Disgusted.

I’ve been living at Riverside for close to a year now, and although the scenery is amazing and the (mostly) peace and quiet is compelling, I absolutely cannot recommend entering into a lease agreement here.

The receptionist is rude with no accountability, and customer service from reception or “admin” is non-existent.

I moved in last year July I believe, with the privacy fence rotting into pieces. I was told it would be fixed soon after moving in, but only half was replaced about 2weeks to month after moving in. Months went by with me mailing “reception” with no response, not even acknowledgment of my mail. Nothing. I finally decided to physically go to the receptionist because I’d never met her and mentioned that it’s been months, when is the rest of my fence being replaced (because I have a cat and I didn’t want to keep him permanently inside) and she said something to the degree of the maintenance guy probably ran out of stock (which is hilarious, because how does it take months to get reed fencing, I see it all the time on the side of the road whilst riding through Harties), but I said fine, although I haven’t even received acknowledgement or receipt of my mail and she said something to the degree of “yes well we have around 300 residents”, making it sound like everyone is constantly mailing her. Well, if everyone is, then obviously nothing’s getting resolved and you’re doing a pretty **** job.

I think the remainder of my fence was replaced in November. Hilarious.

I have lost track of how many months ago, but I reported that my toilet is leaking, and then I mentioned it looks like it’s the cistern, as well as the water thing outside. I sent a mail or two about both of those also with no acknowledgement and no response. Aside from that, I also have a little outside eating area with a stone table and four chairs, which has a thatch roof (I mean.. it’s supposed to). This was obviously an added bonus when considering the rental, although to this day, not one single word has been mentioned about the replacement of the thatch roof on that. (I have also mentioned it though, before year and last year).

Each one of these things aside from my ceiling leaking on the inside, I’ve also sent through a specific “maintenance request” which can be requested on your monthly invoice. Obviously after you’ve now read this review of mine, you may deduce that it’s absolutely a worthless feature.

Interestingly enough, sometime last week I mentioned almost all of these things to the absolutely amazing lady who showed me the property, and she was livid that I’d received such horrible service. Well, technically you’re supposed to actually receive service to consider it horrible, in which case I’ve received nothing. Only since CC’ing her last week in my follow-up mails have I finally received a response from “management” or “admin”.

The response wasn’t apologetic or accepting any fault for lack of service, lack of response, or even to give me another excuse. No. The response I received was:

“Good day   Thank you for your email   When are you availability Mon to Friday between 08h30 to 15h30.”

I sent back a lengthy email, further clarifying my disgust, as I had actually previously stated in a former email that I am seriously considering getting in touch with body corporate and/or the actual owner of the property. That in itself fell on deaf ears. Possibly though because I’ve been told by a few residents that the owner doesn’t give a sh#t. And it shows.

After my newest lengthy email exercising my disgust, I received an email back but in no way in the form of an apologetic response from the receptionist. Instead there was no accountability, no acceptance of fault, I was told that she had apparently logged >whatever< “as shown in the photo” (no evidence attached), I was told that regarding the toilet leaking I was supposed to have given an availability period (which I did, based on the aforementioned useless maintenance request app) and I stated again that’s all nonsense, because she’s lying and dodging honest answers, not accepting responsibility and not admitting they messed up.

Hilariously, my phone told me that the mail was quickly recalled. To be more specific, my email service said “admin@egpd.co.za would like to recall the message, "Maintenance Request for:…”.

I absolutely love this area for many reasons, don’t misunderstand me. Though regardless of everything else positive, I could never recommend that anyone seek residency here.

I’ve demanded the contact details of the owner and/or the body corporate of the estate. I’ll update here what happens next.