By Chyrée Counts and Akiva’ Rooks

The Reserve Greensboro, student apartments for University of North Carolina at Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University, has had an issue with their hot water for almost a week.

N.C. A&T students Akiva’ Rooks, Shentil Martin, and Charisma Shields were the only residents who were affected with the problem this week. Residents noticed that the hot water stopped working on March 31st. After contacting The Reserve and corporate property management, the issue was finally resolved on April 7th.

Rooks and her roommates contacted The Reserve multiple times by phone, in person, and sent maintenance requests to notify the office about their issue. Finally, The Reserve staff responded to residents informing them there was nothing that could be done to accommodate Rooks and her roommates until the manager returned on Monday.

Since Rooks and her roommates were not able to adequately bathe without hot water, they requested to shower in a vacant apartment; however, The Reserve stated that legally they were not allowed to do so.

Shentil Martin states, “At that point we felt as if we were being neglected as residents. It really surprised me because this property is normally good with taking care of their resident’s needs. But this time, it didn’t seem like this same customer service was being exhibited.”

Growing increasingly frustrated, the roommates decided that this issue needed to be escalated and further investigated. With this, Shields, Rooks, and Martin all agreed that contacting cooperate would be beneficial. After Shields contacted corporate with documents addressing their issues and concerns, a maintenance man arrived to solve the problem. The problem was fixed but only for one day and then the problem started again. After contacting

corporate once again, these residents were finally accommodated with an apartment to shower in, they were informed that $50 will be taken off of their rent, and their water heater would be replaced.

Rooks states, “I never wanted to cause havoc for the property, but being neglected of an essential need caused discomfort and delays for [the] significant amount of time that we didn’t have hot water. Even more, we felt like there was no sense of urgency being implemented. But once we were accommodated, the manager expressed his apologies and ensured us that the way in which the situation had been frivolously handled would never occur again.”

We attempted to get in contact with The Reserve to gain insight upon their standing in reference to the absence of hot water for this unit. However, they would not divulge any information, stating that it was confidential.

The Reserve does have great reviews from their residents, on their website Danielle G. said, “My apartment community (the reserve) is AWESOME! From the amenities to the inside of my home; all meet my needs and makes me try appreciate living here!” Another review from Brianna P. said, “The Reserve at Greensboro is a phenomenal place to live. The amount of space and amenities are great. The dynamic of the staff and reward opportunities are excellent.”