Your Money is Not Safe with Buildium
Reviewed on 2021-04-26T17:11:06
I've been with Buildium for almost 3 years now. They try on their interface and their website platform,but when it comes to the most important aspect, the money/accounting, the support is non-existent and they don't take responsibility for their errors.
Customer service in regards to questions on the use of the website is pretty good; they know what they're talking about and are helpful. And they're usually improving the website and features over time. No complaints there.
When it comes to accounting though, the customer service reps sound like they're working from home and put you on hold after every question so they can search for a canned response and then they keep repeating it in different ways instead of getting to the root of the problem.
Their Accounting/Compliance and Risk department is not on top of things, negligent and irresponsible. They didn't forward a chargeback dispute form to me in a timely fashion when one of my tenants decided to dispute their rent payment with their bank and the payment was reversed 5 WEEKS LATER on my end! That's an ACH payment. Unbelievable.
Now that I have raised the issue with Buildium they forwarded me another 3 months of rent payments dispute forms by the same tenant that was sent to Buildium 3 weeks ago by the tenant's bank, with a 10 day deadline for a response. I responded the same day with the signed lease and other supporting documentation, but now I may be out 4 months of rent from a tenant that actually paid it but decided to claim that they didn't, all because Buildium's Accounting / Compliance and Risk department didn't forward me the proper paperwork in time.
After I raised this issue with Buildium, they said there is nothing they can do and that I should talk to my tenant and figure it out with them. My tenant has blocked all communication from me and is clearly trying to milk the system.
The way it works is Buildium receives all the tenants payments, then sends them to you a few days later. When the tenant disputes, the dispute goes to Buildium. If Buildium doesn't forward you the dispute so you can address it and show proof that it was authorized by the tenant, then the dispute time window expires and you're out your money. But you'll never know it until the money is reversed from your account, or unless Buildium forwards you the dispute form (which apparently is highly unlikely). Then it's too late and Buildium doesn't take any responsibility. All they care about is charging their service fee, the rent is not their money, so they don't care if it's charged back or not.
I am so disappointed with this negligent attitude and lack of responsibility from Buildium. I will be looking for a different property management company now that Buildium has lost my trust. I wanted to warn others that your money is not safe with Buildium.read more
Closed 6 days for thanksgiving...crazy
Reviewed on 2020-11-25T23:21:19
The web site after logging in says, Customer Service is CLOSED from Wednesday, Nov 25 2020 to Monday the 29th.wow..... closed that many days and I pay an arm and a leg for the software! If you have a desperate accounting issue as I have and even called on the 24th, but to talk to someone that clearly was trying to wing it and figure out the problem in real time as I was, and asking questions that clearly proved this person had no idea how the software works. Clearly this rep on the phone knew nothing about banking, I get put on hold, then she comes back an wings it more, then put me on hold again and moments later at 4:45 pm I get cut off, did she call me back as Buildum used to....nope she did not. Buildium is going down hill, this used to be an excellent place and now....complete 100 degree the opposite. Search other products, I would not use Buildium.read more
Do not care about fair treatment. All they want is Money!
Reviewed on 2020-09-24T08:04:11
I have been a customer of Buildium for 5-6 years. I saw them grow. Today, once they are more stable and more successful as many people gave them their trust and loyalty,Buildium became a robot. Yes, A Robot, with no Human touch. You want to speak to someone, you need to pay extra. Otherwise, you simply create a ticket, and then you may wait for a reply for several days. For us, the Property Managers, who are committed to high service quality standards before out customers, this issue is really causing problems. Also, in July I prepaid Buildium services for 300 units. Actually for both Buildium and HappyCo. With all Covid 19, my business lost units, and I asked to return some money for unused units. They replied that I need to downgrade. I went ahead and downgraded, no refund is offered. They they replied that they will process a refund. After, they said they will not give me anything :( This is a very sad to see a company with heart going to this low and take advantage of loyal people who once gave them their business and trust, which helped them to grow.read more
They don't stand behind their product
Reviewed on 2020-09-17T16:36:54
I paid for the full year to get a small discount, was informed that the on-boarding was easy to do,short story is it wasn't. We could never get the accounting accurate despite several attempts and constantly restarting. We asked if we should wait until the new year but were told no. The service was only used for 2 of the properties. At six month mark requested the rest of the year be refunded and they refused, I was okay paying for the 6 months of a product that didn't work but they pushed back and stated their product is a self-service product and blamed us for the program not working the way it should. I would literally use ANY other program or paper and pencil before paying for Buildium.read more
Property Manager Uses It, I Do Not Like It
Reviewed on 2020-08-19T12:34:57
Our property manager uses this software and it is not very good. Putting photos in the community discussions is not easy and the result is not good.The photos get cut off sometimes, other times the aspect ratio changes so the photo is stretched or shrunk. The billing statements online are confusing. Access from a mobile device is very difficult.read more
Reviewed on 2020-07-06T15:59:50
We love Buildium and highly recommend it to all small property owners.
Reviewed on 2020-06-27T14:28:25
easy to use. phone support is a great help. i can't stand those companies that don't offer phone support.buildium helps streamline so much. just wish they would allow tenant files to compartmentalize in one place. For example, tenant app, screening docs, inspection reports, tasks, requests, etc. These things should automatically be accessible in the tenant summary page. Instead, I need to go to inspections-find that tenant report, etc. It is a bit annoying to have to go to 3 or 4 different places, then download, then upload just to have a complete working history of a tenant file.read more
Need more access for international…
Reviewed on 2020-06-25T14:33:00
Need more access for international clients. Do to protocols clients cannot access their ownerportal.read more