Highly recommend Atlas Fire & Safety - I have used them for more than two years and their work and…read morecustomer service is great. Kyle and another service tech came out yesterday to perform my business 6 month service. They were detail and friendly.

I called Atlas Fire & Safety to have the fire extinguishers in my condo building serviced. They…read morewere able to send someone the same day as I called and offer reasonable prices. The person who came was polite, friendly, and knowledgeable.

Bengstons is amazing. Definitely worth the price for everything there. Best pumpkin patch in the…read morechicagoland area.

I had a fun experience here! I think this is definitely a pumpkin patch that kids and young adults…read morecan both enjoy. This is a pretty big pumpkin patch, so there's plenty to explore and do. I went on a Saturday with my family which included two toddlers. It did get pretty packed, so getting there earlier the better, or just coming on a weekday if you don't want to deal with long lines or overcrowding. The Apple Cider and Apple Cider Donuts were delicious! I honestly wanted to come back here just to buy some more. They have plenty of other drink and snack options, too. The staff was pretty nice too. There's many things to do like a swing ride, petting zoo, and hayride -- all very fun. I will say, $40 per person is pretty steep for a pumpkin patch. While I had a good time, I kinda had to force myself to do everything to feel like it was worth that much money. Overall, I'd go back, though.

We were in a time crunch and this company did everything to help us pass our inspection. These…read morepeople actually care about their customers and give great service. I wish there were more businesses around like this one.

These guys really help you with your fire extinguisher and emergency light issues. So I found them…read moreonline and called and talked to the owner not a answering service or automated phone thing, then a service guy came and explained a lot of safety tips with me and stuff I didn't ever think of, so the fire inspector from the city fire department came to check out my fire equipment was impressed with how fast I got the EFR service company to take care of my fire extinguisher inspection. I am happy with the price.

I live in a condo presently managed by TBG. I've lived here for 13 years and have been a Board…read moreMember for ten. Currently I serve as Vice President. For the past decade our building has had to make significant changes due to Life-Safety requirements mandated by the City of Chicago. This has been an extremely costly endeavor for our smaller high-rise building. During this time our condo has had three different management companies - each new one has cost us significant time and money. We've also earned a reputation for being difficult due to select board members/residents who allow their personal agenda(s) and opinions to interfere with the building's well-being as a whole. This resulted in two of the management companies quitting and leaving us in a lurch. Not good. Of the three new companies that we interviewed, TBG was the only one willing to work within our budget and undertake our building's requirements. This means working diligently with Directors, finding creative solutions regarding issues within a 100 year old building, and attending our monthly board meetings (legally they are not required to do this). It takes time for management companies to get to know their buildings. No management company is going to be a 100% perfect fit. Yes, TBG has dropped the ball on some of our smaller issues, but they've been here for the big ones and kept us from bankruptcy. They are here to help us make informed decisions that work within the parameters of our building's need. Thank you Larry & TBG.

