Extra Space Storage totally ruined my life - literally. I moved my belongings to this location last summer, because the house we were renting had unknowingly gone into foreclosure, and we were forced to leave suddenly, leaving us insufficient time to find something else. I became quite ill unexpectedly, and was in and out of the hospital for six months. I was not working and a lot of things had to be put on the back burner. I would check my email and voice mail about once a week, and was having family members take care of what they could.
I had explained my situation to Manny, that I was extremely ill, that I was in the hospital, and that I was not working. One day I called and asked to make a payment with a credit card over the phone. He told me that since I was behind two months, that I would have to pay the whole two months, and not one, which is what I had requested. I explained that I only had enough to pay the one month, and I would be able to pay the remaining month the following week. He would not allow me to do that. .
A few weeks later I go in person to pay whatever I owed on my account, only to find that my unit had been auctioned off. They claimed they called me, but I explained to them that I was not able to check my voice mail messages too often, and that Manny knew why. Extra Space also never once sent me any written form of communication that my unit was going to be auctioned off, nor did they send me an email informing me of sorts. They said they mailed me a letter to an address that I had never provided them with, i also said that if the letters were being returned, was that not a major red flag that something was wrong, and to investigate the matter before auctioning off a person's lifetime of belongings?
I was given the name and number of the person who bought my unit, who turned out to be some nasty alcoholic, but he was demanding some insane amount of money for my belongings, and he wanted it right away. I explained to him that I was sick, that I was due to go into the hospital for surgery, and that with it being two weeks before Christmas, there was no possible way that I could come up with that kind of money. Not to mention that I could not move the belongings on my own; that I would have to hire a couple of guys to do it for me, along with renting a moving van. We were talking over $1,000, which there was no way I could come up with in the short time frame that this guy was demanding. I told him I needed a few weeks to come up with the money. A few days later, while I was still in the hospital recovering from surgery, I receive a nasty message that he was disposing and liquidating of the belongings in my unit, because he had not heard from me, although I had explicitly explained to him that I was going into the hospital for surgery.
I also explained to him that there was nothing in the unit of any value. There was furniture that I had bought new many years before, decades and decades worth of clothing and books, every single thing I had from the day my kids were born: Cards, tons of photos, Christening outfits, blankets they came home from the hospital in, all of their toys, stuffed animals, things they made in school over the years, memories that all of the money in the world could never, ever replace. Gifts that had been given to them by family members who are now deceased. Some of the furniture that was in the unit was given to to me by my mother, which had been her mother's, and had been in our family for generations.
Extra Space knew of my situation, because I had told them such many times over. I called them to make a payment, and their knowing how sick I was and that I was in and out of the hospital, they would not accept a credit card payment over the phone. At 50 years old and after working so hard for so many years for everything that was in that unit, I now have nothing to my name, save for some clothing and a few boxes of other things. My kids also lost everything. When we were forced to leave the house we were renting, we were able to stay with family, but everything had to be placed in storage because there was not enough room for anything. The only thing we were able to take with us was some clothing and personal accessories.
So, thank you, Extra Space Storage, for destroying our lives. The nasty drunk who 'bought' my unit claims to have thrown out all of my belongings, after I finally managed to get a hold of him a few months later. It was quite obvious that many of those items belonged to children and held sentimental value, yet he felt no remorse in throwing these items into the trash.
Do not use Extra Space. They do not know how to treat their customers, they have horrible problem-solving skills, and all they care about is MONEY. I cannot help but thinking had this been another storage facility, none of this would have occurred. read more
