Tips to find reliable storage facilities
Everyone needs to drop off his or her stuff at a storage facility sometime. The key, however, is to find reliable storage facilities. Of course, as is the case with any other business, there are frauds and bad business practices in the storage industry too. However, you need not fear. International moving companies Brazil are here to help you find reliable storage facilities. We will give you some guidelines so you can determine if the storage facility that you have been checking out is legitimate, or a company with bad business practices.
Back to basics
So, what are storage facilities, and why is this important, you may ask?
- storage facilities are places run by companies where you can store your stuff for a prolonged period of time. During that period, the employees of the company will be taking care of your stuff, and
- storage is extremely important. Nobody wants to lose his or her possessions to the forces of nature. That is why it is so important to find reliable storage facilities.
Storage is, simply put, an industry. There’s a market, and, as is the case with every other industry. the quality of the service determines the winners and the losers. The winners are those who can provide the best service at the lowest price. It’s called the cost to quality ratio. Unfortunately, it can happen that you run into companies with bad business practices, which will end up costing you a lot of money, and nobody wants to be that guy. Reliability is a must-have in every industry. You wouldn’t want the surgeon operating you to be incompetent, or your taxi driver to be an alcoholic, would you?
“How will all this info help me find reliable storage facilities?”
Hang on, we’re getting there. You see, we have identified what unreliable companies in general are. Now, let’s look at what services do storage facilities offer:
- Regulated climate – this includes humidity, air, temperature, and sunlight. For example, if you have sensitive paintings, you wouldn’t want them exposed to sunlight. This will whiten them. If you’re storing your car, you wouldn’t want the atmosphere to be humid. This will damage your timing belt, leading to gigantic repair bills;
- Constant monitoring – you can always choose self-storage, where you can simply leave your stuff and take the key. The employees won’t intrude. However, keep in mind that the entirety of the risk is on you. Do this only if you’re sure that no harm will befall your items in storage. If your items need checkups or maintenance, it’s best to tell the employees – they will monitor it and make sure that no harm befalls it;
- Protection against vermin – even tightly shut containers cannot deter all types of vermin. Cockroaches, for example, can survive a nuclear blast. Vermin are very determined to find something useful (usually a good nesting place), and that is why additional protection must be undertaken.
These are, of course, just some of the things that reliable moving companies do effectively. Unreliable companies may offer these services, however, they will not do them in an ethical or professional manner. For example, they might say that they will monitor your items, but, in reality, they won’t pay your items any attention. This is especially important, for example, when it comes to fine arts transportation & storage – works of art have sentimental value, and you wouldn’t trust them to an unreliable storage company.
Storage industry vastly depends on the country
Let’s have a brief look at the USA. For example, in the USA, there’s a large, developed storage industry. The reason for this development lies mostly in the realm of skyrocketing house prices. Many people have been forced to move to less expensive homes in states with lower tax rates. On the other hand, lies Brazil. Cities like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais have a huge and booming population and more people move into the suburbs every day. Sao Paulo and Rio have over 10 million inhabitants each. Migration, either way, drives the storage industry to new profit margins.
Storage in Brazil is very well regulated. The Brazilian government has a much more active role than US agencies and groups (such as American Moving and Storage Association). Quality inspections are pretty regular, even though they’re more on the lax side. Reliable storage facilities are not hard to find in either country. International moving services Brazil mandate for high-quality storage companies. as you can see, demand creates not only jobs but also quality.
Find reliable storage facilities by looking at reviews
The most important thing to know about reviews is that they aren’t 100% correct. For example, a moving company may be good and reliable and still get a one-star review on Yelp. The reason for this is that customers can be quite fickle sometimes. A displeased customer is more likely than a pleased one to actually write a review. Still, aggregate reviews are a pretty good indicator of a company’s performance. For example:
- If a storage company has 25 good reviews, and 2 bad ones, it is one of the reliable storage facilities. Customers aren’t always rational – they may expect impossible things;
- A storage company with 10 positive and 10 negative reviews is most probably a company with more than just a few bad business practices. Stay clear of that one;
- If the reviews are all negative – well, that one’s obvious, isn’t it?
It may not be the most precise tool if you want to find reliable storage facilities, but it is the best one currently available. In case you decide to move from Brazil to the US, and are in need of North American storage facilities, you can also look them up on the website of Better Business Bureau. On that site, you can also see government actions taken against them. The best thing to do is to check with them on the spot. If you see anything that belies a disreputable storage co., just say goodbye and look for another one.