My husband, myself and two roommates rented a three bedroom apartment in a brownstone in the South End which we leased for two years. By August 2014, I instantly regretted signing my name to anything in relation to this apartment or the company. We had ADT installed. Within the first three months, it paid for itself. My husband and I were the first to move in that July 2014. No more than being there a week, we went home for two weeks to another state to visit family. This was our first experience with Bridgestone illegally entering our apartment without proper notice. They set the alarm off, we were notified by ADT, and we let the police know they needed to go check it out as we were out of state. At this time, we told Bridgestone they were not to enter our apartment without proper notice. It happened again, not long after.
After this happened, around Thanksgiving 2014, apartments 3 and 4 were broken into and many items stolen. The thieves attempted to break into apt 2, however, the guys living there were home scaring him/her/they off. There was no forced entry and whomever broke it had a master key to everyone's apartment as they had to get through a metal gate, a solid wooden door and individual apartments. They didn't attempt ours but by this point, I'm sure they knew we had an alarm system from previous attempts. Come to find out, the other apartments had people in them coming and going randomly without prior notice from Bridgestone as well. Apt 3 and 4 were all girls apartments and at this point no one felt safe. All the tenants in this building called a meeting and we sent a list of demands to Bridgestone shortly after. We wanted all of the locks changed, we wanted security cameras installed on the building, we demanded notice on who was coming to our apartment per the law, required employees to have I.D. and Bridgestone attire as well as proper notice. They mostly complied. Apt 3 installed a deadlock against Bridgestone's wishes, however, on numerous occasions it came in handy as they tried to illegally enter without permission following this break-in. The illegally entering apartments continued. Furthermore, after this occurred some several months later, I was home by myself. I always leave the alarm set when I'm home alone given the previous track record with this company. Again, someone tried to enter our apartment illegally setting off the alarm. I handle the communication regarding the apartment and there was again, no notice. The police came and I called my husband. By this time, we were done with their lack of following the law. We told the police officer everything up until this point and we took the officer to the Bridgestone office. We were greeted by the owner, who yelled profanity at us in front of the officer and demanded we leave. He knew he was in the wrong which is exactly why he was so defensive. My husband and I stepped outside and allowed the officer to talk with him in regards to the situation. We didn't file a police report but the officer gave us his contact information if it continued as he stated we were in the right. We started getting proper notice after this, however, apt 2, 3, and 4 continued to have random employees show up whenever they wanted. In the midst of all of this going on, we contacted Bridgestone regarding our electricity flickering all of the time. They sent an electrician who deemed our electrical boxes (one on the first floor; one in the basement) were wet. The electrician told us were were lucky it hadn't burned down yet. We also learned Bridgestone wasn't following recommendations set by the contractors reporting back to them as the electrician mentioned. They installed new electrical boxes but this did not solve the fact there was a leak going on around it. Again, I reported a couple of occasions throughout our first year, that our ceiling in the master bedroom was wet. Their fix was spraying chemicals on it and repainting. As you can imagine it spread. The leak spread into another bedroom in the closet on the first floor where it started leaking worse. I finally told them they needed to check above us. There's no doubt there's a leak in the above apartment. A year in a half later, they finally addressed the problem by Spring 2016. In addition to this, our shower leaked in the master bedroom, which we reported several times. They tried a temporary band-aid again by trying to seal it, which didn't solve the issue. Then they told us it was condensation. It continued getting so bad that the entire apartment had mold towards the end of us living here in August 2016. They had to spray for mold by fumigating and the guy said it was so bad he could smell it as soon he walked in. Additionally they charged us for common area heating costs, never cleaned up after themselves following fixes and the leasing agent and I had our words as she started showing our apartment 1 month before legal standards. And there's more. I would never recommend this company. read more
