Connor Jacobsen Realty Inc.

Review: I rented a property with Connor Jacobsen in June. In addition to paying the weekly rental fee, I paid a $300 deposit to be refunded at the end of my stay, assuming there were no damages to the property. When I had not received my deposit back by the end of July, I called Connor Jacobsen and spoke with [redacted]. She let me know that my check had been issued and mailed on July 21, 2014. She told me to wait another week, as mail service out of Bethany is sometimes slow. I waited and called back on August 1. I was told that I needed to speak with [redacted] who was not available. I asked that [redacted] return my call. She did not and I called back on August 2 to speak with [redacted] insisted that my check had been mailed out, though she also mentioned that six checks that were supposedly mailed out on July 21 had not been delivered. She informed me that if I wanted a check reissued, she would have to stop payment on check #1 and that I would be responsible for the stop check fee. She also refused to mail check #2 with any sort of mail tracking to insure that this does not happen again. I find this unacceptable. I do not think that I should be responsible for paying for the stop check fee. I can not even be sure that the check was mailed out. [redacted] was extremely rude to me, eventually hanging up the phone on me because she had other customers to deal with.Desired Settlement: I would like the check reissued/resent to me. I do not think I should have to pay any fees and I would like tracking on the check so that I can be sure it was sent and to be able to locate it in the event it is lost.

Business

Response:

After I received this complaint I did contact the person making the complaint and explained that the check, #70001, did indeed get sent to her in our batch of checks processed on July 21 and mailed on July 22. We usually send out about 100 to 125 checks in each batch. We did send the tenant another check, #70214, dated August 6, 2012 and cleared through our bank on August 11, 2014. I did ask the tenant to please return the first check (number 70001) when it's received.

There were several checks in the July 21 batch that had not been deposited when the tenant made the complaint, but they have since been deposited. We have no idea what may have happened to the original check to this tenant at this point only that it is probably still lost in the mail since we not received it back yet. I do apologize if the tenant felt that our manager was rude to her.

Sincerely,

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

Review: My complaint concerns a situation that occurred over my family vacation. This vacation was in Bethany Beach, DE from 6-20-14 to 6-27-14. Our family arranged to rent the property of [redacted] through Connor Jacobsen Realty. We paid $2680 for 7 nights. We arrived as planned, and moved into this house, accompanied by our two daughters and their 3 small children, two of whom are babies under the age of 2. On the evening of Tues., June 24th, we noticed that the refrigerator did not seem to be working properly, i.e. it wasn't cooling. We checked the manual that was provided int he house, and tried resetting the controls. On Wed. morning, it was clear that the frig was not working and we called Connor Jacobsen and reported the problem and shared that our food had spoiled overnight. We also mentioned that we had two babies in the house and needed to be able to keep formula and milk cold. After spending considerable time on the phone with the office, they agreed to call a repairman. So we waited. Around 4PM, we called the office and the manager said they were "trying to get someone." Finally we were called and told that a repairman would come. He arrived around 6:30PM, checked the appliance and stated that it needed a part which he did not have. After this we were told that the owner would get a "substitute " refrigerator. This arrived on Thursday around noon. We lost over a day of vacation and a refrigerator full of food. The food alone was over $100. A day's vacation should be at least $400. We were offered $125 upon our departure. Secondly, we checked out at 9:45 AM on Friday and turned in the key, in compliance with our contract. At approximately 1PM, we received a phone call from Connor Jacobsen, rudely directing us to vacate the premises. We advised them that no one from our family was there and again we were told that we were out of compliance with the contract. When this information was again shared, the person on the phone hung up on us. Rude! Surely the personnel there found out that no one from our family was there, and no one even had the decency to call and apologize.Desired Settlement: Refund our money for the lost food and the lost day of vacation.

Business

Response:

In response to the complaint sent by Jeremiah [redacted] to Revdex.com on 7/1/2014: ID # [redacted]

I know the following is long and tedious to read, but it does show the time and effort that was taken by the owner (at the owners request) to take care of the problem.

On Wednesday (June 25, 2014) I received a call at approximately 11:20 am from tenant about a problem with the refrigerator in the home they were renting through our company. Renter explained the night before the refrigerator was not cooling & in the morning the temperature was at 60? in the refrigerator and 61? in the freezer. I told the caller that I would call the owner to find out how she wanted us to proceed.

All of the following times are from the home owner’s phone records.

11:28 am I made the first call to owner – no answer.

11:29 am I made a second call to owner – no answer

11:30 am I made a call to the owner’s daughter (the back-up contact) and was told she would try to reach her mother and have her call us back.

11:38 Owner received a call from her daughter

12:00 I received a call from the owner telling us her phone had been accidently turned off & asked what the problem was. I gave her the information about the refrigerator problem and she said she would take care of it & call him back. 3 min.

12:06 - Owner called our office

12:08 – Owner made first repair call – no help

12:20 – Owner Called our office

12:28 – Owner made first call to tenant explaining she was trying to get a repairman.