1 Star -- Extremely frustrating experience with The Building Group…read more My experience dealing with The Building Group (TBG), particularly property manager Tony F and VP of Portfolio Management Roman S, has been extremely frustrating. My biggest issue is that not every problem gets resolved immediately; it is the repeated lack of straightforward communication, follow-through, and transparency. I've owned my condo for about a year, and I've repeatedly had situations where getting a simple answer or document has turned into multiple emails and follow-ups. For example, I requested building/unit blueprints. Rather than simply providing them, Tony initially questioned why an owner would want them and said it was "uncommon" for an owner to ask for blueprints to learn how the building works. It ultimately took approximately five emails before I received the documents. I also had a significant hot-water problem during the winter. I asked Tony how the water supply to my unit could be shut off so I could address the problem. He never responded to that question. The problem continued, and around the same time one of the building's pumps failed, resulting in extremely long waits for hot water. The financial-records request has been the most frustrating example. I requested the Association's financial records and management contract under Section 19 of the Illinois Condominium Property Act. I made the request in writing and followed up multiple times. The process continued right up to the statutory deadline. I finally received a written response from Roman acknowledging that many of the records I requested are available under Section 19, including 10 years of itemized financial records, reserve contributions and expenditures, the current reserve balance, the reserve study and updates, the current management agreement, financial statements, and certain loan records. But then came what I find particularly troubling: TBG stated that it charges $75 per hour for staff time spent retrieving, compiling, organizing, and making the records available, in addition to reproduction costs. For an owner trying to understand how their condominium's finances have been managed, this creates a very frustrating situation. The more difficult and time-consuming the management company makes the records process, the more staff time can potentially be charged to the owner. I cannot say what their intent is, but from an owner's perspective, it creates the appearance of an incentive to make a records request unnecessarily burdensome rather than simply providing existing records in an efficient manner. What makes this even more frustrating is that I was not asking them to create an analysis or special report. I was asking for the Association's existing financial records. Their own response acknowledges that these records are existing records covered by Section 19. This is particularly concerning when owners are trying to understand the financial condition of their own Association and how their assessment dollars and reserve funds have been managed. I understand that property managers have many responsibilities and that not every repair or request can be handled immediately. But there is a difference between a legitimate delay and a pattern of requiring owners to repeatedly follow up just to get straightforward answers or documents. At one point, during a Board meeting, Tony even told everyone that he did not have enough time to adequately take care of our building. If that's the case, it raises a serious question about whether the property is receiving the level of management service that the Association is paying for. I am writing this review because I wish I had known what dealing with this management company would be like before becoming an owner. Condo owners are trusting a management company with significant amounts of money and with the administration and maintenance of their homes. In my experience, obtaining basic information and getting straightforward follow-through has been far more difficult than it should be. This review reflects my personal experiences as an owner. I would strongly encourage any condo board considering The Building Group to ask very specific questions about communication, response times, financial transparency, records requests, and exactly how owners are charged for obtaining Association records.

Ryan M. Came in an found the issue and quickly resolved it. Explained the issue and helped greatlyread more

Steve and Anthony from Fox Valley are true professionals with attention to detail. I highly…read morerecommend them!

Had a great experience. Mary really took care of me and even let me fire extinguisher! I mentioned…read more$25 off my first order so don't forget to do that.

Due to the quick response I received, and the excellent service they provided, I recommend…read moreutilizing their services. The technician I dealt with was very kind, professional, and quick to help with my concerns. I will be utilizing this company in the future, so long as they have staff members like him.

Hmmmm. Bait and switch? Scam?…read more So my husband and I recently bought a new home in Chicago. One thing that was VERY important to us was making sure our detached garage was secure. We spoke to no less than 4 ADT reps on the phone as we weighed pros and cons and eventually decided to go with ADT. Two were ADT corporate phone sales reps, one was an ADT independent contractor through Safe Haven, and one was the local ADT account manager guy for our area. ANYWAY. On these calls we always expressed the importance of ADT security for our home AND detached garage. We had several conversations about the garage specifically. Is it detached? Yes. How many feet from the home is it? We MAY need to install a separate ADT panel in the garage if the garage is too far from the house etc. And because we wanted to secure our detached garage we had to sign up for ADTs most expensive, most elaborate plan. But security is worth it, no? Fast forward to install day. The install guy comes out and we took him out to our detached garage. He saw it was detached and instantly informed us that with ADT he can put sensors on the garage BUT ADT will NOT monitor the garage. Meaning if someone breaks into our garage (which Chicago garages are notorious for being broken into) no alarm will sound in the garage to scare the intruder off AND ADT won't monitor it meaning they won't send the cops etc. All that happens is an alarm in the house goes off and we will get an alert on our phones at which time we'd have to decide whether or not to call the cops. Not once did anyone at ADT mention this. NOT. ONCE. And I ask WHY? WHY won't ADT monitor my garage? It's MY property. I own and maintain it. I'm paying the ADT bill. So WHY won't they monitor my damn detached garage? FURTHERMORE the tech saw that the garage door mechanism is a Masterlift MyQ system. NO ONE at ADT EVER mentioned that there are compatible and incompatible garage door systems. Apparently this particular garage door can be made into some WiFi set up if we go out and purchase a separate $70 piece of equipment. Which we haven't done... thus our garage door is NOT WiFi enabled right now. It's just a regular old garage door. Our install guy said ADT is simply not compatible with Masterlift MyQ and he even refused to attempt to install ADT saying he's tried in the past and it simply doesn't work. HOW DID NO ONE EVEN MENTION THIS TO US?!?! So here we are with ADT's most expensive, top notch, high tech, elaborate security system which we HAD to sign up for if we wanted to secure our detached garage and guess what? They were unable to secure our detached garage. Also the local Chicago ADT rep guy that proactively called us was awesome on the phone. He even found ways to save us money! Aside from Him... not super impressed with ADT yet and we have only had it 2 weeks. Right now I feel scammed.

