I am so mad, and I need to vent Options

[Mommy]

This is probably going to be riddled with grammar errors because I am mad typing. Oh and I'm going to include liniks to a bunch of stuff.

Okay so as some of you may know, my husband and I moved to Georgia the end of August. My husband had just finished AIT so this was technically his first Army move. He is stationed at Fort Stewart, which main post is about 25 miles from the outskirts of Savannah. On a map, though, Fort Stewart stretches all the way to Savannah MAP. It was sort of difficult to judge distance from places by strictly looking at a map. All that extra land is just absolute nothing that is used as training and hunting grounds. I was super pregnant when we got his orders and I wasn't working, so he put me in charge of looking for a place to live.

Everyone (other military families) I spoke to that knew the area said not to live in Hinesville (the city that Fort Stewart is in) because it was basically a trailer park. Most housing in Hinesville would be mobile homes. So I looked on a map and found Richmond Hill, but it was too expensive. Additionally, it was 20 miles from Fort Stewart. So, then I thought Savannah, but the rent was kinda steep at most places, and I had to mapquest every single place on there to find out how far it was from Fort Stewart. Most places were around 30+ miles, and we would have to deal with city traffic.

I found an apartment complex through apartmentfinder.com called the Village at Rice Hope located in Port Wentworth, GA. I mapquested the complex and couldn't find it. I contacted a dude named Alan Franks who was the property manager. He said the complex opens in mid-August, and there was still a bit of construction going on. Residents that moved in that first week would get a new construction special. Well, when I told him we wouldn't be moving in until September 1st, he said we didn't qualify for the new construction special. When I told him we were a military family, however, he told me that he would make an exception for us and give us the discounted rate because we are military. Normally, rent for the apartment we live in is $945, but we pay $879. He went on to list all these wonderful amenities that we would have when we moved in: a pool, a cyber lounge, a game room, trash shutes in our building, a workout facility, etc. I was like "wow, that sounds great!"

Well, we get here the last day of August and we go driving around, and look at Savannah. We couldn't find anything we liked. Plus, traffic really was a pain. So, I call Alan for directions to that apartment complex in Port Wentworth, since even our GPS system couldn't find it. We head out there and look at the place when the office was closed. Yeah, it's a construction site alright, but most of the buildings look complete. The breezeways are really cool and are just like he described. I even found the apartment he told us that he would lease us if we came out here. I see where the trash shutes are and where the office was and stuff. Well, we meet with some chick named Britney the next day, and she is leasing out of an apartment because come to find out, the office isn't complete. She tells us that the trash shutes don't work. There is no pool yet. There is no work out facility yet. There is no cyber lounge yet. There is no game rooms, etc. She tells us though that these things will be opening very soon and they are just waiting for the furniture. She didn't know the special rate had been offered us so she had to call Alan. She didn't know that we were assigned to a specific apartment already so she had to call Alan again. She told us that the furniture and the workout equipment had already arrived, and they were just waiting for clearance to set it up. She said no more than a few weeks.

Well, Novemnber rolls around, and NOTHING is open yet. We literally only have a mailbox and our apartment. I went to talk to the "office" and Alan told me it would be no later than December 1st. Well, December 2nd rolls around, and still NOTHING is open yet. We have a note on our door that says January 1st. I talk to the "office" (still renting out of a vacant apartment) and let them know my concerns. Well, we decided to contact JAG (military legal assistance). I show them the Website for our apartment complex. They are still leasing to people, and their Website shows that these amenities (Village at Rice Hope WebSite. Click on Property Overview then Amenities to view the list) are currently available, including other things that I didn't know about BUT we don't have (covered parking, garages, beautiful landscaping, etc.). She says we definitley have a case because of something called contractual expectations. In other words, we have reasonable expactions of the apartment complex, and they aren't fulfilling those expectations. She wrote a letter on military letterhead explaining that we are willing to pay one month's rent to terminate the lease because of the amenities issue.

Additionally, when I contacted Alan initially, he told me that the complex was only 30 minutes from Fort Stewart. Yeah, it's 30 minutes to the military reservation, but it is still another 30 minutes to main post. ASSHOLE. It's fucking an hour away. Whatever. We have done that drive before. No big deal. We did it when we lived in San Marcos, and Shane was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Here's the catch, though. 30 days after we moved here, Shane was assigned to a homeland security mission. If anything catastrophic were to happen, he would be deployed to any area of the country with no notice at all. He would have to leave right away. They do training exercises for this. They will call in the dead middle of the night, and say "Get here now, and you need the following items." Living this far away gets him in trouble because of this mission. The lawyer at Jag included this argument in her letter as well.

