There is so much to say. The Host has previewed his retort to me.
He will claim that I am unhygienic and that I left the space in disrepair
and that I am dramatic. I took a video of the space prior to leaving.
I will link it below. I will also attach an image of our full conversation.
Decide for yourself. Here, I will go through the issues i experienced,
1-by-1 pretty much in the order I experienced them. The space at
Campbellton Rd. #A3, I believe actually has a chance to live up to
what the pictures taken by airbnb suggest it could be. Hopefully that happens.
Note 1: this was a long-term stay. 2 months. As such, we did have some boxes
with clothes. We knew there was a 3rd room where we would be able to keep
them out of the way.
Note 2: i was taking photos and video and sending james dropbox and
youtube links. Where you see “website hidden by airbnb” in the image
of the conversation, thats what those are. i will provide the links here
in the appropriate spaces.
On January 1, james informed us the unit was in use and the check-in
would be closer to 3pm. This was fine as we were driving over from
Snellville and not flying in or anything.
We arrived at about 3:40 and found the door unlocked. As we were
moving our things in, a woman introduced herself as the housekeeper
and apologized for everything not being set up. Towels were still in the
washer. She told me she lived in the unit just across the courtyard and
that I could get her at anytime if i never needed anything. AND - she
taught me how to open the lockbox, knew the code and the whole 9.
(this is important for later as james also told me on a number of occasions
that the housekeeper lived on premises as you’ll see in our conversation,
but later he claims she does not)
After our things were inside, we walked through to get a good look at the space:
The space appears to have been a dentist office in its former life and
was converted to a residential/airbnb unit.
There is a 2.5’x2.5’ (give or take, i did not measure) cutout of carpet
at the entryway. It is covered by an indoor outdoor mat. And, it leaves
a half inch gap or so between the floorboard and the floor. You can
see the interior of the wall. This appears to have been this way for
some time as the carpet is held down with a metal threshold/seam
binder and the wood underneath has water stains.
The space appears to have the original sealing panels. They are tattered, ill-fitting
in some places, have stains and are in general disrepair.
All of the fans and vents are dirty, some of them are exposed and we ultimately had
a large insect fall from the one in the half bathroom.
The toilet in the half bathroom inexplicably has a shelving system that
surrounds it and makes it difficult to flush the toilet.
The interior doors still have their markings from the units days as a medical office.
There are no operational windows in the unit. There are 2 windows in the rear,
but they do not open. Which makes ventilation difficult as the screen doors have
gaping holes in and underneath them that it would be easy for bugs to crawl
through. It also means that when you are in either bedroom, there is no natural
light at all and its stuffy as the air is stagnate.
There is no central heat. The unit is heated by a series of inefficient
space heaters that are loud and give off light which makes sleep
difficult on cold nights. There is no air conditioning either.
There is no closet space in the unit. None. Zilch. I suggested to james
that he just buy some free standing ones, but he did not measure before
he bought them and they DO NOT fit in the bedrooms at all. (this one is
a screen grab of from the video I took)
The microwave is extremely high - making it dangerous to retrieve hot
items from it. I’m 5’6” and had to stretch to get to the uppermost
buttons and it’s not like there was a stepstool in the unit just in case.
(this pic also shows an image of the "rotting bananas" he
references later in our conversation)
There are only old and tattered pots in the unit. No pans. We went out
and bought our own. I did not think to take any pics.
The garbage can did not have appropriate garbage bags to go with it.
The bag that was there was too big, so once you put anything of weight
in the can, the bag fell in. So it was of no use. And it was dirty inside
and out to begin with. I ended up buying another one that james told
me he would reimburse me for, and that never happened.
The cooking utensils were all unclean and needed to be washed, as
did the container that held them as well as the dish drain.
The lights in the laundry room did not work. We had to use a flashlight
when washing clothes. Was not fixed until Jan 21. (he references this fix
in our conversation) and the housekeeper absolutely had to know they
did not work.
The lights in the hallway are sometimey. In this image, the lights
are turned on, but only 1 in 3 are working.
So those were just the things we noticed on the initial walk-through. I've added
some commentary about resulting conversations just becasue it made
since to mention there, but lets move on.
On day 1, January 3, we noticed a leak coming from the refrigerator.
A refrigerator repair man did not come out until January 14. We were
cleaning up leaks and washing towels that entire 11 days. There are plenty
of independent and certified repair people that could come out same day. I
suggested a number of sources to him. james chose to go the route that
left his guests the most inconvenienced.
On day 2, January 4, I noticed a cockroach in the bathroom. I killed it and kept it moving as
I did not want to alarm my daughter - she’s from california where roaches are not nearly
as commonly experienced as they are in the south. She would have freaked. I continued to see them through the week and hoped they were one-offs. (this was not the first one I saw, this is a larger on I did not see until later in the stay, but its the only pic i took)
On January 7, mid workday, i was disturbed by construction in the adjacent space. Very loud. So loud in fact that I had to cancel or otherwise reschedule a series of conference calls and meetings as the sound was too much for the listeners on the other end. Not to mention it just made it very difficult for me to concentrate and get my work done. I describe it as sounding like The Hulk was on the other side of the wal trying to smash through. This went on throughout the day on Jan 7, Jan 8 and on Jan 9 I finally sent a note asking how long the construction would be going on “is this a quick project or some weeks?”. james told me it would be “quick. they will be done in 1 or 2 days”.
