FirstService Residential East Bay - San Ramon, California

Doris D.

Dear Readers, kindly note that other reviews on this site are atleast a year ago (dated), so please use your good judgement.

FS Residential San Ramon has not maintained and enhanced our community standards, they have been reactive than proactive, being complacent through 10 years of managing our HOA Community. Some of the areas where their performance fell short included:

Email communication - Residents often experienced delayed or no responses to inquiries and call back requests, reactive than proactive responses and inaccurate statements, leading to frustration and stress on homeowners. Special mention of the following: Andrea Blanchard, KC Cavness and even SVP Laura DeMello.

HOA Board Election and Meeting - Andrea & KC don't know the complete rules in the By-laws on Replacement of vacant Board members or they just purposely find ways to postpone a long-standing unresolved and not being proactive to having it filled. They limit the Agenda during Board meetings to the topics they want to bring up but not addressing their shortcomings on continuous delay in addressing the long-standing issues of the homeowners. FS Residential San Ramon will reply on complaints of homeowners to attend the next Board meeting to voice out & be heard by the Board members, but given this meeting only happens 1x a quarter, they will trick & manipulate the open session by limiting to short 3 minutes for each homeowner to speak, even if there's more time left in the Open session time, they will cut your thoughts and microphone, so they will not have to hear it and deal with it, instead of wanting to hear possible suggestions from homeowners.

Project management - Several projects are not being managed to completion in a timely manner. For example, poor landscaping service issue initially expected to take a few months to resolve has now extended to approximately 6 months already and remains incomplete. Additionally, there is lack of follow-through and communication with vendor to ensure service reached completion.

Vendor oversight - Vendor performance, like landscaping and tree trimming, was not consistently monitored, allowing for lapses in service quality. Thus, resulting to countless change in vendor providers.

Handling small issues - Minor maintenance issues, such as those requiring minimal expense, like spider webs in the community, were not addressed in a proactive manner.

Since the community is spending our hard-earned money to afford FS Residential San Ramon's salary, which represents a significant expense for our homeowners, we expect the highest levels of performance, that meets the standards our homeowners expect and deserve.

We seriously need a new HOA Management Company who will be a strong advocate for our community, prioritizing clear and consistent communication, effective project management, and diligent vendor oversight, committed to maintaining all essential services and addressing any resident concerns promptly. Not sure why our (3) member Board is being passive to this option and still continuously being blind and tolerating FS Residential San Ramon's delivery of substandard service. CHANGE IS NEEDED!!! BEWARE OF FS RESIDENTIAL SAN RAMON, THE DEVELOPER OF OUR COMMUNITY CHOSE THEM, WE DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE THEN AS WE WERE NEW HOMEOWNERS, BUT NOW AFTER YEARS, HOMEOWNERS CLEARLY SEE THAT WE NEED TO PARTNER WITH A BETTER HOA MANAGEMENT, DEFINITELY NOT FS RESIDENTIAL SAN RAMON, POORLY (2) STAR RATED BY OTHER HOA COMMUNITES AS WELL!

Doris D.

Terri,

Your response below is more of a reactive business approach, than a proactive customer-oriented one. You are with Client Services Department, it's appearing and sounding, that you are servicing FS Residential San Ramon, instead of our HOA community.

You are giving a standard FS Residential reply to your team's communication shortcomings, I bet you have not seen and read all the frustrated emails and heard of stressful phone calls our homeowners have had with FS Residential San Ramon, because if you did, your reply will be different.

No, they have not addressed the long-delayed election issue, as they have been stuck with option (b) only. Even during the last Open Session a week ago, I asked about what is stated in our By-Laws, under Page 3, 2.5 Vacancies, 2.5.4 Replacement. Vacancies in elected seats on the Board caused by any reason other than the removal of a Director by the Board or by the Owners may be filled by either (a) vote of a majority of the remaining Directors, even though they may constitute less than a quorum, or (b) by vote of the Owners at a meeting, and any vacancy caused by the removal of a Director must be filled by a vote of the Owners. The reactions of Andrea & KC were snail ignorance, even if I requested them to quickly check from their respective computers the said information, they brushed it aside by saying that they were not aware of it and will ask the Election officer about it.

