Lincoln Military Housing Office- Camp Pendleton

Bases that have low vacancy rates in their housing, are able to rent to retirees, and DoD ID card holders. It presents a great opportunity to live on base, and helps keep us connected to the military community. We moved into Camp Pendleton housing back in February in order to help keep our household costs down, and thought it was a very good value. We reviewed the terms of the lease, signed, and moved in. For a while, everything was great. We experienced minor issues, but just wrote those off as outliers, even though they did
seem to originate from the same person. No biggie. Just press on.

LMH only accepts personal checks, no big deal either. However, my spouse ordered checks, and I ordered checks, in our haste I wrote an incorrect check, and it bounced. During this time, I was watching my account, and the check did not clear. We found out that the check bounced because we had a note on our door. I ran down to the bank, same day, to draft a cashier's check. Brought it to them 2 minutes before they closed. Apologized, was told, "It happens, no big deal." Wrote a personal check the next month, cleared no issue. Next month I get a call saying that they can't accept my personal check. I explain what happened with the previous NSF, and asked if they could call the manager. I told them my wife was in labor, and could they please accept it. The answer was, "Nope, I'm just doing my job". I tried to explain what had happened, felt it was reasonable, and there was zero interest in assisting me. My only request was they just talk to someone higher up, to sort of clear this mistake up. Nope. No can do. I had to drop everything, run to the bank, while my wife had just gotten out of a labor check, and get a cashier's check. Later, they did provide me an option to pay by cashiers check, AFTER the due date, with no fees. However, based on my dealings with these people, I did not feel comfortable paying late, since undoubtedly they would throw it in my face at some later date.

Prior to leaving to get this cashier's check, I spoke to the Assistant Manager. Not helpful at all. Again explained the situation, and asked if there was anyone I can speak to in order to clear up this situation. She said I could speak to the Regional Manager, out of town, or the Vice President, again out of town. I asked if there was an appointment or anyone else I could speak to, she said, "You can talk to the President in Dallas." At that point, the conversation was not going anywhere. I exit the room, ask for her name, she says, "XXXXX, do you want my card?" I said, "No, your name is sufficient."

I get home and put a call into the Presidents office, in Dallas. I leave a voice mail, and then call back the leasing office to let them know I am in contact with the President's office. I then get a call from another gentleman saying that he works for Lincoln, in the regional office, and that he's calling me in regard to an "incident". It was a very defensive call, no resolution, and there was very little willingness to listen to my concerns. It was really all about Lincoln. All the Assistant Manager had to do was say, "Got your concerns, we will work them. Leave this with me, and I'll follow-up with you tomorrow."

No, they throw the call the president card down because a typical PFC, God Bless them for the hard work they do, will not call a company's president. It seems that it is SOP for them to throw this down as their first line of defense, vice trying to resolve an issue, correctly, the first time.

Bear in mind that I've told them my wife was in and out of labor, they didn't seem to care.

Wife gives birth. I come home and the trash can is not emptied. There are a few in the community that didn't get collected. The problem with the trash is that it breeds flies and disease. It is not my responsibility to ensure Waste Management comes back. Lincoln makes regular trips throughout the community and confiscates trash cans that are empty. There is no way that they didn't know. They could have proactively taken care of the issue. I email two people at LMH "Senior Leadership" and send them a note on FaceBook (later I ended up publishing a video of the trash can). Well, even though they knew, they refused to let the leasing office know because it wasn't their job. However, due to the myriad of problems, that were well known, I felt it best to leave it with the senior folks to avoid another communication fiasco. So, instead, they left it out there, rotting in the sun, breeding flies, because I didn't do what they wished.

The community is great to live in. However the staff in the leasing office will make living in the community unbearable. My opinion, but their response, and method of handling problems is horrible.

I have an upcoming meeting with someone within Lincoln and will update this post on any resolution so as to assist others.