The Boulders

I’ve been living here for four years and have enjoyed every year!
Let’s talk about the con (s) first:
The walls are a little thin and you can hear your neighbors if they’re being noisy. I live on the second floor and can hear the people above me walking around sometimes. Depending on your neighbors, some people will have heavier steps and some people will have lighter steps. The noise level around me doesn’t bother me too much, but I think it’s because I have considerate neighbors.
And the Pros:
Neighborhood/​community is nice and safe. The grounds are maintained very well and the buildings are clean.
Heat/​water included in the rent. Anything that I don’t have to pay for, is a load off my mind, especially heat in the winter!
Monthly rent is fair. This isn’t the most luxurious of apartments, but it’s clean, quiet, and comfortable. You couldn’t ask for anything more for the price you pay.
Two bus stops within the apartment community. One is located right in the middle of the complex (it happens to also be the first stop of the line) and one is located right at the entrance. The bus comes every 15 minutes during the school year and once every 30 minutes during the summer. It takes about 15 – 20 minutes to get to UMass and also goes right through downtown Amherst. It’s very convenient.
Both the office staff and maintenance crew are great! Melissa and Kaylee are always so friendly and helpful. They always respond to any questions I have promptly and are good at providing notice about plowing and where you should move your car. Maintenance responds to work orders very promptly. I always get a response within 24 hours of submitting it. The crew (Tom, Lloyd, and Mike) always have smiles on their faces and greet me by name.
Laundry facilities are on site. You purchase a card that you can load with money to use for the washers/​dryers. The only thing that I can improve on here is the use of credit/​debit cards (the laundry card machine is cash only). The laundry facilities are well maintained and clean.
Dog/​cat friendly — When I was searching for an apartment, I believe The Boulders were the only pet friendly community available. They used to charge pet rent, but now that’s also gone! The grounds are fairly clean for having dogs — pet owners are responsible for cleaning their doggy poop!
Overall, I’m satisfied with The Boulders. They offer quiet, clean, convenient, and affordable housing.

Overall, I really enjoyed living here — it was very quiet, my apartment was really comfortable and affordable, the gym is fantastic, it’s a short drive to the shopping centers on rt 9, and the bus was extremely convenient. It’s far from perfect, but I would have happily stayed here if I hadn’t moved halfway across the US.
Before I start complaining I want to weight in on what some other review say: QS said that she was unable to get into the gym to refill her laundry card at night (and I realize her review is pretty old so maybe this wasn’t the case then), but the key to get into the gym is the same one that you use to get into your building. Derek T. mentioned that Wings Over Amherst won’t deliver to the Boulders, which is no longer the case as I used to order from them pretty regularly and never had an issue with delivery.
Now on to the complaints!
1. The maintenance crew is super friendly and very responsive even on weekends. Unfortunately, the person who manages them is an idiot who has a policy of patching things over fixing them, so we had to fill out service requests pretty often. Once we had our kitchen sink back up and overflow onto the counters because there was a blockage and every time someone above us used their sink, the water came up our drain, carrying bits of spaghetti and vegetables that had been put down the disposal. Yes, it was disgusting. The maintenance guy who fixed it was able to deal with it pretty quickly, because apparently this has happened multiple times. For several months we had someone come every few weeks because our ceiling was leaking and eventually started getting moldy. The solution, apparently, was to keep painting over the leaks. Fortunately for us, it wasn’t a plumbing issue; the tenants above us were using a portable washing machine that got water from the bathtub and leaked like crazy, so the leaking stopped after they were evicted.
2. The parking directions for snow removal are extremely vague, both in terms of when you’re supposed to move your car and what side of the road you’re supposed to park on, and the notices were consistently filled with grammatical errors.
3. The building numbers are poorly marked and it can be difficult to describe where you live to your friends or the delivery guy.
4. And finally, communicating with the property manager Melissa Pratts via email is a nightmare. If you want to talk to someone, call or do it in person. For example, when we got a pet, we emailed her three questions about the pet policy. It took several more emails to get her to answer all of our questions because she only answered one question at a time. We also received a call once because our rent payment (split between three people) was off by one cent. That said, every time we had to talk to someone in person, they were very friendly and helpful.

UMass is a college town so what would you expect out of an apartment complex? At times it was loud, at times it was as quiet as a church. At certain areas of the Boulders its a party town, in certain areas its whisper quiet. As a grad student, I elected to move into the Boulders from 2009 to 2010 and lived in the building right behind the leasing office. My logic was that those who want to party will elect to live furthest from the office, plus furthest from the main entrance. My experience at the Boulders was good for the most part. Maintainence was never an issue and I even called them after hours at 2am when I realized I left my keys back in Vancouver, Canada. Somebody stayed behind to open the doors for me. One star was knocked off because when the warm weather started to come up, so did the noise. Outside my apartment, I’d have these families who would yell the N word every few seconds for hours and hours. The other star comes off because of the price; don’t get me wrong, I knew how much they charge for rent before I moved in, but it is on the higher end of the things. One could also make a case that the other star is because Wings Over Amherst doesn’t deliver to the Boulders because some class-​act stole the delivery guys car a few years back… so if you want Wings, you have to meet at the gas station a few blocks down. Ridiculous.

I spent about 6 weeks on a friend’s couch here before I found the right apartment. Don’t get me wrong: I was ecstatic to have a place to stay, and did pay for. However:
–The development is ugly and suburban looking\
–The basement apartment was a million degrees
–I heard people screaming for help and police sirens on two distinct mornings.
–The neighbors appeared to be drug dealers
–The interior was ultra cheaply done.
But there was lots of parking?

I have a love/​hate relationship with my apartment. I love it because I live comfortably for an affordable price, and I hate it because every time I come home, the halls outside my door has a different smell. Well I hate it for other reasons too.
Today, I was getting some errands done. The usual grocery shopping and laundry day. Wanting to get everything out of the way for the week because of finals, I did the groceries first. I ran out of money on the card for the laundry machine. Here is red flag number one.
No apartment, I repeat, NO apartment should make their tenants BUY a laundry card. I had to pay $ 2 for a stupid piece of plastic that doesn’t even work half the time. The machine that you add money to you card does not work either sometimes. Today, for example, I went to fill the card up with money for the dryer. It refused to take my very crisp $ 5 bill. I decided to go back a couple of hours later to try again only to find that the gym that the machine is placed into (why, why, why?) is closed for the evening (at 11pm).
This is the second red flag. Why is that laundry card machine placed in the gym out of all places!!! It is so not accessible, especially because you need a KEY to get into the gym. Does this make any sense or is the Boulders management just dumb? Students who live at the apartments will probably be doing laundry at midnight so why would you place something that can be put anywhere (like next to the actual laundry rooms) in the gym?
Another thing, why is it that every time I turn on the shower, I have no hot water? Especially in the winter time, if someone else in your building took a shower before you, chances are that you won’t be able to get warm water unless you let the water run for 8 minutes (the time in which I could of taken a shower and gotten on with my day, although there are no promises that I won’t be hindered by the stupid laundry machine).
You may be wondering why I gave the Boulders a 4 star after non-​stop ranting about the laundry machine. Well, because I like it. The apartments are big and the bedrooms are big as well. The maintenance people come at your request (except on weekends) and fix everything without question for free. There are also three accessible bus stops that are 1 minute away from each other. My stop is 3 minutes away from my building. There is also free parking.
It is not a bad place to be living in. I just wish people would be more intelligent about tenant needs.