12:32 –Owner made Repair call – no help

12:40 – Owner made repair call – didn’t service this area

12:43 –Owner called ###-###-#### – Left message

12:45 –Owner called ###-###-#### – [redacted] – was told first repair service was Thurs. she begged him & he said he would send his tech, would squeeze us in but sometime after 3 pm.

1:01 – Owner received a voice mail from tenant

1:02 – Owner return call from tenant and explained the situation, but was still trying to get a repairman. Owner told tenant he did not have to wait at the house because no one would be there until after 3 pm and we didn’t really have a scheduled appt & weren’t sure what time they would show. Owner told him repeatedly that [redacted] would call her first and she would have someone there to meet them if tenant was unavailable.

1:12 – Owner called [redacted] No Help

1:29 – Owner called ###-###-#### [redacted] confirming not until after 3 pm

1:55 – Owner called ###-###-#### Left message

2:45 & 4:13 pm owner called Connor Jacobsen to give us an update on the situation

4:13 pm called Connor Jacobsen with this update.

At 5:03 pm tenant called owner to report that repairman was not there yet. Owner told him we were told sometime after 3 pm. They were squeezing our appt. in at the end of the day. Tenant was complaining that no one was @ Connor Jacobsen. The phones were on the answering service and he knew the staff was still inside.

At this point the tenant came into Connor Jacobsen and demanded to speak with the manager (who was there) and identified himself and demanded to know who the owner was and I responded I was the owner. I was speaking to one of our clients at the time and the tenant began complaining about our lack of trying to resolve his problem with the refrigerator and that the repairman still hadn’t arrived and we should have a refrigerator available for him. I explained we were a Real Estate office and did not have appliances available here. I explained to him that the owner was expecting a repairman sometime after 3 pm and at this time of year it’s extremely hard to get appliance repair service. He left very agitated and we did not hear from him again that day.

5:15 pm Rent-a-center called the owner and confirmed the rental refrigerator would be there the next morning.

5:41pm Tenant called the owner to ask when the repairman was coming & told her he went to Connor Jacobsen office and spoke with Marie, he said he was upset and disgusted.

Here are the text messages between the home owner and the tenant:

6/25/14 @ 6:35pm

From tenant to owner: Defrosting element broken. Will take a long time to get parts to fix. Could have loaner fridge tomorrow at earliest says most realty offices offer compensation for this type of inconvenience.

From owner to tenant: He (Rent a center) will arrive @ 10:00am. Please have ([redacted]) call me with an estimate.

From tenant to owner: Can I leave it to you to work with Connor Jacobsen about this?

From owner to tenant: I will speak with Connor Jacobsen about this. RAC will be there 10-10:40 am. I told him it was ok to put the fridge (old) on the deck up against the wall next to the table with the light. And thank you for being so patient & understanding.

From tenant to owner: Owner’s Name, I just got home from dinner. The repair guy (repairman’s name), left his business card. His cell is ###-###-####. I think you should call him because his message says his company could provide loaner fridge too. But we don’t want 2 loaner fridges coming here Tomorrow.

From owner to tenant: Thank you, I’ll call him and tell him not to bring it since I already have one coming.

June 26, 2014

From tenant to owner: What an inconvenient 48 hour interruption this has been. I am going to Connor Jacobsen office this afternoon to express my dissatisfaction with their management practices and their lack of an adequate response time and to request a prorated financial compensation.

From owner to tenant: When did you first contact Connor Jacobsen

From tenant to owner: I first noticed fridge wasn’t cold enough Wednesday (actually Tuesday) evening. So Thursday (actually Wednesday) morning around 9 or 10am I called them. (It was actually 11:20 am). They “seemed” to be working on it but didn’t get much done until you called me. Only then was there any progress at all in getting a repairman. I sat in the house almost all day yesterday waiting for repairman. This morning too, waiting for the rental fridge. I was just amazed that Connor Jacobsen didn’t have alternative and a quick solution.

Phone calls June 26, 2014

9:14 am I call [redacted] repairman and left message

10:40 am Tenant calls & said RAC not there yet

10:52 RAC – promised delivery by Bob by 10:30 he said de decided to call the delivery staff in instead of bringing it himself. They should be there by 11:15.

10:55 Owner called tenant – to say they were 15-20 min. away.

11:34 – Owner called ###-###-#### – RAC at the house.

11:39 – RAC Won’t disconnect water line of old refrigerator. Told him to put refrigerator under poster in LR/DR

After noon time on Thursday the tenant came to Connor Jacobsen very apologetic for his actions the evening before and asked how much Connor Jacobsen would reimburse him for all his inconvenience over the refrigerator problem. I explained to him that we could not give him anything without the approval of the owner, since the owner is the one to make that decision. Since we work for the owner, we have to take our direction from them. He was very surprised by that fact and left the office.

When the owner stopped in later, and I repeated the request of compensation the owner approved us to give the tenant $125.00. For the chicken they said they had to throw out and the milk and formula. Since the problem started on Tuesday evening and we weren’t notified until Wednesday morning and the problem was solved with a rental refrigerator within 24 hours of being told about it we don’t know of anything more that could have been done. We are at the mercy of the repair companies and appliance rental companies.