Well, the letter was no help. I went to talk to Alan today, and things went from bad to WORSE. I went in there with a calm and professional attitude. At first, we were talking okay with each other. He was feeding me his usual lines of bullshit. "I've worked for this company for 12 years and blah blah blah." Then, whenever I try to get a word in edgewise, he talks over me. I told him very calmy that I didn't go in there to argue. I just wanted to know where we stand and tell him my frustrations. He calms down for a second and then goes into overdrive. "Don't even try to tell me that you aren't happy here because of the amenities not being available. You know good and well it is because you are stuck with that hour drive. Well, missy, you should have done your research. It's not my fault that you can't do a little bit of research." I tell him that is not the case at all, and by this time, I am getting pretty upset. He is yelling at me, and putting words in my mouth. I tell him that I will have no choice but to contact my lawyer again. I didn't even finish that sentence when he yelled at me "GET OUT! JUST GET OUT OF MY 'OFFICE'. YOU ARE NOT TO SET FOOT IN THIS 'OFFICE'." I tried talking to him, and he said "I can't talk to you anymore because you said the word lawyer." Umm... ok? By this time, I am LIVID. Now, I yell "Fine, Lawyer it is." I leave and slam the door.

Their corporate office finally just returned my phone call. They are going to talk to Alan and my lawyer and get back to me tomorrow. I also made another appointment with the lawyer for January 9th.
Now, I can't even go to the "office." I AM SO FUCKING PISSED OMG I COULD JUST SCREAM. I mean, seriously, I think I am being pretty reasonable. We are paying $879/mo (includes water and cable and washer and dryer) to live out in the middle of butt fuck nowhere. He says we should be paying almost a thousand dollars/month. WHAT?!?!?!!? It costs $1100 to live in downtown Savannah. That's ummmm kind of steep.

If you look at the map I posted of Fort Stewart, you will find Port Wentworth on there as well. It is Northwest of Savannah. Mapquest shows us at 47 miles (give or take because this shithole still isn't on a map) from Fort Stewart. It only takes an additional 15 minutes living here than it were if we were to live in Savannah like a lot of people at Fort Stewart. Other than Shane's mission, it really has nothing to do with the distance.

[woody]

where do you pay rent? at the office?

[Mommy]

where do you pay rent? at the office?

yup lol... guess i can't pay rent. there is no drop box and we are supposed to be able to pay online, but our account doesn't work. I've told Alan about it several times.

[woody]

if no one else was in the office when he was yelling at you, file a sexual harassment suit

[pysex]

why the fuck is an apartment complex pre leasing units if they don't even have a fucking office yet....

sounds like whatever company he's working for is having some financial issues and they needed people to start paying rent fast before they lost funding or something

you were smart to get a lawyer involved because hopefully the JAG can get you out of that danger

[Mommy]

why the fuck is an apartment complex pre leasing units if they don't even have a fucking office yet....

sounds like whatever company he's working for is having some financial issues and they needed people to start paying rent fast before they lost funding or something

you were smart to get a lawyer involved because hopefully the JAG can get you out of that danger

My thoughts exactly. It definitely seems as if they have run out of money. They keep saying they are working really hard on stuff, but I never see workers. The website still only shows drawings of the outside of what the building should look like because the outside looks like absolute garbage. They have been open for a week shy of 4 months. It's one thing not having trash shutes, but what sucks even more is we have to walk out in a muddy field to throw our trash away in a construction dumpster.

[dauss]

I did not read a single word of your first post, but I gotta throw this in here.

[Billy]

Does the military pay your rent?

[Dogmeat]

It's hard to be a girl

[blaarg]

tl;dr

[Mommy]

Does the military pay your rent?

We get a monthly housing allowance of $963 and is supposed to pay rent and utilities. That number is based on the area where Fort Stewart is located. Hinesville rent (come to find out, there are apartments there) is in the range of $600/mo. We pay around $50 for internet and another $80 for electricity, so we dig into our paychecks a bit to live out here. Thank god gas is cheap right now. I go through a tank of gas every other day, and I drive 4 hours a day for work. He goes through a tank every 3-4 days and drives about 2 hours a day for work.

[woody]

tell him to go to college & get his commision

[Mommy]

tell him to go to college & get his commision

he is. He is half way done. Remind you that he is two years younger than I.

[Inferia]

wow, why do you guys live so far away from work? Do you work in opposite directions or something?

[Mommy]

wow, why do you guys live so far away from work? Do you work in opposite directions or something?

No. not really. I work in Savannah, BUT our baby is enrolled at the daycare on Fort Stewart. I have to drive out there to drop him off at daycare before I can go to work. Yes, I realize I could find a different daycare, but not one this cheap and not one that does such an amazing job with him. He gets a ton of one-on-one attention. My husband has to be at work BEFORE the daycare opens at 6 am so I end up having to take our baby to daycare. I mean, yeah, we don't like how far it is obviously, but that isn't why we are complaining. I just had a baby 5 months ago. I would like to be able to work out. That's one reason why this place seemed nice. It had all the amenities we were looking for.... or so we thought. It's not like I can just go get a gym membership. There is no gym in Port Wentworth. All we have in Port Wentworth is a McDonalds, a Wendys, a Food Lion, a chinese restaurant, and 3 gas stations. That's it. Oh wait, and a CVS that always looks dead.