EDMONTON – An Edmonton woman wants to warn other consumers, after U-Haul admitted it can’t find a storage unit filled with nearly all of her personal belongings.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Elizabeth Gaetz.
In January, Gaetz rented a U-Box pod from the moving company. She was moving out of her condominium and into a furnished rental apartment while she waited to take possession of her first-ever purchased home, and needed somewhere to store her belongings in the meantime.
“I thought ‘what a neat idea’ to be able to just put it in a box, haul it away in a trailer, and stick it in a warehouse and pick it up later.”
Gaetz was told the U-Box would be stored at U-Haul’s location on 218 Street, at a cost of about $90 per month.
“I put all of my contents in one of the U-Boxes,” she explained. “My bedroom set, my bed, my brand new mountain bike, my snowboard, all of my dishes, all of my pots, linens, coffee table, kitchen table… I had a big box of baby mementos and ornaments that I had collected through the years.”
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By September, Gaetz’ new home was built and she was ready to unpack.
“Move-in day came and (I) went to pick up the box and basically, got it here and opened it up and it was somebody else’s stuff. I called U-Haul and they said ‘are you sure? Are you sure it’s not your stuff?’ I said ‘well yeah, obviously it’s not.'”
Over the next couple of weeks, Gaetz continued to phone U-Haul, inquiring about the whereabouts of her belongings. She says she was told the company was searching its warehouses for her U-Box and someone would get back to her, but says she heard nothing.
“I feel like I’m the one inconveniencing them. I’m the one constantly having to phone and dig around and figure out where they’re at in this process.
“Meanwhile, I had to go out and buy a bed, because I wasn’t going to sleep on the floor. I had to go buy dishes to last for the interim,” Gaetz said, “just a real inconvenience.”
A couple of weeks later, she received a phone call from U-Haul.
“Somebody had called from B.C., stating that they had received the wrong box – surprise, surprise. Then they thought ‘well, that had to be mine.'”
Feeling hopeful, Gaetz waited a week for the box to be shipped to Edmonton, only to find out the box did not contain her belongings.
“So basically, at this point, I’m getting frustrated and I’m saying I would like to be compensated. Obviously it’s lost or stolen. I’m not going to wait around for it to just show up.
“I’m just wondering, with all of these other boxes out here – the one in B.C., the one they delivered me – I mean, how many others are there out there unaccounted for? People are paying these monthly fees for this storage and thinking this stuff is safe. And then they go to get it and it’s nowhere to be found.”
Gaetz says she prepared a list of the items she stored and presented it to U-Haul, just to be told she would only be compensated for the depreciated value of her items.
However, on Thursday, after being contacted by Global News, U-Haul contacted Gaetz and said it would reimburse her for the entire amount of her items- $9,800.
In a written statement, Joanne Fried, the Director of Media and Public Relations with U-Haul, said the company does have a tracking system in place for U-Boxes and secure warehouses to store them in.
“The boxes do have a unique code assigned to them, but are manually entered into the computer system. They are currently not on a scanning system, but a scanning system is forthcoming in the near future.
I am told that Elizabeth’s box was not documented properly by the receiving location by an employee and that proper procedure was not followed. This location has been retrained on proper policy and procedures.
The regional president contacted Elizabeth today to follow up on settlement offer from insurance company and advised her that she would be receiving the full compensation she had requested and would be receiving the full amount next week.”
While pleased, Gaetz says the money doesn’t make up for the belongings she won’t be able to replace.
“My baptism dress is in there, from when I was little, photographs I can’t get back,” she said. “It’s just personal.”
With files from Julie Matthews, Global News.
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