January 2013 by joe pete
I am not reviewing this facility for it's storage service but for a storage auction they ran. Me and my wife drove out from San Antonio for a Saturday storage auction, and right away we should have know something was amiss. We have been to about 20 storage auctions before this place in the city and bid on about 5 or so units. Won 2, that we worked. Also we had read a lot on forums, and guides before we ever even started. So we were fairly green under the ears, but this was a huge learning experience for us. We ended up buying 5 units for way cheaper than they would ever go for in San Antonio, but we figure that was just luck, or maybe the local economy. Hind sight is 20/20 --as the saying goes. First off somehow we didn't think it odd that they did not cut the locks in front of us--they gave a really good speech about having camera to film themselves cutting the locks for legal purposes--etc.. Actually they had a speech prepared for all kinds of stuff during the auction, that they gladly recited without being questioned. Every single unit had particular things that would entice a person. One unit we bough had several washers and dryers, and a refrigerator in the back. You couldn't tell till you dug all the other crap out that they were all broken, rusted out junk. There was one unit with everything covered in a thick layer of dust, and all the 'key' good looking items were dust free. We didn't realize that untill after the fact. Then there was one with a lot of tool type stuff in it. Cases, and big metal tool boxes, all empty.. One of the last units, and my favorite had a lot of what appeared to be oak furniture and antique looking items in the front, and really good looking stuff in that back, mostly obscured--but some shiny glass, and polished wood showing. We payed $400ish for it (figuring there had to be $400 worth of wood furniture n a huge storage locker. It was all mix and matched particle board, rotting falling apart garbage. There is no way anyone took the time to pack that much crap that tightly into a storage locker. It was insane. We spent an entire day inventorying stuff we could not give away. Anyway, we were very foolish. But after the fact we realized several things. We found random items that could only match other items in various other storage lockers. If we wouldn't have bought so many units we wouldn't have so thoroughly realized how badly we had been duped. Overall we lost around $1200 bucks, which is like a kick in the nuts. But I think it forced us to do more research, and more analysis of the storage auction process. What we came up with is, that even with every law on the books, most storage owners could go through the storage auctions units before they are auctioned. And most people would never leave behind valuable items unless in the most dire, random situations. Be very wary of your time and money people!
