Empire State Properties

I contacted Heather Johnson, Empire State housing specialist for a one bedroom apartment in NYC in March. I wanted a temporary stay apartment starting June 22. I paid the $ 500 fee which guarantees me an apartment on the date I want. I had to constantly email and contact Empire State to find out the status of my apartment. Finally by early June, I was given one option for an apartment which did not even meet the requirements that I had asked for. Heather told me on June 3 that she will refund me my $ 500 back. Since then I have emailed Empire State properties numerous times and I still have not received a refund. Please be aware when you chose this company. I am very disappointed by my experience. I ended up taking my business to furnished quarters and they were wonderful in finding me an apartment within a week and have been very professional and responsive.

My experience with Empire State Properties, on 51^st And 7^th, has been nothing short of horrendous and unfortunately is still ongoing. This is the email I sent them this morning:
«I have decided to take my business elsewhere. I checked out of apt 1817 yesterday evening because my sinuses and throat began to bother me as the atmosphere within the apartment you had moved me to was foul in both furnishings and air quality. The carpet is nothing short of filthy. Not to mention it was not even vacuumed. Not only was I concerned about walking barefoot on the floor due to the general filth (including a foot and a half square green stain in one corner which may or may not be mold, I was not inclined to approach near enough to find out), but I felt the need to be wary of getting stabbed in the foot as there was a thumbtack lying in the middle of the floor. There was also a strange random white pill haphazardly lying about. I was not looking for a college dorm room. The apartment we had agreed to and the apartment you put me in are not even remotely comparable. One, a top floor studio with spectacular views, hard wood floors, and clean air, the other as I’ve already described: a seedy motel room in which one is afraid to touch anything for fear of a MRSA infection.
By virtue of the fact you still have not offered any suitable replacement or any sort of timeframe for the availability of apartment 2112 over 24 hours after I first emailed I expect a full refund as you have clearly not lived up to our agreed upon deal.»
Not included in the email is the fact neither the internet nor the TV were working. Basically they showed me a beautiful studio on the top floor with amazing views and nice furnishings that I loved on Friday. Then on Monday morning just hours before I was set to move in Empire State Properties told me that there had been a «leak» ruining the floors and they just did not know when they could get me into that apartment. Whether there was any veracity to the tale of the leak seems more than a bit suspect to me. Not to say it’s impossible, but I had seen the TOP floor apartment Friday and the floors were A-​OK. But they were happy to «upgrade» me to a one bedroom until the apartment I wanted was fixed.
Up to this point every email and question had been responded to quickly, one within a minute when I suggested I could stay at my brother’s until the leak was fixed. My agent was quick to insist that the new room was an upgrade and they would happily move me if I was unsatisfied.
Once I had shown up to the building, never having actually entered the «upgraded» apartment, getting in touch with my agent suddenly became much more difficult. I spent one night in the seedy one bedroom because I did not arrive until evening as I had been foolishly optimistically misguided that they were working round the clock to get the original apartment good to go.
The next morning (yesterday) I emailed my agent about my unhappiness. Five hours later (after having left a message at Empire State Property’s office and on his cell in the meantime) I received a response expressing apology and offering that they would do everything they could to move me «ASAP». My father was in the military, so I am pretty clear on the meaning of ASAP. Apparently Empire State Properties is not.
After not hearing anything for several more hours I went to their office. I left my name with a young woman as my agent was not there, but I bumped into him in the hallway. At this point it should have been extremely evident that I was non too thrilled with the events that had (or had not) taken place and that I expected some sort of urgency in dealing with this issue as I was thoroughly unhappy with the room and the situation. He asked for me to give him time to move me (keep in mind I’m only trying to get this place for a month, so cooling my heels in their slovenly hovel of an apartment for as long as Empire State Properties felt like was not an overly appealing thought). I waited a few more hours, and as I had still heard naught gathered my belongings and headed back to my brother’s (who did not really need his sick brother crashing his couch two days prior to elbow surgery. And he is now starting to feel ill, which really is not ideal the night before surgery. Thank you very much Empire State Properties).
I gave them the entirety of this morning (not to mention all day yesterday) to even try to offer some sort of amenable solution but heard nothing. At around noon I expressed desire for a full refund as they have in my opinion, in no way, shape, or form fulfilled their end of the deal. As a result I I am currently trying to get over $ 7000 back from them. Not too surprisingly I am finding it difficult to get a response from my agent. Again.
At best Empire State Properties is a poorly run property agency. From my experiences I am disinclined to believe this to simply be mismanagement.

Christina and Millie were a pleasure to work with from the moment we saw the apartment. They gave us great advice and knew a lot about the apartment during the viewing. They followed up immediately after the showing and was able to get us a great deal on the place within 24 hours!
I recommend Millie and Christina to anyone looking for an apartment.

The agent millie only gave brief rejection without reason then disappear for a week. After that her colleague gave me manager contact and millie started asking me to use insurrent service. Millie is not responsible to applicant. She just want more application without follow up