Harry H.
1/5
I have lived at a Pinnacle-managed building, The Fitzgerald in Sheffield, for 18 months, and since day one, we've had problems. The first problem, and still an ongoing problem, is the elevators; they weren't working the day we moved in, so we had to carry many of our items multiple stories to reach our apartment. I complained to Pinnacle, and eventually, one of the two elevators was repaired. I was determined that the elevators shouldn't be this way and that we shouldn't have to accept such poor service, so I persisted and complained regularly. Pinnacle started blaming the elevator service company, saying parts weren’t available and so on. I took matters into my own hands and contacted the elevator company, which is also the service agent, to which I was met with sincere apologies and an immediate repair – why Pinnacle couldn’t do this, I’ll never know. However, to cut a long story short, they are always breaking down, and as I write this, one of them is out of use (I’ve given up reporting it, as it’s hopeless).
The next problem worth mentioning is the basement parking, which is where my review continues shortly. Like the elevators, the garage shutter door was/is constantly breaking down. I must have reported it on average once a month since moving in, and each time the contractor eventually comes, they reset something and charge Pinnacle – what poor value for money for the people paying the management fees! Around six months ago, I reported the garage door being faulty, and a couple of days later, someone entered the garage, cut through my bike lock, and stole my bike. Pinnacle couldn’t care less about this and refused to offer goodwill to cover insurance excesses; the garage door continued to be broken for several days after the event. Both this problem with the garage door and the elevators, I have surmised, can only be down to cost savings; it’s cheaper/easier to organise a quick fix than replace something, and ultimately, it leads to unhappy clients – customer service 101, surely!
Now begins the latest, and I feel like it’s the straw that broke the camel's back. My car is kept in the basement parking underneath the apartment block, wholly managed by Pinnacle. The outside of the building always seems to suffer from rats, and there are a few bait boxes scattered around the car park and bin area. However, Pinnacle has recently had to organise regular cleanups in the bin area, as rats are constantly in there, pulling rubbish out of bins, partying and doing rat things. I appreciate Pinnacle has organised cleanups and more bait, but there are obvious signs of rats everywhere, rat faeces around people’s cars, and, in recent times, dead rats on the floor.
During the past week, I noticed a bad smell coming from my car's ventilation when I first entered. I decided to investigate and lift the bonnet. Upon opening the bonnet, I was greeted by a foul smell, faeces, urine, scurrying and lots of shredded sound insulation from around my engine bay. Immediately, I knew rats were living in my engine bay, and not just one or two, a nest!
I contacted Pinnacle about the rats in my car, and they replied with something along the lines of “We clean the bins, and there’s more bait”. They pretty much ignored the car issue and the damage that’d been done. This rats in the car problem has been ongoing for the last week, and I have since had wires chewed. I asked if they could cover the costs for a deep clean. No! What about a parking space out of the garage to prevent further damage? No! How about doing anything other than blaming residents for misusing the bins? No, again! I have done all of the above in emails titled official complaint, but from what I can tell, the company doesn’t have a proper process/trained staff to deal with the problems.
In summary, avoid them like the plague before you get the plague yourself – pun intended!
