Ok ya'll I've been away a while. We went on vacation, I think that's what you call it. It was more like vacation H_ _ _! Just sharing my story to forewarn my chicken buddies. Don't want this to happen to anyone else. Here we go...
Get out the popcorn people!
I have always used a website called, vrbo.com(vacation rentals by owner). For 8 years I have had no problem till this year. DISASTER!!!!! We like to go to a town called Ponce Inlet Florida, it's south of Daytona Beach, beautiful oceanfront hamlet! I found a townhouse to rent 2 bdrm/2.5 bath, right on the beach. Sent them my money via paypal, 1175.00 for a week. Spoke with the owner who seemed nice and honest. We left not knowing we were walking into an ambush!!
It started with Budget giving us the wrong van. I knew that it was a sign... we should have stayed home! We were squeezed in like sardines all the way there!
We arrived on saturday afternoon to find that our A/C didn't work in the townhouse! Thinking it could be the filter I decided to change it and holy toledo it was black as pitch!!!! Well, needless to say that didn't help the a/c at all! So, I began to call the owner over and over and over!! After numerous no answers I finally got a machine, left the message about the a/c thinking no problem, they would fix it asap. No such luck! The owner called me back at 9:30 pm that night, he proceeded to tell me that we couldn't expect the a/c to work as well when it was 90 some odd degrees outside! WHAT?!!!! I thought ok we'll give it one night and see if it helps. Nope! still 84degrees in the t-house! So, in the meantime I found a Budget that would trade out our vans for the one we were suppose to have in the first place. After a 45 mile trip to Orange City, we got the new van! I thought oh thank you Lord, this is a sign that things are looking up! No such luck! Luck? What's that? We had no luck! Bad luck is all we had! After a while on sunday, we realized the refrigerator wasn't cooling at all. Now take into consideration, I had gone and got @ 200.00 worth of groceries saturday evening, some of which were dependent on a cold frig. and a working microwave. Microwave? You guessed it... the microwave didn't work either. And my sis-in-law was on a special diet that had all microwave-able food!!!! What were we to do? (the telephone didn't work either, I had to use my cell for all the calls.)
I called and called my owners who, never answered the phone! Told them what was up , via answering machine and that we were sadly disappointed in the t-house!! PLEASE HELP!! I was polite, not being a B#%*@ at all!!! Still trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. And not accepting the facts at the time that were staring me in the face. So, after never getting an anwser... I was near to tears and giving up. Finally the owner called me back on Monday. Said she was trying to get her cleaning lady but never got an answer. I was like your kidding? right? What the heck is a cleaning lady gonna do for me? Evidently the owner uses a realty company who she called to ask about a repair man. She actually made the effort? (ok, this is monday eve.) Never getting a call back from her I decided to call the realty office she told me about to see if she had actually made the call. They confirmed that she did, they gave her the # of the appliance repairman but she didn't ask for a A/C repairman! She never called me back to tell me what the deal was or if someone was coming to do repairs. So,... on monday eve we decided to beach it. If 2 of my boys had not decided to stay in then we would have never known that the frig. man was there. The boys asked him to wait till they could get one of us, but the repairman decided not to, flipped a switch in the frig and then left!!!!!!! Didn't even look at the microwave!!! In the time it took my son to come to the beach (about 100yds out) and for us to get to the room the frig man was done gone. He didn't even wait to tell me anything nor look at the microwave. I was HOT! I called the owner thinking this guy didn't do anything and I didn't want the owner to pay a bill from them for no service! Once again... no answer, left the message, now I am still thinking the best of these people and I was trying to be nice and give them a heads up. Boy was I stupid! If I only knew then....
Tuesday it was so freakin hot in the condo!!! And of course I called and called the owners leaving a message that it was unbearable in there. NO ANSWER! We decided to go somewhere cool, at least the van was cool, and we went and bought a new microwave. We had to have it! What else could we do?By the time we got back we noticed an A/C repair truck in the lot!! Oh boy!!! Their fixing the air!!!! We were so excited!!! Wait... now who are we talking about here? My family? They have no luck?Right? D#@^ right they have no luck!!! He wasn't there for us... he was there for our neighbors! So, DH starts talking to him, I get the # and the a/c man says he can't do anything unless the owner gives him the word. Our neighbors who happened to own the place next to us, tried to help by calling our owners etc. but no luck there either! So I called and left her another message with the a/c mans # and all. Told her that we went and bought a microwave and that she would have to pay us back. She never called me back!!!!!!! Not one word!!! So, once again we are facing a night of no air. Miserable, does not even describe what it was like!!!
