The Holidays Messed Me Up (and other excuses for late payments)

Still somewhat of a rookie to self-storage management, I can say this has truly been a year to remember.  It was a great year for us for numbers.  Our sales and occupancy went up, defaults decreased and then December came along and everything seemed to come to a screeching halt.  Amazingly enough, it's as if 25% of my customers disappeared off the face of the planet.  People who were never late suddenly had emergencies left and right or I just couldn't reach them.  I had no idea one holiday could cause so much disaster on the planet in such a short amount of time.  I was sending out letters, making weekly calls, begging, doing whatever it took to get those payments in, but to little avail.

So, I decided that perhaps I have been way too nice this past year and they were just waiting until Christmas to stick it to me.  Then again, maybe there was a natural disaster and somehow I missed that news update on my Twitter feed.  In any case, these people went AWOL and without the secret service in my employ, it was a waiting game.  I figured most of these people wouldn't want their units auctioned so they would eventually show up.  And they did, when they realized they were locked out after Christmas and I wasn't going to let them in without a payment.  

This is when it became, at times, stressful and other times, humorous.  Let the excuses begin...  "Please don't auction my belonging's, I've been in jail for the past month."  "Oh really", I replied, "then why didn't you pay in November?"  "Oh, because I was in jail then, too, for a couple of weeks".   "You couldn't have called in between?" "My Dad didn't give me the messages or my mail".  

Sigh....

And then there were the holidays.  Do you remember the good old days when we could blame the dog for everything?  Well, now we are resorting to blaming holidays.  "Oh, there's a late fee? Oh man, I'm so sorry, the holidays messed me up".  Me, "Yes, apparently they messed a lot of people up, I can take your payment over the phone".  "Oh, well, I don't have enough cash"  "OK, then I will see you tomorrow when you do".  I often think about American's and the fact that we have accrued so much debt.  I look at the preceding conversation and no longer have to ponder the reasons why.  Sure there are always exceptions to the rule. We had one customer have her credit card stolen right before she went into the hospital for surgery.  She came in after her recovery period and paid December and this month's.  She contacted me, was concerned and didn't "r-u-n-n-o-f-t"  ("Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?") without an explanation.

What really gets me is when the customer walks in with a new do, nails done, dressed to the nines and talks about her new car in the parking lot while begging for more time to pay her storage because she is low on cash right now.  Or, begging first for more time while talking about their sick relative, divorce, job loss, etc and then once getting into the conversation forgetting why they are here and mentioning their recent elaborate vacation.  Oops....  Nope, this sister is finally with the program and on her toes. 

I think about when I was young and the excuses I tried to use with my Mother when I didn't complete a task I was asked to accomplish. "Michelle, did you clean your room?" "Uhh, well, uhh, I would have but the holidays messed me up...."  Not a good excuse to use with my Mother and definitely not a good excuse to use with me.  Nevertheless, this has been the typical excuse the past month.  Let's blame it on the holidays.  So, I have my little list of suggestions for my customers who seem completely thrown off by their overspending during the holidays:

1) Craigslist something to pay for your storage
2) Take a second job
3) Take a Dave Ramsey course
4) Panhandling (seriously, don't do this...)
5) Go to Mom and Dad, unless they taught you your financial management skills...

Yes, I may seem a little Scroogie right now but those who know me know I am quite possibly one of the nicest people you could ever meet.  I just happen to be a little dumbfounded by the extreme measures people have taken during this season to achieve happiness and fulfillment through buying too much stuff.  If you have it to spend, then by all means, please, pour back into our economy.  But please, please do not spend what you don't have and tell people you are sorry you can't pay them because of the holidays.  If you truly had an emergency and you are putting forth every effort to work with your creditor, then by all means, you have a good excuse.  But, that big screen television that went on sale for $999 on Black Friday is not a good excuse....and no, I don't want to watch the Super Bowl at your house this year, thank you.

So, while the holidays have been stressful for many, and several have had medical issues, relatives who have sadly passed away, job losses, etc, (which are entirely legitimate issues), there are still many who have added an extra stress to your lives and that is called, overspending.  The hair and nails can wait (gasp!) a little while, the big screen television is not a necessity (no matter how large it is, those football players will never really be in your living room), the vacation to the Bahama's can definitely wait and your child does not need every gaming system available on the market (do they even know what you look like anymore?).  Debt is so overrated, let's put an end to it before it puts an end to us.


Michelle Armstrong
Manager
Star Storage
816-765-7300