Now for the "BAD & the UGLY"

[Carl995]

On the other thread I mentioned the most I lost was $500 on a tool locker, but that was a legitimate unit.

One day they opened a 10X30,There was a headboard & night stand in front hugging the front door.
It had dish pack boxes to the ceiling & I couldn't see any further from the front. The boxes were age smashed at the bottom from the weight of the boxes on top & some water damage at the bottoms from water coming in from under the roll up door.

Now I knew this place was dishonest because I have rented there & I've seen them make up units for auction.
But this one looked aged & real. I bought it for $1050. Knowing it was 30 feet deep!

After paying I went back to it, rolled up the door, moved the headboard. As I started to grab one of the top boxes
A bunch of the boxes fell over, THEY WERE EMPTY!! Plowing thru the mess I realized I've been had

Another buyer I knew came by & I told & shown him. I said I was going to research the renter of the unit to prove it & possibly get my money back.
He went to the office & told the manager. I loaded over 1000 lbs of trash that came from the property dumpster including receipts
from many tenants of the storage facility & took it straight to the dump.

Now this manager was always arguing with bidders about religious topics.

As I was driving the truck & trailer monster load of trash out, the manager came out of the office screaming at me.
I rolled down my window & told him he was going to burn in hell for this!!

There was nothing I could do...I was out $1050, a full days work & I had to pay to dump it all.

 

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[Carl995]

I hate it when people store their bird cages with the birds still in them!!
Why can't they just let them go free?

I just had to get that off my chest!!

 

[Carl995]

Inside they opened a 3X3 locker, It had boxes stacked up to about 4 foot high.
They were taped really nice & on the front side each box had a inventory list written on them.
List: Star Wars figures, Hot wheels, Star Trek etc.

I bought the unit for $100. Went back to it & yes they were empty taped boxes.
One of the bottom boxes had some tree pods & leaves where they swept up from the back of the building.

Not a thing you can do......

 

[Carl995]

Inside I bought a 5X15 unit. It had 5 of those large Mayflower type boxes in it & I paid $100 for it.

Went back to it & yep they had some trash in them but were mostly empty.
So from the unit I called the front office there & told them who I was & I needed the last tenants name & phone number
because I found a lot of personal pictures & papers (which I didn't). I can't believe she gave me the name & number!!

I called the guy & I said this is Sam from the storage facility & he immediately got pissed at me

"why are you calling me, I moved out 6 months ago & I got my deposit back because I cleaned it out?".

So I go to the next location & told the auctioneer (same auctioneer that just sold me the unit) & he just smirked at me........

 

[Carl995]

Some locations just before the auction starts, they send one of the employees to the units going up for auction & quickly take out what they want
(& they know what they want from pre scrounging thru the units). If the unit didn't get paid at the last minute, it's a free for all!!
& we knew this location was like that....

So they open a FULL 10X10, on the left side wall was a long dresser with the night stands stacked up high.
Now when they opened the door everybody started laughing as there was a LIT flashlight on top of the night stands!!!
The employee left it in the unit & it was on!!!!!!

 

[kingskid1611]

That happens a lot around here too lots of dishonest storage unit owners. I have gotten in good with a few and they give me a heads up on upcoming units and who owned them. Its also good because if one don't sell guess who gets paid to clean it out...yup this guy.

 

[Ryans Rust]

Three times now I've won a auction only to lose. The bidders paid before the auction was over. Of course those units always seemed to be the most promising.

Never have bought a staged unit. Unknowingly. Here they gather up all the leftovers/donations and call them managers specials. Since our "good" facility has moved to online auctions, I'm now forced to learn the ropes about the shady ones I've always avoided.

Since we're on the topic of bad and ugly....human remains. I've found some in a urn and some in a box from the funeral home. One location said they would take care of them. Give them to employee xxxx. Huh I inquired. They told me the previous owners never come back so them give them all to a certain employee. okay... So on the next find I sent a pic to the storage facility of the small urn so they could contact us if the previous owners came by. Didn't want them to end up in some kids room with lit candles everywhere practicing some weird spells. After so long I took them to the grassy area in front of my store with my son and said some nice words about the nice stuff they had and let them go. Sad.

 

[Honest Samuel]

Carrol, Why do keep going back to the same location?

 

[Carl995]

Carrol, Why do keep going back to the same location?

Every day they go on a different route. To leave the route means you have to sit around somewhere & guess
When their done with that location. Also there's the possibility that the crooked managers aren't looking for older electronics ( what I look for).

 

[weighit]

The one storage place here used to use the term 'house unit' and it would be full of what appeared to be junky house hold stuff. I asked one day and was told that when a renter leaves the storage room with anything inside they would move the items to one large empty storage room. After the room accumulated enough junk they would open it up on one of the normal auction days as a 'house unit' and get whatever the bidders would pay. It was 100% profit for them and they didn't have to fill their dumpster with the stuff. The winner hauled it all away. When i first started going you would see these rooms sell for anywhere from $100 to $300. As more folks got the picture of what was going on, the prices dropped considerably. Last time there one sold for $25.00