Wednesday, the place was heating up like an oven! Once again we decided to leave and try to salvage some of our trip there. By the time we got back, guess what...the a/c man was there!!!!! She never even called me to tell me he was coming. What if we hadn't arrived back when we did? He would have left cuz he couldn't get in!!! Well, regardless there he was, big as life. I was so tickled!! It only took what...4 days to get him there!! DH was on him like white on rice, watching his every move. Then guess what... he shut us down!!! The a/c was about to blow up, he said he had to shut it down or it could hurt someone!!!!!!!!!!! An a/c unit is only suppose to be pressurized to 200lbs ours had 500lbs!!!!!!!!!! Not only that... he took us out to the blower to show us something else... the coils on the outside of the blower, crumbled into pieces when he touched them, they were like powder!!! "I'm sorry" he said." I have to shut it down till I get the ok to fix it." Here we go... we haven't had air anyway so what's the big deal? That was it!!! I had all I could take!!! I was so upset I called to see if the police could help or if there was a condo assoc. that could help. Nope... turns out Ponce Inlet is it's own little world! I was livid!!!!( During this time the owner did call me to say that she hadn't called me back because her husband had left her for another woman he met on the internet, left her and her 7 kids, yadda yadda yadda!!!! I'm like right..uh huh, sure. So I did sympathize with her, at that point I didn't want to call her a bold faced liar!!)
After calling everyone I could I gave up!!! We decided to just pack it in and go home!!! Take the loss and move on!! Until... we decided to go to the pool to swim. I went on ahead to the room to make supper and the rest stayed at the pool. Not knowing that DH decided to talk to some of the residents of the place. And what he found out changed my mind completely!!! Not only was the woman lying to me about the place she lied about alot of things. DH didn't even have to say which room was ours. The neighbors knew, "You must be in unit 10" What!!!?!! How did they know? Well turns out that everyone who has ever rented that unit ends up on their doorstep looking for help and complaining about the conditions!!!! They knew it all!! They even knew that the air wasn't working back in May. Because the rentee came and told them about it then!!! The sob story she gave me about the hubby leaving... bogus too. She made it sound like her kids were babies, but in fact they are all older than 16!!!! This proceeded to piss me off when they told me about it. I was beside myself mad!!!!!!! Two things you don't do to me #2 is mess with my money, but # 1 is ... hurt my family!!!!!!!!!! They had deliberately decieved, scammed, and hurt my family!!!!!!!!!!! I was ready to kill!!! After smoking about a carton of cigarettes(lol) not really, but close... I decided not to call her, I had DH call her instead. Thinking I would make things worse and may never see any money returned to me. So I wrote the script for DH. Non-confrontational DH, wouldn't hurt a flea, DH. God knows I love the man but sometimes I wish he would just get out right down and ugly mean and nasty. He read the script not to an actual person, but once again to a answering machine! We gave them till 5pm on Thurs. to refund our money. Did she, not yet, she only sent 200.00 via paypal,(which still hasn't cleared) claiming she didn't have the funds. No funds? They own 4 condos and don't have the funds? Do I smell something?... I do... BULL-S_ _ _!!!!!!!!!!! I am in the meantime nagging and emailing etc her to death. I have documented proof of the deplorable conditions and have told her I intend to use it if she doesn't send me my refund!!!! ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other residents were great. Gave us the # to the code enforcement officer!! He couldn't help us with the conditions of the building but he can write her up for rental code violations! Their not suppose to rent over 12 times a year. They have a revolving door on this one and the codes officer is gonna nail her to the wall!!!!! Ha!! serves them right.
So, we left for home on Thurs. morning. I have never been so happy to see home before!!!!!!!!!! Let this be a warning to all... I have always used vrbo.com for my Florida trips, never got a bad one till now. Be careful and investigate all you can if you use this site. Make darn sure you have everything in writing! Better yet... use a realty office at least that way you have someone to hold accountable for it all. It's a shame how one bad apple can ruin the bunch! I will let you know if she coughs up the remaining balance!! Thanks for reading sorry so long!! www.vrbo.com/18022 DON'T RENT IT!!!!
