<p>After 12 years of college costs, the single most disheartening sight was the mess left inside a common room on the final day of one college. Giving students a half-day between the last day of finals and drop-deadline to be out of the dorm rooms, everyone was scrambling to get out. Dumpsters overflowed outside, so that it became impossible for students to dispose well of trashbags, even if they wanted to. Campus trash pickup couldn’t keep up with the pace of the disposal. It got very Woodstocky. </p>
<p>Word spread, and the students kind of gave up on doing it responsibly, just leaving their trashbags in the woodplanked living room of a beautiful Victorian home that had been dorm to 30. Unfortunately, too, some students are fools and threw away bottles containing alcohol, liquids of all sorts, cleaning chemicals, whatever. The weight of the bags, piled ceiling high, crushed bottom bags. A stream of putrid liquid, inches deep, spread out all over the floor. </p>
<p>When I received “our” share of the Common Room damage, although I was there and can be sure my own kid didn’t cause any of it, I recognized that the college had no other way to collect the money to restore the wood floors that were ruined that day. They also assigned a fee to all 30 families for the custodial time to dispose of the piled-up bags from indoors. It was called “improper trash disposal fee.”</p>
<p>Everything else about the college was so well run, it stood in appalling contrast. I felt upset at the students for being careless and irritated at the college for rushing them out.</p>
<p>OP’s dresser is one specific piece of furniture. I guess my comment relates more to the poster above who wondered about Common Room damage fees. If I hadn’t seen this scene with my own eyes, I couldn’t have imagined why I got such a bill.</p>
<p>I don’t know about your daughters school but I remember when I got the keys to my dorm room it came with a paper that I had to fill out and sign. It had every piece of furniture and fixture in the room listed on it. We were supposed to inspect each item and then if there was any issue with it, we were to write down the defect next to it. We then had to sign it and hand it in, and at the end of the year we had to fill out the same paper. Never had any kind of fees. But they basically used your before and after to determine if you damaged your room or not.</p>
<p>I remember writing down small things like Mark on floor, scratch on heater, things like that… just in case.</p>
<p>I remember during junior year we moved to a new apartment building owned by the school but a few blocks off campus and we had to fill out the paper. It was a brand new building and next to smoke detector we wrote Drips water.</p>
<p>WIthin the first few months, several times the buildings fire alarm was tripped by our apartment. Nobody could ever figure it out. Then one night it went off at like 3 am and the firemen came in our room to inspect it… they pulled it down from the wall and a little bit of water came out of our ceiling! Here the apartment above us had a leak in its bathroom and the water was drpping right onto our smoke detector. Not like gushing out or to the point that it would have broken our ceiling, but enough that it was dripping through the smoke detector!! The school gave us like a 600 dollar credit towards food as an apology or something along those lines… so we used it at the resteraunt in our basement and didn’t have to pay for any dinners practically that whole semester!</p>
<p>??? The dressers in the ad above are made of composite board and MDF. They would not last more than a year or two. All of the dorm furniture my kiddos have had at 4 different schools was very heavy and solidly built wood - the type that lasts for years.</p>
<p>The bulk price wouldn’t be $140 per drawer. That has to cover the overhead of dealing with parents who like to “jerk them around a bit more”, plus the normal extra costs associated with one-off replacements. These events are disruptive to running a business or any type of operation.</p>
<p>I was just as annoyed as the OP about a similar bill last year. Both students in the room were billed $40 each for “carpet cleaning”. Frankly, the carpet was full of stains when my kid moved into this freshman dorm. I paid it, but was annoyed. I felt that this was just a way to get another few nickels out of a certain percentage of students (or parents). </p>
<p>This year when moved our son in we saw real damage to furnishings. Someone wrote on furniture with permanent markers. We took lots of pictures of the entire room, expecting another bill. This year we did not get a bill for room damage. My son was sure that we would since his roommate moved out a week after my son did and RM told my son that he won’t vacuum the floor before he moves out. Room checks happen after the last person moves out. I thought our son would get billed for the writing on the furniture, but he did not get charged.</p>
<p>barrons-- I am the crazy lady who takes picture after picture of the rental car. I am absolutely not going to let them say I did something that I did not do. The last rental tried to reasure me that minor things did not matter…
I think it would have been and could be a great idea to take pics of a kids dorm room.
Just make sure you get it all. I know the first room my S was assigned to had broken blinds and I was concerned enought to insist he put on the paperwork for fear that 9 months later they would charge him.
In his 2 years there we paid $300 “damage” for the entire dorm population. If someone vomited it the elevator then everyone paid. It got very old.</p>
<p>Our D was very mad she & all her room mates were assessed for a small burn on the carpet of her dorm suite living room. It was very small but she swore it hadn’t happened while she lived there. Since we had no photos, ALL the girls who lived in the suite were assessed & unhappily paid. </p>
<p>S was praised by his landlady for being so helpful around the apartment building. She still dinged him & his room mate for cleaning fees when the moved out! Go figure! It seems like a way for them to recoup money, I think.</p>
<p>When DS was in the dorms they had a check in-check out system with the RA and noted the damage. Freshman year he got charged $100 for a “carpet stain”. Now mind you the carpet was pretty disgusting to begin with, and they planned to clean the carpet anyway. Had I known they were going to charge for the stain, I’d have brought carpet cleaner and removed it myself. I negotiated the charge down to $40 and paid it.</p>
<p>Soph year I planned ahead, and came armed with cleaning products. I ended up cleaning the shared bathroom between the 2 rooms. I will not even BEGIN to tell you how disgusting that was. We still talk about it. The only reason I did it (besides not wanting to have to fight any charges) is that he was way behind in packing, had to be out by a certain time, we also had to leave by a certain time to drive the 8 hrs back, drop him off and drive another 6 hrs to get to a funeral , and it was is birthday. Happy birthday. Never again.</p>
<p>The college also charged everyone on the floor a percentage for any damage that was done on the floor. THey would send an email with the reason for the charge. Gross. Really gross.</p>
<p>I gave up on the rental car front. They go from not caring about door nicks and scratches to counting every one, and the lighting is often not good when you get the car. Amex has a $20 a rental (not a day) plan that you just set up for your card. I look for the big stuff, but I’m not sweating the small stuff any longer. (And given all the parking lot dings from other doors and carts it is worth it.)</p>
<p>My D is an RA and at her college when a student moves in she goes with them inspects everything including the inside of dresser drawers, desk drawers, night stands, closets, etc. If there is any danage what so ever it is written down and both get a copy of it. Actually since my D is always there 2 weeks before the residents they do inspections when no one is there and try to get any damage repaired before the students arrive. At check out they again go over everything with the RA and if the room is shared then both residents are asked to be there when one checks out so that they again both sign off saying what condition the room is in when the one leaves. Then when the other one leaves my D goes over the room again with the remaining resident and again signs off on any damage. If there was damage after the first one left the second is fully responsible so they take great care when inspecting when one leaves.</p>
<p>Just a note for all you car renters out there. Light scratches can be taken care of by using one of those instant shine sponges for shoes. Black is good for darker cars and there is a clear one for clear coat scratches in lighter cars. The only thing that makes the scratched spot noticeable was it was the only spot on the car that shed water, but after a couple days of driving it blended in better.</p>