<p>^here’s a link to an article in “The Daily Orange” regarding University Village Apartments on Colvin. It backs up everything I’ve posted on this thread.</p>
<p>Latest update: It seems that there is now a new thing to worry about at UVA on Colvin.</p>
<p>Please read the new posts on the University Apartments on Colvin facebook page. It appears that the fire alarm was going off last night. </p>
<p>cut and posted from their facebook page–posts from 3 different residents:</p>
<p>“I’m just wondering how long it usually takes for a fire alarm to turn off?.. or for some form of help to arrive. Do we have prank fire alarms? Because it was going off for around 2 hours last night that makes me slightly nervous if ever there were a real fire.”</p>
<p>“Yes, multiple tenants called the emergency line, with the only answer of the CA: “I am trying and cannot turn it off… I replied: Should I call 911? and her answer was, I don’t think they can turn it off either” … Well this is a great time for health and safety inspections UV!”</p>
<p>“Love how the fire alarms have been ringing since 1am… Thanks for coming fire department.”</p>
<p>Still nothing new from the complex. Students are still asking for specific answers. They continue to ignore their residents.</p>
<p>Here’s an example of the latest post of the University Apartments on Colvin facebook page.</p>
<p>“THIS INTERNET STINKS. WHEN WILL IT BE FIXED? IM TALKING IN CAPS SO YOU CAN SEE THE LEVEL OF FRUSTRATION OF YOUR TENANTS. ADDRESS THIS PLEASE, IF YOU ADDRESS THIS IN THE NEXT 4 HOURS AND 15 MINUTES YOU WILL DO IT BEFORE MY VIDEO COMPLETES ITS DOWNLOAD, THE VIDEO IS 2 MINUTES LONG.”</p>
<p>nysmile - as a UV Colvin staff member we apologize for the issues your son has experienced with the internet at our property. Since this thread is two pages long and covers items since day one, I wont go back and try to answer every individual post. I think you and others would rather hear what we have done to communicate with residents and the solutions we have set up. First, we have a Resolution Team made up of property staff, IT and corporate employees who are constantly monitoring and working towards implementing the 100mb bandwidth upgrade before finals. Now that we have more specific deadlines from our contractors, we have messaged all residents through email and facebook letting them know the progress of the 100Mb internet upgrade. This week the residents are going to receive more HD channels, which they have requested. We will continue to answer FB posts and send resident emails as updates are available. </p>
<p>Yes UVstaff, I saw the email. Again, nothing definite in the email. Simply–you’re working on the issue and HOPE to provide more broadband by finals. This has been an ongoing problem since he moved in back in August. So, for 1/2 of my kid’s lease, he has to deal with inadequate internet service even though he was promised “fast reliable internet at your fingertips”. The cost of the internet is built into the his rent (he paid the first 1/2 of the 10 month lease in one lump sum). Is the complex going to give him a credit on the second 1/2 of his rent? </p>
<p>Your student residents have paid for a service that isn’t being provided. I haven’t heard anything about UV offering to refund or credit their tenants for the lack of service or for the aggravation they have to deal with on a daily basis. It’s ridiculous that students must leave their apartments in search of adequate (STABLE, RELIABLE) internet access. It means packing up and heading back to campus to get work done.</p>
<p>Your tenants have heard the same thing over and over again. You are working on the problem. They’ve heard this since mid-August. They’re sick and tired of hearing the same thing. You hope to have the problem fixed by finals. Hoping and actually having it fixed are two different things. Until the problem is corrected, your residents are not going to believe a word you say. They’ve heard it all before. Unfortunately, they’ve been ripped off. They’ve paid for a service that they are not receiving. Internet service is not a luxury to students. They depend on it for assignments, online exams, research, etc.</p>
<p>If anyone is interested in reading the complete set of updates, info, and posts on the University Village Apartments on Colvin facebook page you must:</p>
<ol>
<li>go onto their University Village Apartments on Colvin facebook page</li>
<li>then, click on “University Village Apartments on Colvin + others”</li>
</ol>
<p>Unless you do step 2, you will only be privy to their posts. If you do step 2, you will have the opportunity to read posts by their student residents.</p>
<p>Funny thing—Recently, on the University Village Apartments facebook page, they’ve resorted to deleting a few negative posts from their residents. One resident posted a complaint about the lack of hot water for her showers. Another resident today posted a complaint about the horrible internet. Both posts were later deleted from their wall. Very interesting.</p>
<p>@nysmile - we have never deleted any facebook posts on our fan page. We actually have very few restrictions on how our fans can interact with our property fan page compared to other apartment communities. We encourage our residents to supply feedback so we can always improve our services and the posts that were deleted were deleted by the residents themselves when we solved their request.</p>
<p>I’m happy to report that since my last post we have added multiple HD channels as requested by our residents and hosted an open discussion with all residents. During this discussion we covered several topics and offered updates on the fiber internet upgrade. In attendance were our internet provider, cable provider and members of our corporate staff and onsite staff. Our goal of having the major internet upgrade completed before finals is still on course and the pending permission from the city of Syracuse to begin digging is all we are waiting on.</p>
<p>RE: @nysmile - we have never deleted any facebook posts on our fan page.</p>
<p>Actually, 2 posts were deleted when I posted about it on CC on 11/12. One girl complained about having to shower in cold water and a guy posted complaining about the ridiculousness of the internet. Both posts were deleted within 24 hours of being on the facebook wall.</p>
<p>There is absolutely no way that the internet issues will be corrected in time for finals.
