3 years ago
Most of the reviews left here for this company are...
Most of the reviews left here for this company are obviously fake and were made to boost the rating average due to a high number of legitimate negative and sub-stellar reviews. Either the company itself or a third-party must be spending a significant amount of time creating new Google accounts and adding more glowing reviews.
If you sort by highest rating, as you scroll down and read through them, you will see many in a row within the same date/time frame that reference the same employee's full name, with nothing less than perfect things to say about them. Almost all of these reviewers have only one review on Google, no profile picture, either generic names or just initials, and seemingly no other activity at all. They also all have more or less the same punctuation, grammatical, and choice-of-word habits as each other, and in some cases, there's even some obvious copy-and-pasting going on between reviews, with names changed. They may even be working with templates to craft these.
I've lived in a building managed by this company for over 2 years now. I think I'm a pretty well-put-together adult. I do my thing and don't bother anybody else. But even then it's not enough to avoid the downright insane side-effects of living in a building managed by this awful organization.
If you choose a Rancho-managed building, prepare yourself for the following:
- Eyesore bylaw notices posted literally everywhere in the common areas, with wording bolded and highlighted, because they can't bring themselves to treat you like a functioning adult and to read them properly on your own (maybe some people like feeling like they are back in elementary school). Is this the kind of thing you want your visitors to see, or prospective buyers when you go to sell your place?
- Bylaw infractions given out left, right, and center, when the smallest rule can be bent in such a way that they think they can make it seem plausibly reasonable. They presumably use this to generate extra revenue so that strata fees can remain lower and look better in advertising.
- Poor service and up-keep of the services that you pay for with your strata fees. For example, we found a hole in a common area wall beside our elevator, a place with a lot of eyes around it every day, and it took nearly 3 months for it to get patched. It remained that way for another month or so before they lazily slathered a single coat of paint over it, leaving the patch still highly visible, and that was the end of it.
- Doubling up on fees, by having you pay your strata fees but still being required to pay to rent essential strata services such as amenity rooms. By the way, want to book the elevator for your 2-hour maximum move in/out date? Don't forget to hit up the bank for your $300 cash deposit. You'll get it back after they do their 5 second inspection of the common area you will be going through, if they can't find an excuse to pin whatever damage is already there on you, or if they decide you're going to cause them trouble if they try to.
There's so much more than this to worry about, but I think that should give anybody more-or-less an idea about what to expect.
I have no doubts that they operate on the basis of managing buildings for the purposes of generating revenue via bylaw infraction notices, which probably more than make up for any operating costs incurred as a result of conducting regular business. It's a smart, but sneaky and slimy business model in my opinion, and doesn't make for a comfortable living situation as either a renter or an owner. If you don't mind living in a place operated in this manner, then don't hold back and start renting or buying a place managed by Rancho. If you have some pride in being a functioning member of society, you might want to steer clear.
Luckily I've since bought a place elsewhere and won't need to worry about this anymore, but I hope some good people considering renting or buying a place managed by this joke of a company will seriously reconsider.