I have always used a website called, vrbo.com(vacation rentals by owner). For 8 years I have had no problem till this year. DISASTER!!!!! We like to go to a town called Ponce Inlet Florida, it's south of Daytona Beach, beautiful oceanfront hamlet! I found a townhouse to rent 2 bdrm/2.5 bath, right on the beach. Sent them my money via paypal, 1175.00 for a week. Spoke with the owner who seemed nice and honest. We left not knowing we were walking into an ambush!!
It started with Budget giving us the wrong van. I knew that it was a sign... we should have stayed home! We were squeezed in like sardines all the way there!
We arrived on saturday afternoon to find that our A/C didn't work in the townhouse! Thinking it could be the filter I decided to change it and holy toledo it was black as pitch!!!! Well, needless to say that didn't help the a/c at all! So, I began to call the owner over and over and over!! After numerous no answers I finally got a machine, left the message about the a/c thinking no problem, they would fix it asap. No such luck! The owner called me back at 9:30 pm that night, he proceeded to tell me that we couldn't expect the a/c to work as well when it was 90 some odd degrees outside! WHAT?!!!! I thought ok we'll give it one night and see if it helps. Nope! still 84degrees in the t-house! So, in the meantime I found a Budget that would trade out our vans for the one we were suppose to have in the first place. After a 45 mile trip to Orange City, we got the new van! I thought oh thank you Lord, this is a sign that things are looking up! No such luck! Luck? What's that? We had no luck! Bad luck is all we had! After a while on sunday, we realized the refrigerator wasn't cooling at all. Now take into consideration, I had gone and got @ 200.00 worth of groceries saturday evening, some of which were dependent on a cold frig. and a working microwave. Microwave? You guessed it... the microwave didn't work either. And my sis-in-law was on a special diet that had all microwave-able food!!!! What were we to do? (the telephone didn't work either, I had to use my cell for all the calls.)
I called and called my owners who, never answered the phone! Told them what was up , via answering machine and that we were sadly disappointed in the t-house!! PLEASE HELP!! I was polite, not being a B#%*@ at all!!! Still trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. And not accepting the facts at the time that were staring me in the face. So, after never getting an anwser... I was near to tears and giving up. Finally the owner called me back on Monday. Said she was trying to get her cleaning lady but never got an answer. I was like your kidding? right? What the heck is a cleaning lady gonna do for me? Evidently the owner uses a realty company who she called to ask about a repair man. She actually made the effort? (ok, this is monday eve.) Never getting a call back from her I decided to call the realty office she told me about to see if she had actually made the call. They confirmed that she did, they gave her the # of the appliance repairman but she didn't ask for a A/C repairman! She never called me back to tell me what the deal was or if someone was coming to do repairs. So,... on monday eve we decided to beach it. If 2 of my boys had not decided to stay in then we would have never known that the frig. man was there. The boys asked him to wait till they could get one of us, but the repairman decided not to, flipped a switch in the frig and then left!!!!!!! Didn't even look at the microwave!!! In the time it took my son to come to the beach (about 100yds out) and for us to get to the room the frig man was done gone. He didn't even wait to tell me anything nor look at the microwave. I was HOT! I called the owner thinking this guy didn't do anything and I didn't want the owner to pay a bill from them for no service! Once again... no answer, left the message, now I am still thinking the best of these people and I was trying to be nice and give them a heads up. Boy was I stupid! If I only knew then....
Tuesday it was so freakin hot in the condo!!! And of course I called and called the owners leaving a message that it was unbearable in there. NO ANSWER! We decided to go somewhere cool, at least the van was cool, and we went and bought a new microwave. We had to have it! What else could we do?By the time we got back we noticed an A/C repair truck in the lot!! Oh boy!!! Their fixing the air!!!! We were so excited!!! Wait... now who are we talking about here? My family? They have no luck?Right? D#@^ right they have no luck!!! He wasn't there for us... he was there for our neighbors! So, DH starts talking to him, I get the # and the a/c man says he can't do anything unless the owner gives him the word. Our neighbors who happened to own the place next to us, tried to help by calling our owners etc. but no luck there either! So I called and left her another message with the a/c mans # and all. Told her that we went and bought a microwave and that she would have to pay us back. She never called me back!!!!!!! Not one word!!! So, once again we are facing a night of no air. Miserable, does not even describe what it was like!!!
