Finger Lakes Premier Properties reviews and complaints

*********BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY! READ MORE BELOW:
As with the other reviewers online, we also have a major issue with Finger Lakes Premier Properties.
We stayed in the Lakeside Harmony house on Seneca Lake in Geneva (which we originally found on the VRBO website). We signed all their contracts and paid the money...well over $2k for a three night Labor Day Weekend stay.

Upon reaching the house (which is quite beautiful), we found that a ceiling fan was broken, the AC in one whole wing of the house was broken (they don't have central AC, but 3 wall units- one in the left wing, one in the right, and one in the center expected to cool the whole house). So basically the entire side of the house we were on was hot with no air circulation.

It was very difficult sleeping 3 nights through no AC with an infant, a two year old, and a senior citizen with heart conditions and diabetes...but we followed procedure, called in the issues, waited for the tech, and sucked it up when he couldn't fix it. The tech saw the house and the people who were renting as he and I walked through the whole house together. He saw how it looked and I made him aware of whatever damage I saw. Including a microwave that didn't work and the missing remote control for the main tv. He tried to fix the AC but couldn't. He looked through the house for box fans that weren't returned to the office the previous time but couldn't find them. He only had two and left me those two. I asked him where the cleaning supplies were so I could keep the house clean during the weekend because we had a toddler and infant and are extremely clean people. He helped me locate those items. PLEASE DO VERIFY WITH HIM.

The rest of the weekend went by and on Monday we made sure we left before 10am as required and had removed all the trash in black trash bags and took the towels and linens from the beds and piled them for housekeeping. Please note we paid over $200 for the cleaning fee so we wouldn't have to clean. We left the house and went home and that was the end of it. OR SO WE THOUGHT.

One MONTH later we get a charge to our credit card for $705 for a new futon and delivery and an excessive cleaning fee! We called and spoke to the staff and manager Kim Giardina who stated that we signed a contract and they charged us. End of story. We asked why we weren't notified there was an issue. Her answer? Oh we just charged you because you signed the contract saying we can if there is damage.

So Dear FLPP,

I am floored that you are accusing us of trashing this house. We are respectable family people and professionals! This goes against our values to destroy or abuse people's property. I am disgusted by these allegations. I do not plan to rest until you clear us of them.

Dear Public,

BUYER/RENTER BEWARE! This can happen to YOU as well. I never in a million years would expect this to happen to me. BUT IT DID. Please read other reviews about them from both homeowners and renters on the internet. We are not the first people who have had problems with FINGER LAKES PREMIER PROPERTIES and probably not the last. In an effort to educate consumers and the general public, I am making an outreach effort to prevent others from becoming a victim. I would highly encourage other people to post their reviews as well.
Do yourself a favor and rent a house directly from an owner.
There is a lovely family on the other side of the lake in Hector called Dunham's Lakeside. The Dunham family will charge you a fair rate and treat you well. We stayed with them twice...but twice needed a bigger house and used FLPP. The first time we used FLPP on Keuka Lake in 2011 - no issues. This is time, can't say the same. This is the LAST TIME.

I rented a house from this company for myself and 5 other couples The listing stated that there was a house and guest house and had 6 bedrooms. We booked this house based on that listing and because there was a separate and private bedroom for each couple that was going. A month later I went back into this particular house and noticed that the listing had changed. The guest house had been removed. I immediately tried to contact Nate, who is the agent I booked the house through. When I couldn’t reach him by phone, I sent an email inquiring about the guest house and that the listing had been changed. As you can see from the email, Nate again assured me that everything was fine and I did indeed have the guest house. If there was a problem with the guest house, at this point there was still plenty of time for Finger Lakes Premier Properties to tell me that and offer to correct the situation. We would have been happy had they told us and offered to find us another house with 6 bedrooms, but they didn’t.

Three days before our arrival (October 14), I again contacted Finger Lakes Premier Properties by email to inquire about getting the keys to the rental property. I received a response from Jeff going over the procedure and requesting a copy of my driver’s license and back of my credit card, which was provided. At that time, I also reminded him about the keys to the guest house. That was the last contact I had with anyone until my arrival at the house on the afternoon of October 17. My feeling was that this was done deliberately because they knew the guest house was not available and did not want to tell me until my arrival.

Everyone arrived at the house on October 17 sometime after 4:00 pm. On the way to the house, we called the rental agency to get the lockbox code. At this time, the agent at the rental company informed me that they had left a message on my answering machine at home that there was a problem with our rental and that we did not have the guest house. In fact, they had left this message at 10:00 am, but we had left for New York that morning around 8:30 am. I believe this was deliberate and only done so they could say they tried to contact me. We insisted on talking to a manager informing them that this was unacceptable. We booked the house with the guest house and that is exactly what we wanted. They kept telling us there was no manager available until Monday morning and continued to hang up on us. Not once did they offer to correct the situation or make it right. They did continue to lie and tell us that the guest house was not available because it was not up to their standards, when in fact, while they were telling us this, we were speaking to the people who were living in the guest house, and had been for a year. In fact, these same people told us that the last time this particular property was rented, the same thing happened.

Our feeling is that the rental agency deliberately misrepresented the property and deliberately did not contact us about the guest house until the day of arrival, so there was nothing else we could do. We feel they knew that house was not available from the very beginning and deliberately kept that from us. That is why the listing was changed a month later. We clearly did not get what we paid for and were promised. Had they tried to make the situation right in the beginning by offering to find us another rental property on that lake or another lake with the appropriate amount of bedrooms, we would have been happy and this situation would not have come about.