🚀 go-pugleaf

Well, I got lots of opinions on Rental Referral Pros and also 
did a little digging, and the news is not good.

First, the opinions: I didn't actually tally votes, but it
seemed to me like I got about a dozen responses, with two
saying "they're OK, but probably not worth the price" and
ten saying "they're a total ripoff, don't use them!", phrased
in various ways. I got many reports of dissatisfied customers;
several complained that listings which looked great in the office
were not great in reality, while others noted that some of the
properties whose listings (e.g. in the Village Advocate) had 
brought them to Rental Referral Pros in the first place were
already rented the day after the ads appeared. This trend was
confirmed by my own call to the company, when the agent I was 
talking to admitted that many of the properties are already rented
when the ad appears in the Village Advocate! 

That ratio alone would have been enough to convince me, but
acting on a lead from one respondent, I gave the Better
Business Bureau (BBB) a call...

The facts: In their current form, Rental Referral Pros (RRP)
is a member in good standing of the BBB.  They have had some
complaints lodged against them, but the complaints have been
resolved.  However, RRP seems to be the new name of two local
offices of American Rent Guide; the addresses in both Raleigh
and Durham were the same as for RRP. American Rent Guide is
currently under indictment by the N.C. Attorney General's
office for a long list of violations, including fraudulent
representation of rental properties, failure to honor contracts
(presumably the contract between company and customer), and 
other sneaky sales tactics.  If you call the BBB they will
actually play a taped report over the phone so you can hear the
story for yourself. American Rent Guide ceased operations in
the Triangle area soon after the indictments were handed down
(in November 1990 or '91, as I recall), and according to the
BBB, Rental Referral Pros opened at the same addresses the
following January, offering essentially the same services as 
American Rent Guide as far as I can tell.

So technically, RRP might be OK, but I'm staying a mile away
from a company that has such close ties to a (allegedly)
fraudulent organization.

The most common recommendation was that instead of trusting
RRP, I just keep looking in the Village Advocate, which is the
approach I intend to take.

Thanks for all the responses; I think they saved me
money and a hassle, and I'm grateful.

Tristan Davies

-- 
e-mail: tbd@neuro.duke.edu
Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center

"grblb blabt unt mipt speeb!! oot piffoo blaboo..." -- Opus