Aside from Andrea, KC and the 3 Board members, they were only 6-7 other homeowners who attended the Open Session. Only 3-4 (including me) spoke with maximum of 3 minutes each, so only 9-12 minutes used from the total of 20 minutes allocated for the open session. Andrea & KC chose not to use the remaining 8 minutes, even though we expressed the need to voice additional concerns and/or suggestions, obviously because they did not want to hear more of what homeowners would like to say, they just want to move on with their Agenda, they manipulated it and was unfair to the homeowners.

Sadly, whatever FS Residential San Ramon is doing with regards to our repeated and long-standing landscaping and tree trimming issues, have not been efficient and effective, it's because your team still has project management and vendor oversight shortcomings, needs serious improvement and real action.

There is a Pest Control expense on the financial report, but none of the homeowners have seen any company go around to do any pest control treatment anytime of the day or night in our community for years, even if Andrea & KC answered treating ant problem. Ants are also seasonal and since we are situated in a cooler place in Hayward, we rarely have ants or else none, so where is this money really going?!

De-webbing is the icing on the cake, that seals the description of being reactive than proactive, as de-webbing does not prevent the spiders from making new webs again.

For your better appreciation and accuracy of your response, may I suggest that you personally go visit our community, so you can see our landscape, tree & spider web issues. Also, give some time to talk to the homeowners and ask about their experience with and feedback about FS Residential, so you can hear it first-hand. Go out of the 'box' and not just listen to the inaccuracies that your associates give you.

Again, since the community is spending our hard-earned money to afford FS Residential San Ramon's salary, which represents a significant expense for our homeowners, we expect the highest levels of performance, that meets the standards our homeowners expect and deserve.

Elaina N.

I would like to commend Rigo at FirstService Residential for his outstanding professionalism, prompt responsiveness, and positive demeanor. Rigo's proactive approach and dedication to excellence reflect a high standard of service that is greatly appreciated. His efforts contribute significantly to a positive and seamless experience. Thank you, Rigo, for exemplifying exceptional service and professionalism.

Elena K.

I would like to thank Christi and her team including Toneerose. The team is extremely helpful and proactive with my requests. It was a Friday afternoon when I discovered a leak in a laundry room which effected my garage door. I sent an email to Christi who immediately sent a team member to check on a pipe and a wall. They ended up working on a weekend to fix the issue. They also followed up on it later and asked about my feedback.
This great attitude is not a one time instance. The team sends out informative communication emails related to the current community projects, and always responds to my emails. They were extremely helpful with other issues. We are blessed to have such a team in our HOA community.
Thank you from all of us!
Elena

Mumtaz F.

I wanted to acknowledge the fact that Toneerose Legaspi has provided us with such a great customer service with clubhouse booking process at Pacific Terrace. Thoroughout the process she was not only thorough in her emails but was also very prompt! I was amazed by her excellent customer service and efficiency. A big shoutout to Toneerose!!! When Customer service seems sonrare now a days, Toneerose prooved otherwise. I am sure you would agree with me when I say that she is truly a great asset to your organization. I would give here five stars for making the process seamlessly easy.

Celina L.

I want to Thank Christi and her team for reaching out to handle our leak so quickly. I truly appreciate it. Downer HOA has had so many managers that never got anything done and were so rude and unprofessional but christi and her team have been our first positive experience in YEARS. Responsive and she follows up with us. They have their hands full (and I don't say that lightly) so kudos to them. They are doing great. Thank you again for the quick response on our leak.

Roy Z.

FirstService is an excellent management company that is taking care of our HOA. Sabrina/ Gavin always exceeded my expectation on how they handle our HOA meetings. I would like to cemmend both. Please keep pu the excellent job.

I R.

Christi Medina is working in overdrive to help us turn our community around. She has good vendor relations and even reached out to Congressman Panetta to help eliminate graffiti issues around the community and to hopefully get speed bumps installed soon. Keep up the good work Christi!!!