Manhattan Mini Storage Roosevelt Shelby, District Manager MANHATTAN MINI STORAGE; THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG - EXPERTS AT BAIT & SWITCH, DOUBLE TALK, DENIAL, UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES, THREATS & LIES. New York, New York

Beware Manhattan Mini Storage!

Everything's great with Manhattan Mini Storage until the day something, anything goes wrong and then they instantly become your worst nightmare, even if they cause the problem! Do not believe anything they tell you because their word is meaningless.  No matter what happens, what you say, what you do you will always be wrong.  They are rude, dishonest and bullies.  

Some examples of my experiences with them:

I rented 2 - 10 x 10 ft units from them, the 1st in July 2011.  They promised me a free move by their in-house moving company who somehow managed to take almost 8 hours to move my property  20 blocks from another storage facility and then demanded $800 for the "free move".

My very 1st week of occupancy of the 2nd unit in Dec 2011 there was a bad leak in the roof above my unit on the top floor, which flooded my unit with 2" of filthy water.  Despite the obvious leak that left a large wet spot on the ceiling where water was still visibly running into the unit they denied any responsibility for the flood and any resulting damage!  Finally after over an hour of arguing they finally agreed to move my property to another unit on a lower floor.  Halfway through the move Robert,  the Manager, decided it was taking too long and abruptly told me that "i was on my owen" leaving me with boxes piled in the hall I couldn't lift or carry by myself, even though the sole reason for the move was due to leak and flood in their building!

I lost my job and fell behind in rent.  Manhattan Mini wasted no time in putting my property up for auction. I moved heaven and earth to scrape up the amount given in the auction notice they sent, only be told 2 minutes after I paid them (in person as demanded) that I was still locked out of my units because that was "only the amount required to stop the auction."  They then dunned for another $1000 that had to be paid immediately to gain access to my units, supposedly for the rest of the month.  But when I returned a few days later (in the same month) I was locked out again because Robert changed his story to that payment was for only 1 time access.

Every time I showed up the story was the same.  They would demand $500 or more, even when the account was only one month behind.  I would pay for access supposedly for the month but when I returned the lock would be back on the door.  No matter how much I paid there was no way to ever catch up because they made it impossible for me to sort and clean out my units so that I could reduce and consolidate all my property into one smaller and cheaper room.

I finally got my account to the point where one room was current and one was one month behind, paying Manhattan Mini over $4000 in less than 3 mos!  But I continued to be locked out.

Then at the end of Sept. I received a surprise form letter from Man. Mini's parent company, Edison Properties, informing me that a check they had issued to me for $655 had never been cashed and returned the form included they's issue a replacement check.  This $655 would have paid most of the balance due on my current accounts.

I called and Edison verified the check was for the return of a security deposit for a unit I'd rented from them 2 years earlier.  I returned the signed form and received both written and verbal confirmation that the replacement check had been issued and sent.  But it never arrived.  I called and emailed Edison for over 2 weeks inquiring about the missing check but never got a response.  Finally after complaining to their CEO & CFO I received a terse 3 line email informing me that they'd reviewed my account and decided they didn't owe me the money after all and "sorry for the inconvenience".

That was it - no further explanation, no accounting or documentation to back up their decision.  Simply we changed our mind, even though they had told me the replacement check was issued and sent - which clearly never happened. 

My request for an explanation and documentation continued to be ignored.  Finally after a month I received an email Roosevelt Shelby, the District Manager for Manhattan Mini Storage with a garbled explanation (but still no documentation) about a suppose double payment and credit over 3 years ago (that had nothing to do with the security deposit they said the check was for) coupled with another threat to auction the property I currently stored with them even though the accounts and incidents were 3 years apart and unrelated.

In the meantime I paid Manhattan Mini another $900 and finally got the two rooms to the point where they could be consolidated only to find that as usual I'd been locked out again the day after I made this payment.

Mr. Shelby called me 3 days ago "to apologize" for the mistake with the replacement check. He still refused to given any further explanation or documentation or to acknowledge any fault on Edison's part other than sending me the original letter.  Instead he demanded that I move all of my property from Manhattan Mini Storage by Nov 1st including from the unit that's paid in full and current.  He also demanded that I sign a vacate agreement stating that I will pay them the full balance due in 60 days. However he refused to give me a copy of this agreement to review because "it's non-negotiable and you have to sign it as is when you come or we won't let you move your stuff."  He also demanded I pay another $530 at that time to gain access for the move.  And if I didn't agree to his terms I'll remain locked out and my property will be auctioned in December unless I pay the full balance due at that time, which will have climbed to over $2000 for 4 mos during which time I've been allowed to access to my unit 3 times.  To make it worse, Mr. Shelby was rude, obnoxious and unreasonable. 

So now I'm caught in an endless vicious cycle of having to continually pay $500+ rent/per month for a room I can't access.  I also can't move my property out of there to a cheaper location or combine the 2 rooms to reduce the $860/month Manhattan Mini is currently extorting from me for the same amount of space I could rent for $335/month at CubeSmart Storage on 135th St.  Given I'm still unemployed I will never be able to come up with the $2000 or more Mr. Shelby is demanding so I will in all likelihood lose everything I own in Dec. despite Manhattan Mini still possibly owing me almost $700.

There's seemingly no way of getting around Mr. Shelby because all roads and complaints lead back to him.  Is this a company anyone would want to do business with?  Any help and support in fighting these thugs would be greatly appreciated.