<human>: Can you condense the text into three sentences or less?

My girlfriend and I wanted to rent an apartment in Pasadena, California while we were across the country in Boston.

They let us know that they would hold the apartment for ten days, which is when we would be able to make it out there and sign the lease. We would just have to put down a deposit of one month's rent. My girlfriend's mother made sure the company, Ben Leeds Properties was legit, and checked out the apartment. She told us the apartment looked great, and was in a pretty good area, and close to where we needed to be for work and school. At that point we decided to go forth with putting down the deposit of $1,550 on August 2nd.

I emailed the property manager on August 3rd to see if he needed anything else from us. He replied back the next day asking me to pick a date to sign the lease, or if we wanted to do it electronically. I then replied back 40 minutes later and let him know that would be fine with us. Heard nothing back that day.

We emailed him again on August 6th regarding an update. Still no reply.

Emailed him again on day ten of the hold (August 12th) saying that we wanted out because we hadn't heard anything back. He finally replied back on August 15th, apologizing and saying that he had another, larger apartment for rent as well.

We persisted with wanting the money back, so he and the management company agreed to refund the deposit.

During this time of the "hold" the house was still on the market, and being advertised on Craigslist and Trulia. All the while, we get no response from the property manager.
My girlfriend's mother went to pick up the rent check, and they only gave her $800, and are going to mail back the other $200. They told her that since the property was on hold for so long, that they have to keep the other $550.

I took a look at the law, and it seems to check out, but I can't help from thinking that I've been ripped off.

If nothing else comes out of this, then hopefully someone who reads this will avoid a seemingly legal, but terrible tactic.
<bot>: Landlord "holds" apartment for ten days, doesn't answer any communication, then when we want to pull out, they keep the holding deposit.