For those of you who have wasted enough time and don't want to read about the terrible experience I had with Brooklyn Group the summery is RUN AWAY! or at the very least get a good lawyer and record every word they say.
I'm in the market for a room in Brooklyn, I found Marc Roberts on Roomi and was shown a decent room in Bushwick, I paid $20 application fee + $10 'credit card convenience fee' + $325 50% deposit (illegal in NYS btw as I have read recently), + $10 credit card convenience fee, all at once, greed knows why they have to break it into 2 transactions and charge this ridiculously high 'convenience fee' even though they don't offer any other form of payment. In any case due my job in the city not being final they said after about a week of waiting I should get a guarantor, I did, a relative who's LITERALLY A MILLIONAIRE, but due to him supposedly not having a high enough credit score I was denied, disappointing but understandable I guess, though I would've appreciated them moving a little faster so I didn't lose a month, I can understand when the numbers just don't add up.
Once my job came through and I could finally prove income in access of their posted requirements, with my credit score also being far higher than the posted minimum, I contacted Marc again, he showed me a total of 3 apartments brooklyn group was working on roomshare, 2 of which would supposedly be ready for move in even that very weekend if I can qualify fast enough, that night I applied for one of those rooms, again paid $20 application fee + $10 'credit card convenience fee' (I read recently NYC limits application fees to $20, so maybe the exaggerated 'convenience fee' is a way to circumvent the law?) + $425 deposit + $10 convenience fee.
After about 36 hours as the weekend was fast approaching and I haven't heard a word from either Marc the agent or Amy Mendonca the office manager I reached out to them for an update, Amy never returned my call, Marc got back to me hours later saying my application was received and will be forwarded to the landlord soon, after the weekend I checked in again and was told the landlord still hasn't reviewed the application.
On Tuesday, almost a week after I sent in the application I sent a text to Marc to check in, he said they still haven't heard back from the owner, On Wednesday I sent Marc another text as Amy stopped taking my calls and never returned any voicemails anymore, just checking in trying to get an estimate of how long its going to take, and what the hold up may be, he said he doesn't know whats taking so long, he's trying to pressure them to hurry up and hopes to have an answer soon, but if I can't wait any longer I can back out and they will refund what I paid, understanding they would keep my application fee I told him I don't want to back out as I don't want to keep paying application fees, so he said he said they would refund me everything, that was a red flag, as it seemed they are trying to push me away for some reason, so I made it clear I'm not pulling out and asked they please get back to me asap.
The next day (8 days after I sent in my application, documents, and fees) almost at the end of day I got a dry text from Marc stating "I don't think it's going to work out man. We will go ahead and refund your deposit including the app fees. I'm really sorry about the wait" when I asked for an explanation he simply said he doesn't know, that's just what the owner said.
On Friday he got back to me with an 'excuse' that 'management had a tenant they had to move around so they gave him the room applied for', trying to accept my bad luck and move on I asked Marc if they have anything else I can apply for, he said they don't do roomshare anymore, only fulls, which just seems bizarre that they had a few apts for rooms share only a week ago and now suddenly they don't have any and have completely abandoned a line of business they previously had multiple employees working on.
A few days later when I got my refunds I noticed a $10 discrepancy in their favor, thinking it may have been a mistake I called Amy a few times and left voicemails but they were never returned, so I called from a different number and got through to Amy, I told her about the discrepancy and she said it was 'convenience fee' which they usually don't refund, I reminded her that they were the ones that broke the contract and I fully expect them to refund the money in full, she rudely said she will see what she can do and hung up the phone on me mid sentence.
Today 7/6/21 I called Amy again from a different number so I'd get through to her, asked about the $10, she said unfortunately they don't refund that $10, I started telling her about them backing out of the deal, about me being told I would be refunded but she just hung up the phone on me while I was still talking!
In my opinion, the behavior of this corporation is unprofessional and bordering on the criminal, my advice is you should RUN FAR FAR AWAY! read more
