Patience can be a pain in the ass

Here is a nice picture of the kiosk that sits in front of the office. For the past month and a half, the printer has been on the fritz.  It started one day when a customer made a payment and the receipt kept printing.  I had to go out and turn the printer off we had already rolled about 20’ of paper out of the machine.  From this point on the printer stopped working.

I called the kiosk company and quickly found out they have field techs that can be on site instantaneously.   The reality is I am their field tech because they do not send one out… So the origanal phone call goes something like this.

Me: the printer does not work.

Them: what is it doing?

Me: not working.

Them:……………

Me: Uh, there is no power.

Them: What was it doing before the power stopped?

Me: Continuous printing, over 20 feet of paper without printing anything you can read.

Them: It is a communication cable problem.

Me: But there is no power.

Them: We are sending you a new cable call us when arrives next week.

Me: But the printer is not working now.

A week goes by and the communication cable shows up, so I call the company and they politely (they are very nice people) tell me to install the cable and to call them back. 30 minutes latter I finally get the cable in.  This cable is held in by 20 + zip ties. I call the company back and they say…

Them: Now turn on the power.

Me: The power switch is on.

Them: Can you see the test page?

Me: ….No… there still is no power.

Them: We will send you a new printer.

Me: And that will fix the power issue.

Them: And we will send you a new power supply.

Me: Thank you

Them: It will arrive in about a week.

It did arrive in a week but I was on vacation that week so two weeks later I call the company and say I have the printer now what? 

At this point I am going to stop typing the dialog because the installation of the new printer and new power supply took a couple of hours and several calls.  It was not very fun and there was a whole bunch of zip ties that had to be cut.  This is the point I realized they did not send any zip ties to replace they ones that had to be cut.  Duct Tape to the rescue.

This time when they asked for the power to be turned on it did come on. And the printer started spitting out 20 to 30 ft. of paper.  Almost four weeks have gone by and we are back to the original problem.  I stand out at the kiosk for another hour while they run test to no avail.  The answer is “We need to do some research on this”.  The following Monday I call back to follow up. “Hey guys it has been a couple of days have we figured out anything on this printer situation”.  The answer is that I need a specialist to call me and to work this problem.  The truth is I have needed as specialist to come over to the property and fix this printer four and a half weeks ago…..  Wednesday of last week I got a call and was talking to the specialist and he loaded drivers and reloaded drivers, he tested the printer and he retested the printers. He even would hang up the phone because what he was trying was going to take a while then he would call back and test the printer and retest the printer. Finally in the end 5 and ½ weeks later I have a working printer.

 

This is a look at the final days testing of the printer aftermath.  I have seen the inside of that machine just a little too much.

Taking a day off

I am trying something new so forgive me if it comes out jumbled. My wife and youngest son and I are on the way to Love Field in Dallas to pick up my Daughter in Law and Grandson who are coming out fo a visit. What I see now is nothing but I 35. Soon it will be family time.

I left Guardian in the hands of John, he has access to my computer and my cash so he can take payments and even rent a space for me. I hope he does not have to. John will have his hand full with the car wash today.

The Crap Hit the Fan Today

Can you guess what this is?

　



If you said “Gee Whiz Bob, that looks like the start of a Police Report”. I would say “go to the head of the class. I would then make fun of you for saying Gee Whiz.

This was a tough weekend for me. I had some situations happen that made me really check my gut reaction. Well Monday is here and it is time to go make things happen at the new storage facility… or is it? When I woke up this morning I had no idea that two very low life’s had broken into 18 different units or vehicles last night. I can’t show pictures of the effected units or even tell you how it was done. (We need to remember the privacy of our tenants). Now is the time to talk to about how to protect your belongings while they are in storage.

First do not let everyone know that you are using storage. The fewer people who know is best. If you use a moving company pack in unmarked boxes. Instead of writing mom’s good china, or Dad’s antique guns just mark the box with color so that you now all blue marked boxes go to dad’s study and green is for the kitchen.

Next Pack your unit to the gills, I mean fill every space possible. When someone opens the door it should be a solid wall of unmarked boxes and they should say “Whoa! I do not even want to take the time to figure this out”.

Go spend some money on a good lock. The cheapest lock you should look at is a Disk Lock Spend 10 to 20 dollars. Every space that was broken into last night was a standard lock. With the exception of on that was a school gym locker. The truth is locks keep honest people honest, so use a lock that will keep the most people honest.

