In consideration of others not falling for the staged locker scam we got suckered into, I would like to make others aware of two individuals named Jeff and his “business sales representative” Dana operating in the Calgary area. Jeff currently rents multiple units at Mobile Mini storage at 7717 84rth St SE Calgary under the typical contract for the sole purpose of storage, using the unregistered and unlicensed business SGI private storage, and alleged affiliate of another fictitious business http://www.sficontracting.com/contact to stage lockers and lend legitimacy to the lockers he had sold to us. They use the address of Mobile Mini on their auction which leaves the impression it is their facility or a partner of the registered business. You can find more about “staged” lockers under the FAQ section under “How do I know the unit has not been altered by the facility?” The gist is that this person has represented himself as having a contract with the facility to auction delinquent accounts, filled two units full of junk in new sealed Home Depot boxes, made the presentation pretty for an online sale, then listed it as a legit unopened unit under the umbrella of Mobile mini storage business.
To Bid 13’s credit, we contacted the webpage via telephone and after speaking with Jessie, it was agreed the charges would be reversed but at the time we were still out well north of $1500. My partner met with Dana at the Mobile Mini storage facility yard after speaking with the Branch manager Mike Emmerson and handed over the owed money plus the $400 “cleaning fee” for the lockers purchased on Bid13. The meeting for payment was delayed as my partner was told no credit card payments were accepted, only cash in person and there was not enough on hand. What we did not know at this time was that we were not actually buying from a licensed facility but rather an individual who has pre filled a rented locker with junk. The transaction took place with the Branch manager being aware of the pending meeting, the sale on Bid 13 and on the premises of the Mobile Mini which is registered and licensed in the province of Alberta. The branch manager there has since indicated positively that he will be having a conversation with these people about using Mobile Mini’s address as a front for their operation.
Initially when my partner arrived to settle our account at the Mobile Mini site it was noted that there was no Tamper Proof tag on Unit 910, which the ‘sales representative’ could not explain. Upon showing up to collect the lockers, the branch manager said he didn’t feel good about this arrangement without elaborating, which I thought was a bit off. When we proceeded to open the new taped up boxes, it was clear junk had been randomly dumped into them. For example, one would find what was clearly junk drawer contents piled on top of used car parts, piled on top of a broken chain saw and tool boxes with unrelated tool box things stuffed in them like kids toys, old pen jars, broken and completely worn out hand tools, etc, 7 used toasters and different people’s kitchen gear in different boxes. In the lockers we found piles of mail correspondence from numerous unrelated individuals. Absolutely everything we pulled out was not only broken, missing parts or deficient in some way but also there was no consistency. It was pretty obvious leftovers from other locker auctions that had been well picked through and re packed. Halfway into loading the trailer, I asked the branch manager if we could cease removing the locker contents, leave the trailer there until we could seek resolution the next day, and was told under no circumstances that would be possible. I was told they close at 4:30 and the time was now after 4 leaving us no option but to tow it away as it was a rental trailer we were responsible for. When Jeff and Dana were contacted by phone, they became immediately defensive and irrational when asked for reasonable things like where their office was physically located, if they had a business license, etc.
In the end on Friday November 9th, out of mounting pressure, hours on the phone, and as I pointed out to them the fact that their scam is now enshrined on the bid13’s webpage Jeff relented and refunded $700 of the total amount due to his “charitable nature” as he put it . Tell you what, I don’t think the average person would have got that far, except along with the above, the police became involved and Jeff knew the gig was up.
After that point things got just plain weird. The intimidation started with threats of violence, legal action, endless texts and calls, and threats of getting the police involved themselves. It was a truly and completely bizarre spectacle being involved with these people when it began to crumble.
If would ask that if you have also been taken, please speak up. We are all fallible people, so nothing to be embarrassed about, but to remain quiet only allows people like this continue to carry out their parasitic nature on others. If they are doing this particular stunt, they are likely up to no good at other things as well.
Food for thought.