Echelon of Tucson

The concierge at Echelon of Tucson was not very friendly, did not greet us properly, and was just sitting on his phone. The lady who gave us the tour though (her name was Lisa), did wonderful. My whole experience was fine though. Our guide was very, very good. Personally speaking, I think it could be a little cleaner. It was a little dirty. The room they showed us hadn't been cleaned yet. Somebody had moved out, and apparently they didn't have time to clean it. I can't really feel good about a dirty place. The laundry room wasn't clean either. We walked in the door and the first person we met was the concierge. On a scale from 1 to 10, he was a 0. I did not feel warmly welcomed. Lisa, on the other hand, was very informative. She has good customer service, and on a scale from 1 to 10, it was a 9 1/2. The cleanliness of the place and the concierge made me not even consider the place. They showed us the movie theater, and their huge dining room was beautiful. I think the apartment size was really nice, but the apartment was not clean. For them to schedule the tour and for a possible tenant to go in there, it should have been cleaned. The size of the room was perfect though. The pool was clean. The establishment (other than the laundry room and the room they showed) looked good. Everything else like the dining room, the entryway, the outside, was fine. The residents were very happy there. We went around lunchtime. Everybody was eating, and they looked like they were enjoying their time there. They have somebody play piano once in a while. They have entertainment too, like they have brought in mariachis for Cinco de Mayo. They also have movies every evening. Their activities were pretty good for my 94-year-old uncle.

There is a lack of communication between the staff and the people who live here. There's no follow-up. They don't even have a map to tell you what building is what. I find it interesting you can look at a brochure for an apartment to see a map of the property, but not here. They say they want to take care of a problem, but the food is horrible. And I'm not the only one to say that. It's hard when they serve three meals a day but I can't eat any of it because it's so bad. They don't have fresh stuff. It's all frozen. There's supposed to be a full kitchen staff, with a chef and a sous chef, which they don't have. It's a bunch of teenagers that deliver it, and half the time it's wrong. It's terrible, and there's hardly any alternatives. But you shouldn't even have to look at the alternatives. You should be able to eat the first thing they cook. The activities director is really good though. She plans activities and puts them in the newsletter, and she's open to suggestions. She's acted on the suggestions we've made. She's really good. I like the coffee thing on Tuesdays. It's nice to get together with everybody. And we have happy hour on Thursdays, and it's nice to get together and hang out an drink. Who doesn't want to do that? The maid that was here for 30 years quit. The new person had only been here a couple of weeks and quit. Now I'm not even sure if they have anyone. And the staff hasn't kept us in the loop. You have to go down there to ask. And then they may not even give you the right answer. They also don't always get your meal requests to the kitchen either. It's things like that that are frustrating. They hire people who are inexperienced, and it shows. I'm not sure what their method is, but if you're doing something wrong, I'm not sure if they're communicating it to each other to keep it from happening again. For the most part, I like my apartment, the people that live here, and the things that I do. I've decided I'm going to try not to complain about the food anymore and rely more on the alternative menu. And if that doesn't work out, then I would consider doing something different with my living situation.