Finally get your self some insurance. Self storage companies do not carry insurance on your property. You can sue a storage company for your losses but you will lose. When you sign a contract with a storage company you are in an agreement that the company will not carry any kind of policy for your stuff. Have I made myself clear No Self Storage Provider Will Cover You Stuff With Any Kind Of Policy. Now some Companies will offer a pay with your rent Policy, these are not bad policies so look closely at them, but they are not the provider or the insurer they are only a go between. The big point make sure you are covered with some kind of policy. Check your homeowner or renter policy to see if they cover you. No mater what it is your responsibility and no one else.

The Game of Life

Here is a lesson for all who may read this.  In the “Game of Life” that is the Parker Brothers game, the idea of the game is to make more money than anyone else and beat your opponents to the finish.  That is a board game people.   Get the clue that life is not a game.   The one with the most toys does not win.

Pardon for the rant but I seem to be in a power struggle at work and I did not start it.   I have a fellow employee in the company that feels like he is not needed in his current position and is trying to gain some form of control in the storage branch of the corporation.   Now the old me wants to say “I didn’t start this fight but I will sure end it”.  Now here is where my internal struggle hits.  My gut still wants to fight fire with a small thermal nuclear device, but I spent last fall at an adult leadership course put on by the Boy Scouts of America.  This course is called Wood Badge and is one of the most compelling classes I have ever taken.  I will not go into great detail on the overall course, but I want to tell you about one lesson. 

“The Game of Life”

Here are the rules of a simple game.  You have two paddles on red and one green. On the count of three each team lifts a paddle in the air.  That is all the rules you are given and the game starts.   After the first round the scoring board is brought out and the scores are counted.  For example the scoring board for a game with two teams would look like this.   Two red paddles are raised both teams lose 100 points.  If a red paddle and a green paddle are raised then the red paddle wins 500 points and the green paddle loses 500 points. If the two green paddles are raised then each team gets 50 points.   Now the motto of this game is “Win All You Can”.  How do you see this game going?  When I played it we had eight teams with a very complicated scoring board, but the concept stayed the same.  At first we were just throwing up paddles at a whim and going into the negatives fast.  Then a group of instructors ran across the room holding up one word signs which read Win All You Can. As soon as they passed they ran backwards so the message read Can You All Win.  Slowly two tactics emerged one group started only holding up the red paddle while the other seven groups were holding up green.  The seven groups started trying to get the eight group to join in but they were winning and they kept holding up red by the end of the game seven teams where dip in the negative and one team had thousands of points. Who won?  …. No one won.  In life there is no score board and no playing pieces and if you can’t figure out that there is always a win-win scenario, then you will be the one to bring down everyone.  I don’t want to be the one to destroy everything just to prove I am right. 

When I started this blog tonight I had all intentions of explaining my strategies of how I was going to win this battle.  Then I would probably spend some time justifying my decision.  Now here I am at the end of this post and I realize it’s time to lift the paddle.  Well Bob what’s it going to be red or green.   This will be a long weekend figuring out my next move.   I hope you will think before your next move and try to find the win-win scenario.

P.S. If I blow this game for any soon to be Wood Badgers, please forgive me.   Not only did this game hit me hard then, but again tonight.  It is a lesson we all need.

 Make good choices.  in the end it is just between you and God.

Let the games begin

The letters about the inventory for auction went out yesterday and I got my first head ach today.   Today went by kind of hectic but not out of the ordinary.   Till 5:45 this afternoon when one of my auction tenants stops by.  Now I haven’t received a payment from her (that didn’t bounce) since she moved in.  Yet today she shows up and wants to pay now.  Hey I like that kind of enthusiasm, just tell me where it has been for the past three months. 

Now let me tell you that the computer happens to be turned off at the moment she comes in ( another long story for another rime).  So we must wait for the complete boot up to happen. Then she has some disputes on the total amount.

Side bar here - the reason we got the new program is because the old program would like to add charges at random. 

Yes I know there is a problem and yes I know how to fix it.  The problem is the info I need is in her file and the calculations are going to need to be done by hand.  Then once the proper price has been set I will need to figure out how to make the new computer to accept the discounted price.  Did I mention it is 5:45 heading to my 6 o’clock closing and this will make me work past 6 which I do not get paid for.

By the way did I mention that this process is taking to long for her and I am putting her out?  You see she has places to be.  This is the kind of attitude that really bothers me.  She has put off taking care of this bill till the last moment making me wait three months to get paid, yet waiting fifteen minutes so I can charge her the proper amount is cramping her style.

Simple answer… I cut her a hand receipt … refilled my coffee and fixed the problem.  She was out of my office at 6 and I took the next 10 minutes and patched the paperwork.  She will never understand how rude not paying your bills can be, but that’s ok I had hot coffee and a quite office.  Unfortunately this is what will great me in the morning.

I need to do some filling to find my desk.  

The first is down, five more to go

The next Big step to Auction.

