it.

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