Have you ever stored your belongings at a storage company?
By fpd1955
@fpd1955 (2074)
United States
March 3, 2008 7:40am CST
I did about 25 years ago. It was horrifying. I stored it at a place that was owned by a very old man. One day I went to get something out of my unit and all my stuff was gone!! Apparently the unit next to mine was delinquent in payment, so the man auctioned the goods. Only problem was, he cut the lock on my unit and sold my goods. I was terribly upset, called the police to file a report. Ya know what the cop said to me when he showed up? "Take it easy on him, he's an old man." I had to go to the home of the people that took my stuff and get it back. Only problem was, they threw out all of my personal stuff, yearbooks and a lot of pictures of my deceased Dad and Grandma. A lawyer called me up (must have read the police report) and wanted to know if I wanted to file a suit against this man. I said no. Sure, it would get me money, but that wouldn't replace those items that were precious to me.
The moral of this story is, never store your most personal possessions at a public storage company.
Have you ever used a storage company? Did you have any problems with them?
PEACE
3 people like this
10 responses
@Gwatson (58)
• United States
4 Mar 08
I would have sued him all the way to the bank. It wouldn't have brought back those very personal items, but at least you'd have something to "replace" them.
I've stored belongings at a storage company before. There weren't any extremely personal items as far as I know. However, the items were expensive! There was some vintage furniture that I found at a flea market, brand new recreational items, you name it. Needless to say, I was very steamed!
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
6 Sep 08
I haven't but one of our old foster kids did last year. He stored all his stuff, alot that I'd bought for him, including his tv, pc, pictures, clothes, household stuff, appliances, you name it. Then he went to Oklahoma and never paid on it. They sold it all off. I just found out about it a couple days ago and I was mad...I mean I can't believe that he just left it. You'd think he would have at least called so we could get the important stuff out of it.
[b]**AT PEACE WITHIN**
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~ [/b]
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
7 Sep 08
I was so mad when I heard he did that. I can't understand how ppl just leave their stuff...I couldn't do it. I've seen some of the bills my Mom gets for hers and I can't believe ppl spend that kind of money to store things. If they don't want them, get rid of them...if they do want them, then use them.
[b]**AT PEACE WITHIN**
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~ [/b]
@fpd1955 (2074)
• United States
7 Sep 08
Yeah, I cannot believe people let their stuff get sold at auction when they do not pay their storage rent. I work for Public Storage and we try very hard to get them in to pay, so they don't lose their stuff. Also, some of their late fees are more than the original rent!
PEACE
@lordwarwizard (35747)
• Singapore
4 Mar 08
Oh gosh. That must have s*cked real bad.
I have never needed to store my stuffs elsewhere... thank goodness!
I got a friend keeping a pair of old smelly shoes for me and he even asked me if I wanted it back - I told him to just dump them.:P
@etavasi (749)
• Malaysia
3 Mar 08
Hi fpd1955, you should never do that again my friends. This never happen to me but I just think that the old man have no fault in this situation. You should think about this. Old man have not good in mind, somtimes they will forget about anything like you belongings. Just forgive the old man. Maybe he forget already. One day when we old already, we also start to forget all thing.
@fpd1955 (2074)
• United States
3 Mar 08
Well, he had to cut my lock and should have paid more attention to the unit number he was cutting open, after all I paid him a good amount of money to secure my stuff!
Being old is not an excuse from a man running a business. If he is too old to run it properly, he should have retired!
And he had 100% fault in this matter. He had the power to cut the lock and auction off my stuff.
Thankfully, there are better storage options out there today, mainly Public Storage in my area. I know of many people that use this company and have never had a problem, as long as they pay their bill.
PEACE
@nova1945 (1612)
• United States
3 Mar 08
I was the resident manager of a storage company for 5 years. It was a large corporation (Public Storage Inc) and we used to have a lot of break-ins. You are right that one should never store personal or irreplacable items in those units. They are not safe. I am amazed that the wrong unit was auctioned off though. We did lock cuts under dual control with the district manager so that every safeguard was taken to verify the unit. But some of those privately owned facilities are worse. I could tell you stories that would make your toenails curl about what some people will put in those units (and do in those units.) Sorry you lost your goods That must have been a nightmare for you.
@magikrose (5429)
• United States
3 Mar 08
We used public storage a few years ago and we didnt have any problems with them at all. The diffrence was they were a large storage place not a privately owned one so we didnt have those problems.
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
3 Mar 08
Hi there, my husband and I had stored our suitcases several times at the small private storage near the railway station and bus station, when we were having our vacation in the foreign countries. We were lucky that when we took back our belongings we found that nothing was missing.
@izathewzia (5134)
• Philippines
4 Mar 08
I haven't tried doing it yet. And surely will not. Except for those jewelries and money that are being safekeep in a bank with a minimal payment.
@justabloke (526)
• United States
3 Mar 08
My wife did it about a year before we got married and when we eventually got there to pick up the stuff, they had changed the locks for non payment.
To be fair, once we paid up for the missing months(only about 3) then we got out stuff.
