Avalon San Bruno

They do not return anyone's phone calls, nor do they answer their phones. I am looking for a top-floor unit which their central office (offshore) can't see on their end (only pricing and availability), with no floor location. I've called their central office 4-5 times and asked them to send over a request for a call and still nothing. The hoops that you have to jump through are ridiculous and I don't need a call back now. I would look elsewhere if you need specific information. I could even... look on their website if someone would call me back and tell me what level is the top floor! Lee mas

Moving in: Quick to sign the contract and to move in. Have to use ATT internet service as they have a contract with them.

Living: Constant fire alarms, people drive rapidly in the car park filled with severe speed humps, maintenance crew is friendly and great, still use keys and a sensor to go through hall way doors. Thats annoying when you’re doing groceries. Not the place if you want peace and quiet.

Moving out: Good luck.

In the past 9 months, maintenance has really gone downhill. You have to put something in as an emergency to have any chance of getting it fixed. Non-emergency fixes never happen. It's loud, it's broken, it's falling apart. Elevators break a lot, and take weeks for repair, which is a burden on anyone with disabilities.

Dogs bark, scream, yell, whine, yip, yap, and bark some more at all hours and I do mean every hour. They never stop and management never does anything. Managers are nice but... ineffective and the office is always closed. They have been less and less responsive. Trash builds up. Building is made very cheaply, it's not worth the price. Lee mas

I've lived here for about a year. The perks are great, but it definitely seems like this apartment is going downhill.

You could probably deal with it if you're young and able-bodied, but I would recommend that you don't live here if you have kids or pets, or if you have any accessibility/health concerns. Or even if you value privacy.

Starting off strong, there have been at least 6 apartment-wide Notices of Entry in the past year. These are usually given on super short notice, and it usually... involves a bunch of men pounding on the door and barging into your bedroom with their boots, just check on your fire alarms.

Speaking of fire alarms, the fire alarm system is broken, so we had three false alarms in the middle of the night. And now, for the past three weeks, smack dab in the middle of the holidays, they've been playing the alarms from 9am-1pm trying to fix it.

Speaking of poor maintenance, there was recently a power outage, and the apartment's poor security system locked people in AND locked people out, including the garage. The staff just kept blaming PG&E. But they had no backup generators to open the garage or to help people get in to reach their kids and pets. On top of that, there was no back up generator for exit signs or any lights, so it was pitch black in the halls and the staircases. A definite fire safety violation.

On top of that, I recently saw that one apartment's sprinkler system burst, and they had to shut off the water for the day with no notice. They've also just had to shut off the water for "emergency reasons" about two or three times in general, so that's not a good sign for the health of the building's pipes.
There are also just a lot of other things breaking (like parking overhangs) that I anticipate will only get worse as time goes on.

Moving on, I don't think there's been a single month where even two out of the three elevators have been functional. If you have a stroller or any accessibility needs, this becomes a real pain. Especially because there are heavy fire doors, every few hundred feet or so in the halls, getting around if you have accessibility needs is a no go.

And the amenities are pretty cool, but the pool gets shut down for emergency reasons pretty frequently, so I'm starting not to trust them. The gym also isn't 24-hr, which is annoying.

Overall, if you're a homebody or have any accessibility needs, this is not the place for you. Lee mas

Not only is the rent, utilities and water completely out of control they can't get the basics right. I've lost so many packages, some never to be found, others maybe stolen. Most recently we had a box of steaks get ruined after they had been misplaced for 4 days.