I am an advocate for homeless people in Georgia. There is a U-Haul Storage facility at 300 Peters Street in downtown Atlanta that takes advantage of homeless people. People become homeless for various reasons. If they are being evicted from housing their first step will often be to put their belongings into a storage facility. This particular U-Haul Storage facility is located in an area near low-income housing so I am sure they get a higher number of these situations than other facilities.
We have a client right now who placed her belongings in a Unit at this storage facility. She was unable to pay so she got a notice that her items were going to be auctioned. After she received the notice she came up with the money and paid U-Haul the money she owed them.
Shortly after this first incident she was unable to pay the bill again. So she decided that she wanted to move her belongings out, which is her right. However the lock on her unit was broken (through no fault of her own) the manager at the time (Steven Thomas who is not longer an employee) told our client that he would get the lock cut off and that she did not have to pay until he was able to help her get her things out of the unit.
Our client went back to the unit several times and each time she was told the same thing by Mr. Thomas that she did not have to pay and that he was working on getting the lock off for her.
Well he finally got the lock off however not for the client. Her belongings were auctioned off and sold for $130.00. U-haul took advantage of this woman because they knew she was homeless and because she had trouble paying the fees. She admitted that she was not able to pay and was willing to remove her belongings. They took advantage of her and her situation and they lied to her.
After the client came to us we have gotten nothing but the run around from all employees we have contacted including the CEO of U-Haul Company of Georgia John A. Brick. We first requested a copy of the client's contract in December. Now it is April and the only thing we have received is the renewal she signed after she caught up on her payments when she first defaulted in August.
Are they hiding something? They must be, because they will not respond to our inquiries and will not do the right thing for this poor woman who has lost everything she ever owned because she believed the lies of the manager at the U-Haul storage located at 300 Peters Street, Atlanta GA.
Sadly this is not the first person we have attempted to help with problems relating to the U-Haul storage located at 300 Peters Street, Atlanta GA and unless something is done about their unfair and underhanded business practices, she will not be the last.
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