Bought a STAGED locker, Beware of Barrie ontario SCAM

I purchased a locker on BID13 through Barrie Self Storage (broken link) and as I’m researching it is a company called Simply Skids or Puritee Canada in Barrie (moved to an outside location due to COVID)

The pictures and video were from the second location and not during lock cutting and I’m fully aware that you gamble on what you see and not the stacks of boxes. But this locker had hockey jerseys on hangers, vintage items set up on a shelf, and old records fanned in the front. The entire rest of the locker was TRASH. Mostly broken glass and dishes, broken toys, boxes of empty boxes, VHS tapes and boxes of literal garbage with trinkets and knickknacks strewn through in most boxes. There is Absolutely NO evidence that the items displayed even belong to this locker. And even if they did… did the facility happen to find the ONE box without garbage and take the time to display it all ? Is that even legal ?

I tried contacting the facility owner but the lady (who called herself the online go-between) said she would speak with him and get back to me. I also asked to get pictures/video of when they opened the initial locker. When she did, she said he offered me a discount on a future locker that I purchase from their location, providing the locker was $600 or more … ?! ( I will NOT be purchasing from this facility again)
And said "pictures of the content of the initial locker “has nothing to do with this.”

I told her i’m not interested in that and asked for the facility owner and she replied “We are not prepared to continue conversations about this” and refused to give me his contact info.

I’ve contacted BID13 but they will not help me as the facility has not broken any laws and no one else has complained.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’ve been buying lockers for several years. I have taken my share of lumps when gambling on the unknown, but this is unethical. Certainly gives a bad name to the industry (particularly in an online setting)

I’m hoping to find someone who has dealt with this facility now or in the past. At the very least, people, please be aware !!! ANY advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated !

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I was just going to put up a thread asking if anyone noticed that the PURITEE CANADA videos on this site all looked staged.

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They are now refusing to talk to me at all. I’ve asked for the owner name and number through Cathy (who describes herself as the “go-between” through this pandemic )
They do not have internet presence (so the link on BID13 is not valid). She says it’s because they are working on their website.
My locker was 100% staged and yesterday april 30th… I noticed that they sold the rest of my garbage (that was left behind because I was contesting it and could not get an extension on time) to the another buyer and made themselves another $800 or so. (it was stated in the add that it was the combination of 2 unclaimed lockers) As per BID13, it is not an issue as I was the only complaint (I believe they said they need 3 complaints and then it’s an issue). All it got me was banned from bidding on Puritees lockers moving forward.

I would love to see these guys lose their privilege to sell, this game is tough enough without this kind of corruption.

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OH yes… Thought i noticed some stuff from one video in another one… Bid13 should definitely have strict rules and be following up and investigating these things. we pay a lot for these online auctions. as the buyers we deserve some real protection against these scammers

Hello Buyer101 and Goodtimes,

Thank you for voicing your concern. We are investigating all claims that are against the facility. We want to make sure that auctions are handled safely and secure. If you have found any other issues regard this facility or others please feel free to contact us via email at support@bid13.com.

All the Best.

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Its funny how you actually say its staged Goodtimes. I’ve been looking and watching that facilities videos and pictures and that’s the first thing I thought myself and thats why I never bother bidding. And now watching they’re new auctions they are actually going inside the unit taking videos. I think Bid13 should flag this kind off thing because they shouldn’t be entering the unit. The person was even trying to take a close up shots at the price listed in one of the boxes as if he’s trying to sell. And reading your post just confirmed that my gut feeling that something was shady about them.

Well… and it’s actually worse than that because, due to COVID they are moving all the stuff from their inside barn to an outside trailer. So they are touching it all, staging it, (I believe they are opening the boxes) THEN taking pics and videos. For the one I bought, I don’t even think the items displayed were initially part of the crap that made up the rest.
I understand that moving the stuff is necessary right now but this is when we need to trust that we are working with ethical people.

I didn’t get the time of day from Puritee Canada Corp. or BID13 so I am SOL and out my money but absolutely thrilled that buyers are reading this… if only to prevent them from making the same mistake ! Cheers !

ps… for the locker they put together and sold… I saw items that I KNOW where in a box when I left it but were proudly displayed at the front for the next sale. They are not even trying to hide the staging.

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They currently have a locker on that looks great one the surface… toys still in package… framed hockey memorabilia and so on. Just like you described… and I kept saying to myself this looks to good to be true… all of our dreams come true. But… one thing I didnt like is the fact they never showed the cutting of the lock.and everything seems to perfectly imperfect. I’m glad I dae this thread… because i was literally going to buy it! Thank you!

Eeeek… it does look like the same kind of set up.

Now I’m SO curious as to what’s in those boxes !! It’s going to go for $1000. I hope, for the buyer, that it’s not what I found.

Lots of Certificates of Authenticity in there… Hope all the items they belong to are in there.

Funny that their cleaning deposit has gone from $100 to $300. Can’t imagine why …

Link to the website still doesn’t work …

All the lockers are gone through, nobody Is telling me any different.
Every locker has boxes open. These sites ruined the storage hunts.
What happens if they go through their stuff and the owners come back and pay.
I’m going to do that one time. Get a locker and let it go to auction, then go pay on it and see what they take.
All storage sites should not be allowed in a unit, they do it to get more money.
Open it up and only take pics form the outside, that’s what they do with a live auction, I’m not sure why they let them go through peoples stuff, technically, the owner is still the owner of the storage locker until it’s either auctioned and paid for, or the owner comes back and pays for it…place in Pa is a scam, I’ll think of the name and post it.

Hey guys,

I just wanted to provide an update to this. We appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We have completed our investigation and we have blocked this company from posting future auctions on our platform and cancelled all current auctions.

-Adrian

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Yes 100 per cent staged, I bought 2 lockers from them, and they are moved to these trucks on site, and never will I buy from there again

Did you purchase the one with loads of Certificates of Authenticity from Frozen Pond ? Im anxious to know if all the actual certified items were in there. I tried to recoop some of the cost of the locker I bought but to no avail. There should have been more done to protect us from this !

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Yes I did purchase that unit.
The unit was completely staged. None of the items were in the cases. It was boxes and boxes of garbage.
The owner of the property charged me $150 to dump the garbage.
Apparently a warehouse was purchased and because of Covid the warehouse was moved and split into trailers.
Total disappointment

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At our facility in WA we are not allowed to touch ANYTHING, step inside or start or finish the video without both the lock cut and the security tag placement at the end being on video. This protects both the buyer and the seller, as well as the original owner should, like you say, they come back to pay out before the auction date. We would lose our jobs if any of these rules were violated- no questions asked. Im sorry for your experiences. It sounds like Bid 13 is now in agreement with you. Quite possibly a civil suit could be in order for a few of you? Good Luck and stay safely searching!

Did you recoop any of your investment ??? I strongly feel like we should have been compensated. I spent over $1000 on my pile of trash. (again, I fully understand that you take your chances… but this was preventable). Why were they allowed to keep all our $$$ once it was determined that they broke the rules and purposely staged the units ? Maybe we should be pursuing a civil suit ?

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No
On top of the $1000, I had to pay dumping fees.
Maybe IBid 13 can help us

I did a staged locker before.it was full of taped cerwin vega boxes and samsung tv boxes.everyone of them taped shut sealed empty.I went ape shit they gave my money back.

Good for you ! Unfortunately, I guess you have to lose your mind to get any attention. This was ignored at first but then they actually looked into it. I should have gotten my money back.

did Bid13 eventually help you out ?