Job Discussion Forums

[carl44]

I just found out my sister forgot to make payments on my storage unit for the last 4 months. The storage people tried to contact my sister by telephone to announce the final notice but she was in Mexico!
They bust open my unit and what they couldn't sell off they trashed.
I am a Canadian and have been living abroad(Middle East) for 6 years. I had assumed that my sister would have put in place some sort of mechanism to help her remember by now; a post it note? a message on her calendar? Perhaps I should have given an alternative phone number ???
All my worldly possessions have been lost because of her lame excuse~
" I forgot" Perhaps I am partly to blame for assuming she was up to the task???
My whole life was in that locker~ all records of my travels, (kashmir, India, Africa, Middle East, Europe, etc.) all my photos of friends, family and experiences from countries I lived and worked in, personal journals, all my art work( as I'm also an artist), artifacts, mementos, letters from friends around the world. All gone; 40 years of my life gone.
I would never pay money for a storage unit to keep junk; everything I had in the storage unit held some meaning or purpose!
So needless to say am feeling rather pissed off! It has caused a very tense situation within the family and fear if I were to see my sister now I might try to physically ring her neck! It will be some time before I am able to forgive and forget! I haven't yet been able to see any positive out come from such a senseless act! I guess the lesson to learn from all this is NOT to become overly attached to material things?
Anyone out there have any such horror stories???
Misery loves company...

[scot47]

A learning experience ! I have adapted over the years to permanet moving by two different methods :

1. Discard all possessions from time to time and live like a Buddhist monk
2. Acquire a bolthole to use for holidays, for retirement and a base to store my precious possessions. For this you will need that essential -MONEY.

Take your pick. Trusting your sister is clearly not an option.

[Wolf]

If books were weightless, I'd go with the Buddist monk thing.
We do accumulate a lot of stuff. Natural, I suppose.

Losing your artwork would be real nasty.

[veiledsentiments]

What a story Carl!! Thank goodness I don't have such a horror story to tell. The worst that happened to me over the years was a few late credit card payments that caused interest to be charged. (something I would NEVER allow to happen if I had been making the payments.)

But, I am glad that you have posted this to warn people that you can not even trust your nearest and dearest to take care of these things. The internet will now allow a person to take care of almost every financial transaction on-line.

If we pay our own bills, it can save a lot of hard feelings. I suspect if this had happened to me, I would never be able to forgive my sister.

VS

[M.K.]

carl44,

I don't have a similar horror story, but my brother does. He's spent the last three years studying in the UK, and he left his car in the trust of our parents while he was abroad. Well, they sold it. Actually, they gave it away for $1. Apparently, my dad had a co-worker who had cancer and was having a really hard time of it, and desperately needed a car. My dad, ever the philanthropist, sold my brother's Honda to him for $1. Of course that was a really nice thing to do, but my brother was never even consulted, and now has no car when he returns to the US in a year or so.

This is why, when I leave this summer to go teach in Central America, I'm selling my car. Lesson learned I guess!

[denise]

Wow, carl44. I don't have a similar horror story, but I'd just like to express my condolences!

I did actually get into a bit of trouble with my credit card company because my ex-boyfriend (a darling, sweet guy, but not terribly responsible with bill payments...) forgot to make a payment, and it took about a year of international phone calls, letters, statements being faxed back and forth, etc., to get it all sorted out, and by that point I just decided to cancel the card. Still, that experience is nowhere near as upsetting as yours.

I have learned, though, not to entrust such matters to my ex--he understands fully! Now, mom is my main contact in the states. I'm sure you have found, or will find, someone besides your sister in the future...

[denise]

Ooops--I just noticed that I copied part of MK's first line verbatim. Sorry about that!

[bnix]

I am sorry about the hard lesson learned by the original poster and the others(the guy whose dad sold his Honda for a buck! Good Lord! With family like that,who needs enemies?Couldn't the dad have given the needy guy his OWN car if he wanted to play the philanthropist?).

Anyway,the lesson here is obviously COVER YOURSELF! .Just because they are your family does not mean they will always act in a sensible,unselfish, rational way.After all, family are people, too.And...

Anyway,take care of your own business as much as possible.I learned the hard way too, after my first trip overseas."Where is my car?"Oh, it ran out of gas and it is parked downtown somewhere." @!#@!@#$#@???

"Where are all my tools, my expensive wrenches?"Oh so-and- so borrowed them,and later moved out of state.We tried to call him but we just get an answering machine and he does not return the calls" @!#@!#@#$#$????

And so on.........

And now I pay for a storage unit....and mail the payments in MYSELF. If anyone screws up, it will be me. Not someone I "trusted".

[MartinK]

...

[ls650]

[nomadder]

First of all I'd like to stay that the storage unit company seemed a bit harsh. If you're sister's phone was still working then presumably she hadn't skipped the country. Or had she? Nonetheless you'd think they'd wait a little longer before getting rid of such things. They could've charged extra for missed payments or something.

This all makes me wonder what I'll do if my present storage unit(my parents' basement) becomes a no go. My sisters sound much like yours and how much are storage units anyway? I recently heard about cheap trailers on cheap pieces of land in Mexico and wondering about that or something like it for a future storage place and hangout. I wonder if I could live like a Buddhist monk though. Hmm?? Need the journals though. Will I ever be settled?

[isabel]

Storage companies make a lot of money selling stuff. I trusted a friend, who was the manager(!) of the place where I had storage. She had me put stuff in her personal unit, as a favor until the dust settled on a situation I was in. The stuff included some personal things, including a Hutch, that were my late mother's, as well as some valuable things. My friend got fired, and everything of mine was sold, in days.

I know someone in California that has deals with various storage companies to buy the stuff from units that are not paid for. He then sells the stuff at flea markets. He lives in a small town, there are only a few storage lots. He works every week and pretty much supports himself on the misery of others. I am convinced that the companies make as much or more selling people's posessions.

When I left the States I found a storage place in the small town where my father lives. I paid the rent for over a year in advance (they will give you a handsome discount if you do this.) My father has all of the information, if I need him to do anything. Meanwhile, I have all of the information with me also, and will send money WELL IN ADVANCE if I stay longer than planned.

I am so sorry that you lost your stuff. I can say I know how you feel, and my family never lets me forget what happened to my mother's stuff.

[khmerhit]

I had teacher friend in Cambodia who got married to a local. She was young and pretty and had a lovely personality. My friend opened a very cool bar, which he proceeded to fill with lovely interior decorations such as statues, tapestries, paintings. It fared quite well. His wife became pregnant and soon they had a baby boy. One night, when they were closing the bar, a fight broke out between some men who had been drinking nearby. One of them departed, then returned and threw a grenade. A small piece of shrapnel flew through the metal door and pierced the heart of my friend's wife. She died in his arms. That was the end of the bar.

My friend subsequently opened a new bar. It is even nicer than the first. There is a photo of his smiling wife mounted on the wall, but, as he said to me once, the place isn't the same.

[tess]

Carl:

That is just rotten. Especially the artwork. I really feel for you.

As others have suggested, there's really nothing you can do but look ahead and console yourself it wasn't worse.

Perhaps you could make a really great series of drawings/paintings about it ... featuring your sister !!

Hope things go better in future.

P>S Someone here lost a Hutch. What is that ???

[ls650]