Communication Breakdown

I find it amazing that in this age of unsurpassed communications growth and technological innovation, some business can’t keep their record keeping straight. The worst part is, I’m referring to a company that provides a very simple service, not one that has a lot of complex data to track.

The company I’m referring to is one of those self-storage places here in Chester County. Let’s face it, all they do is rent you a little space for your stuff, and send you a bill. Heck, with all the waivers you have to sign, they don’t even take ANY fiscal responsibility for your stuff once it’s there! Sounds like it should be fairly straight forward and easy to run to me.

Unfortunately, I had to use the services of one of these companies to store The Albatross until I got it sold. Even more unfortunate; I have to keep it temporarily stored there until the buyer is able to come down and pick it up later this month.

Back in January, I signed up for the service there. I remember the young lady struggling to get all my information logged into her computer system. She said they would send me the bill in the mail once a month. This sounded pretty straight forward and simple to me at the time, but as you may have already guessed, it didn’t turn out that way.

I never realized that I had not received the bill yet for February. I’m a very busy guy, and things like that do tend to “slip my system”. Even though the storage company could not remember my address to get my bill to me, they did remember it to send me two certified letters with rather strong language (i.e. “We are DEMANDING that you pay in full the amounts owed to us”) and extra fees attached.

Now I have sat for over an hour waiting for a return phone call. The legacy of the Albatross continues to unfold.