I am exhausted and that’s to say the least. We spent Saturday moving all of our belongings into a storage unit. All of them. In the pouring rain. It was about as fun as it sounds. Typically, I try to stay away from anything negative on here but I just have to get it out.
Back in August, friends of ours were looking for a house to rent. Sy and I decided to try to find a house to rent since we had been in our apartment for four years. It was time for a change. We gave our 60 day notice on August 1st and had to be out by September 30th. Renting around here is getting a little ridiculous so if you’re going to pay, you might as well get a house, right? They actually went thru a realtor who helped them find a place. Since their house was so nice, maybe we should give it a try. What a mistake learning experience this turned out to be.
We met with the realtor that our friends had used. We signed a contract to only go thru her. Basically, we were not paying her or owing her anything but we could only go thru her when looking at properties. The landlord or leasing company would pay her a commission (or not, it was their choice). We also could not be shown a property by her, break our contract and then go back to the landlord / leasing agent and say “forget her commission”. That’s all fine and we could end at anytime with no penalty’s. We thought this was alright.
The problem came when she wasn’t sending us any properties to view or pick from. We would have to ask. It also took asking her four times to send us a copy of our contract with receiving “I tried to send it. It must have gotten lost on the Internet.” That’s just what any client wants to hear. When we would actually receive options for rental homes, they were at the bottom of our list of areas we wanted to live and at the very, very top of our price range. When we went to see them, they were horrible. I was stressed. I was worried about all of this, having to be out of our apartment, not finding a place to live, etc. etc. It wasn’t fun. It was even causing arguments between Sy and I. Finally, we ended our contract. This is a good learning experience to say the least.
Next, where do we go? We ended up having to put all of our belongings into storage and stay with friends for a little bit. I feel so uncomfortable with this but what else was there to do. So all last week, I packed, packed and packed some more. We reserved a rental truck and storage unit. Saturday morning we woke with a full day ahead. Pack up the truck, go to the storage unit then to our friend’s house to drop off the items we were bringing with us.
Packing up the truck went fine. The storage unit was a different story. I had reserved a 10×10 climate controlled unit (there’s no telling what the weather will do here). I even called on Friday to double check and was told, “Yes, you are all set.” Super. We showed up to our unit rental facility and I go in to pay for our unit. “Two, 5×10 climate controlled units right next to each other.” No, that’s not what I asked for. I turned into mean and upset Diana.
I have a few complaints on this one.
1. I had a reservation number that I was told meant nothing that it was reserved under two 5×10’s.
2. The manager that I spoke to was arguing with me about how two 5×10 were the same as one 10×10. It’s not, there is a wall inbetween. If I wanted two, the I would’ve gotten two.
3. The manager stated they hadn’t have any open 10×10 unit’s all week however when I called I spoke to the other manager and he told me he was putting me down for the last one.
4. The “manager” that was working with gave me the other manager’s (the one that took and confirmed my reservation) card and said I could call him on my personal phone to see what the deal was. Obviously he didn’t pick up. I walked away and talked to Sy. Then the manager” called me back and stated that he just talked to the other manager and that there was suddenly one 10×10 open. He didn’t realize because it has just been opened up and ready. This upset me. I asked if I could talk to the other manager that he just spoke to and he told me to call him on my cell. I asked to use companies’s phone and he said “No. It’s for business use only.” My response “Are we not doing business right now?!” I had to ask 2-3 times before he dialed the number and handed me the phone. The other manager picked up, was baffled, told me there were two units open yesterday when I had called and reserved and wasn’t sure what the issue was. He was caught off guard and obviously didn’t want to speak to me meanwhile the manager behind the counter was shaking his head in disgust. SO upsetting. I wasn’t letting it go. I was just irritated.
5. Finally got things settled. In hindsight I should’ve walked out and went elsewhere but this is probably how they get people. People don’t put up a fight and just say whatever. At least I put up some kind of a fight. The good thing is that there is 24 hour surveillance and individual room security. We had friends that rented a unit from this same place and never had a problem so I would’ve thought we would be ok and the experience would go smoothly. We finally got our truck unloaded, unit packed full and off we went. I guess that since they are such a large and “well established” company, my expectations were higher than the outcome of the experience with this company. It’s really unfortunate.
Our day wasn’t over. After dropping off the truck (at a different rental facility), Sy realized that he had lost the key’s to the lock of our unit. Yes, you read right. The lock we used, you need to use the key to lock the lock. So he had the keys when he locked the lock. He just lost it within a couple hours. He thinks they fell out of his pocket… somewhere. What a damn nightmare.
In the meantime, we’re with friends until we find a rental house (hopefully not long). I CAN’T wait to have our belongings back. Please say a prayer that everything goes smoothly here on out. This experience could’ve went so much better but it is a learning experience in so many ways. Don’t get a realtor to help you find a rental home (at least not the one we had), have a back-up for a storage company (or if possible avoid them completely) and put the darn keys on your key ring!
That is my rant for today. I figured I better get it out before the week starts. Ready, let’s all take a giant exhale!
