U-Haul Traps Another Customer, This Time In Stairwell
Remember the U-Haul customer who was locked in at a self-storage unit in Wisconsin? Something similar, but possibly more dangerous, happened over the weekend at an indoor U-Haul facility in Philadelphia.
Michael and his girlfriend were on the 4th floor of the U-Haul storage facility at 1015 S 12th Street in Philadelphia, PA. They'd hired movers to carry down the contents of their storage room, but they decided to help by carrying smaller items down the stairwell (to leave the elevator free for the professional movers).
Once they stepped through, however, they realized they'd made a huge mistake:
We followed the exit sign to the flight of stairs and realized right away that it wasn't the greatest idea. Just the clarify, the sign said EXIT and there was no indication whatsoever that anything was wrong with going through that door and exiting like a normal building. It was one of those stairways that has balcony-ish areas on every floor that opens up to a view of the street...except the openings were very badly covered with wire mesh that was filled with holes. As a result, the ground was covered in bird droppings since birds had gotten in. The door was locked from the inside so once we got into the stairwell and closed the door, there was no way to go back in.
I told my girlfriend to stay there as I headed downstairs to see if there was a way out, and saw dead, decaying birds/rodents on the way to the first floor. Finally the exit door that opened up to the street on the first floor was blocked by scaffolding. So we were trapped in the stairway of the U-Haul facility during normal business hours.
My girlfriend called the office (while I tried to call one of the movers), and since no one picked up the phone there it was transferred automatically to corporate. We told them of our situation, and we were not happy. They said they would transfer us to the office and we told them that we just called there and that no one picked up. We asked if there was a direct manager's line we could be connected to because we needed someone to open the door to the stairwell where we were trapped. They transferred us to the store, no one answered, then we got transferred again back to the corporate office, then when they transferred us to the office again someone picked up and let us out of that horrible place. All in all, we spent 15-20 minutes on the phone trying to get out of there. I was about to call the police.
We told the employees what happened and they kind of disregarded it. The movers were finished and we wanted to get out of there, plus the movers were being paid by the hour. Lets just say that we won't be using that facility again.
We looked up the address on Google Maps and called the U-Haul to ask for their side of the story. The man who answered told us simply "No" when we asked if the ground floor door was blocked by scaffolding. Then he hung up on us when we offered to share details of Michael's complaint.
We're not sure what the fire codes are for Philly, but blocking an exit door seems like it would interfere with an emergency exit should the need arise. Michael, we suggest you lodge a complaint with U-Haul's corporate office, as well as with the Fire Marshal's Office (215-686-1362 or 1363).
(Photo: waltimo)
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Comments:
I've been to that location. To call the staff indifferent would be an understatement.
WOW. Blocking Exits like that is HIGHLY illegal.
Listen: If this ever happens to you, call the fire department. The local FD will come and bash the shit out of the offending facility at no charge! They will use fire axes, saws, hammers - their job is to get you out.
Then the morons who locked you in will have to deal with the broken doors, walls and whatever.
Police should have been your first call. Lucky you had a phone along.
I can't wait to see how someone's going to blame the consumer for this one. Your fault for assuming the stairs are there to be used? Your fault for thinking an "EXIT" sign meant "EXIT"? Your fault for not tracking down the indifferent manager first to ask them whether the stairwell was, well, a functional stairwell?
@twophrasebark: I love the idea of the fire department getting them out, but there is a problem with that. The firetrucks and fire department are going to completely disrupt the movers the OP was paying by the hour, and ultimately cost them too.
I would certainly be filing a complaint with the fire marshal.
Welcome to the U-Haul Philadelphia!
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave
@Princess Leela: "Your fault for not tracking down the indifferent manager first to ask them whether the stairwell was, well, a functional stairwell? "
Or your fault for assuming that an "EXIT" with an "EXIT" sign is a functional "EXIT"?
Man what would happen if there had been a FIRE? *shudder*
@vladthepaler: That's unreasonable. Police/fire should have been the first call AFTER you were unable to reach anyone at the facility in which you were trapped. While it sounds thoroughly unpleasant, they were not in immediate danger. I agree that once the U-Haul facility failed to answer their phone during business hours, it might merit a call to emergency personnel.
@cmdrsass: Well, considering we seem to have a lot of commenters that think a strange man slapping a 2 year old in the face is okay...
