This past week, Amber and I tried to rent a beach house from a place called Sandbridge Realty, which rents houses in Sandbridge, just south of Virginia Beach. I just want to get into Google that this place is run by a lunatic, with whom I advise that nobody do business. I’ve seldom been treated as rudely or harshly by a company as I was by them this morning. We were all set to give them rather a large sum of money, but there’s certainly no danger of that happening now.
April 05 Update: Sandbridge Realty apologized, which makes everything OK, to my estimation. At their request, I’ve redacted personal details from a couple of people’s comments, which is fair enough — those are marked accordingly. No need to go after individuals, I figure. Details.
Care to elaborate?
sandbridge has gone wayyyyyy downhill anyway.
There’s also Siebert Realty, which in my experience has been a little better to do business with — but it’s still essentially a volume-based business rather than anything relating to customer service. Sandbridge Realty will forever be on my shit-list for coining the embarrassing nightmare of a marketing term, “The Outer Banks of Virginia” in reference to Sandbridge. Puke.
Your complaint isn’t surprising, though, considering you’re talking about a Hampton Roads business. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: business in Hampton Roads is guided by emotion and sentimentality rather than business intelligence. This is evident in the ridiculous quest for a major league sports team, the obnoxious skyscrapers being constructed in the “new downtown,” and the local governments’ perpetual self-aggrandizing about every petty award they’ve won for their elementary websites, their primitive publications, and their adaptation to cumbersome, buzzword-laden, e-gov technology. This superficial perception of “success” combines with the overvalued real estate, allowing people feel to comfortable — oblivious to the benefit of looking for alternative ways to do business better. Meyera Oberndorf has been mayor of Virginia Beach for SEVENTEEN years. Paul Fraim has been the mayor of Norfolk for eleven years. It feels great to be so comfortable! It’s so much easier!
I should probably do something more helpful with my fists of rage.
You think the Fearless Consumer is up for a road trip?
As a VB native and former resident, I have a little insight on the area. To understand the politics there, look at the construction and tourism industries. They run the place with an iron fist, and I would argue that is why Oberndorf has been there so long. I would put the Navy up there as well, but it seems to be losing some influence as of late.
And, small quibble, but Sandbridge is actually *in* Virginia Beach. But it is south of the “Oceanfront”.
Hampton Roads is a mystery to me. :)
Elizabeth Atkinson is the Owner/Broker of Sandbridge Realty, Inc. She also owns ERA Atkinson Realty on 40th Street and 54th Street in Virginia Beach. They have a Rental Manager at Sandbridge Realty named [redacted] who is unbearable to deal with. You should voice your complaints to Elizabeth Atkinson at (757)428-4441. This is her office number. You should be able to get some help from her. If not, call the other owner, Tom Shell. He is at Sandbridge Realty, part the time, when he’s not on his boat in Florida.
Sandbridge Realty is most unprofessional. Go to Siebert they are nice. I agree with Jean the comment made 3/28 and also with Waldo Jacquith. They have a problem in that they can’t keep employees, that place is known as the revolving door…no one stays. Right on about the Manager Ms. Ruisgobert she is a very nasty lady and treats everyone horrific. Then you have the absent owner on his boat in Florida all the time who has no idea what is even going on in that company. Then you have the Maintenance Manager who manages to run everybody out of there with her temper tantrums, Jade manages to lose the customers, home owners and employees. If you want to go on a vacation..don’t go there.
I see that this comes up highly in Google now, so I’ll make a couple of comments.
First, Jean, thank you for your helpful comments. We’re working with an agency down in Corolla now, and we’ve all-but-signed on a house down there. We made repeated efforts to make things work with Sandbridge Realty, and as those failed, I’m just too wary to try again.
Second, I should point out the problem that we had. I didn’t want to originally, because I wasn’t sure that it was terribly relevant, but I don’t want anybody to assume that the problem was larger than it was. My fiancee and I called them, explaining that we want to get married at the beach, and needed one of the biggest houses that they have, and could they help us pick out an appropriate house? They were very helpful. She talked to them about this 2-3 times, and her mother called at least twice to talk about renting a few other, smaller houses nearby for guests of the wedding. We picked out a house, called and had them answer some questions about its suitability for a wedding, and had them send us the contract. We had a couple of final questions, and so Amber called. That went very badly. The woman to whom we spoke, as soon as the word “wedding” was mentioned, became extremely irate. She accused Amber of misleading them, said that nobody had ever mentioned anything about a wedding, and was very rude. Amber was baffled (having never, IIRC, even spoken to this particular woman before), since there’s nothing in the contract or on the website or that was mentioned about weddings not being permitted, and said that she didn’t see any way for this conversation to continue. We (Amber, her mother and I) all called back, in turn, hoping to talk to somebody — anybody — else, who would confirm that perhaps this woman was just insane or drunk or didn’t really work there, given that everybody else to whom we’d spoken was very clear that they’d love to have us rent some houses for a wedding. But we kept getting this woman, who apparently runs the joint. She was just as rude as ever, and said that Amber and her mother must simply being lying. I pointed out that it’s not generally a great business practice to accuse the customer of being a liar, and that’s when she hung up on me.
