Island Real Estate, Inc.

Severely mismanaged vacation rental at Topsail Island. Included filthy furniture,unsanitary, and mold/mildew issues. Refused to refund our money.Upon arriving at the rental house on July 30, after driving 10 hours from Kentucky for our family vacation, we immediately noticed issues with the storm door being wide open. Upon entering the house we noticed the lower door jam was rotted and the metal facing along the bottom of the door on the interior was rusty and sharp and in need of repair. Upon entering the kitchen we noted damage under the cabinets and that the kitchen had not been cleaned; noticeable debris in the floor and food stuck to the cabinets and counter tops were sticky. The barstools were fabric and all four were disgustingly stained. The living room furniture was stained and ragged. The couch was also pushed up against a half wall that led to the stairway; this was not pictured online and posed serious dangers when you travel with pets and small children. The shower curtain was held to the wall with masking tape; their were waterbugs in the floor, the bed was disheveled, a small lamp was turned over, the deck had been stained haphazardly and needed repaired. The blinds in the master suite were missing multiple blades; the carpet on the stairs was brown but under the plastic stepping pads was white; the return air vents were caked in dust; several air conditioning registers were black with mold/mildew. Bathrooms were nasty and walls were covered in scuff marks and chipped paint. We have pictures of all of this. Immediately, I contacted the after hours emergency cell phone number and it was the owner of Island Real Estate, [redacted]. I told her we were severely dissatisfied and wanted another property. She asked for us to allow housekeeping to come out. I agreed to meet with housekeeping, but told her these issues were beyond what could be fixed in an evening by housekeeping. We met with housekeeping that night and they reaffirmed our concerns and advised they had received complaints from former customers that had gone unaddressed by Island Real Estate. They also said there was not time to deep cleaning between weekly rentals. They also mentioned the unit was vacant the week prior to us arriving due to HVAC issues. We told housekeeping we were not going to be staying there and they said they would contact [redacted] at Island Real Estate to let her know. [redacted] texted me at 8:04 pm on July 30 and told me [redacted] would meet me at their office at 1 pm on July 31. I agreed and let her know we had found other arrangements for the week.I arrived at their office at around 12:50 on July 31 and waited until about 1:15 before texting to confirm we were still meeting. She was waiting at the house, thought we were meeting there so I left the office and went to the house. Upon arriving at the house, in an accusatory manner, she asked me what happened to the storm door. I said, that's how we found it. Once in the house, she was belittling and argumentative about the issues we posed. She was aggravated and refused to accept any responsibility. She said the refund was up to the owner. We left with me requesting our money back. On August 1, I submitted an email to [redacted] requesting an 80% refund by close of business on Aug 2. In a text she confirmed she received my email, but I received no response to my offer. On the evening of Aug 1, I got an email from the owner stating their dissatisfaction with Island Real Estate and that they feel like they deserve their money and that this was due to management issues. I talked to [redacted] on August 3 and she said that the owner had ended their service agreement with Island Real Estate and was threatening to sue all parties involved without knowing I knew that the owner was highly dissatisfied with their management services. The owner also forwarded us an email in which [redacted] called me a "royal, first class complainer" in an attempt to cover up her own company's ineptness in managing this property. Thankfully, the owner of the house saw through this and visited the property, agreed with us, and cancelled her management contract with them.Desired Settlement[redacted] refused to provide any refund, did not try to re-rent out the facility like she said she would, and was caught up in several lies; she ended the conversation by saying that we disagree and this conversation is over. We are seeking a full refund of our vacation rental: $1,513.36.Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted], BrokerContact Phone: [redacted]Contact Email: [redacted]@topsailvacation.comOccasionally as a small business owner I find myself in an awkward position. I love my job and have performed the service of vacation rentals in this one place for 40 years. Sometimes we cannot satisfy a customer no matter what we do. This was one of those rare occasions. Mr. [redacted] and his wife rented the property for a one week vacation at the end of July. They checked in on a Saturday evening after hours. My husband and I were out of town at a 50th wedding anniversary party for close friends. I wear a pager and respond within 3-5 minutes usually. Because I was out of town (45 minutes away) when I received the page I called my assistant and asked her to respond for me, which she did immediately. She contacted me via my cell phone and told me the people basically were complaining about cleanliness of the property. She immediately called the housekeeper at home, it is now late but the housekeeper returned to the property from her home, 20-25 miles away, she was met at the door and told by the "guest" that she could not clean the house to his specifications. She asked what was wrong. His complaints were as follows:too many "scuff marks" on the walls going up the stairwayspots on the upholstered bar stoolsa spot on the top of the back of the couch."Worn" sofa and love seat.In his Better Business Complain this guests innumerated a long list of problems that were never mentioned to us initially. My assistant told him I would meet with him the following morning to address his issues and that I would meet with him between 11-12. He demanded