B&J Storage 16 years of storage and things have been stolen Janesville Wisconsin
Put our household in 2 storages in 2006 and moved 2000 miles away and didn't return for 16 long years but made my monthly payments that kept rising. In September we went to get our stuff from the storage units we've been paying on only to find that they've been ransacked and rummaged through and tons of items have been stolen or broken. There was clothing in there that wasn't ours, and papers with other people's names plus some mail that wasn't ours.
They had called us to let us know they were breaching our locks to gain access to a broken door spring, Well how would they know the spring was broken if they didn't try to open the door? Items missing include all our lawn tools, blower, weed eater, chainsaw, lawnmower, compound miter saw, childhood toys from the 80s, personal family pictures and photo albums, kitchen appliances ie meat slicer, Grandma's cast iron pans from the 30s all 4 of them, mirrors broken in queen bedroom set, name brand clothing, tons of personal things from our childhoods.
We feel violated and are highly upset that so many personal items are missing. I'm really pissed family pictures that can't be replaced are missing. Pictures of family members that have passed away. How do think we weren't going to notice things missing or broken, we know what we had because we spent the last 16 damned years anticipating on getting our stuff out and constantly talked about it. When we confronted the manager she said "well I didn't do that" and "that's impossible" pretty much calling us a liar.
I had tons of toys from the 80s that all worked and was in their original boxes, yeah I was that kid. I have a few toys left that have no boxes now and they are broken. There goes my childhood! Do not rent from these people. We want and expect to be compensated for this. It's like someone else used are stuff and took what they wanted. The storage obviously had moisture in it as well.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Robert
Irvine,United States
Give us a break.
#2Consumer Comment
Sat, October 23, 2021
You put these "valuable and irreplaceable" items in storage for 16 years. Yea, they REALLY meant a lot to you. Oh, you "talked" about getting them out all the time...LOL. Yea, we are sure that the conversation at the dinner table every night was all of the memories you are keeping locked up 2000 miles away. Every time you stuck something in the microwave, I am sure that it brought back memories of your grandmother almost 100 years ago having to use those old pans you had tucked away.
You didn't give any indication of the size or how much you paid a month, but with what you are claiming with 2 units they likely were not small units. If we figure a (low) average over the 16 years of $100/month each. That means you paid out around $38,000. Unless you had some 1-in million items(unlikely or you would have not kept them in storage), you like many other people are paying big bucks to store sentimental junk.
You say what about the pictures. Yea..what better place to keep old photos and photo albums than some non-climate controlled environment boxed up with who knows what else.
I am not trying to say you don't have a valid complaint that your items are gone. But the reality is that you have no idea when it happened. You have no proof of who did it. Them sending you a notice that said they were going to enter your unit to fix a spring isn't proof. If they were really involved as a business why announce that they are going to enter your unit? They might as well have left a thank you card signed by the thief. If you are claiming it happened just a few days before you go there, then again that would be very suspicious. As here we have a storage unit untouched for 16 years and in a matter of days, it gets broken into just days before the owner comes back?
Did you file a police report? If it is recent and these items are as valuable as you seem to indicate, they would search around various local antique and collectible shops or even the Internet. to see if some of these things show up.
Curious how much "compensation" are you looking for?