If you’ve moved house before, you’re probably familiar with how stressful moving your belongings from one place to another can get.
And that’s why storage units have become a convenient and secure way for individuals to store items while they handle the rest of their big move.
But instead of seeing the items that she stored safe and sound when retrieving them, this tenant of Lock+Store Self Storage Storage Solutions had a completely different experience than you’d expect.
Here’s what happened and what Lock+Store has to say.
Rented the Storage Unit for Over $4,000
Just yesterday (28 February), Facebook user YT Ong took to the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook group to share her experience as a tenant of Lock+Store at Ang Mo Kio.
According to her, she rented her unit from January to 31 December 2022 and was charged $4,075.82 for the rental.
She explained that she rented the unit to store “most of [her] possessions” while looking for a new place to stay after selling her flat.
The possessions included designer bags, other branded goods, clothes, comic books, a stainless steel table and her daughter’s preschool graduation photo and certificate.
In total, the items amounted to around $16,000.
She also stated that she only retrieved all the items on 30 December last year when she arranged for movers to move the items out of the unit.
Apart from that, Ms Ong also noted when speaking to The Straits Times that she did inspect the storage unit, which was non-air-conditioned, before moving her items into the unit.
At that point in time, nothing seemed amiss with the unit.
Ms Ong, who works in the manufacturing industry and is in her late 30s, also revealed that she chose to rent the unit as she moved into her parents’ home after selling her flat and needed a place to store her belongings.
Realised that Storage Unit Had Water Seepage and Her Possessions Became Mouldy
She also wrote about how she only realised that “the entire rear wall” of the storage unit and the boxes she used to store her items were damp after moving her things out of the unit as boxes of her possessions were “stacked up to the ceiling against the rear wall”.
According to her, there were “obvious signs of water seepage on the wall”.
Condensation had also formed on her items, and she believes that this might have been caused by the air-conditioned unit next to hers.
The movers also told her that the cardboard boxes that she used to store the items tore when they tried to load them into the lorry and asked her to “go to the loading bay to see [it] for herself”.
She also said that her items spilt out when the movers tried to load them and that she burst into tears upon seeing mould on her bags.
“All my leather products (bags, wallets, belts, accessories), which includes luxury items that I placed in the store[,] were terribly damaged by mould. Even the dust bags holding the leather bags had disintegrated and [torn],” she recalled in her Facebook post.
A stainless steel table that she had placed against the wall had rusted as well when she retrieved her items.
“I never expected the damage to be this bad. Even a dust bag disintegrated—it was like I stored my things in a rainforest,” she told The Straits Times.
She ended up getting the movers to move all her boxes to her new home, but the movers found a damaged box with similarly damaged items and had to bring it back to her afterwards.
In the comments section, Ms Ong also noted that she “did visit the unit from time to time to take some things” but was unaware of the full extent of the damage until she completely vacated the storage unit as the leaks were blocked by the boxes.
Some Items Are Irreplaceable
In particular, Ms Ong also grieved the damage to items that were of sentimental value to her, as many were irreplaceable.
“All these items are extremely close to my heart and can neither be replaced nor bought again. I am still very heartbroken. Having to relive this feeling of loss and anguish by writing this is bringing tears to my eyes now,” she said in her Facebook post.
Two such items were her daughter’s kindergarten graduation certificate and photo, especially since she found out that her daughter’s kindergarten “does not keep duplicates” of such items.
Her daughter is currently ten years old, and she has another son who is seven.
Had to Pay to Wash 32kg Worth of Clothing at an Industrial Laundromat
Apart from that, Ms Ong also brought up the extra work she had to do when she moved into her new flat, which is at Toa Payoh.
She had to do “a lot of extra cleaning while [she] was unpacking at [her] new home” as the “smell of dampness and mould” seeped right into her items.
To make matters worse, some of her clothes were also mouldy, even after she packed them in bags and vacuum-sealed them.
In the end, Ms Ong had to bring 32kg of clothing to an industrial laundromat and pay a fee to clean them properly.
Lock+Store’s Response: Should Not Store Valuable Items in Storage Units
When responding to The Straits Times, Lock+Store claimed that the damage done to Ms Ong’s items was not due to water leakage.
Instead, it was due to a fluctuation in temperature or humidity, according to Leona Lo, the company’s Head of Marketing and Customer Experience.
According to Ms Lo, such a situation was caused as non-air-conditioned units at Lock+Store lack mechanisms that provide temperature or humidity control.
She also pointed to the company’s terms and conditions and said that goods stored at Lock+Store are at the “sole risk and responsibility” of the tenant.
Apart from that, she added that the unit next to the one that Ms Ong rented does not belong to a Lock+Store tenant.
In her response, she did not disclose the compensation the company offered Ms Ong and only said that the company is apologetic for what Ms Ong had to go through.
Lock+Store also uploaded a statement on Facebook to address the situation.
In the statement, the company also pointed out that a change in temperature or humidity brought about the damage and added that this was “confirmed by [their] insures”.
The post revealed that the company has been in contact with Ms Ong and that updates regarding the store’s investigations have been provided to her regularly by Lock+Store’s country manager.
“We would like to take this opportunity to remind current and prospective tenants not to store valuable items such as, but not restricted to, jewellery, artworks and luxury handbags in their storage units, as was stated in the Terms and Conditions of our self-storage licence agreement,” the store highlighted in their post.
“We would also like to reiterate our advice that tenants should assess the value of their stored items and are strongly recommended to purchase additional insurance coverage for their items should they deem the basic insured sum under the basic protection plan to be inadequate.”
Intends to File Claim With Small Claims Tribunal
On the other hand, Ms Ong shared that Lock+Store offered her just $2,000 out of goodwill and another $500 to restore three of her items.
One of these items is a Prada bag.
“This offer is an insult to what I have lost and what I have gone through,” she wrote.
She also claimed that the last time she heard from the company was around two weeks ago and said that the company is apparently not liable for her losses due to their terms and conditions.
Apart from that, Ms Ong said that she would likely file a claim with the Small Claims Tribunal and asked for any suggestions or advice on her Facebook post.
She also revealed that she is “exhausted” from the entire situation and just hopes that she can obtain a fair and just resolution regarding the damage done to her items.
And that’s not all.
In the comments section of Lock+Store’s Facebook post, a netizen named Ivan Koh commented on how the company’s alleged use of bots to generate “Love” reactions (the red heart on Facebook) is “deplorable”.
(Of course, he probably did it jokingly. He even used the laughing-crying emoji tilted to the side in his comment, so the seriousness of the comment is pretty clear.)
However, it seems like Lock+Store might have a different perspective on how serious the comment was, for they responded an hour later with a statement that no one thought was coming.
“Hi Ivan, we take your allegations seriously as we too find this deplorable and puerile. We will be lodging a police report,” Lock+Store wrote in the comment.
Yup, you read that right. The police. Not Meta or whatever to try and get rid of the alleged bots, but the police in Singapore.
The company also added this in their latest update to their post, which was made at 8.14 pm yesterday (28 February).
“Separately, we are also aware of a surge in fake ❤️ for this post. We will be lodging a police report. We find the deployment of bots to fake “likes” deplorable and puerile,” the company mentioned.