So, your student residents have spent an entire semester dealing with this issue. They paid for the service (built into their rent) yet didn’t receive the “fast wireless internet at your fingertips” that they were assured of before signing their lease. </p>
<p>Students can get by without multiple HD channels. What they need is decent internet.
How does UV plan on compensating their current residents? Are you going to credit them back for the internet service they were promised at the time of signing their lease and haven’t received? I seriously doubt it.</p>
<p>Most recent post today from a student resident:</p>
<p>“… are there more problems with the internet connection, because it’s taking forever even for an internet page to load. And I need to watch videos online for a final and it’s getting pretty ridiculous. Just curious.”</p>
<p>In short, I do not recommend this complex for Syracuse University students. The internet they provide is absolutely useless. For almost 4 months now, residents have had to drive back to campus in order to get any work done that requires the use of internet (which is pretty much every assignment). UV hasn’t offered any compensation to their residents to make up for not providing a service that their residents have paid for within their rental cost. </p>
<p>Finals are right around the corner and still no stable internet is being provided by this complex. This has been an issue since August.</p>
<p>To anyone who decides to sign a lease here—buyer beware.</p>
<p>@nysmile – We looked into the Facebook postings you recently referred to. Several of our residents use Facebook to post common maintenance issues instead of filling out maintenance requests or coming by the main office to inform our community staff. Often when these issues are resolved, the residents remove their Facebook posting. Since we have a strict company policy to not remove comments by residents, we can only assume that these two residents personally removed their posts after our maintenance staff addressed the shower issue and we held our open discussion with all residents about the internet upgrade. </p>
<p>Speaking of the Internet Upgrade, today we posted a message on Facebook for residents and sent an email with the good news that we recently received dig permits from the City of Syracuse to begin working on connecting fiber optics to our community. Now it is just a matter of days (assuming there are no unforeseeable setbacks) that the 100mb upgrade will be installed. This new bandwidth amount for a property our size is almost unheard of, but since we have heavy internet users, we are very excited to get this upgrade rolled out in hope of exceeding our residents’ expectations. </p>
<p>The additional HD channels where a request by our residents and the number of HD channels was very important to them. That is why we went ahead and had them installed and have received excellent feedback. </p>
<p>Our internet service has never been unavailable or inactive for residents. We constantly monitor bandwidth usage and receive daily reports from our internet service provider. These daily reports break down internet usage by hour. Peak hours of usage range from around 10pm to 1am. That is when our residents experience varying internet speeds. The facebook post you quoted above was posted during these peak hours. We immediately contacted Pavlov to ensure there were no outages or technical issues and communicated that directly with the resident.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post. It’s very important to us that both our residents and their families are satisfied with the housing we provide. If you have concerns or would like to speak with our community manager, Matt, please give us a call – (315) 424-1047.</p>
<p>Same old problem since since August. The “hoping” to have faster internet by finals didn’t come through. An entire semester being inconvenienced. No hint of being given a refund or discount for the lack of promised wireless internet (even though the cost is built into the rent and paid for by the residents). </p>
<p>UV likes to play with words as evidenced by UVstaff’s previous post. Sure, according to UVstaff–“Our internet service has never been unavailable or inactive for residents.” Let’s me use the correct words to describe the internet----slow, can’t stream a youtube video, pages can take forever to load, inadequate, makes life for a student extremely difficult to get work done when it involves access to a fast, reliable, internet signal. </p>
<p>Oh let’s add the cold showers to the list. If too many people in the complex are taking showers at the same time, be prepared for a cold to luke warm shower. Seeing how the residents are students, most are on similar schedules. What a wonderful way to start your day. There is an easy solution to this problem, but it involves UV Apartments spending money.</p>
<p>They’ve increased the speed of the internet–thank goodness. Son hasn’t complained of cold water showers so either his apartment’s water heater is either fine or he just isn’t complaining.</p>
<p>The rentals are going fast for this upcoming year (2011-2012). According to Facebook, there is only one bedroom left in the 2 bedroom units. Honestly, there’s so much room in the 4 bedroom suites that you’re not at a disadvantage if that’s what you end of getting. You still have your own bedroom and private bath.</p>
<p>SU isn’t offering housing for grad students for the upcoming year. If you’re looking for off campus housing, it’s probably best to snag something now for the fall. I have a feeling a lot of students are going to be searching for off campus housing.</p>
<p>Be aware that the cost of the rentals for this complex will be increased for the upcoming academic year.</p>