Again, since we work for the homeowner and take our direction from the owner and this particular owner wanted to handle this particular situation we have to step back and let the owner take charge.

I do apologize for the length of this response, but a lot happened in that 24 hours.

Owner: Connor Jacobsen Realty, Inc

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

While this detailed response of calls from Connor Jacobsen to the owner, and from the owner to rental centers and repair shops may tell what happened between them, this is really not addressing my complaint.

I take issue with the response which indicates that the owner offered to have someone available to meet a repairman at the rental house. The owner indicated that her daughter, who evidently lives and works in the Bethany Beach area, was working and would be unable to assist. We were uncomfortable leaving our belongings unlocked, and thus remained at the house, awaiting the repairman, and awaiting the delivery of the "substitute refrigerator". No one from Connor Jacobsen nor the owner herself, agreed to assist, and we were at the mercy of the situation.

We understand that these things happen. Connor Jacobsen indicated that there had been previous problems with the refrigerator in this unit before. However, we believe that our contract was with Connor Jacobsen. They need to have a quick solution for such issues, and if one pays for 7 days and nights under the contract, one should receive such. That means financial compensation for the time missed, as well as the loss of the spoiled food.

We also believe that Connor Jacobsen failed to address the issue of their own unprofessional behavior when accusing our family of failing to vacate the premises by parking there. They should have checked. The keys had been turned in according to contract and our family was not there. It is unprofessional to hang up the phone on someone, after wrongly accusing them of this. They surely found out after this rude accusation that our family was not there. An apology is in order.

Business

Response:

In response to the additional concerns from the customer I will take each issue in order.

First of all the tenant takes issue that the there would be no one to accompany the repairman when he arrived. In answer to that complaint, the owner specifically told the tenant not to wait around for the repairman to get there as is would be after 3 pm when the repairman would arrive because they were fitting us in and wouldn't be there until everything else was completed. The owner also told the tenant that the [redacted] repairman would be calling her at least 15 minutes before they intended to be there and at that time she would make sure that Connor Jacobsen or her daughter would accompany the repairman. We were called by the owner as to the fact that this would happen. The owner also told the l

tenant not to wait around for the repairman and they should go about their own schedule and enjoy the! beach. I do take objection that "no one from Connor Jacobsen would not be there to assist" since we were informed by the owner what we, Connor Jacobsen, would be needed as soon as the owner heard from the repairman.

Secondly, when the refrigerator was brand new there had been a problem with the refrigerator and the owner told the tenants to unplug the refrigerator and wait 10 minutes so that the computer could re­ adjust so it would begin to work properly. That tenant followed these instructions and there have not been any further issues with this refrigerator until the incident with this tenant. Also the tenant did receive a rental refrigerator within 24 hours of calling our office with the complaint even though he did state that the problem started the evening before he called the office which was Tuesday. If he had called then, (and we have an emergency number for such incidents which tenants have on their packet envelopes) we could have had a refrigerator there by the next day. Unfortunately he waited until about 11:20 am Wednesday to call and we started immediately trying to get in touch with the owner.

The next issue is compensation to the tenant from Connor Jacobsen. First of all: our Contract is with the owner and not the tenant. We have a Lodging Agreement with the tenant which is a Disclosure that spells out at the bottom of the first page and I quote:

"Connor Jacobsen Realty, Inc. and its agents are representing the Property Owner's interest and have responsibilities to the Property Owner but are obligated to treat all parties fairly. Without breaching the responsibilities to the Property Owner, Connor Jacobsen Realty, Inc. and its agents may provide a potential guest with information about properties, show properties, and have the duty to respond accurately and honestly to a potential Guest's questions, disclose material facts about properties. Connor Jacobsen Realty, Inc. does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability in the issuing of lodging agreements."

This statement is also on paragraph 15 on the second page of our Lodging Agreement. It is the paragraph entitled Agency. Yes, we did receive money from the tenant, but that money goes into a trust account for the owner and for the town taxes the owner has to pay for each rental and security deposits.

As 1 stated before, once we talk to the owner and they tell us how to proceed, we then take our lead from the owner. This particular owner wanted to handle everything so we backed off and let the owner proceed. The owner did keep us informed, but the owner was definitely in charge. As an aside, this owner happens to be a property manager in another state and does know how to proceed in such matters. As to the amount of money returned to the tenant that was decided by the owner and we followed the owners wishes as to the amount returned.

Lastly, the owner (who inspects the property after tenants leave) came to our office to inform us there was still a car in the driveway of the property. We were asked to call the tenants to see if it was their car. Our rental manager called the tenant and spoke with the wife and was told she didn't know whose car was in the driveway but would do her best to check and see if it was one of theirs. While the rental manager was talking to the tenant's wife the owner received a call from [redacted] hollering that it was NOT one of their cars. The tenant then proceeded to call the rental manager to again state that it was not one of their cars and we could have it towed for all he cared. The rental manager simply said thank you we will and hung up. Since we did not know the cars the tenants own we had no way of knowing whose car was still in the driveway so the first person we called was the former tenant. Ido disagree that our rental manager was rude. She did not raise her voice she simply said "Thank you I will" and hung up the receiver.