Thursday, April 26, 2012

University of South Alabama Students Are "Rooming With Roaches" at The Grove


Ted Rollins grew up in the family that owns Orkin Pest Control, so you might think that his student-housing complexes would be relatively bug free. But you would be wrong.

Students who live at The Grove apartments on the University of South Alabama campus say they have been overun with roaches for months. And students say officials with Campus Crest Communities, the company that has built apartments under The Grove banner at about 30 universities around the country, have not done much to help.

Channel 15 in Mobile has a report titled "Rooming With Roaches at The Grove." The story is dripping with irony when you consider that Ted Rollins is the CEO of Campus Crest Communities. And his billionaire cousins, Randall and Gary Rollins, are the heads of Atlanta-based Rollins Inc., the parent company of Orkin Pest Control.

We have written extensively about Ted Rollins' legal and personal affairs in Alabama, especially a dubious divorce case he filed in Shelby County back in 2004, even though Sherry Carroll Rollins had already sued him for divorce in 2001--in Greenville, South Carolina, where the family lived and jurisdiction was established. The Shelby County divorce was handled in such a grossly unlawful manner that it left Ms. Rollins and the couple's two daughters on food stamps in Birmingham. Now it looks like Ted Rollins business affairs might be even creepier than his personal affairs.

It's not clear what company handles the pest-control contract for Campus Crest Communities, but we would say there's a strong possibility that it's Orkin. So why can't perhaps the best-known extermination company in the world keep roaches out of student apartments--especially at a complex that is owned and operated by a company that is part of the Rollins family?

The answer to that question is not clear. But this much is clear: Students in Mobile are not happy with living conditions at The Grove. From reporter Andrea Ramey at localtv15.com:

University of South Alabama students living at The Grove apartments say they've been rooming with roaches for months now, and they say management hasn't done much about it. 
"Roaches are everywhere. They come out from behind the stove when you cook. They come up from the side of the fridge. I mean, everywhere," said a South Alabama student, who didn't want to be identified. 
She says she routinely complains about the bug infestation but says not much is done about it. 
"The only thing they say is keep the drains closed. Keep the toilet lid closed and they can only spray once every other week or every two weeks, and we can't permanently be put on a list for him to spray. We have to put in a request every week. We've gotten pushed back," the student said.

How bad is the problem? From Ramey's report:

"They're being shy right now," said another student who lives there as he opened up a kitchen cabinet. 
"I've been sitting in my bedroom and seen bugs going up the walls or all around in my bed room drawer," said one of the residents. 
But to get away from the creepy crawlies isn't cheap. The student who didn't want to be identified says she's requested a different apartment but was told her and her roommate would be charged $500. 

Some students have decided to address the problem themselves:

Until management acts, this student says she'll keep buying bug spray and just hope the critters stay in the kitchen. 
"Roaches like to crawl in your ears at night whenever you sleep. So it's kind of scary at night going to sleep knowing that they're in the kitchen and all it's going to take is crawling under my door," she said.

Having to worry at night about roaches crawling in your ears? Gee, that must really help the old grade-point average. Is that what Campus Crest Communities means by it's marketing slogan, "Fully Loaded Living"?

Here is the Channel 15 report:



16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm still trying to recover from the part about roaches crawling in your ears at night.

James Greek said...

Roger:

Orkin has some problems themselves.

They have been investigated numerous times for shoddy practices. One source cited they got 15,000 customer complaints. They were investigated for racketeering in Florida and that's where the 15,000 complaints in came from. The investigation came on top of multiple lawsuits around the state alegging fraud and poor perfromance.

James Greek said...

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/07/10/Business/Orkin_s_tactics_are_f.shtml

James Greek said...

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/05/10/TampaBay/Orkin__complex_settle.shtml

legalschnauzer said...

Interesting info, James. Thanks for sharing. The primary defense law firm for Orkin/Rollins Inc. appears to be Sidley Austin of Chicago. They are the sixth largest firm in U.S., and I suspect they are involved in the cases you reference. I also suspect their clout has helped Ted Rollins and other family members get out of some legal jams. including child abuse.

Anonymous said...

I bet they have the skies contracts too, spraying our skies with poisons since the 1950s, in reality.

BUT, America really got smart when the Vietnam War taught the real down and dirty trick of Agent Orange and how to make lots of people sick and of course the best is making people in large masses, dead.

Then these RICH people of America get to have lots of booty.

PIRATES were who did the cove in Great Britain and it took three times for the Vikings to drive them out of that great ship Lollypop and where did they go?

America, the families who were blood lined to King John the worst and then of course the blood lines of blue bloods must carry on the family businesses!

How convenient to spray the skies so the people breathe the poisons and think they are not whole. Wow, can't kill the roaches in the ears though!

We're in deep you know what!

/rk

You and Crystal Cox are the true American Working Hero Class by the way, but scary knowing how much verve you two are sharing cause you know what the RICH do to the caring who share in the U.S.

James Greek said...

Also in 2001, New York AG Elliot Spitzer instituted measures to reform Orkin advertising and arbitration for it's termite services.

James Greek said...

Roger,

Do you plan to do,a blogpost about all this?

legalschnauzer said...

James: Do you mean a post about the other Orkin-related issues referenced above? I might; haven't decided what's coming next on the blog. But that is interesting material, and I suspect it is not widely known by the public, outside of Florida perhaps. Gives a lot of insight into the kind of business ethics that produced Ted Rollins. It really jumps out that in one case, Orkin apparently was conducting fake termite inspection--taking money and not doing any work. That's pretty low.

jeffrey spruill said...

Roaches like to crawl in your ears at night when ever you sleep.

*

Behavior learned from their Uncle Ted Rollins.

James Greek said...

I wish those roaches can say: "Let's get Uncle Ted!"

James Greek said...

I posted some stories on your blog as well.

James Greek said...

I men hur Facebook

David said...

Roaches are said to be the only species that can withstand a nucleat attack.

legalschnauzer said...

Maybe Campus Crest is trying to teach South Alabama students survival skills.

e.a.f. said...

I'd withhold a portion of my rent & have an exterminator come in from an other company.

An other solution is to kill the roaches & mail them to Rollins but it is interesting that his buildings are infested with roaches. Perhaps like seeks out like.