Pella Company

I lived in one of the apartment units above Bernie's while I went to OSU about 5 years back. I don't know if the staff has changed at all, but I wanted to post this so I could prevent what happened to me from happening to other students. I used to pay my rent in bulk (at the beginning of each quarter, I'd pay ahead for the months of that quarter) - if you're wondering why, I was an International student and my mom gave me my living allowances at the start of each quarter and my first priority was to pay rent ahead. Anyway, at the end of my lease the staff from Pella had told me that I came up short for about two months or so. I just told them - well, that's just not possible now is it? I have never NOT paid my rent ahead. They were very rude, not even considering the possibility that they had made a mistake and said - well, that's what it says in our books. I politely excused myself from their office, went home and dug around for the multiple carbon copies of checks I kept (I am not sure if I either did not have online banking or had no clue it was available at the time). Lo and behold, there they were - proof of my payment. And to prove that they had actually cashed it, I went to my bank and printed out the statements so I could match the check numbers. I went back into their office, tried my absolute best to still be polite and watched their reactions as I laid out the evidence. No apology, nothing. They just said - ""Oh, someone must have keyed it in wrong in our ledger"". So if I had been a silly naive student who doesn't manage their finances well, I would've handed them over two months worth of rent and they would have happily taken it. Sorry Pella staff of 2007, you're blacklisted in my book. That's just wrong. Most students are scratching by and I could've easily been one of them. more

Pella has nice, well-kept apartments, excellent service, kind people, honest policies and they are simply not out to get you. On OSU campus, this is truly extraordinary. here's my review filled with cautionary tales of just how bad OSU rental companies can be. first of all: I swear I don't work at pella, I genuinely think they are an awesome company and I've been renting from them for almost 3 years now and people usually only fill these things out when they?re mad so I thought I?d do the opposite. I am a graduate student and I used to work for a different campus rental company and through my experience working there, living on campus for almost 10 years long and renting from a half-dozen different companies I feel fairly well qualified to say that almost all of the campus rental places are evil, money-hungry idiots. True story: In the place where I worked (NOT pella) the owner was so cheap that when something would break in student's houses he literally walked outside and found bums digging through the trash and gave them THE KEYS to student's apartments and said ""W. Lane Ave- garbage disposal. here's 10$, Fix it."" and then would charge the students 100$ for ""a plumber"" who said the problem was because of ""something they threw down there"". dead serious. Previously- I rented from another one of the big companies and I complained that the water heater was broken, the water was like 9 jillion degrees... I called repeatedly... for months. Nobody came to fix it and then they started saying they had fixed it... but I never saw anyone down there... Finally I smelled gas one day and called the gas company who came out and told me that the water heater had been leaking gas, the rental company had sent someone out who had tried to use DUCT TAPE to repair it even though like 9 things were irreparably damaged on it and ultimately it was spewing out gas and carbon monoxide had been seeping up to my apartment through the walls. My gas was shut off for 5 days, and I got an 1800$ gas bill.... That one required a lawyer. Oooh, another time! (This is a good one- totally different company, really nice apartment) I was asleep in bed and I heard a noise that sounded like a dump truck going down the street- and alll of a sudden, THE FREAKING CEILING COLLAPSED... Well, not all of it. But I jumped up and looked out and I could see sky out of the ceiling in my bedroom, and it was February. The company told me it would take 6 weeks to fix it and I had to get a lawyer (aaaagain) and put my rent in escrow. Not.... fun... Anyway- my point is that some of the campus rental companies are neglectful to the point of endangering people's safety, and before renting just anywhere- or letting your child rent anywhere, know that these companies treat people like dirt and have been treating people like dirt for decades. There is a general culture of nonchalance, disdain and bitterness among the office staff at these places and while you might not experience it while signing the lease, you will later. Nothing short of a lawsuit gets any action out of these people oh, and several of the companies are actually owned by lawyers- so they do NOT care when you threaten to sue them because 90% of people never do, and even if you do, they will probably win. Pella is absolutely nothing like the other companies on campus. Ok, yes, the rent is a little more at Pella, but the place is huge, beautiful and in a great location. The people are kind and honest and the maintenance guys are super fast and really nice. I've lived there for 3 years and it seems like every time I've had a problem, it's on a friday, saturday or sunday night- and they still come right away and fix things perfectly Renting from Pella is... (I never thought I'd say this about a campus rental company)... actually really, really nice. more