xxxxx Student Accommodation; anyone else angry with them?
Discussion
As a first year student I've had the displeasure of being stuck in a xxxx property, simply because the Uni had allocated their own halls to people fairly quickly (Scottish students get their results before us and therefore get first dibs as its a Scottish uni) and we were given no choice but to go with xxxxx. At first I thought OK, its only 10 minutes walk away from uni, and 10 minutes away from town in the other direction; good location. But after living here for 6 months, I can say it is the biggest con I have ever seen.
Firstly, the rent is a lot more than I would have been paying at the Uni owned halls (£30 per week) and we get LESS facilities. Sure, the internet, water and elecricity are included, as is all maintanance. However, the internet is a 512k line shared between 50 rooms; if all 50 people use it at the same time thats less than dialup speed! And if you want the "super" internet, which allows you to use Skype and Xbox live and has 1GB speed (still shared, so is only slightly better than dialup speed!) you have to pay £400 for the 10 months you're here. And you can't put your own line in and have your own deal which is far cheaper as they don't like that and will charge you hundreds of pounds for someone to come and remove it. The "hot" water either gets so hot it is physically impossible to put your finger under the tap for more than a second, or it doesn't work at all so you get in the shower and even Arnold Schwarzenegger would shriek like a little girl because of the cold. The electricity stops working every time its a Saturday, and the maintanance people are nothing short of a joke. We've complained about lights in rooms blowing since freshers week (September) and these issues still haven't been resolved. The iron, toaster and kettle they provided us with failed the electrical testing they did in November, and these items have not been replaced, and we have had to go out and buy our own. The laundrette is designed so you can do anything you like in there except wash your clothes. The washing machines cost £2.20 for a wash and £1 for a dry. The washing machine will either fail after 5 minutes and you have to explain to the security why you almost destroyed the locked door trying to retrieve your unwashed clothes, or soak the clothes so much it takes 5 attempts (minimum) to dry them. Even on the 1/100 times the washing machine actually works, you still end up taking 2 attempts to dry the clothes. What is the point of a tumble drier which doesn't dry clothes? We don't even overload them, like yesterday, I had 7 pairs of boxers, 2 pairs of jeans, 4 t shirts and a towel in there and it still failed to dry them after 4 attempts. And if you dare to put a clothes horse or indoor washing line up they con you by saying its a fire hazard and try to do you out of £300.
The next one is really stupid. A couple of "danger of death" signs on fuse boxes in the corridor between the flats on the next floor above us got knocked off. xxxx decided that the whole block was to be fined £100 to replace these. First off, the ground floor has no reason to go up to the first floor, so why were we charged? Secondly, these signs can be printed off the internet for <1p, so how they can justify this fine I have no idea. It would be slightly less annoying if the rent was reasonable, but I have found it is possible to rent a 3 bed semi up here (bills included) for only £50 a month more than they are charging.
We have also complained several times about the flat upstairs. 24/7 we hear banging on the floor. But the wardens do f
k all about it, yet have the cheek to give me a bking for throwing my steel toe capped boots at the ceiling to get them to shut up.
Is it just us, or has anyone else on PH been subjected to the gross incompetence of xxxxx? And a warning to anyone thinking of going to Uni next year. Stay away from xxxxx halls.
Mod edit, no naming and shaming please. Have a real of this thread if you are unsure of the PH name and shame policy
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Firstly, the rent is a lot more than I would have been paying at the Uni owned halls (£30 per week) and we get LESS facilities. Sure, the internet, water and elecricity are included, as is all maintanance. However, the internet is a 512k line shared between 50 rooms; if all 50 people use it at the same time thats less than dialup speed! And if you want the "super" internet, which allows you to use Skype and Xbox live and has 1GB speed (still shared, so is only slightly better than dialup speed!) you have to pay £400 for the 10 months you're here. And you can't put your own line in and have your own deal which is far cheaper as they don't like that and will charge you hundreds of pounds for someone to come and remove it. The "hot" water either gets so hot it is physically impossible to put your finger under the tap for more than a second, or it doesn't work at all so you get in the shower and even Arnold Schwarzenegger would shriek like a little girl because of the cold. The electricity stops working every time its a Saturday, and the maintanance people are nothing short of a joke. We've complained about lights in rooms blowing since freshers week (September) and these issues still haven't been resolved. The iron, toaster and kettle they provided us with failed the electrical testing they did in November, and these items have not been replaced, and we have had to go out and buy our own. The laundrette is designed so you can do anything you like in there except wash your clothes. The washing machines cost £2.20 for a wash and £1 for a dry. The washing machine will either fail after 5 minutes and you have to explain to the security why you almost destroyed the locked door trying to retrieve your unwashed clothes, or soak the clothes so much it takes 5 attempts (minimum) to dry them. Even on the 1/100 times the washing machine actually works, you still end up taking 2 attempts to dry the clothes. What is the point of a tumble drier which doesn't dry clothes? We don't even overload them, like yesterday, I had 7 pairs of boxers, 2 pairs of jeans, 4 t shirts and a towel in there and it still failed to dry them after 4 attempts. And if you dare to put a clothes horse or indoor washing line up they con you by saying its a fire hazard and try to do you out of £300.
The next one is really stupid. A couple of "danger of death" signs on fuse boxes in the corridor between the flats on the next floor above us got knocked off. xxxx decided that the whole block was to be fined £100 to replace these. First off, the ground floor has no reason to go up to the first floor, so why were we charged? Secondly, these signs can be printed off the internet for <1p, so how they can justify this fine I have no idea. It would be slightly less annoying if the rent was reasonable, but I have found it is possible to rent a 3 bed semi up here (bills included) for only £50 a month more than they are charging.
