digging out of a stinky pile of debt after realizing we are well past fucked

When I moved to the Los Angeles area I ended up at Archstone Warner Center. Why? Because I have a long history of renting from Archstone in multiple states. I’ve never had a problem with the Archstone brand and thought it would be a safe bet. This is my Archstone Warner Center review. It my all my opinion.

After renting apartments regularly since 1998, and never renewing a lease in the same place,  I can honestly say that, in my opinion, Archstone Warner Center is my worst apartment experience. They even beat the place in Maitland, Florida where my refrigerator door fell off on move-in day, the air conditioner did not work on move-in day (and it was July) and there was such a gap on the patio door that flying ant-like bugs invaded the apartment nightly until I caulked the door shut.

Archstone Warner Center seemed like an awesome find when we moved in. Sign a 12-month lease and get 2 month free rent! The complex looked nice enough and I had always had pleasant experiences with Archstone.  Within the first month of moving in, the fire alarms sounded three times. Archstone has a 30-day move-out policy that we thought about taking advantage of that first month. The apartment office said that the fire alarms were sensitive. Apparently if people try to come into the garage with a vehicle that is too high they go off. If someone is smoking in the hall or balcony they go off. Sometimes I think they just go off because they haven’t in a while!

If had to guess, it would be my opinion that I seem to recall the fire alarms going off about an average of twice a month the entire duration of my lease. I have even experienced the fire alarms sounding in the middle of the night. Once around 3am and once around 5am. Not once has there been a real fire when the fire alarms have gone off her during my lease term.

If you Google “archstone warner center reviews” you will see many reviews complaining about the fire alarms. Sites like ApartmentReviews.net list several complaints from residents at Archstone Warner Center.

You’ll also see some complaints about the move out charges that they spring on you when you put in your 30-day notice. One reviewer on Yelp.com says he was charged $1000 when he moved out for painting and cleaning. This is where my other major problem with this complex comes into play. In the lease, like in all apartment leases, it states that you are liable for normal wear and tear. In all my years of apartment renting I have never had to pay for anything to be cleaned or the like. Well, today I got a little move out packet from Archstone Warner center where they are estimating that my move out fee will be around $400!! In my opinion, this is beyond ridiculous. They forsee needing to paint, clean and either clean or replace the carpet. That’s great except the carpet was crappy when I got here. I forsee needing to tell them to suck it. One of the sheets they gave me details how they charge for labor and materials upon move out. Never have I heard of an apartment complex charging someone to paint the place.

In my opinion, here are other problems with Archstone Warner Center that I wish I had read in a review that would have kept me away – even though the garage is gated there are always transients dumpster diving in the complex, vehicles get vandalized and are stolen out of the garage – motorcycle theft seemed to be an issue, after the forest fires they took forever to clean up the walkways but then refused to clean people’s patios, they let people have huge loud dogs and they don’t make them keep them inside at night, huge gaps between the doors and the door frames that result in loss of cold air or heat depending on the season, the parking garages are incredibly dangerous as people fly around the corners and they don’t have mirrors up so that you can see people coming, there is not enough parking available on each level and they let motorcycles park in the large spaces leaving empty compact spaces and no spaces for larger cars.

In my opinion, the pool area and fitness room are nice. So is the business center. But in my opinion, Archstone Warner Center closer to a dump than the luxury complex it claims to be. If you are considering moving to Archstone Warner Center, it is my opinion that you should look someplace else and at least read the reviews on the other sites.

I will do a follow-up post once I move out and let people know if I get bumblefucked by Archstone Warner Center and their move out fees.

**this Archstone Warner Center review is my opinion**

Head on over to the Oprah page to get a free book download today!

Download Colum McCann’s new novel, Let the Great World Spin for free until 10:59 a.m. ET Wednesday August 5, 2009. It is the current selection for Oprah’s Book Club!

The download is in PDF format.

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I don’t think it is any secret that the state of California is hurting for cash. Their latest attempt at raising money leaves a sour taste in my mouth. What is it?

The CHEATERS program.

The California Highway Patrol wants people to call them when they see an out of state license plate. Apparently someone forgot to inform the geniuses at the CHP that Cali is a big tourist draw and there are likely to be a lot of out of state plates here.

I clicked through to the CHP CHEATERS page to see what they were looking for. Here is what they want the tattletales to give them besides license plate number and make/model:

Comments / Evidence (Please include in the comments field any relevant information that might help with the investigation: specific addresses where the vehicle is observed, how long has the vehicle been seen in California, any information about the owner, why you feel that the owner is attempting to avoid California registration, local decals/bumper stickers/license plate frames, etc.):

Invasive much?

It’s precisely things like this that are contributing to the list of reasons that the Bumblefucked household will be vacating the state of California when our lease is up.

Today is Thursday. I have an Orchard Bank card payment due on Sunday. I logged into my account to make a payment today. It told me that I had to make a “Rush Payment” for $12.95 in order to avoid a $35 late fee. Say what? Remember kids, today is Thursday and the payment is not due until Sunday. Make sense? Yeah, not to me either.

Orchard Bank can suck it!

I seriously hate them.

Here in the Bumblefucked household we use Verizon Wireless. And ever since our 2 year contract expired in March we have been getting what seems like daily calls from an 866 number that turns out to be Verizon Wireless trying to get you into a new contract. Wankers!

After doing a bit of research on how to block a number on your Verizon Wireless cell phone I have this to say to the Verizon Contract Renewal department – you are SO PWND!!

For those of you interested, here is how to block a specific number from calling your Verizon cell phone:

1. Log into your Verizon Wireless account on www.verizonwireless.com

2. Go to My Verizon

3. Go to My Services

4. Go to My Cell Phone

5. Go to Verizon Safeguards (its on the left sidebar)

6. Go to Spam Controls.

You can enter up to 10 5 numbers to block for free!!! The block is only temporary though – 3 months. But it is still a victory!

Every so often I log into my Associated Content account to see if they have any decent paying Calls for Content out that I can write quickly. Today I logged in and was disturbed to see this Call for Content:

First-Person Stories: Obama Tries to Keep Jobs in U.S. ($10.00)
Partner: Reuters.com

Yes, that’s right, Reuters is buying articles from Associated Content. This is beyond disturbing. Why? Because Associated Content has no standards! Try reading some stuff on the site and you will see what I mean. Yes, I know there are some articles on there that are fine. I write on there occasionally too. But I’d say the quality ratio is looking at around 95% crap writing and 5% decent writing.

Needless to say, I am disturbed and saddened that Reuters would sink this low.

It really is the equivalent of companies farming jobs out overseas, which is kind of ironic considering the article they want to buy. I mean, Reuters could pay real journalists a real wage for this particular article. Instead, they cheap out with Associated Content.

Welcome readers of the Carnival of Personal Finance #203 and thanks to Weakonomics for including us in the carnival this week.

Highlights from this weeks’ carnival:

• Why Is It So Much Harder To Thrive in America Today
• Is Budgeting Keeping You Poor?
• We are debt-free! (Except for the mortgage – here’s how we did it)
• Three Ways Credit Scores are Used Against You
• Blogging Becoming a Serious Money Business
• At What Point Do You Consider Yourself to Be Rich?
• Filing Small Claims Court: Basic FAQs.

If you’re a comic book fan then I have good news for you – It’s Free Comic Book Day!

You can see which comic book stores in your area are participating by checking freecomicbookday.com

For a limited time Barnes & Noble has a pdf download of a YA fantasy/sci-fi book – The Merchant Of Death, Pendragon Book #1 by D. J. MacHale. Download link –> here.