full reimbursement then and there from my assistant on the spot over the phone and again when we met in person. She is not the bookkeeper and does not have the ability or permission to refund anyone on the spot immediately. The next morning I did meet with the guests as promised. I waited for them at the property, they were not there. I called them and they told me they were waiting at my office. Perhaps there was some confusion. I asked did they want me to go to the office or had they rather meet at the house. They said they would rather me wait at the house for them, which I did. They came about 10 minutes or so later. In their defense perhaps it was not specifically said to meet in the office. Perhaps I just assumed if they wanted to discuss and show me their complaints it would be at the property. When they arrived one of the first things told to me was "we found a house we like better". As we met the list grew longer and longer, there was a corner of the bathroom where the tile was not adequately cleaned, now the stairs inside the house were dirty and dangerous, the layout of the living room was "dangerous" for his child because of a half wall at the top of the stairway which opened into the living room. (Pictures are clearly on the website) This is a very usual construction type.I seriously doubt housekeeping told them they had other complaints about the house which they say in their complaint. True, the house was vacant part of the preceding week due to the entire heating and cooling system of the house being replaced. We did not have instructions from the owner to have all upholstery and carpets cleaned during those few days. Frankly, one spot on a sofa and a few small spots on bar stools did not warrant that action. Owners of properties have ultimate control of their own properties as they should. Property managers cannot do as they please without owner's consent. All funds from a guest are kept in an "escrow" account by law. If I refund to a guest without owner's consent I have broken the law. I contacted the owner and told her we had a "first class" complainer, which we did. I am guilty of saying that in an email to the owner. I feel it was justified. (All of this happened over the span of late Saturday evening and Sunday morning) By this time the owner and guest are communicating via email. I evidently am the bad guy. The owner has spent a lot of money replacing her heating and air conditioning system. Perhaps she did not want to replace the furniture this year. I cannot speak for her. She feels she is due the money from the rental, the guest feels he is due all of his money back. I'm the guy stuck in the middle. It's kind of like the conductor on a train, I don't get to drive the engine or blow the whistle but I'm the guy who gets the complaints. This house was rented every week this summer without complaint except for the week the A/C went completely out (these guests moved to another property). No other guests had a complaint. [redacted] in the classic 1983 film "War Games" stated "Sometimes the only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of Chess?"If I pay the owner and I pay the guest I have broken the law concerning escrow accounts and I am out about $2500. I had rather play a nice game of Chess. All because a guest wanted me to rebuild a house for him overnight and an owner did not want to buy new furniture when not necessary? This tenant was intimidating to me when we met at the property, he threatened me by saying if I did not refund all of his money he would report me to the Revdex.com. I see he is true to his word.Thank you for the opportunity to respond.[redacted]

multiple maintenance works done while we were renting a beach house with no notice of repairs and no effort to notify of repairs or rectify situation.Rental property called [redacted] through Island Real Estate. We were told at check in that on Monday, August 11th, someone would come repair a broken shower. We were told this would be in the downstairs and would be a quick repair. At 8 am on the 11th, multiple maintenance men came to do extensive AC repair and completely rescreen the back porch. They also stated they had to come in the house, if we wanted to continue to have AC. We contacted Island real estate, to determine why we were not notified and they informed me that they would "look in to it". We did not receive a call back that day or the next, so I called, as the workers had returned a second day. They told me we could fill out a form at check out (which would be multiple days later), to dispute for a refund. No apology, no attempt to correct the situation. It was at this point that she also informed me that there was no intention of repairing the shower while we were there.Desired SettlementRefund for the days repairs occurred and prorated rate for stay for no notice and no attempt to correct the situation when it occurred.Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted]Contact Phone: [redacted]Contact Email: [redacted]The guest arrived on Saturday. We left her a voice mail telling her about the scheduled repairs. She said she did not get the message.Guest called Monday Aug 11th and asked about the repairs being done on the house. She was informed by the AC company that they would have to come into the house to complete the repairs, she was told by the AC technician if she did not allow him into the house they would have no AC, the guest then let them into the house. The re-screening of the porch was scheduled to be done on Saturday Aug 9th however due to heavy rain the earliest it could be done was Monday the 11th, the guest was told that the screen would only take a couple of hours and she informed us that they could finish the job they had already started.