If you look through my reviews, you'll see that I reserve one star reviews for a very select group of frustrating and disappointing businesses. As a business minded person, I champion small businesses and love people who embody that can-do spirit. So I would love to write a positive review for Kappel and Kappel but unfortunately I can't. As a customer of their leasing agency, they were very frustrating to deal with and I recommend that you avoid them. Here's why:
1.) False Advertising
Two years ago, I moved into a property that looked amazing from their website. I reserved the property sight unseen while I was on a military deployment. The ad said that it had a refrigerator. Low and behold, it didn't. After a frustrating round of haggling, Kappel finally relented and let me pay a lower deposit while I scurried to buy my own fridge. It added unnecessary stress after a deployment. Kiffany and Phalicia, the agents, could've easily avoided this by actually surveying the property beforehand. Kiffany's excuse of not "knowing that the previous tenant took the fridge" was far fetched. As the agent, it was their job to know and then inform me, the potential customer. And in a customer service business, she failed to see the situation from the customer's perspective and couldn't understand why it would be a big deal for me to have to spend almost a grand on the unplanned expense of a fridge.
2.) Aloof
After coming home late at night from a mission overseas, I woke the next morning to have an agent opening my door trying to show off the house to new prospective customers with zero prior coordination that was promised. I thought someone was breaking in. When I acted surprised, she stated that they tried to call me but I never answered. After a week of trying they just decided to let themselves in without attempting any other form of communication like e-mail. They were trying to call me on a very old number. You see, I changed my phone number over a year and a 1/2 ago when I changed cell carriers. They had my new number from two previous minor maintenance calls but apparently that number never got updated in my record. It was embarrassing to wake up jetlagged and groggy with some random person opening your front door to view your home without notice. Big fail on their part but I was willing to overlook these two errors in customer care. I would've never written this review without the final nail in the coffin as I was departing (see #3).
3.) Shady fees
When it was time for me to move, I gave them my required advanced notice. Having military friends who liked my house, I connected them with Kappel. Kappel basically had new tenants dropped in their lap and made a nice finders fee profit from the owner while having to do zero sales work or incurring any advertising expenses. What was my thanks? First of all, they never even bothered to say thanks (poor business practice). Instead, they stuck me with a huge cleaning bill and charged exorbitant prices for forgetting to change an air filter and leaving a malfunctioning smoke detector disconnected (that I personally briefed to the receptionist when I turned in the keys). I was extremely frustrated by the cleaning fee mainly because that same weekend the incoming renters (my friends) and my mom helped me clean that place to look pretty darn close to new. Additionally, no one from Kappel was available to do a final walkthrough on the day after the movers cleared out my household goods because both leasing agents were on vacation. As added testament to the cleanliness, the actual house owners toured the house while the movers were present and thanked me for keeping the place in such great repair. Those facts mattered little to Kiffany and her crew. She still collected her loot in the form of fees out of my deposit. When I asked for a partial refund for the expenses that I felt were exorbitant she refused stating that she had photos of the dirt left behind and would send them to me as proof. Weeks later, I have yet to see the photos in either my mail or e-mail. Another example of poor customer service on her part. Of course, it sounds like a great profit machine to me...just tack fees on outgoing military people who are leaving the area and unlikely to try to recoup them. I hope I am an isolated incident but I highly doubt it.
Bottom line? Avoid this company like the plague. They'll try to sell you on being military friendly and local but in reality they seemed aloof, money hungry and a marginal firm that didn't really care about the customer like they should. In a very neighborly town like Dixon, its sad that they fail to embody that small town, friendly spirit. If you do decide to use Kappel, be very wary of them running up the bills when you decide to move out of their properties. And I recommend that you stay on top of their management team to force them to be more responsive to you, the customer. You have been warned. read more
