SC's of storage

[Aut]

From time to time I get people looking for storage that act like I set their car on fire when they see our prices. They irritate me, but I really don't mind that they don't want storage here at that price. I'm a horrible sales person, lol, and being a small facility near many apartments, filling them up is usually not a problem.

Had a couple come in yesterday that got upset when they found out the price. But they were just an odd occurance when you roll all their suckiness into one incidence. They fought and much car door slamming was involved all while he was trying all the doors before actually reading the "ring bell for service" sign on the clearly marked office door (all doors are generally kept locked at all times). She stormed off when finding out the price. And they asked several times for a person that was not me. Turns out they had the wrong storage place.

Had one guy that we called the cray guy. He came in one day looking for a large storage unit. At the moment we didn't have any vacant, but we had an auction coming up that weekend and one would be available then. He hung out in the office way too long after that. On the day of the auction, he returns very shortly after the auction ended and was rather impatient for the unit to become available. The owner's wife usually hangs out in the office with me on auction days for security, and I'm glad she was there that day. He was there way too long and she didn't want to rent to him because he was rather creepy. She told the owner, but he was a paying customer, so the owner saw no issue. He tol us all kinds of tales about how sucky his last storage place is, and I kind of believed him. Turns out I would learn the SC was really the problem. He moves his stuff in and within a week needs an additional unit. We accomodate. I start suspecting this guy is homeless. He's there all day from the moment we open the gate in the morning until about dusk. I run into him waiting for me to open the gate (and when the kids don't have school, I go out in my pj's to do that). Or I would see him walking in circles in the parking lot of a business 2 doors down. That really creeped me out. One evening, a pizza delivery guy shows up. I hadn't ordered a pizza. I had the back door open to enjoy the nice weather and a chair in the doorway to keep my littlest one in while the other kids played outside. The pizza guys pushes past the chair and I head him off but he's trying to push his way past me into my kitchen. That was bizarre in itself. We had a hard time understnading each other a because of language, and because I didn't order any pizza. Turns out it was the crazy, hanging out in his unit and when it finally dawned on me, I sent pizza guy back there. One Sunday, we arrive home from church, see that crazy guy has his stuff spread all over the driveway. The hubby drives up and tells him he can't block the drive like that and lucky for me, I was the only that saw the load of porn he had displayed on one side (glad the kids didn't see it). It's just a whole odd atmosphere here whil crazy guy is a tenant. One night, after he'd been here about 5 weeks, we get a phone call from one of the neighbors (one building of the apartment complex next door looks right over the side of the property where his big unit is). We find out that crazy guy has been sneeking onto the property late at night. Not only that, but they have witnessed acts of lewdness and indecency from him during the day. So he has pretty much been living in his storage unit. The decision came down from the owner that we would overlock his unit at night and he was asked to vacate when his rent was up. Of course he denied any wrong doing. That wasn't the last of him though. He moved his things the nearby storage and I saw him walking around all the time. No doubt those managers heard tales of how sucky we were. Haven't seen him for a while, I imagine he got kicked out of there too.

A drunk guy comes in once and wanted us to cut the lock off to his wife's storage. We only cut locks off for the leaseholders. He just wanted to get some videos out to sell for more booze. Hubby was there to help get rid of him that day. He returned the next week when I was alone, even more drunk. He made some comment about how he needed to quit drinking, I agreed and he turned on me. Needless to say I was scared. But I managed to get rid of him. Never saw him again after that.

Auctioned off a unit for non payment. You can call all you want and tell me you're going to make a payment, but until you actually make a payment, no matter how small, we have no resone to believe you. Woman calls and lays into me for selling her stuff. All politeness on my part quickly went out the window (and remember, I am very nonconfrontational). I let her have it. Told her if she had paid her rent, she wouldn't have this problem. She screams several times about how we did something illegal. Told her we had every right, and it wasn't my problem. Colorful words start coming from her and I hung up on her. I'm very rattled by this, so when she calls back, I hand the phone to the hubby. He's trying to be polite, but I can hear the yelling and language spewing from the phone. He gives up on politeness too and upon realizing it wasn't going to go anywhere, tells her to call back during office hours and hangs up. She called back again, but we didn't answer. It had me so rattled, I went out and bought pepper spray the next day. Never heard from her again.

I have more, but no time at the moment.

[freeatlast]

I work for a portable storage unit company and the auction customers are usually crazy. Once they are at least 60 days past due, we will repo their containers. It is really fun when they call in a panic to say that they just got home and their container is gone. That's when I get to drop the bomb that it was repo'd for non-payment. And once they are scheduled for auction, they are required to pay in full. We will not accept any smaller payments. They call and want to play "let's make a deal." The people who call after their stuff is auctioned are nuts, too. Many grown men cry when they find out that we were indeed serious about payment, and when it didn't come we went ahead with the threat to sell their stuff.

