Customers who spent weeks without their belongings after using a moving and storage service are now pursuing legal action.
CBS Colorado first reported about a Castle Rock woman impacted by a roof collapse at 1-800-PACK-RAT’s Aurora facility. She then had dozens of other impacted customers reach out to her at her Colorado home.
Customers originally affected have their belongings back but feel the company should be held accountable for how they handled the whole ordeal.
“We were sleeping on the floor,” customer Melinder Miller told CBS Colorado. “We had nothing, and nobody to reach out to us and apologize, give us any kind of explanation.”
Melinda and Josh Miller
CBS
Melinda and Josh Miller had it with the living in the state Florida and its frequent hurricanes.
“Three out of the last four years that we were living in Tampa, our house flooded,” Josh told CBS Colorado.
After Hurricane Helene destroyed their house, they put all their belongings in storage with 1-800-PACK-RAT and traveled for months before relocating to Arvada.
The couple’s pods were set to be delivered to their new home on Aug. 22, but, when Melinda called 1-800-PACK-RAT to confirm, she was told their things weren’t coming and was not told when to expect them.
“They were being really vague and evasive,” Melinda told CBS Colorado. “There was no indication about what had happened.”
CBS Colorado learned that a roof collapse at 1-800-PACK-RAT’s Aurora facility had cut off access to the containers.
After doing some research, the Millers discovered a wall collapse at the 1-800-PACK-RAT facility in Tampa in April had similarly left customers without access to their things for over a month.
The couple says their belongings were in that facility then, but they were never notified.
“What are the chances of this? You know that our pod has been through that twice in eight months?” Josh Miller said. “They still have never told us to this day. We just know from our paperwork that our pod was being stored there, and that during that time, nobody could access their pods. So if we would have tried to move in the middle of May, we would have had the same problem.”
In Colorado, they were frustrated by poor communication as days without their things turned to weeks.
“From our perspective, then, it could have gone on for months and months,” Josh said.
“We’ve moved cross country. We hardly know anyone here. Such a stressful time. I’m starting a new job, and instead of being able to get settled and enjoy the summer, I mean, it was spent buying a couch, buying a bed, buying clothes for work,” Melinda explained. “We even looked it up on our cell phone records. It was over seven hours on the phone with them over the course of this whole period. Ninety-eight percent of that was on hold, just trying to get information, and nobody was being forthcoming with anything.”
CBS Colorado reached out to fellow impacted customer Kenneth Mockler, who was organizing a motley crew of unhappy PACK-RAT customers.
“We were able to get in touch, organize ourselves, share our stories,” Mockler said. “The initial intention was to get more information because we were getting nothing from PACK-RAT.”
“We felt like we all trauma bonded together over this experience,” Melinda said.
After nearly a month, both families say their belongings suddenly arrived with very short notice and with some minor water damage.
“This is our stuff that we waited a long time to get,” Mockler said. “Now it feels like home with things that we recognize in a new city.”
Neither party received any compensation from the company; although, Mockler says other customers were offered small amounts.
The Millers say they were even charged an additional month of storage after their containers were dropped off. Like others, they were also charged a storage fee that was later refunded for the month their containers were stuck in the facility.
“We were just treated so poorly in the situation. It was infuriating,” Melinda said. “I just cannot believe anyone would treat their customers this way.”
It’s why the Millers, Mockler and 10 others are now taking legal action.
“The primary objective here is to bring to light the behavior of this company and how we were treated,” Mockler said. “This is a question of bringing PACK-RAT to take accountability for their practices.”
OnFriday, their attorney sent a demand letter to 1-800-PACK-RAT asking for full reimbursement and compensation for damages.
The attorney told CBS Colorado, if PACK-RAT does not comply, they will file a lawsuit alleging breach of contract, unjust enrichment, violation of consumer protections and infliction of emotional distress.
“There’s a familiar pattern here from PACK-RAT,” Josh said. “There are ways to hold them accountable, and we’re trying to do that so that ultimately they just don’t treat people like they treated us.”
In a statement regarding the status of the building, the city of Aurora said, “The city first issued a ‘shoring up permit’ on September 3rd. A second permit was issued on October 20th – this time for installation of a temporary wall to ensure the rest of the building remains protected from weather elements. The first permit (shoring installation) was submitted with an independent engineer’s approval letter. An inspection has not been requested for the second permit, however, it is expected that the work on this project (the temporary wall) is ongoing. The privately-owned company would have to confirm that.”
1-800-PACK-RAT has not responded to CBS Colorado’s request for comment on this demand letter.
The company never told CBS Colorado how many customers were impacted, but the site’s property management said at least 250 containers were inside. It also shared that it was a forklift accident that started all of this.