Sheffield Square

My husband and I moved into the Sheffield Square Apartments of Grand Prairie, TX, in October of 2011. At the time, they were owned by Gables, another apartment company. I believe in December/January, Sheffield Square Apartments was sold to Advenir. Overall, Sheffield Square apartments has been my favorite apartment complex and I've lived at 5 in the past 6 years. I kept moving because the other apartments were stooped in crime.



(Advenir) Sheffield Square Apartments was not like that (at least to my knowledge), and we never once lived in fear at this complex. However, there are some things that tarnish our experience of living at Sheffield Square. Luckily, we had few maintenance needs but the most frustrating maintenance-related complaint was that the ice our ice-maker in our freezer was making foul-tasting/smelling ice. We had to ask maintenance at least 5-6 times to fix it before anyone came. When someone finally did, my husband happened to be home at the time and the maintenance guy basically looked at the fridge and said he had no idea what to do and that he would talk to his manager. Why was he even there if he didn't know what he was doing? It gave my husband and I the impression he has just showing up to say he did and leave his piece of paper saying the job was complete... without actually doing anything! Later another maintenance guy came up, poked around and said that there was nothing they could fix and that it was probably just the city water... then why did the tap water taste fine and only the ice taste (and smell) awful? We ended up buying ice trays and filling them with tap water the remainder of our time there.



The other absurd fees we received was a $40 charge per smoke detector to reinstall them. My husband removed them one night around 2am because they wouldn't shut off. He called the next morning to ask them to fix them and was told not to put them back and that maintenance would. He called again after it didn't happen and they were never re-installed. The fee, was for putting them back, even though we were told explicitly to not do it and that maintenance would.



Another fee that was even more frustrating was a $30 fee for a "tub cleaning". Before we moved out, my husband asked the manager, Brandy, for her recommendation for a cleaner, specifically, the cleaner Advenir uses as their cleaner. We figured this would be the best way to make sure the apartment was cleaned to Advenir's standards. So of course, one could see our frustration... why recommend a cleaner, that doesn't clean to your standards, and then charge a fee for it?



Lastly, the straw that broke the camel's back was when I called the manager, Brandy, to dispute these ridiculous fees. She told me that she did not recommend the cleaners. I found this extremely frustrating because when someone goes to you and asks for a recommendation, and you give them a number... you are recommending them! And Advenir's cleaners to top it off! If they have a policy of not recommending cleaners, the manager should have said no, we cannot recommend a cleaner, and not have given my husband the number to their cleaner! To top this off, while I am telling her I don't agree with this fee for the above stated reasons, Brandy talked over me and spoke to me in a rude and disrespectful tone laced with attitude. I don't think the manager, Brandy had to agree with me, but I do think the person that pays a portion of your paycheck should be treated with respect. I also believe that a person has the right to disagree and dispute bogus, outlandish fees that the apartment (Advenir) expects past residents to just roll over and cough up.