[lobo94]

I can back up what freeatlast says.

[Aut]

It's always kind of funny when they don't whink we're serious. The owner really doesn't want to put on an auction because it costs so much to do so with all the permits and insurance and advertising that we need to do by law. So people can get up to a year past due before we sell it. He will also try to work out arrangements with people. But we have one gal here that apparantly knows how to work the system. She pays a little every couple of months, thus resetting the time schedule on what happens before it can go up for auction. Seriously, she has baby stuff in her unit. I'm sure her baby grew out of it 3 years ago. And she's had no access to the unit for about 4 years (not until she pays in full).


Have a woman now that is a repeat renter. The first time, she fell behind and her church bailed her out. This time, she's got no help. Paid to get her stuff in, and that was it. For a year, she called every month begging us not to sell her stuff and she was going to try to get some money. Then the calls dropped off for months. Every once in a while, she calles out of the blue, same story. The owner tried to make a deal with her - pay a fraction of what's due and vacate, and there's an expiration date on this offer. She called everyday for a week to let me know she was trying to get the money. The day she was supposed to come in, no show. She shows up the next day with only $10 (I think the offer was for about $75), and a bag of fast food that easily cost $10. Hmmmm, money that could have gone towards her bill. And that was all the contact we had for months after that. Late last year, she calls again. At this point, the owner says she can come and take what she wants out of the unit and we'll sell the rest. He knows we won't get any money from her and nobody is going to buy any of her crap at an auction. She calls everyday for a week to tell me she's trying to get a truck to come get her stuff. Haven't seen her or heard from her since January. I'm sure the next time we have an auction, hers is on the block and we will be done with her once and for all.

[Aut]

We are a little mom and pop place, and generally aren't as strict as the larger storage places or chains. We're pretty lenient on some things and that surprises some people. We request a 10 notice when you are going to vacate, but it's not required. I know that plans fall through and you may need a couple more days or weeks and it's not problem (but you still have to pay for those days). Some people don't give us notice and we'll find a unit without a lock and empty. No big deal.

So I'm getting irritate by the non-stop ringing phone today. In the last hour, I got 5 calls (that's high traffic here). One was from a woman to tell me they were done with her son's storage. I told her we figured that out last week when we found it empty. She said she'd been bugging him to call. Seriously, 5 minutes later he calls. To tell me he's done with his unit. Yeah, I figured that out 10 days ago, and then again 5 minutes ago when your mom called.

[Darkforge]

damn, my screen just got covered in coke.

that just made me laugh too hard.

[Aut]

I got a list of new policies yesterday. Made me quite upset. Nothing huge, and it's more the owner's passive-aggressive way of reminding me of certain things. Just made me upset because I was feeling criticized and these have been a very rough few months for me when one of the things I'm dealing with is the lack of time I have for anything outside of this place and my attention was needed elsewhere (like picking kids up from extra-cirricular activities, doc appointments, etc).

One of these new policies was brought on because of a SC. I understand it may be unprofessional to have children answer the business line, but with the owners encouragment, we also use that line as our home line. The kids know when someone needs storage info to tell them to please hold and give the phone to me or the man. But now because of this SC, the kids are not allowed to answer the phone. He complained to the owner about the kids answering the phone. I knew he was going to. I found the voicemail threatening it. I asked the man if he had talked to SC because the time stamp was at a time I was not there. He said one of the kids brought him the phone, but the person on the other end hung up. That's fail on SC's end. I was so mad at the threat, I deleted the voicemail and didn't return the call. He doesn't want kids answering the phone? Well then he's going to have to deal with the voicemail. I don't always hear the phone ringing, for one, and sometimes don't get to it fast enough. And psssst, I hate calling people, so I'm most likely not going to return it. If I pass the message to the owner, he's less likely to return it.

This SC just irritates me in general. He comes in to pay (and is always past due) and complains about not having money, how society has screwed him out of his house, his job, and his health. And then there's the political rants. Every freakin' time. I dread when I see him pull in. Not only do I have to listen to his crap for 30+ minutes, he reeks! He smells so horribly strong of cheap cigarettes. And then the odor remains long after he's gone. He gives me a hard time about removing the overlock (for past due rent) without catching up, he gives the man a hard time about it and I've heard him yell at the owner about it. I seriously thought the owner would evict him over that one. Apparantly he threatened to because the next time he came in, SC told me about it. And then another rant about how society screwed him out of his house and he had to move into a smaller house with no room to keep all this crap he *might* need someday....blah blah blah.

