My (bad) experience in the gateway

RyDar

First of all I don't want this to be made out as if I'm just badmouthing the gateway, I'm just stating my experience.

I booked a place in the gateway in April, and things seemed nice, they showed us an apartment that was lovely on the inside and promised us an apartment in block B if we booked then, and promised us a balcony because we're all smokers in our apartment, not to mention most of the places in the gateway do have balconies.

The day I'm moving in we're told that we're not in block B but in block F instead, so I thought "okay, sure it's all the same!", I go up to my appartment to find that not only is it much MUCH smaller than the appartment in the rest of the blocks (because it's on a corner), as well as that there was no balcony, and to compound it all, the interior looked nothing like the appartment we were shown. Instead of the wooden floors like the show appartment, there's dirty blue lino full of holes and tears,the couches and chairs were broken, the sink was leaking, most of the lights were broken among other things.
I wouldn't be overly p*ssed off if we hadn't been the first people to book places in the gateway for that year, and hadn't been promised a balcony and an appartment in B or C block (there's lots of first years in those blocks who booked much later than I did), but the state of the appartment is just appauling for the money that we pay. A well as the fact that I have to take the elevator downstairs every time I want to have a smoke!


Next is the Financial experience, the gateway say that their rent is 99 euro a week, that's not true, you pay an extra 16 euro a week for utilities, AND you've got to pay 4.50 for the laundry, which is a disgrace because every appartment used to have a wash-dry combo machine that was free. Next we had to pay 100 euro for a key fob to open up the gate to the underground car park. Sneaky charges and expenses go leor!

General living experience
The Gateway is directly across from the Ballymun flats, now I spent the earlier years of my life in those flats, and it's no secret the things that go on there. There is constant noise from teenagers driving scramblers up and down, shouting etc. and I mean constant.
One time I was opening the window when some drunken teenagers seen me and started shouting abuse at me, so I closed the curtains, then they started hurling bottles and bangers at my window and it went on for hours.

Also the student leaving from the secondary school across the way are constantly giving abuse to the resident of the gateway walking home.

Recently as you may already know there has been a spate of burglaries at the gateway, 2 burglaries are confirmed but there are many more people who complain of having their stuff stolen. This has many of the residents EXTREMELY worried. There was also an incident of a student getting held up with a knife, in fact there was a student stabbed there a few years ago! And we're ALL very vulnerable stumbling back from NuBar with a few pints in us!

Having fun
You can't even have a quiet get-together of a few friends in your appartment without security knocking at your door telling you to keep it down, even though you're being quiet already!! For instance I had 3 friends over and we were watching a film, normal volume, we weren't drunk or being loud or anything and we're told to keep it down...RIDICULOUS!


The gateway management have introduced fines for "antisocial behaviour",they are as follows :

100 euro for making noise after 11.30

200 for parties PER PERSON IN THE APARTMENT,YES INCLUDING YOUR GUESTS!


And last but not least.....the "internet"
The internet in Gateway is AWFUL, you CANNOT download a file over ~20-30mb because the connection cuts out, not to mention the speeds are TERRIBLE, when I did a speedtest on the connection I got 0.3mbps!!
You can't stream a video, can't download any big files, can't game online, you can only BARELY browse the internet (that is, if the internet doesn't cut out).
The internet in gateway has a habit of cutting out for hours, even days on end! I could honestly say that it seems the internet connection is broken more often than it's working, and I use the term "working" very lightly....


Put all these things into consideration before you even think of booking a place in the gateway, the management are sneaky and will pull the wool over your eyes and tell you everything's perfect, the fact is; it's not, it's FAAAAAAR from it! There's a reason why they haven't been able to fill up all the rooms in the gateway!!
For all these reasons I have moved out of the gateway and I'm not even considering booking a place for next semester, the fact is, the gateway is not worth the money you pay for it.


Sorry if it's a bit longwinded, but I can't put into words how bad the gateway is compared to places like Shanowen or even campus accommodation! I've made good friends in the gateway, and I'll probably be popping round every so often, but not a chance am I going back to that hole of a place :mad:

Cheers lads

robby^5

Here can we not just have one gateway super-thread? There's plenty open as is. That way the gateway person can do all their damage-control in one thread

Also TL;DR.

Hauk

For lolz, I changed "Gateway" to "Colditz".

First of all I don't want this to be made out as if I'm just badmouthing Colditz, I'm just stating my experience.

I booked a place in Colditz in April, and things seemed nice, they showed us an apartment that was lovely on the inside and promised us an apartment in block B if we booked then, and promised us a balcony because we're all smokers in our apartment, not to mention most of the places in the gateway do have balconies.