Wednesday, the place was heating up like an oven! Once again we decided to leave and try to salvage some of our trip there. By the time we got back, guess what...the a/c man was there!!!!! She never even called me to tell me he was coming. What if we hadn't arrived back when we did? He would have left cuz he couldn't get in!!! Well, regardless there he was, big as life. I was so tickled!! It only took what...4 days to get him there!! DH was on him like white on rice, watching his every move. Then guess what... he shut us down!!! The a/c was about to blow up, he said he had to shut it down or it could hurt someone!!!!!!!!!!! An a/c unit is only suppose to be pressurized to 200lbs ours had 500lbs!!!!!!!!!! Not only that... he took us out to the blower to show us something else... the coils on the outside of the blower, crumbled into pieces when he touched them, they were like powder!!! "I'm sorry" he said." I have to shut it down till I get the ok to fix it." Here we go... we haven't had air anyway so what's the big deal? That was it!!! I had all I could take!!! I was so upset I called to see if the police could help or if there was a condo assoc. that could help. Nope... turns out Ponce Inlet is it's own little world! I was livid!!!!( During this time the owner did call me to say that she hadn't called me back because her husband had left her for another woman he met on the internet, left her and her 7 kids, yadda yadda yadda!!!! I'm like right..uh huh, sure. So I did sympathize with her, at that point I didn't want to call her a bold faced liar!!)
After calling everyone I could I gave up!!! We decided to just pack it in and go home!!! Take the loss and move on!! Until... we decided to go to the pool to swim. I went on ahead to the room to make supper and the rest stayed at the pool. Not knowing that DH decided to talk to some of the residents of the place. And what he found out changed my mind completely!!! Not only was the woman lying to me about the place she lied about alot of things. DH didn't even have to say which room was ours. The neighbors knew, "You must be in unit 10" What!!!?!! How did they know? Well turns out that everyone who has ever rented that unit ends up on their doorstep looking for help and complaining about the conditions!!!! They knew it all!! They even knew that the air wasn't working back in May. Because the rentee came and told them about it then!!! The sob story she gave me about the hubby leaving... bogus too. She made it sound like her kids were babies, but in fact they are all older than 16!!!! This proceeded to piss me off when they told me about it. I was beside myself mad!!!!!!! Two things you don't do to me #2 is mess with my money, but # 1 is ... hurt my family!!!!!!!!!! They had deliberately decieved, scammed, and hurt my family!!!!!!!!!!! I was ready to kill!!! After smoking about a carton of cigarettes(lol) not really, but close... I decided not to call her, I had DH call her instead. Thinking I would make things worse and may never see any money returned to me. So I wrote the script for DH. Non-confrontational DH, wouldn't hurt a flea, DH. God knows I love the man but sometimes I wish he would just get out right down and ugly mean and nasty. He read the script not to an actual person, but once again to a answering machine! We gave them till 5pm on Thurs. to refund our money. Did she, not yet, she only sent 200.00 via paypal,(which still hasn't cleared) claiming she didn't have the funds. No funds? They own 4 condos and don't have the funds? Do I smell something?... I do... BULL-S_ _ _!!!!!!!!!!! I am in the meantime nagging and emailing etc her to death. I have documented proof of the deplorable conditions and have told her I intend to use it if she doesn't send me my refund!!!! ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other residents were great. Gave us the # to the code enforcement officer!! He couldn't help us with the conditions of the building but he can write her up for rental code violations! Their not suppose to rent over 12 times a year. They have a revolving door on this one and the codes officer is gonna nail her to the wall!!!!! Ha!! serves them right.
So, we left for home on Thurs. morning. I have never been so happy to see home before!!!!!!!!!! Let this be a warning to all... I have always used vrbo.com for my Florida trips, never got a bad one till now. Be careful and investigate all you can if you use this site. Make darn sure you have everything in writing! Better yet... use a realty office at least that way you have someone to hold accountable for it all. It's a shame how one bad apple can ruin the bunch! I will let you know if she coughs up the remaining balance!! Thanks for reading sorry so long!! www.vrbo.com/18022 DON'T RENT IT!!!!
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Well that stinks!!!! Sounds like a nightmare...sorry for what you had to go through.