@cmdrsass: Oh, I know. Just seems like a LOT of blame-the-OP going around here today, and it's getting on my nerves. /soapbox
@GearheadGeek: I think the scary part is that if they didn't have a phone on them, they would have been stuck unless the movers went looking for them.
@twophrasebark: And whatever being the huge ticket they get from the fire marshal for blocking the exit to begin with.
I've been in several buildings where the doors to the stairwell lock after you go through them. Is there a reason for this? Even if the ground floor door is open, it would seem like an enormous safety problem to have the other stairwell doors lock.
...And if all the above doesn't work (call the fire department, etc.) - start knocking down the scaffolding yourself. Let them clean up the mess they made by blocking an exit.
@korybing: Just spitballing, but in the case of a real fire, the only people who should be going back into the building are people with hardhats and hoses. But I agree that it can be a total pain to get trapped in there like that. I've had it happen. Hotel room next to the exit stairs and a friend I want to zip down and see a floor or two below. Only to find out I must climb all the way down and take the elevator back up. I check to see if the door is going to lock behind me, these days.
@twophrasebark: Yeah, after the first call got bounced back to an unresponsive office, I think this would be my next step.
U-Haul is such a shit hole. I have never been able to get through on the phone, no matter how many times it rings. When I was in the store they would just let the phone ring if they were busy.
I rented a truck that was due at 8am. We had been moving since 9pm but were still not done so I tried to call and ask what would be the consequences of not returning the van by 8am. No answer. I called and I called. Finally I had to drive there to ask if I could keep the truck longer.
This is a legitimate situation for a 911 call. Let them make the decision on who they should call. I agree though that the fire marshall ought to be called - they can actually shut the company down for violations such as this and THEN see how quickly the company rectifies the issues. Retailers jump at fire marshall visits...
@Cogito Ergo Bibo: If the fire was in the stairwell below you, it would be advantageous in buildings with 2 stairways to get back onto one of the higher floors to go to a different set of stairs.
Wow. Talk about patience with U-Haul to begin with. After the office not picking up, 911 would be the next number for me, ESPECIALLY, with the whole rotting decaying corpses thing.
I am a regular customer of this facility and found myself in virtually the same situation as these two customers. Worse, I had left my cell phone in my car.
There are two storage facilities at this location. One on the east side of 12th and one on the west. My unit is on the 3rd floor on the West side unit. (the office is on the East side).There are two staircases. This is an old warehouse. Probably 100 years old.The stairs are metal and steep. One staircase exits at the main entrance, where the loading dock is. There are also two elevators. One a large freight elevator (with manual doors). A second elevator, a nice size, and is standard automatic elevator (if a little slow). I typically use this elevator for runs to the storage unit.
Now there is a staircase over on this side of the building, and i'm pretty sure this is the one they chose. Because this is the one I chose (I was turned around and thought I was using the appropriate stair case). And when I entered that stair case... I knew immediately that I had "chosen poorly" to paraphrase Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This is clearly a fire exit. Had they gone to the other stairwell near the elevator their movers had used... that door is always open... and exits out to the loading dock.
Fortunately on the day that I made this mistake there was nothing blocking the door and I exited to the street with only a minor panic attack. So I know how they felt. The doors to the floor lock because it is a fire exit and probably helps secure your belongings from someone from entering an unsecured building. There is no excuse for a fire exit to be blocked even temporarily. And a call to the fire department really should have been the first call once the office was missed.
As for the staff of the building, I have rented a couple of trucks from them as well as been a storage customer for 12 months. I have always had pretty high quality customer service and friendly relations from truck return staff to the manager to counter staff.
I love it when U-Haul gets bad press. Years ago I had all my stuff stored in a locker in Atlanta while I was living in Canada for three months. I dropped in during a visit to the city and discovered the locker had been broken into and some of my stuff stolen. I wasn't contacted. And the worst part is that after they noticed, they did nothing to secure the locker. It would have sat unlocked for over a month.
@AustinTXProgrammer: Well, you can probably call fire/police dispatch, and they won't send out a 2 alarm response, just the cheif in his truck to move the scaffolding enough to let you out, then hit them with fines.
@Cogito Ergo Bibo: I know this is true, but I've never agreed with it. Nor did the people who died in a Chicago city (or was it county?) government building about 7 or so years ago, trapped in a stairwell.