The day I'm moving in we're told that we're not in block B but in block F instead, so I thought "okay, sure it's all the same!", I go up to my appartment to find that not only is it much MUCH smaller than the appartment in the rest of the blocks (because it's on a corner), as well as that there was no balcony, and to compound it all, the interior looked nothing like the appartment we were shown. Instead of the wooden floors like the show appartment, there's dirty blue lino full of holes and tears,the couches and chairs were broken, the sink was leaking, most of the lights were broken among other things.
I wouldn't be overly p*ssed off if we hadn't been the first people to book places in Colditz for that year, and hadn't been promised a balcony and an appartment in B or C block (there's lots of first years in those blocks who booked much later than I did), but the state of the appartment is just appauling for the money that we pay. A well as the fact that I have to take the elevator downstairs every time I want to have a smoke!


Next is the Financial experience, Colditz say that their rent is 99 euro a week, that's not true, you pay an extra 16 euro a week for utilities, AND you've got to pay 4.50 for the laundry, which is a disgrace because every appartment used to have a wash-dry combo machine that was free. Next we had to pay 100 euro for a key fob to open up the gate to the underground car park. Sneaky charges and expenses go leor!

General living experience
Colditz is directly across from the Jewish Ghetto, now I spent the earlier years of my life in that ghetto, and it's no secret the things that go on there. There is constant noise from teenagers driving scramblers up and down, shouting etc. and I mean constant.
One time I was opening the window when some drunken teenagers seen me and started shouting abuse at me, so I closed the curtains, then they started hurling bottles and bangers at my window and it went on for hours.

Also the student leaving from the secondary school across the way are constantly giving abuse to the resident of the gateway walking home.

Recently as you may already know there has been a spate of break outs at Colditz, 2 breakouts are confirmed but there are many more people who complain of missing cell mates. This has many of the residents EXTREMELY worried. There was also an incident of a student getting held up with a knife, in fact there was a student stabbed there a few years ago! And we're ALL very vulnerable stumbling back from NuBar with a few pints in us!

Having fun
You can't even have a quiet get-together of a few friends in your appartment without security knocking at your door telling you to keep it down, even though you're being quiet already!! For instance I had 3 cellmates over and we were watching a film, normal volume, we weren't drunk or being loud or anything and we're told to keep it down...RIDICULOUS!


The Colditz management have introduced fines for "antisocial behaviour",they are as follows :

100 euro for making noise after 11.30

200 for parties PER PERSON IN THE APARTMENT,YES INCLUDING YOUR GUESTS!


And last but not least.....the "internet"
The internet in Colditz is AWFUL, you CANNOT download a file over ~20-30mb because the connection cuts out, not to mention the speeds are TERRIBLE, when I did a speedtest on the connection I got 0.3mbps!!
You can't stream a video, can't download any big files, can't game online, you can only BARELY browse the internet (that is, if the internet doesn't cut out).
The internet in Colditz has a habit of cutting out for hours, even days on end! I could honestly say that it seems the internet connection is broken more often than it's working, and I use the term "working" very lightly....


Put all these things into consideration before you even think of booking a place in Colditz, the management are sneaky and will pull the wool over your eyes and tell you everything's perfect, the fact is; it's not, it's FAAAAAAR from it! There's a reason why they haven't been able to fill up all the rooms in Colditz!!
For all these reasons I have moved out of Colditz and I'm not even considering booking a place for next semester, the fact is, Colditz is not worth the money you pay for it.


Sorry if it's a bit longwinded, but I can't put into words how bad Colditz is compared to places like Shanowen or even campus accommodation! I've made good friends in Colditz, and I'll probably be popping round every so often, but not a chance am I going back to that hole of a place

Goddamn Nazis!

But yeah, in all seriousness, it sounds awful.

Sounds like a bit of a ****-hole.

andyman

How can they fine guests? What will happen if they don't pay it like?

slasher_65

They take it out of the deposit you apparently are unlikely to get back anyway.

RyDar

yep slaser,gateway are notorious for taking away deposits, one fellow was charged 100 euro after he moved it because supposedly the place was in such a state that cleaners had to be hired. The fact is that the place was spotlessly clean, there was no cleaners needed, and to top it off there wasn't actually any cleaners called in,the place was in the exact same state as it was left,including a letter of complaint still on the kitchen table when the next residents moved in.

discus

Hauk wrote: »

For lolz, I changed "Gateway" to "Colditz".

Douglas Bader wouldn't even get out of Gateway!

MrPirate

I've heard it's a sh*thole. I think I've talked to you in person before about it. Really makes Hazelwood seems so much better!