The Village at Colbert Park

Let me preface this by saying if I could give them fewer stars I would. Where does one begin?!
Parking– It’s a nightmare! Just this morning I had to park on the opposite side of the complex because there were no spots anywhere near my building. Furthermore, I counted over fifteen cars without parking stickers just in front of my building alone! Why the hell do they issue parking stickers if they aren’t going to enforce their own rules?!
The Grounds– They are disgusting! There is trash and dog shit everywhere! The only time I see staff maintaining the grounds is when they happen to be showing apartments that day. And even then it’s only the bare minimum.
Maintainance– When I moved into my apartment the kitchen light was missing the bulbs. I put in a work order that day and they promptly replaced them… THREE MONTHS LATER! For three months I had to cook by flashlight because the bulbs for that light are special ones you have to order. I’ve been trying to get maintainance to fix my lock for over six months now as it is on it’s last leg and soon I won’t be able to lock my apartment. None of the phone lines work. Not one. And if you ask them to fix it they tell you that it’s not their responsibility. Why do I have to pay my money to fix your shitty building? Also, the online work order page doesn’t work. Which brings me to my next point…
The Website– It’s down all the time and half the pages don’t work. I don’t know who their IT guy is but he needs to go back to school.
Lastly, The Staff– No one that works in that front office has any idea what the hell they are doing. They blatantly lie, don’t enforce any of their own rules, add random charges to my rent every month and when I ask them about it they make up something. If I refuse to pay it they threaten to evict me. They can’t keep track of paper work to save their lives. I’ve had to go in three different times to sign the same piece of paper and each time they tried charging me a filing fee.
Oh, and if all that’s not bad enough, the tennants are loud, obnoxious, and have zero respect for anyone else. They throw trash everywhere and stay up till all hours of the night blaring music and getting obscenly drunk. I can’t wait until my lease is up.
DO NOT LIVE HERE!!!

DO NOT LIVE HERE!!!
LOUD: adjacent to railroad intersection so train honks horn throughout the entire night. Also, there is a dog day care/​hotel adjacent– so dogs are barking throughout the day and night.
FAR from campus and everything else. U end up wasting a lot of gas and time. Do your research– DO NOT LIVE HERE!
CHEAP CONSTRUCTION: walls are paper thin.
Also, management is horrible!

Dear Unilocal and apartment hunters of central Illinois.
This is not a terrible place to live, but the one star is for the incompetent staff that runs everything. We’ve had problems with their management since day one. From putting us in an apartment that basically doubles as a train station, to screwing up monthly payment amounts. They also promised us that we could get a cable service, instead of using their terrible analog cable that gets 20 channels. Only after moving in, did we find out that no cable providers could install into our apartment because of the specific location. When we brought it up with them, they said there was nothing they could do because it was only our specific location that was defective. And «technically» they didn’t lie to us, because you ARE able to get external cable at the village, just not in our location. And it was our fault because WE should have specified that we wanted a different location if it was so important to us. They said «how are we supposed to know which apartments are cable accessible and which ones aren’t?» Well, because you run the place… That’s why. Finally, my last complaint, I run a catering business, and we catered the village move-​in. We thought this would be fun to do for everyone in the community so we agreed to do the event and not ask any money from them up front and only make money on the food we served. It’s not that I’m upset because we were out there for 6 hours and because of the horrible location they put us in, we didn’t get any business. Or because halfway through, they told us we should be in a different location that was completely inaccessible at that time, one employee comes up and says «wow, you guys should really be all the way over there where all the people are», thank you village staff. We were upset, because the entire staff that asked us to be out there, ordered subway for lunch. We were literally sitting out there for an entire Sunday (which is normally our only day off) doing nothing, and they didn’t even patronize us. We watched as a guy with 30 subway sandwiches walked right past us, into the office to bring back food for everybody, right in front of our set-​up. It was so unbelievably disrespectful that we didn’t even know how to respond. We got no thank you at the end of the day from the staff, and no offer to reimburse us for the lost opportunity cost, time spent, labor we paid, or food cost. In the end, the staff here is terrible. They don’t know what customer service is, how to treat other people, or how to run an apartment complex in general. Live somewhere else.
Sincerely,
A pissed off resident

DO NOT RENT AN APARTMENT HERE. Law students who really want litigation experience may want to consider it because this place screams «sue me» on a regular basis.
1. LIES, DAMN LIES — The employees will lie to you, without a doubt. I have lost count of the number of times I have been lied to while living here. We were lied to about the ability to get satellite TV installed, about the state of our apartment on moving in, about regularity of the bus (forget it when school is not in session), the safety of the place, and about so much more.
2. FEES WITHOUT SERVICES — The Village has no qualms about charging a fee for a service they do not provide. We sublet initially and were told we would have to pay a redecoration fee and would have to leave at least two days between the prior tenant’s move-​out and our move-​in so they could «redecorate». When we arrived, of course, the place had not been cleaned let alone redecorated. When we asked about this, we were told that they never redecorate in sublet situations. You should not be surprised to hear that the sublessor was not refunded her redecoration fee and neither were we. In addition, a number of friends were assessed charges for things they had not done, including fines for leaving trash out. Very questionable behavior.
3. CRIME — Numerous cars had their back windows shot-​out while I have been living here, at least three by my count. The Village refused to do anything in response.
4. THERE ARE NO SOCCER FIELDS OR BASKETBALL COURTS BEHIND THE VILLAGE — When we signed up, we were shown a nice diagram of Colbert park with all of its facilities, including a soccer field, a basketball court, and an amphitheater. These things do not exist. There is some grass and a hill, but it takes some imagination to conjure up what the Village subtly advertises.
If you’re the kind of person who is willing to forgive all manner of misbehavior in exchange for a pool and pizza party every once in a while then by all means move in here.
As a final note, both the Village drivers and maintenance staff are perfectly friendly and seem competent enough. This review is limited to a critique of the management and office staff who ought to be ashamed of their behavior.

The Village sucks. It’s really the only way to describe it. When you go to sign your lease you’re given a little spiel by the only staff member capable of speaking in coherent sentences.
He tells you how there’s cable and internet included. He doesn’t say that the cable is the equivalent of a 56k dial-​up. On some weeknights you can’t use youtube. It’s far too slow. Oh ya forget about Netflix or online video games.
He doesn’t tell you that the cable is basic non-​HD cable that looks terrible on most flat screen tvs. No DVR no on-​demand just bottom barrel stuff. Again, a nice bit of trickery.
He’ll then lie to you about the trains and tell you that it’s not too bad. He says «I live back there and don’t notice the train anymore.» Well I guess that guy has some kind of condition that puts him in a coma at night. The train comes at least every hour, and is very loud. One never acclimates to the point that it becomes inaudible. Maybe he has an inner-​ear problem…
Overall the service and the services are sub– sub-​par. The buildings are fine, but not enough to give this 2 stars.
You fail Colbert Park, and I honestly hope it fails and comes under new management to save this place. It’s currently unsustainable, and the woman at the front desk is unstable.

ABYSMAL. Apartments are of very poor quality, but that’s the least of your worries. The staff here is shockingly unaccomodating and unwilling to help residents in any way. Many/​all of the apartments have mice, yet those in the office don’t care and say there is nothing they can do.
Absolutely avoid.