On Saturday Jan 11, i was awakened at 9am by the same loud banging.
The construction continued.
On January 11, my daughter woke me up because she found cockroaches in the
kitchen on the counter and around the stove. That night i cleaned the entire
kitchen thoroughly, rewashed all of the already clean dishes in the dish drain
and placed all of our food things into a sealed plastic bin. I was up from 2 until 7am.
So when i was awakened by construction on Saturday the 11th it was really
bothersome. When i informed james that day, he told me they were likely
“water bugs” sometimes confused with roaches. (water bugs are just a
different species of roach, james) But they were not water bugs, they
were the smaller version.
james’ solution was to place roach motels and wait.
We did that and when james checked the motels, the one with
the most roaches was the one on the side of the fridge that had
been leaking since at least Jan 3. Ultimately we also began seeing
the “water bugs” james was more comfortable with.
All and all, i would say i personally killed upwards of 50 roaches
during my stay. james will insist we brought them, but i can definitively
say the place where we were living prior to our move into the space was
an immaculate home without a pest problem of any kind. And the
storage space we use is a clean, concrete, climate controlled space.
While i am not a roach or pest expert, i’m guessing that if roaches were
living in our completely sealed boxes, we’d have noticed them in the
boxes at some point.
Jan 11, he brought in and placed the roach motels.
On Sunday Jan 12, the construction workers were back at it at 7:30am.
Loud music the the loud moving around of stuff. It awakened both my
daughter and I and we are heavy sleepers.
james’ reply was that i was messaging him excessively and he
wanted to come by and talk in person.
When he came i pointed out to him a number of other items.
All the ones I alluded to before up the page.
I also pointed out that the shower basin never completely dries out.
My daughter and i could go without using the shower for 24 hours
and the corners of the shower would still be damp. I expressed
my concern that it was a bad design and/or poor execution and
makes it such that bacteria and mold and mildew have a damp
place to grow and propagate. He insisted this was not the case
and that i was being extra, i just said ok and let it ride. He is the
scientist/doctor. (this pic was taken more than 24 hours after
the last use of the shower - note the right hand corner)
He did see that the garbage can provided was not sufficient and that I
had purchased a new one and he offered to reimburse me. I told him
he didn't have to, but he insisted. Now, it was $12 and I was not worried
about it one way or the other, really. Of course, he never mentioned
the reimbursement again after i sent him the price via a target screenshot.
January 13 there was a downpour. The downpour revealed a leak in the
roof and the rain was dropping into the unit but hitting and sitting on top
of the cabinet.
On January 14, he seemed to have heard our concerns about all of the things,
closets, ventilation, etc. His message on that day reflects this.
The fridge was finally fixed 11 days later.
On Saturday Jan 18, the construction workers were back at 6:55 am. His
response was literally “huh? The painter was supposed to arrive at 8:00a.
Not sure what the noise is all about”.
How about you call and check with the painter and see what the
noise is all about? This isn't the best video, but it is clearly audible
that someone is hammering. it was intermittently constant enough
to wake us up.
A pic with timestamp just in case:
Sunday January 19 - loud, hours-long argument in the courtyard coming
from in front of the apartment i understood to be occupied by the housekeeper
(maybe i misremembered about the housekeeper - but the argument was
happening for sure). Argument about taking care of kids etc. sounded like
it may become violent. I had 911 at the ready.
Jan 20 was a cold day - 32ยบ. I brought in a space heater from the den area
to the living room. It ultimately overloaded the system and knocked out the
electricity in the living room. I figured it was a matter of flipping the breaker
switch back on. James told me someone would be there the next day on the
21st. On a cold day. And I am without electricity.
He finally thought better and came by to show me the breaker box.
But, the primary issue is that the system of heating is inefficient. Using
space heaters to heat and entire residential space does not make
any sense.
Saturday January 25 7:40a - the construction workers are back.
James did not even bother or care enough to respond.
It is at this point i decided we would be leaving and not finishing
out our 2-month stay.
Saturday Feb 1 - another loud, maybe turning violent, hours-long
argument in the courtyard. Same topic as before.
This is the video i took on Monday February 3, just prior to my vacating
the space. james has his version of how the space was left. I can say that
no, i did not sweep, mop, vacuum, wash the dishes or make the beds. I did
not leave the space spic and span. but, things like rotting food, damaged furniture,
missing items, etc, are just not true. I'm giving the most truthful account I can and
had i known james would say the things he said in his messages to me (shenanigans),
i would have been even more careful in my documentation. The fact is the monthly rate
ends up approaching luxury apartment rates for a motel 6 experience.
Lastly, here is a link to our entire conversation. You can see for yourself how the
relationship (d)evolved. I did tease him about introducing himself as and referring
to himself as Dr. James - because, i think it's weird. He is the only "doctor" i know
who does so in a non-medical, phd, business setting. And i know quite a few. But
he gets a little loose with the language and the accusations.
