A West Island woman says after paying to store her furniture for a few months at a Vaudreuil storage facility, she returned to find it wet and covered in mold.
“I was disgusted and disappointed,” said Kirkland resident Pamela Silverman.
Silverman and her husband bought a new house earlier this year. They moved out of their old house before they could take possession of their new house, so they had to put their furniture in storage for six weeks. They brought it all to Depotium on Chicoine Street in Vaudreuil
“We basically stored our whole lives in these lockers,” Silverman told Global News.
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When moving day finally came, she says they opened up their storage locker to a shocking scene.
“Upon opening the storage locker with the movers, we found water infiltration in the unit. Subsequently, we saw that there was mold on a lot of our belongings,” Silverman said.
She snapped a number of photos of the furniture, she says most of it bought less than a year ago.
“A lot of the items had green mold on it, and some of the items were soaking wet, so we couldn’t keep them,” she said.
When she complained to Depotium, she says was told by an employee that this had happened before.
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“The person working at Depotium advised us that this had happened several times,” Silverman said. “It was about $5,000 worth of belongings.”
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The contract they signed says Depotium is not responsible for water damage. Silverman says she also bought insurance when she rented the storage unit, but claims the insurance hasn’t helped.
“They wanted to negotiate but never to pay our full damages,” she said.
“We want our customers to be happy, we work hard for that day in day out,” said Dave Hardy, Director of Eastern Canada Operations at StorageVault, Depotium’s parent company. “We are currently investigating this, and we will continue dialogue with Mrs. Silverman.”
“We have to buy all new mattresses. We have no furniture for our family to sleep on,” said Silverman.
She plans to bring to case to small claims court, but says she will never use Depotium again.
“I think they need to be held accountable for what’s happened,” she said.
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