(We offerred to have them stop untill she left.) The guest was told that if she thought these things were an inconvience, she could come to the office and complete a request for compensation form. We asked her on more than one occassion what would she like for us to do to "make it right." She would not answer, said she did not know how we could make it right.Both items, AC not cooling suffeciently and torn screen porch were reported by the previous guest, who left at 10am on the same Saturday that this guest arrived. The AC people went that same day, which is miraculous. They had to return with the necessary parts to finish the AC job on Monday. She did not want them to fix it. (They told her she would soon be without any AC if they did not install the new part.) She finally agreed to let them complete the repair.We had record setting rains that Saturday, in excess of 3 inches that day. The repairman doing the rescreening could not finish in the pouring rain, so he returned on Monday to finish. (The entire job took less than 3 hours.)The guest was asked repeatedly what she wanted us to do, She continually said she did not know. Would she have complained if we had NOT fixed the AC and the screen. Probably. We offerred to have her fill out a refund request, she refused, said she didn't want to do any paperwork. So, now I'm having to answer a complaint. We did everything possible to satisfy this guest. I'm at a loss as to what I should have done.[redacted]Property manager. Consumer Response The only information received about any potential repairs was that the shower in the downstairs bathroom was not working and that someone would be out to fix that. No attempt was made to communicate issues with the AC or the porch. We had found no issue with the functioning of the AC until it was dismantled while we were in the house. Aside from the fact that we had no notification that repair men were coming the men that performed the repair were exceptionally rude. Additionally, a rip in the screened porch would have been preferable to spending the week on the look out for rusty nails that were left all over the porch and diriveway especially since we had two children under five in our group. It was very clearly state what the management company could do to make things right and we were told that was unreasonable. I Intended to complete the required paper work for a complaint at check-out, however, the office was closed so I could not acess the required forms. Final Business Response This guest has placed me in an impossible position. She complains because we finished a repair to the air conditioning unit in the house she had rented.She was informed, we left her a voice mail. The repairman come in a timely fashion so that she would not be inconvenienced with no AC. Perhaps this guest did not check her voice mail. We offered to have the repairman fixing the screen to stop work and finish after she left. She said to let him finish what he had started. We did. The job took less than 3 hours and he was outside on the porch. This guest never stated any desired resolution while she was here. She refused to fill out a form listing the problem and her desired outcome. Now, after leaving she deceided to complain. In her initial complaint to the Revdex.com she asked for a refund of the 2 days the repairs took place. She was asked by my staff on 4 separate occasions what outcome did she want to see. She never answered, indeed she said she'd let us know when she decieded. She states that she came by the office to get the form and we were closed. We are open 9-5, 6 days a week.We are closed on Sundays. I will go the extra mile, however this guest was asked repeatedly what she wanted to resolve her complaint. She never did . My feelings are this: We would have given her a gift certificate to a local restaurant for dinner out, to make her feel better concerning her "perceived" hardship. She would not respond to our repeated request for "(what did she want". In my opinion she wants an audience. Our crime was making sure she had air conditioning functioning properly while she was here. We made sure her screened porch was repaired, and we offered to have the repairman to stop, but she said to let him finish. I do not know what else we could have done.Respectfully[redacted]

We arrived in top sail 8-27-2016 for a week vacation at a rental called island in sun in which we rented for 1419.10$ to much of our surprise the house was exstreamly filthy to which we ended up getting bleach and wipes and cleaning and main air conditioning was not working as well as small one in upstairs bedroom which was our bedroom and faucet was broken and door hinge to our deck to open balcony was broken. We found roaches at this time also and called immediately and was told at first it's because house was closed up so we let it go. They told us a maintenance man would come to fix items to which we had to wait due to our dogs the air repair came later that evening the other maintenance came 3 days later and could not fix anything but put a air filter in we also had a main window that was pouring in water in living room to which we reported to him. The roaches got out of control and we called Sunday but we're closed I emailed Monday and was told someone would be out Tuesday so we waited again due to dogs they did spray but that evening they were back again in vegince and that night had one crawl across my face while sleeping and that morning we decided to end vacation 3 days early because we could not take any longer. After checking out they told us manager would call and she never did and after 10 hour drive home we received email after 10 pm and to much of our surprise she said we never reported any maintenance issues and only gave us refund of 300$ and Implicated we were leaving due to storm which we cared nothing about we rented house for seven days not just 5 days why would we waist money leaving??? That took us over 17 hours round trip to go. From day one this place was a nightmare and we should not have to wait on maintenance workers on our vacation and plan around there schedule but we had to do to dogs. We were unable to use a room we really wanted to sleep in due to comfort and the view just to be told sorry I can not fix anything in here at his time.Product_Or_Service: [redacted]Account_Number: [redacted]Desired SettlementWe would not like just the 300$ we would like a full refund due to what we had to put up with in this home due to In proper maintenance and communication on their behalf. Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted], ownerContact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXXContact Email: [redacted]@topsailvacation.comMs. [redacted] confuses me. She complains about things broken and in the same breath complains that we sent people to take care of her issues. What does she want? One item was a faucet which was "hard" to turn off. It was not broken but she complained that it was difficult for her to turn off. We sent a repairman the same day she complained. He had to purchase a new faucet off the island and returned the next day to install it. At the same time he replaced a broken sliding glass door handle which he had in office stock. Housekeeping had not reported it broken please understand we are not accusing Ms. [redacted] of breaking it however no one prior to her commented that it was broken? It is a common repair.She stated they had to wait in the house for 3 days for our repairman to come because of their DOGS (plural) (her words in the complaint not mine)Two things come to mind. 1. She paid one pet fee not two, so evidently she brought in an extra pet for which she did not pay the required $150 pet fee. 2. If she waited in the house for 3 days it was of her own accord. Our repairmen responded the same or the next day after her complaints. The only delay in her requested repair was that of one day because the repairman "[redacted]" had to go off island and purchase a new faucet, which he did that nightand finished the repair the next day.The main AC in the house was working perfectly. The house has a loft on the third level. Because of the size of the house and the 3rd floor level the loft doesn't cool as well as the rest of the house. As a solution the owners had an additional wall AC unit installed to provide extra cooling for that one room. We have had extremely hot weather for an extended period of time this summer as has most of the east coast. This is the AC our guest complained about not the main unit which cools the rest of the house. (There were an additional 3 bedrooms not just this one.) Our AC repairman answered the call for the AC the same day Ms [redacted] reported it not cooling sufficiently. He went after hours that same evening. Same day turn around is pretty good in my book for an AC repair. If she had been at home how long would it have taken to get her AC repaired?It is surprising that she complains about the cleanliness of the house in her complaint to you. She did not mention that to us until an email sent after they left. Why did she not complain about cleanliness until 4 days later? If we have a housekeeping complaint the housekeepers are required to go back the same day and re-clean the property. After 4 days, that is not the case.Ocassionally we will find a bug or two in a beach house. That is why all of our rental properties are under continuing pest control contracts. They are treated monthly. If a bug is reported the service goes back immediately. We have not had a call back on this house till Ms. [redacted] called in. The exterminator went and resprayed. He reported to me that he saw no bugs but, you never know. I sent one of the folks in the office the day the guests left to check the house. She was asked to specifically check for bugs dead or alive. She looked in closets, cabinets, under sinks, etc and did not find a single bug . . . . not one.This guest was given a substantial discount prior to filing a complaint. She was also given another discount when she originally booked the house. I'm sorry she is not satisfied but there will not be a third discount. Her concerns and complaints were answered and/or fixed. She stayed 4 days of a 7 day reservation, sneaked in an extra pet for which she did not pay , has already been given $1000 off the regular price of this rental, I don't think we could ever satisfy this guest. Fair is fair and I do believe we have been more than fair in our dealings with this guest and her "complaints", verified or not.Perhaps the weather report (Hermine) had something to do with her dissatisfaction??? Just a thought. Company ownerProperty ManagerConsumer Response First off again we did not leave due to storm second communication again in office they knew of our extra dog I have the email to prove because animal was kept in play pen there office told us she would not charge so that's there doing third these items in house should of been repaired before we even arrived due to again lack of communication on the cleaners for not reporting and having fixed yes these are our dogs but we should not have to adjust schedule for maintenance workers though our dogs are not nasty we did not want workers afraid of them and they had to be out of house for spraying and it was not bug or two there was many and different sizes I have pictures to prove. We are not dishonest people or people in search of free vacations but when we made reservation we talk to office about our luck with rentals and she assured us was great place yes there was discount but we were told was due to sand bags etc . So there's a lot of non-communication here. We understand rentals take a beating but when you look forward and drive that far and want nothing more then to relax its upsetting we through it around for the time we were there leaving because of bugs but we tried riding it out but nothing more gross then eating dinner and they crawl up wall or crawl on your face while sleeping. We did not ask for any of prior discounts they were already in place by office. Final Business Response The last comment I see from Ms[redacted] is "please close case!" I am sorry she feels she had a bad experience with the property and our company however we responded to and answered every question and rectified all issues the guest reported. I don't know what else we could have done. The emails forwarded to the Revdex.com only proved exactly what I said. She complained , we fixed the items, she complained, we sent an exterminator, she sneaked in an extra pet, we did not charge her the additional $150. I'm not sure what else she wanted other than all of her money back on an already discounted vacation.Thank you for the opportunity to address this unfair complaint.[redacted]