First Step Rentals
Complaint 256086 Details

I was searching for apartment to rent through craiglist and came across an apartment that had fit my budget so I called the number and that's how came across First Step Rental and spoke with Joseph who worked for the company. I set up the appointment and I went with my friend to see him at the company on March 29th, 2013. I told my budget and requirements my range was from 800-1200 max. he said it is possible and he mentioned it only cost $200 but of the $200, $75 is the service fee for 90 days and $125 will be refunded whether they find the apartment or not. I had asked several questions pertaining to all my requirements to rent the apartment and Joseph agreed to all my requirements just to get me to sign the contract. So then after signing the contract he asks me to wait for Letty their assistant to give me the list of the property, I got the list and after reviewing I asked Joseph at that moment that the list that I received was no where near my budget so he tells me to go ahead and select the property I like and they will negotiate to the price I want, which he says was very possible. So on that same day I went to visit 6 of these properties and I liked couple of them and called back Joseph and spoke ended up getting transferred to Letty so I told them if they can set an appointment for me to look at property since it had lock box, Letty mentioned that they would have to call owner and find out. Also I told them about the other property that I wanted them to negotiate for me and Letty said they will call to find out. So next day, I had called to speak with Joseph and Letty tells me he is going to be in at lunch time so I left message he calls me very late that day and tells me that him or Letty would call the owners Monday since it was already end of the day.

So I call back on Monday and left message for Joseph and also spoke with Letty and I asked about setting up the appointment with the owner and she said that she would call them. So now I had to wait another day and now I felt as if they were giving me the run around so I decided to go to their office to discuss and pick up the list of the property. On April 3, 2013 I spoke with Letty and I got the list of the property and spoke to her about the properties I had seen and wanted to set up an appointment with the owners and she said she called one of them but they did not get back to her. I also spoke to her about Joseph how he was not returning the phone calls and regarding the other properties I was interested in at that point she mentioned she would pass on the message and said she would call owners and find out again so at that point I had left. So after waiting for couple of days I called back and she still had no response from the owners, she claims. So I went back to the office on April 6th to pick up list and I had serious discussion about their services and also what Joseph had promised and nothing being delivered then I come to find out that day that he was fired because there were same type of complaints from other customers. Letty also mentioned that complaints were that he was telling customers what they wanted to hear to have them sign the contract and not returning their phone calls. At that moment I told Letty that since I was promised so much by him and I am very unsatisfied therefore I want my money back and I also want to talk to the owners. She told me that she had spoke to owners concerning my situation and that they would give me a call. I mentioned to Letty that Joseph was going to advertise for my condo which was included in the contract and Letty said she would do that for me so I decided to give them another chance. But had I known that even after giving them several chances that it led to more disappointments because there was no phone call from the owner or Letty.

After several days and couple of month later because I had given up on them and the only reason I called back on July 3rd since my contract expired on June 29th, I wanted my refund back and not deal with this company ever again, I come to find out that Letty no longer worked there. So I spoke with Diane who replaced Letty, Diane had said in order to receive my refund I needed to write the letter and bring the contract and I explained my situation in its entirety that how I was upset and I told her that I wanted them to send me the refund back to me, and she was adamant to her side of the story and said that contract states that I need to write letter explaining the reason why I want the money back so I told her that contract also states to provide the service that was promised to me but did no such thing therefore I am not doing no such thing as writing letter because this company and their employees have wasted my time. So at this point I told her that I was going to report them to Better Business Bureau for doing bad business and there is no professionalism whatsoever , but I came across this page and here I am writing my ordeal and now I want to recover all of my money which is $200 for the pain and suffering the company and the employee have caused to me.

I just can not believe how this company is still in business when they are doing so many bad things. In a review about this company I would like to mention that this company lacks organization, communication and service skills by the employees and that is why the employees have dropped out like flies because they can't do their job efficiently or the company is hiring bad employees. As far as, professionalism is concerned when I called the company they never greeted the customer or introduced the company name at all, when they pick up their reply is hello, and hold on, several time I was on hold for over 15 mins. and I would even forget that I was placed on hold for so long. So I hope I will never have to deal with them again as far as doing business with them. Hopefully I will be able to recover all of $200 from this bad business.