D&H Climate controlled Racine, WI Unit 145 TAMPERING/Staging!

[GenoFett]

I bought this unit, had already paid when I asked what their policy was for employees entering or tampering with the unit. I was told they entered the unit and sorted through to remove “Personal Belongings” Having already paid for the unit it was too late to back out, After they opened the unit for us, EVERY SINGLE TAPED, SEALED box had been opened prior to removal of the lock in front of us!!! Items were in different locations than what they were in the auction pictures etc… Not too mention we found numerous “Personal Items” they said they searched the unit to remove…

After we emptied the unit, I told the employee I would like to request a partial refund as there was clearly tampering with the unit, and he could not prove the unit hadn’t been “Cherry Picked” His response to me was this… “When the units become abandoned, we own them, we can do whatever we want with them. This stuff you bought was in a bigger unit, we moved it to a smaller unit so we could rent the bigger one.”

Now all that being said, This clearly qualifies as them “Staging” a unit, it was neatly stacked, Nike boxes, cell phones plainly visible at the front of the unit etc… And he admitted they moved the contents from one locker to another!!! Maybe if they were in the original unit, untouched by these employees I wouldn’t have bid!! I bid on this unit BECAUSE it looked like a well kept unit!! Just to find out THEY ARRANGED IT THIS WAY!!!

I would highly reccommend NOBODY do business with this place!! And I will be reporting them to Bid 13 first thing Monday Morning… I am beyond pissed.

[Zach]

Hi GenoFett,

We apologize for your experience using our service. After the investigation we found that the facility (D&H Climate Controlled Storage) had placed the auction as a non lien which means the facility now owns the unit and its contents. What that means is that a unit that has either been cleared out by tenants leaving items behind or gone through the proper auction lien process can now be sold at auction marked as a charity/manager’s special. Facilities do this to clear up space for new tenants and can only put them up if items have a market value of $100 or more depending on state law.

To avoid confusion in the future, look for the auctions mark Lien (abandoned). This means that the units are going through the proper lien process and can not be tampered with before and during the auction. If you do come across a lien auction and you notice that items were moved after the auction was done, report back to the facility and to Bid13 about the situation.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

[ogyakima]

ogyakima
Dec '19
mrsheets

In our little town in Washington, the law says that we are not allowed to step into or touch ANYTHING inside the unit.There are strict laws governing our rights and responsibilities as an accredited storage facility. We ARE able to stand at the door and maneuver the camera as much as possible in order to get the best possible views for the buyers, and its highly unlikely that a facility that is reputable, will break these laws. If there were an employee or staff member caught doing such things at OUR facility- obviously they would be fired immediately! Also, we see so much of people’s belongings throughout the year from them moving in or out, leaving stuff, selling stuff or just requesting help with something that needs moved etc -Its not commonplace to desire anything belonging to a customer usually. That’s not to say I haven’t admired certain items of someone’s but never enough to STEAL them AND at the risk of losing my job too?? Yeah…NO. Lol, that’s just common sense to me and my staff anyway.( Geez, I have enough of my own crap, let alone somebody else’s anyways.) It’s unfortunate that these types of things happen at all, but Im not sure its very common.
Also, I personally dislike storage auctions at all. I think its awful to sell someones things. It is a part of my job that I dislike very much. I understand the company needing to recover their losses but I wish there was another way around it. I do EVERYTHING possible, to try and help someone to come up with a plan so that they can pay before they go to auction. Its the last thing we WANT to do for sure.And then theres those who get behind…and never call me again, too. Then I’m STILL trying to contact them afterward to hopefully return the personals that the buyer returned.9 I have little or no success most of the time, unfortunately.) I also tell my potential customer’s that if anything should happen and they are unable to avoid foreclosure, to be sure and come back and request the personals from after their unit gets sold. I don’t think people are familiar with that part of the law either. They usually didn’t know anything whatsoever about getting their personals back, free of charge, no questions asked. Nor do they realize that there is a certain amount of time that we are required, by law, to keep the returned items after a foreclosure sale- so being vigilant about requesting any personals is always vitally important. Sorry for your experience!!