This is quite possibly the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life. DO NOT SIGN a contract…read moreof any kind with them. They will never release you they are the worst company on the planet. I have been trying for the better part of a year to terminate my relationship with them and keep finding things to charge me for.

Learning is fun has been such a wonderful experience for us! My older daughter attended LIF and my…read morenow 3 year old does as well. The teachers and staff are like family and you know you are in good hands. I would highly recommend!!!!!

Learning is Fun has been such a great experience for our family! My now 7 yo attended their…read moreKindergarten Prep program back in 2020-2021. It was such a blessing that he was able to attend *in person* while his siblings were at home doing virtual learning. I can't thank them enough for opening their doors during those uncertain times. He thrived socially and academically and was definitely ready for kindergarten the following year. (Thank you, Mrs. Reed!) He also knew quite a few classmates already which helped that first year in kindergarten. Once my daughter was old enough to start a preschool program it was very easy to choose LIF for her preschool experience. I knew she was going to be in great hands and we absolutely love her teacher, Mrs. Rea. My daughter had a little rough patch at the beginning of the year and and Mrs. Rea has been worked beautifully with her. The communication has been great too. I know this sounds simple, but the fact that my daughter has a smile on her face before and after school says it all. She loves it there. LIF has a wonderful reputation - I highly recommend it!

I've lived in one of their apartments for almost a year and haven't had any major issues that…read moreweren't addressed. I do sometimes have issues reaching the office if I need to speak to someone directly. Maintenance requests are handled through their app and are easy to request. It's a bummer they are raising my rent $75 next month but I would still recommend them.

Edit...I read the reviews after I posted mine and I waited to see what your response would be. My…read morecredit was never ran. There were 17 whole days after continuously reaching out and being IGNORED. You all are UNPROFESSIONAL and it shows even if my credit was the reason to be denied there is no way I should have to be ignored for 17 days write a honest review and instead of you being professional and humble business person and responding respectfully and apologizing for the very UNPLEASANT and UNPROFESSIONAL experience you write something like "you were denied because your credit" under a review I can why you have reviews you have. The point of the review was to speak to my experience with the company when all I did was apply. Your response further proves all of our points. You are tacky and very unprofessional. Furthermore, I think you may want to check Illinois state privacy laws before you and your office receive notice from my attorney. It is completely unacceptable, unprofessional and illegal to post my personal information online under a review. You have the day you deserve!

I recently moved and Carolyn at Forest seamlessly guided me through the process of getting…read moreeverything squared away in my new home. She attentively listened to my wants and needs and made it happen and she even showed up on the installation days to make sure everything was correct which was a plus. The techs, Brent, Giovanni and Anthony worked hard to get the job done in a timely manner, as I was on a time crunch to get everything up and running. They were clean and precise. Thank you, Forest!

My husband and I moved to the North Shore of Chicago last year from Arizona. We had an alarm system…read morein our prior house and wanted to duplicate the security system in our new house. I did a great deal of research into the available security companies in our area. We selected Forest Security after meeting with their representative, Tim, at our house. He was very knowledgeable and helpful. We felt extremely comfortable with Forest Security and decided to choose them over their competitors. We just had our security system installed by Jason and we could not be happier. Jason really understands security systems and took the time to share his expertise with us so that we had a comfort level with our system. We would highly recommend this company and feel we received superior service, product and really good value. Julie