If I could give 0 stars I would. Unfortunately the negative reviews are true. And the positive reviews, I recognize some of them as Gonella's vendors that do work for them. Bob and Raquel are obviously trying to help them boost their reputation because it is so horrible.
My experience with Gonella has been horrible from the start about 8 years ago. Kathy was the rental manager then. At the time, I had rented a home and had put in a work order for a door. Gonella sent their carpet cleaning vendor Bob to do the work order. He entered my garage and immediately made some comment about having a nice set up. I wasn't sure what he was talking about. 2 days later Gonella sent over one of their office staff to give us a paper stating we needed to stop growing and manufacturing marijuana. Like what?! So I was fuming at that point, headed straight to Gonella and asked them, why they had served us that notification. Come to find out, their carpet cleaning vendor that somehow was sent to fix a door, had seen my tortoise under a heat lamp with alfalfa in his enclosure as well as my desk area in the garage I had enclosed with curtains to protect from dust, and he made the claim we were manufacturing marijuana. So I was extremely upset. Staff guided me into the back to try to quiet me which only made me more angry. My father came down to help sort this out. He is retired Merced PD and was just as shocked as I was with these allegations. Eventually, the rental manager's boss came in and agreed that this whole situation had been mishandled. If it was believed I was really growing drugs, the police should have been called and they could have seen right away that was so far from the truth. I did receive an apology from Kathy and it was promised that Gonella would never send Bob to my home again. A monkey with a wrench and nail gun is more capable of doing work orders than that guy. I have reason to believe he was racist but that's another story.
So I continued to rent from Gonella for several years due to the fact the home I rented was 1 minute away from work. Every year they'd do their yearly inspection of checking smoke alarms and ensuring the water heater was strapped down. But we all know it's the yearly nosey invasion of privacy inspection. I had actually replaced and added smoke sectors throughout the house as I worked for a national disaster services agency at the time and had seen too many houses lost to fires. But an inspection once a year with Gonella , annoying, but I'm a good renter so I just dealt with it.
The yard was taken care of by a gardening service that was more than questionable. One new guy made the comment to my husband that he had just got out of jail and got a job with them when my husband commented that he hadn't seen him before. And I'm supposed to leave my gate unlocked so they can come do the yard whenever, umm no. The gardeners also don't abide by city watering rules and tried to force me to water every day by setting the sprinklers to every day.
Now I have recently moved out, no longer a renter at Gonella's mercy. Even though I had cleaned, replaced blinds, replaced toilet seats, replaced stove drip pans and left the property in better condition than it was when it was rented to me, they wanted to keep my entire deposit. Luckily the home owner is more level headed and not a crook so he told them to give it back to me.
Illianna, Alisha, Monica and others are employees that continue to carry on the poor customer service and rental company history with Gonella. Gina and previous Asst manager Tina may be the only half way decent people to have worked there. I have to question that the owner of Gonella must be the same if this type of management has been allowed to continue for years.
Renters, beware. They will mistreat you, violate your privacy and try to keep your deposit when you leave, and that's even when you are a good tenant and take care of the home. Don't rent from them, a cardboard box would be a better option.
Owners, do yourself a favor and just be your own rental manager.
Had to add an edit to show what classy nonprofessional people Gonella employs. 'Monica H (G) found your review funny.' There you have it folks, what a great example of a bad business this is when they go through and laugh at critical but truthful reviews. BEWARE!
https://www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp-eviction-security-deposits.htm?rdeLocaleAttr=en#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20the%20tenant,pay%20for%20those%2030%20days. read more