Moving stuff into storage for home staging
I needed to find a way to put stuff into storage for a few months as we are trying to sell our condo and needed to declutter and get rid of excess furniture to make it look better for selling.
I was calling around and getting quotes for storage places and weighing my options with whether to use a self storage place or a moving company with a storage facility.
Storage Stadium was recommended by a friend who had used them a few years ago and had a good experience with them.
I spoke with Cliff, the owner and he explained how it all worked and gave me a special rate of $120 flat rate for the truck charge instead of the usual $170 plus fuel. The reason for this was if we went by a "convenience schedule" and were flexible about our moving date then we could just pick a date that is convenient to them when they're going to be in the area anyway. I confirmed with him that the cost would be the same for getting my stuff back out of storage in a few months and he said yes, since I'm not in a particular hurry to get my stuff back, we can once again go with their convenience schedule for the flat rate of $120.
When they came to take my stuff into storage, I was given a quote for how much it would cost to use them for my actual move. They told me they could hook up my storage vaults to a trailer and bring all my stuff out of storage at the same time as picking up the rest of my stuff to bring to the new house.
I spoke to Cliff regarding using them for my move and he told me that they were already fully booked but he was trying to help me out and said they'd make it work. A week later when I spoke to him he explained to me that I could have any day I wanted because they're generally not busy at the end of the month and are usually more busy at the beginning and middle of the month. So now I feel like he was making things up in order to make him sound extra helpful and accommodating.
When I got the estimate for how much it would cost to get my stuff back from storage, the invoice was for $170 truck charge plus $60 fuel charge and I inquired about once again doing the convenience schedule in order to get the $120 flat rate and I was told that I misunderstood them and that there's no way to do the convenience schedule again. At this point I was speaking to the secretary and made several attempts to speak to Cliff himself but he never returned any of my phone calls.
There wasn't much I could do since I wanted to get my stuff back...so i paid the full amount and while I was signing the invoice after it was all done, I was told by the driver that Cliff says he's sorry he didn't have a chance to return my calls.
I must say that I'm extremely disappointed in my dealings with Cliff and had really wanted to support a smaller company if their price was comparable to other larger companies and Cliff had seemed so nice the first time I talked to him.
One good thing I must say, is that the 2 men who came to bring my stuff back from storage were extremely polite and friendly and I was very impressed with them. It's unfortunate that I don't have any better feedback regarding the rest of my experience with storage stadium.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $700.00
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Make sure to have all estimates in writing. Both for moving stuff into storage and for getting stuff back out of storage.
- Company Response
We have read the review and we completely understand the customers frustration. Our customers typically book their move 2-3 months in advance and more often than not they know exactly how long they will be coming into storage before their final move into a new home. Sometimes a customer will give us 1 or 2 weeks notice on their move out which we will try our best to work with. If we happen to be in the area we can sometimes offer a convenience schedule with better pricing for the pickup, however, given a very short lead time and not being in the area when coming out of storage this was not possible. Overall our professional team was very friendly and accommodating, we were able to provide the final move out service on the day requested by the customer at our regular pricing, and we also saved the customer $109.00 dollars during the initial pickup.