Cayman Crooks (sticky worthy)

[AmericanIMG]

ok, so i wanted to make this thread for people to list their bad experiences with local businesses. i think that it needs to be done, for the new students sake. please list specific examples and help students!

[AmericanIMG]

my bad experience

Alpha Real Estate. my goodness, there is only one person that makes up Alpha, and he is terrible! i was living in WBay with 2 roomates, and our house literally falls apart. this was last year when it rained for 2 weeks straight. the roof starts leaking in the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom...it was a mess. on top of that numerous phone calls to fix the leaks and also an awning that was loose, a door that wouldn't lock and AC vents that weren't grated (and would blow quite a bit of dust daily) were never followed up on. Alpha kept saying soon, soon, and would never show up. even the fence around the house was falling down. finally, we just had to leave, the house was uninhabitable with the leaks. bye bye deposit, we contacted a lawyer, who said the real estate manager had told him that he never received word of the problems. total crook.

[AmericanIMG]

my bad experience #2

flowers water. they are actually not too bad, but watch that bill closely! they have overcharged me quite a few times, but their customer service is great, they refund when u talk to a manager...i am guessing this is a common occurrence.

[AmericanIMG]

my bad experience #3

the west bay Fosters...they sell alot of expired goods. just be careful! the regular fosters is much better. Hurley's is the best on the island, but its about 5 mins past the airport (going away from SMB).

[AmericanIMG]

my bad experience #4

now i know this one will be debated quite a bit...but Tony's toys. don't even THINK to go there for service! they charge an arm and a leg and keep your car for WAY longer then they quote you. plus their cars are wicked over priced.

[Future MD | DM erutuF]

Life in the caribbean is generally relaxed and because of that, the people there who you depend on for timely service are seen as untrustworthy and incompetent. It happens everywhere, at the DMV where you have to get your license (which took me nearly 5 hours), at the bank, even the airline pilots like to be late almost all the time.

Just keep this in mind. People here are friendly, but don't expect American-style service. If anything, ask or say that you are in a hurry and people will generally try to help as much as possible.

[JTP73]

my bad experience #4

now i know this one will be debated quite a bit...but Tony's toys. don't even THINK to go there for service! they charge an arm and a leg and keep your car for WAY longer then they quote you. plus their cars are wicked over priced.My only complaint with Tony's Toys was that when I found a car to buy, Tony (the man himself) said he would call me back when it was ready, and he never did. So I bought from Sony @ Sony's autos, and he provided excellent customer care.

[JTP73]

my bad experience #3

the west bay Fosters...they sell alot of expired goods. just be careful! the regular fosters is much better. Hurley's is the best on the island, but its about 5 mins past the airport (going away from SMB).Yes, Foster's-WB is the ghetto grocery store, but it often beat having to drive through the traffic on WB road all the way to the nicer Foster's. If the traffic is lighter, the Foster's on SMB is definitely cleaner and nicer than the one in WB. I agree: Hurley's is the best.

[JTP73]

Cayman Islands - Islands Rental Services, Grand Cayman (http://www.cayman-properties.com/)

Maybe they are better now that the island has recovered from hurricane Ivan... When I tried to find a place in Cayman, I tried with this company, and everything I was promised was never provided. Eventually, I was forced to arrive on the island without a place to live. Fortunately this happened, as this worked out best, andthe results were far better than had I settled for something unseen over the internet.

[southstar67]

Georgetown Villas, while in a good location (Right behind the dorms), and a beautiful area to live, is not worth the hassle of the management. A coupld of us lived in a few different apartments, but the manager of the place was just evil. She let the construction company have keys to all of our apartments. The end result? I was robbed TWICE. I asked her to change the locks and that no one was allowed to be in our apt without prior notice or one of being home. What happened? I woke up in the afternoon and found 4 men in my apartment, fixing something. It's not the greatest security.

In addition, she wouldnt give us our utilitiy bills at all. In the end it worked out in our favor, because we didn't pay for our electricity, but I do know she went over to a friends apartment and turned off their water manually. We only know this becuase when they called the Water company, the company said that they were not overdue and that the water must have been switched off manually.

We also had bug infestations and my closet was broken for a good three months. Those things never got handled.

Most of us left because of the mismanagement, but one group did stay, and they say that they dont have any problems with her. In my opininon, its poorly run.

[MDTOB]

My bad experience #1:

$300 bar tab at O-bar!

[AmericanIMG]

haha thats cuz u don't know J-Rock! i didn't pay a tab at oBar for the last 8 months in the CI.

;)

[AmericanIMG]

the best way to get around deposit issues is to find a good landlord and pay everything in front, but then u have the problem of the landlord not being responsible...so just live in the dorms.

[MDTOB]

haha thats cuz u don't know J-Rock! i didn't pay a tab at oBar for the last 8 months in the CI.

;)


Definitely something to look forward to when we're back on the rock for graduation, hahahaha!

[kapkaniMD]

The whole island is full of crooks, I think it would be a lot smaller thread if you listed places that can be trusted

[AmericanIMG]

The whole island is full of crooks, I think it would be a lot smaller thread if you listed places that can be trusted


not the whole island, there are a few trust worthy people and places. but remember in the end Cayman thrives on expats and tourists, so its gonna be costly.

the only legit auto repair places i know are through Sony's Auto and this little ghetto place behind Harry's Bar and Grill.

[azulpanther]

remember when working with locals to bargain. All of their first offers are highly inflated. I always end up paying slightly more than half of their original offer. Its unfair to call people crooks. Everyone wants to make that extra buck. Its a tug a war out there. ITs up to you to win.

for example i have never paid my last month rent for anywhere i have lived. In the US and I plan on doing the same thing here. I always end up saying use my deposit to pay for rent. Just gotta work the system

[Drack_MD]

Let's see....

How does this sound: double price, half quality (or portions in restaurants), and minimal service?

I don't know anymore, maybe I lived in US for too long....

[AmericanIMG]

drack,
it all depends on where you go. remember also that the island has to fly in all their food products from FL or Jamrock (except chickens).
you go to a place like Chicken Chicken and you get good food for the money, but you go to a place like...say calypso grill and you are gonna pay an arm and a leg. too bad cayman doesn't have outback anymore, they were great.