I mailed out letters to my tenants who are on the road to auction.  I hate these letters for many reasons but the top reason is the attitude I get from many of the customers.  Now please understand I have 90% of my tenants are great people fun to visit with and never give me any problem, what I get from the bottom 10% is this look of disgust as they walk into the office as if I was the problem.   I have even had customers tell me “why are you threatening me with these ugly, mean letters.  You know I always come in and pay my bill”.  What are they thinking the account is over 120 days late and they have not responded to my letters, or phone calls, yet I am supposed to psychically know what day they are going to pay!  Most likely they will also want me to waive the fees.  Man I wish I was golfing.

Here is what is actually coming my way.  Out of the six letters I sent two will pay up quickly one will make a fight out of it and I will get 90% of what they owe, but only after I cut their lock. The other two will end up in the auction and one of those two spaces will look like this.

I stared with just over 20 units going to auction three weeks ago and this is what I am down to.  When I get the rest of the units filled I will probably get a better sized auction going, but with just over 200 units rented I should be happy with 2 to 3 units every 6 months.  

 I should start hearing back from my letter as early as tomorrow.  

Collection calls have started!!

This week I started collection calls to facilitate an upcoming auction. What that means is that I have 22 units that could be heading to auction. To get to the final stage of auction you need to start filtering who can be justified at auction. When I get to auction day I want to be crystal clear in my heart and mind that the units that are auction have had all the chances allotted by law to catch up their account and save their stuff. Sometimes good customers get behind and this first step (collection calls) will give them the time to catch up before the more drastic steps are taken. Good customers who fall behind are only one kind of customer I get to deal with. There are several other categories of customer that fall into the general category of my personal aneurism.

The first of these is the “Oh Woe is Me” client. You get into this customer almost always by surprise. The call starts off normal enough. The customer answers the phone happy with a jovial “Hello”. I announce my self and ask to speak to the customer. From this point the sound and domineer of the customer starts to decline. The woes are different but all sound the same, I lost my job, I have been sick, I got a boil on my butt. The cost of whatever is killing me and I just haven’t had a chance to catch up…. This is the type of client that will eventually come to the office in a brand new BMW and pay with a real platinum card. They don’t think I notice things like that, but I do.

Another sub category of My Personal Aneurism is the “It is Not My Fault”. With this customer they will try to prove that they do not deserve to be in auction. I have heard all sorts of stories and not all made up. In fact most stories from this category are true. What the customer just does not get is that none of it really matters. The contract is in their name and there is a balance owed. These are the facts that count, but I will still spend 20 to 40 minutes hearing that my ex-husband was supposed to pay this bill, or my uncle said he moved everything out 6 weeks ago. When customers let other people have control of the unit, is when I end up here.

The last type I will mention is “It’s Your Fault”. This is the one I like the best/least. In this situation I will not be able to find the customer. The phone numbers will be no good and the mail will be returned, so as a lost ditch effort I start searching the internet, 411 and any other way to find people and I will get a number. I finally get the customer on the line and they want to know why I let the bill get so high before I called…. This is the one that really hurts.

The first day of the new system

Bob the Hedge Hog relaxes with a cup of joe, after entering payments all day.

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Ok, the first day with the new computer system did not go as smooth as I would have liked, but there were some extenuating circumstances. First lets remember it is the first day of the year and a lot of payments needed to be entered, and the auto pay has not been set up in the new system making all credit card payments be done by hand, and I have not seen this many checks in one day in a long time. Second I got to rent spaces on the first day of the year! That is a great way to start the year. Oh yeah, third, I don’t think I ever really finished training.

From 9:15 to 4:45 all I did was payments. This would be phone in credit cards, dropped off checks, dropped off cash, mailed in checks , auto pay credit cards and auto pay automatic draft. All of these which were treated like walk in payments. I now know how to process payments of all sorts and have gotten quite fast at it. After 5:00 I tried my hand at doing close out for the first time. Guess what, I did not balance. So here comes my second bonus of the day. I now know how to reverse a payment, move a customer out and how to reverse a move out of that customer. Another Geek moment happened today at this point. This new system (Site Link is the name, I have held off naming it in case I did not like it.) can do a complete reversal on a move out. This is really cool in the storage world. For 20 years if ever I moved a customer out by mistake (yes that happens) I would have to recreate the entire data base for that customer. This new site link program was find the right button and poof it is like it never happened. This came in really helpful today when I took a payment on a space then vacated it then realized , Hey maybe I shouldn’t charge them for the month after they moved out. One button they were back in the system, I could then reverse the payment and move them back out. Geeky stuff to you maybe, but to me I was Superman.

Moral of the story - After 9 hours of competitive payment entering ask your wife why you don’t balance 10 minutes later the answer was obvious and fixable.