What I see is. 99 % of apartment's staffs are crooked, especially if you are not Gores\ Kales. I went through similar situations while back but I let the bank handle the claim on my behalf because luckily I had paid with my cc for the deposits and all.

Atiranjeet is right.
At this point landlord is stubborn and wants to keep your money, I will highly recommend you to consider filing suit in justice court.

I have the steps for you:

1. Ask the landlord in writing for the property owners information. You be dealing with the boss from now on.
2. Contact the county tax assessor or google if they don't give you the owner's detail.
3. Send a demand letter, requesting your money - just give 2 weeks to respond.
4. File a suit in justice court requesting your 3 * deposit.

Law says, "you are entitled to 3 * deposit if the apartment keeps it in a bad faith". Include this in the demand letter and the suit both, also include date, time, name of person, pictures,and all the efforts that you took to get your deposit back,these are very important.

Good Luck Man !!

Dude
Once i had file a complaint to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) www.bbb.org , and the crook ppl got back to me. you do not have to pay any money to complaint. you have to fill as many information as possible in detail in their website and BBB will contact that apartment head office for false faith.