Complaint Review: Security Plus Self Storage - Tucson Arizona

Until recently, this store was known as Central Self-Storage. My wife and I managed it for more than three years, beginning in October 2002. We worked for a management company hired by the property owner. When we started, occupancy was right at 50%.

In January, 2006, the property was purchased by Christopher Borchard, the sole officer of Infinity Capital Group, Inc. of Phoenix, AZ. Mr. Borchard initially comes across as a nice young man but his business practices are right out of a Dickens novel. Chris owns about 10 other self storages in Arizona and he decided that he can manage them without no stinkin' management company. His hatchet man is Bob Ellis, a failed attorney whose sole experience in the world of business is that he ran a little mom-and-pop self-storage with his wife Nancy.

First, Chris informed us that we would no longer have health insurance offered to us. Then he cut our pay in half. By the end of January my wife and I were making one-fourth of what we had been paid at the beginning of the month after factoring in our costs of paying for all of our health insurance.

Next, of course, he said he was going to raise the rates. (Mind you that occupancy was only 85% and there is an aggressive competitor who just opened for business positioned where 100% of the customers must drive past.) One of his brilliant ideas was to close the office between Noon and One PM for lunch every day. Yeah, that will fill those empty lockers, won't it?

Did I mention that we had to make a fifteen mile round-trip to the bank every day to deposit the previous day's income? Do you think I was reimbursed for my mileage?

Chris Borchard seems to have no use for modern inventions like the Internet and email. At the end of each day we were supposed to write down the totals for the day on a form and fax it (can you say nineteen eighties?) to his accountant, who would then read the form and enter the numbers into his system.

The final reason we left was Budget Truck Rentals. The store had once been a Budget dealer and it was a disaster. Budget ate up almost half the man-hours and produced just five percent of the income. Even the old owner recognized this as a losing situation and dropped Budget. But Chris the genius is gonna be a Budget Truck dealer. Since Budget told him that my wife and I wanted nothing to do with the trucks, Chris fired us without even asking about the previous problems. Too bad, because one of the issues that arose was that under Pima County Zoning a truck rental cannot legally be operated from that location. Well, I guess he will get the message when the zoning inspector shows up.

Now here is the real kicker: When Chris fired us, he stiffed us on what little he had agreed to pay us. He had offered us $1500 per month (not each of us, that was for both of us) plus $10 for each space we rented. We worked for him for half a month and rented perhaps 10 units. I figure that is $850. ($750 for half a month and $100 for the move-ins) Chris gave us $500 in severance pay. He failed to live up the terms that he himself imposed upon us and shortchanged us by at least $350.

The latest is that Chris has complained to the management company that we used to work for the same management company Chris refused to hire and told them that my wife and I have been contacting the tenants and advising them to take their business elsewhere. Sorry Chris, but we do not have the time to make those phone calls. The tenants are leaving because you are driving them away.

Security Plus Self Storage will be a good place to avoid as long as Chris Borchard owns it.

BTW, my wife and I were snapped up by a competitor who paid for our move to Sacramento.

Larry

West Sacramento, California
U.S.A.