So now there will be a lot more calls going to voicemail because of one SC, who coincidentally can't keep up his end of the contract. I feel like he has no room to complain.

[Mishi]

Kids like answering phones and it sounds like your munchkins are doing it pretty well! Isn't that better then missing out on business because of the call going to voicemail?

[flybye023]

I can't understand why these people are surprised that their stuff is sold. I have been renting a unit for several years and it's in my contract. Here's an excerpt:

"If Lessee [has missed] payment for 20 days...Lessor may terminate lease...enter premises and expel Lessee, and Lessor shall have a lien upon all Lessee's property...Lessor may also sell said property at sale...
If Lessee [misses] payment for 30 days...Lessee's lock will be cut and removed from the unit and Lessor's lock substituted. [When/if] Lessee pays all rents owing...[unit will be released]."

Also, as a good, paying customer I can attest that the owners will cut you some slack for things too if you pay as you're supposed to. I get a 'reminder' letter (that's not really an invoice) each month. I only open them about every 3 months since I always pay on time and there's no remittance slip. However, some of them have included a paragraph with a rate hike. Twice now I have not noticed until a couple of months after the fact and then I start paying the new amount. The owners have never said anything or given my any penalties for this oversight.

[Aut]

We don't do reminder letters. Just like the rent on an apartment or home, we don't send out monthly bills. But they will get a notice if they're late. I was just complaining to the man this morning that I'm always getting calls from people who don't know when their rent is due or how much their rate it. It says on the lease! Try looking at it sometime. Also, if I give you a receipt, it will say on that to.

Got a call yesterday from a guy wanting to know when his was due. 5 days ago, but told him if he could get a payment in that day, there would be no late fee. Said he was out of town but would send a friend (after a lot of "what should I do?" kind of crap). Right at closing, the friend comes in, hands me a credit card. Sorry, cash or check only right now. Her: blank stare. And I sat there waiting for any kind of response from her. Finally I said he could pay it later, but with the late fee. Her: "uh, um, um, uh, I don't...uh" blank stare. I think my brain broke. I'm not exactly sure how I got her moving along, but she said she'd be back today with cash and I told her I would waive the late fee because she had tried that day. BTW, the late fee is only a one time $15 charge.

[Aut]

Didn't see her today. That may have been her that rang the bell that I ignored after closing time. Also could have been her calling shortly after that I also ignored.

I may live here, but I don't have to help you outside of office hours. I need time off too.

We also have a special kind of irritating customer that chooses not to read the "Ring Bell for service" sign on the door. I don't spend my days in the office. I'm usually on the other end of the house, that's why the office door is always locked - so you aren't in there where I can't see you trying to rob me. Every once in a while, one of those special people come up and try to open the door, find it locked, then walk away and leave. I know you're there most of the time. But I won't run in and open the door if you can't figure out what a simple sign says.

[Darkforge]

I know it still sucks, but have you thought of getting a cordless phone?

They even do those sets with more than one phone all linked together, that way you or the man could always have a phone on you and you wouldn't need to worry about missing calls. Heck you might even manage to persuade the boss to pay for it as a "Necessary business expense"

[Aut]

Yeha, we've got a cordless. I managed to rescue it after that Saturday morning 4:45 am fax fiasco. Really did a number on that phone and I thought it was headed for the phone graveyard.

Office doorbell rang again last night as I was tucking the kidlets in bed. I peeked out and then chose not to answer it. Then the phone rang at 7:30 this morning. Stop harrassing me people! Yes, I live here. No I am not going to help you at all hours. That's what office hours are for. And then because I didn't feel like being harrassed further, I was afraid the late callers would see me putting the trash on the curb (because they live across the street) and I was going to have the man do it when he got home, but I forgot to tell him. I remembered at 6:15 this morning. Explain this to me: I hear the garbage truck come at 6:30am every week. Sometimes we forget to get the cans out there the night before but always get them out there at 6:15 at the latest. And then it doesn't get picked up? Why is it those weeks they decide to come early? Murphy's law, I guess.

[dalesys]

Murphy's law, I guess.

Murphy was a blithering optimist!

[Aut]

I called the garbage company and after being on hold for 5 minutes while the operator contacted the driver, she told me he said he was by here a little before 7. Still, I had the cans out there at 6:15. Hmmmm. Said he'd be by later to get them. That was 4 hours ago. I know he's probably busy, but if they don't get picked up today, I'm going to tell the owner we need to change companies. Last time we missed (because of a holiday mix up), it took 5 calls over 3 days to get it rectified.

And then the operator told me I should really put the cans out the night before.