We have also complained several times about the flat upstairs. 24/7 we hear banging on the floor. But the wardens do f
k all about it, yet have the cheek to give me a bking for throwing my steel toe capped boots at the ceiling to get them to shut up.Is it just us, or has anyone else on PH been subjected to the gross incompetence of xxxxx? And a warning to anyone thinking of going to Uni next year. Stay away from xxxxx halls.
Mod edit, no naming and shaming please. Have a real of this thread if you are unsure of the PH name and shame policy
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Edited by Matt172 on Tuesday 2nd March 00:02
dpbird90 said:
Is it just us, or has anyone else on PH been subjected to the gross incompetence of xxxxx? .
Take consolation in the fact its not just you - there will be literally thousands of Students all over the UK who have similar complaints. xxxxx are a disgusting company who have a monopoly over student accomodation in many cities and abuse this position to the max. Just remember you have not got long left (June?) and find somewhere else to go in September.
Edited by Matt172 on Tuesday 2nd March 00:07
snotrag said:
dpbird90 said:
Is it just us, or has anyone else on PH been subjected to the gross incompetence of xxxxx? .
Take consolation in the fact its not just you - there will be literally thousands of Students all over the UK who have similar complaints. xxxxx are a disgusting company who have a monopoly over student accomodation in many cities and abuse this position to the max. Just remember you have not got long left (June?) and find somewhere else to go in September.
k if its £2 or £2m, its the principle. Its an item which can be downloaded and printed from the internet for next to nothing. To prove this I did it for them, and photoshopped "Danger of Death" into "fk xxxxx", and these signs have started appearing, with the help of all in our halls, in every block. I'm thinking of doing a copycat of that David Thorne bloke and really get on their nerves with some epic complaints.Edited by Matt172 on Tuesday 2nd March 00:04
TheCarpetCleaner said:
OoooOoooo I'm going to watch this one.
Could go either way...
My money's on nobody liking the whiny student who's sulking because he can't play his x-box online when he should be studying and upset coz having to wash your own pants is harder than when mummy does it. . . . . . Could go either way...
My hall of residence was st, my room was a dungeon in the basement, my room mate was an antisocial troll who stunk, the regulations were petty, the catering was appalling, the facilities vestigial and the evil old dragon who ran the place treated students like children. I escaped after a few months when some poor sap agreed to take my place and the dragon released me from my contract. I rented a room down the street in a hotel which was being refurbished. For less money, I had a double bay window overlooking the sea, a room three times the size to myself, management who treated us like adults, decent food and best of all a pub downstairs.
fk living in halls.
That was 20 years ago - nothing much changes.
t, my room was a dungeon in the basement, my room mate was an antisocial troll who stunk, the regulations were petty, the catering was appalling, the facilities vestigial and the evil old dragon who ran the place treated students like children. I escaped after a few months when some poor sap agreed to take my place and the dragon released me from my contract. I rented a room down the street in a hotel which was being refurbished. For less money, I had a double bay window overlooking the sea, a room three times the size to myself, management who treated us like adults, decent food and best of all a pub downstairs. f
k living in halls. That was 20 years ago - nothing much changes.
Cock Womble said:
I think you might get a flaming here.... not exactly student friendly....
FFS Xbox, when I were a lad......
To be fair OP - all that whinge just goes with the territory.... it is not meant to be like home or like somewhere you aspire to be once you graduate... that is part of the motivation.....get the head down and get the grades the job and cash will follow, maybe even a job in Japan or Korea with proper internet speeds and don't throw the need it for work, feck off to the campus or library.... you've got internet speed there joe public paying 20 quid a month can only dream of!
Edited by physprof on Monday 1st March 22:17
sleep envy said:
pits said:
Anyone care to summarise? Seemed long
the fresher fell into the trap of going to halls instead of finding himself digshe'll learn
shirt said:
sleep envy said:
pits said:
Anyone care to summarise? Seemed long
the fresher fell into the trap of going to halls instead of finding himself digshe'll learn
) since it's the only place I can study my subject. Graduation can't come quickly enough.Uh, yeah, +1 on everything regarding xxxxx. I'm already expecting to have to take them to small claims court to get my deposit back.
Edited by Matt172 on Tuesday 2nd March 00:05
OnTheOverrun said:
TheCarpetCleaner said:
OoooOoooo I'm going to watch this one.
Could go either way...
My money's on nobody liking the whiny student who's sulking because he can't play his x-box online when he should be studying and upset coz having to wash your own pants is harder than when mummy does it. . . . . . Could go either way...
Fresher - when I read Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London (yes, that's the one at the top of the page in Best Universities in the World) we had lousy laundry facilities and if you wanted to use a computer you went to the lab when it was open and machines were available. The cooking facilities were awful.
Thankfully everybody I know seemed to get over it and are gainfully employed.
It was a character building exercise.
Get over it and stop whingeing.
Thankfully everybody I know seemed to get over it and are gainfully employed.
It was a character building exercise.
Get over it and stop whingeing.
I spent my first year at uni in halls with 18 students sharing 2 showers and 3 toilets. Our rooms were tiny and nothing really worked. No one dared have a bath because it had some manky stains ingrained into the tub. Food and dirty dishes were always left lying around which resulted in us getting bked by the residence officer all the time, getting woken up at 8am to clean it all up. Music would come through the floor, the roof and the walls at all times of day.
That year was also the best year of my life so far. I would go back to it in a heart beat! And living in halls was the best bit. Don't know what everyone is whining about. Its uni, not a retirement home.
ked by the residence officer all the time, getting woken up at 8am to clean it all up. Music would come through the floor, the roof and the walls at all times of day.That year was also the best year of my life so far. I would go back to it in a heart beat! And living in halls was the best bit. Don't know what everyone is whining about. Its uni, not a retirement home.
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