So, that’s that. Now we’re working with a large agency down in Corolla, and we’ve picked out a lovely house. It’s not as ideal as the one in Sandbridge, but it has the side benefit of agents who seem to be taking all of their meds. And you just can’t put a price on that.
My family and I tried to rent a house at Sandbridge Realty last spring, 2004. Very
very rude, would never deal with them again.Would highly recommend Siebert RealtyRewalty
They have class and are very accomadating.Some people have class!!!!!
I had the exact opposite experience with Sandbridge Realty. My family rented with Siebert for years until two years ago. The staff became cold and rude over our last stay for some air conditioning problems that we had which made our stay unbearable. I checked with Sandbridge Realty the next year and we’ve been with them ever since. I don’t agree at all with these comments. Siebert didn’t seem to care at all. I even wehnt back for a new brochure this season and was ignored for several minutes until I finally left the office and went to Sandbridge Realty where I was greeted right away and given smiles bu all of the ladies in the office. We even talked about my plans for a family reunion for 2006. It was very pleasant.
We have been renting with Sandbridge Realty for years, we have never had any problems. I came acros this blog when I was searching for their website and I am shocked at these negative reactions. I have to say that there must be more to the story than these former guests are sharing. I love Sandbridge Beach and Sandbridge realty has always accomadated our family in every way possible. Do not lot a few rotten apples lead you to believe that Sandbridge Beach isn’t a great place for a family vacation or that Sandbridge Realty isn’t a great organizattion. Happy Travels to all!
Mmm, Sandbridge is quite nice.
Plainly, everybody can’t be having bad experiences with this company — what with their still being in business — and I wouldn’t claim otherwise. I’ve simply shared my story on my blog, and I think it’s nice that others have shared their own stories, pro and con, for googlers that may follow.
Judith: I am sorry you had a bad experience. I am familiar with both companies , how they operate, and how they treat their customers and employees. Both strive to give the best possible service to the tenants, while at the same time adequately manage the properties for the homeowners at a reasonable cost. It is a tough job to manage,rent,maintain so many properties in a oceanfront area with all of the weather conditions, special needs, etc. I am sure if you talk to Betsy and/or Tom, you will find them to both be pleasant, top notch people who will what is right within reason. Sure, these things happen occasionally, but hopefully, it is t he exception. I am frankly shocked at the nature of Lisa above’s comments. Maybe she is a disgruntled employee that did not meet up to the necessary expectations Sandbridge Realty was asking for. I’m not sure. I’m hesitant to take the advise of someone who delibertly names names and tries to specifically hurt a business or individuals . Life goes on. It just makes them look bad.
Hope the wedding is a grand event! If you are happy with the accomodations in North Carolina, go with it, these things happen for a reason…..
It’s truly a shame that in todays world this is how people release their frustration. It makes no difference
that this issue was probably a misunderstanding and started out by someone trying to make a reservation and not
liking the answer they received. In addition to that they had to tell the world in attempts to hurt a
private business in a pieceful community. Furthermore, people obviously associated with Siebert realty
jumped on the wagon and revealed their true character. A master of disguise they are not.
Mr. Jaquith probably has a legitimate issue with Sandbridge Realty which is undoubtedly the result of a
misunderstanding that could have been resolved long ago. Who ever decided to name names and directly hurt
someone indirectly involved should be ashamed. People don’t always realize the result of their actions and
who else they affect. There are families involved, children…peoples futures. It’s not as insignificant as
one might think.
The person who started this blog should end it. You made your point and now it’s just getting warped.
Happy Trails!
Simon, you’re right — this has effectively played itself out. I’ve set my blog software to close threads to further discussion after 14 days, anyhow. You can see (at the moment) how badly that I’ve damaged this software though, since this page looks like hell, so I suppose I’ve broken the auto-close function, too. :)
So, discussion has ended. Thanks for your contributions, all. Googlers to follow should find plenty of information on which to base their decision. Frankly, at this point, I’m not sure I want to rent from anybody at Sandbridge. ;)
As per request, I’ve opened the thread again, having closed it as a mercy killing a few days ago.
If anybody from Sandbridge Realty thinks that this is turning into a lynching, let me know and I’ll close down the discussion. Short of that, I guess I’ll leave it open.
Mr. Jaquith,
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to end this discussion as it seems the appropriate thing
to do. As a member of Sandbridge Realty I truly believe this to be an unfortunate situation
for both parties as we are in the business of making positive memories, not negative ones.
In agreement with responses above, people are being wrongly misrepresented and the truth has long
been forgotten. An unfortunate situation has now negatively affected more than those
involved and only threatens more wrong than right. Mr. Jaquith, your thoughts and feelings have
not gone unnoticed. I will take you up on your offering to close this blog and myself offer any
apologies for confusion on our part. We really are a pieceful community…and Waldo you said it
best “this has effectively played itself out.”
Thank You