I was looking for properties in Morris County, New Jersey and found one of those "all apartments on the planet" type of websites and found a property in budget and right where I was looking. This website listed RentalStore USA as the way to get intouch with this property. I began looking at RentalStore USA and saw that it was a paid-membership service and advertised an extensive database and appointment-setting. The most alluring feature, for me, however, was the appointment-setting (a "concierge-style" service) whereby you submit properties to be viewed by you and they make the appointments for you. I am young professional who has many commitments and I consider myself to very "time poor"... It was a bit of a bite for $150 but I figured well worth the investment to free up a little time for myself.
I called their customer rep team and signed up for the service via credit card. Their customer rep (Dolores) was extremely nice and told me how to get started and how to submit requests... Please note that I HAVE NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS with their customer service folks being rude or abrasive in any way.
Anyway, I browsed their database for a day or two and found 11 properties that I wanted to view. I submitted them back to RentalStore USA for appointments, expecting to hear back in a couple of days. However, more than a week went by and I hadn't heard anything. So I called - no response - and I left a message on their machine. Next day, I still hadn't heard anything and over the next few days I called a few times trying, unsuccessfully, to find out the status of my request.
Finally one Saturday, I received a call from the head of customer service (Dee) - who was also very nice and polite - who told me that I was referred to her by the customer service team as "having a problem". I spoke with her for a bit and explained that, mostly, my problem was that no one was calling me back and that I didn't know the status of my now-aging request. I explained that I was annoyed quite a bit, and Dee told me she would take over and look for properties herself on my behalf. I thanked her for this and we hung up. That weekend I began looking for properties on my own to hedge my bets. Dee was, in the end, unable to help me.
Since then I have found my own place by doing it the old-fashioned way (driving around and looking at signs) and am moving in to my new apartment shortly.
In all, the customer service reps were very polite and cordial, but in terms of the actual service, it was utterly useless. I requested a refund of my money and was told there was a "no refund" policy on the contract I signed. I agreed that I had indeed signed the contract, but that the contract itself was completely null and avoid as a result of their complete failure to provide me with the services they promised... Their services turned out to be NONE of the following: a) satisfactory; b) timely, or; c) diligent. It was beyond bad service, it was "no service whatsoever"!! Since my official request for a refund - at which time I was told that someone "higher up" would get back to me - I have heard nothing and called no less than twice over a 3-week period and left messages, but with no response from RentalStore USA. Honestly, I think I called at least 3 times, but let's say 2 to be safe. Nonetheless, no reply whatsoever.
Finally, I called my credit card company and disputed the charge as a complete failure and no services rendered for fees charged. My credit card company was great in the process and very, very helpful.
So I guess this is the end of my little diatribe, but I really wanted to share this with usacomplaints.com. I am quite certain that they do a brisk business and that there are lots of satisfied customers; if they had dissatisfied customers en masse who had experiences like mine, they'd be out of business by now. Again, Dolores and Dee were very polite and not rude in any way whatsoever. Nonetheless, my experience with the service (not) provided was fairly rotten.
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