@formergr: City. The Cook County Administration Building right downtown.
Chicago is also the place where a woman died in a fire because she only knew the honorary address/corporate name of the building and not its technical address when she called in, and emergency services only knew the numbered street address.
The doors aren't locked like that to prevent non-firefighters re-entering, they're locked for security. Although, personally, I'd rather it just be labelled and set off the building alarm. I'd not have a problem explaining to the police why I set off the alarm when trapped, or if the building was on fire.
Doesn't make it good, but it makes it true. :^S
Doors being locked one-way-only come from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, since it's legal to lock the workers *out*, since it's not a fire hazard, but you can't lock them *in*.
I've only used U-haul once and it was a good experience. I needed a truck for 4th of july weekend. The owner wanted to take off for vacation early, so he gave me the truck on thursday, and said it didn't need to be back until sunday evening. He also let me use the "protective blankets" and the dolly on the truck free of charge. All this, and I only got charged for one day plus milage.
@shepd: yeah that's what I thought, for security. But if you're in a fire, go down the stairs, and find out that the floor below you is also on fire and you need to use another emergency exit, then you're kinda SOL. Seems to me that the negatives outweigh the positives of extra security.
@Princess Leela: I blame the OP. There was no need to panic since the dead animals were provisions for anyone dumb enough to think that an exit was indeed an exit.
Ok, off topic. But this reminded me of a trip to BJ's recently (Sam's Club/Costco equivalent).
Their emergency exits have a 15 second timer before they'll open. Anyone else alarmed by this?
Will a panicked person read the sign when trying to flee a burning building? What about a kid?
What about the rodents and birds...
Are they planning on cleaning them out?
@Princess Leela: His fault for lacking the strength/mass enough to lean against the door and move the scaffolding.
@bonzombiekitty: My very first thought.
I'm no fire marshall like Jim Carrey but seems like common sense says you can't block a fire exit!?
@Real Cheese Flavor: Haha that was great. Could this be considered a case of darwinism and evolution weeding out the weaklings?
@Murph1908: Our work has the time delayed doors as well. 15 seconds might not seem like much but if the fire is right behind you I'd be crapping my pants
I'm surprised no one has said this but...
U-HAUL...U-SUCK!
@Murph1908: What in the world is the supposed purpose of the 15 second delay? That seems incredibly stupid.
@ret3: In a dark Philly stairwell,
Dead birds in my hair,
Bad smell of bird crap,
Rising up through the air.
Down below in the distance,
I saw a red exit light.
The door was stuck, blocked by a scaffold.
Thought I was trapped for the night!
Welcome to the U-Haul Philadelphia,
Such a nasty place,
(Such a nasty place)
So much avian waste.
(So much avian waste)
Into the stairs at the U-Haul Philadelphia,
Any time of year
(Any time of year)
You can get trapped here!
They wanted to help the movers,
They went out the exit door,
They found a lot of dead and rotting rats,
All over the floor.
So they call to the office,
No-one picks up.
Some call through to corporate,
Some start to give up!
Welcome to the U-Haul Philadelphia,
Such a nasty place,
So much avian waste.
They livin' it up at the U-Haul Philadelphia!
What a bad surprise,
The stairs you're stuck inside!
Feathers on the mesh wall,
The workers cold as ice.
And they said "Using U-Haul to store our crap, it's not so nice."
And in the fire stairwell,
Satisfaction was the least...
The stare at the concrete floor
And it's covered with dead beasts!
Last thing they remember, they were
Pushing on the door,
They had to find the passage back,
To the place they were before.
"Relax," said the phone man,
Your call is noted as received,
You can check out any time you like but
YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE!
"I check to see if the door is going to lock behind me, these days."
Mind explaining to me how you do this, short of having the ability to walk through walls?
@Murph1908: i noticed this last week in Costco, the fire doors near the back of the store had big lettering that said something along the lines of "DOORS CAN BE OPENED IN LESS THAN 15 SECONDS"
my first thought was "i can probably make it to the front of the store, or out back through the loading docks, in less than 15 seconds"
@Smashville_makes his own comments at home: i'd think this would violate some sort of health code... I'd start screaming about bird flu
Yeah, the first call I'd make after getting out would be the fire marshal. You can't block an exit like that.