About a year ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic was just starting to unfold, all on-campus residents were faced with the shock of suddenly having to move out of campus housing. Although it was a necessary disruption to help contain the spread of the virus, it placed thousands of us far away from academic support and other services specifically in the time that we were in need of these things the most. In the rush of it all, a lot of us were not even able to return to campus to pack up the remains of our dorms. In response to this problem, NSU provided us with the singular option of contracting the Stirit Storage moving company to move and store the belongings that we weren’t able to take home with us at the time.
With summer break right around the corner, it is once again the time where residential students have to start laying out our moving agenda. Despite the mixed reviews received from the people who used their services last March, NSU has contracted Stirit Storage for yet another year as the only moving company allowed on campus. As a residential student who used their services during the beginning parts of the pandemic, I think this was not the best move for NSU, and here’s why.
I am an international student from The Bahamas, and during that time, I could not find any reasonably priced flights back to Florida for the sole purpose of retrieving my belongings and heading right back. Hence, by default, I was forced to use Stirit Storage. While I was grateful for this option, considering the circumstances regarding the pandemic in its beginning stages, I was not pleased with my experience at all.
They started off quite efficiently, constantly keeping in contact with me and even asking me to send them an email with any specifications for the removal of any fragile or personal items that were still in my room. Being that everyone was still not aware of the severity of the virus, I had left most of my belongings in my room, thinking that I’d return back to school within a month with the rest of my peers, and resume classes as normal. Hence, after hearing that we were not returning to live in our dorms for the remainder of the semester, I sent an extremely detailed email to them about what I wanted them to pack, what I wanted them to leave or throw out, locations of specific items in the room and my phone number for any additional questions throughout the process. I was actually FaceTimed by the person designated to pack away my things, which was very reassuring of the fact that they wouldn’t misplace anything.
Fast forward nine months to when I returned to NSU for this current semester, I received my boxes, excited to reunite with the essential items I’d been separated from for so long. However, as I was rummaging through them, I was appalled.
Firstly, the lack of care that went into the packaging was shocking. I had posters that were practically thrown into the box and crumpled useless once I received them. There were also loose thumbtacks scattered throughout the boxes and little to no bubble wrap around the more fragile items.
They were very accommodating in asking me about the specifics of the things I wanted out of my dorm, but when it came to the actual packing, there was definitely a lack of common sense. There were so many extra, unnecessary things — like my collection of empty toilet paper rolls that I had in my room for a class project — that I hadn’t asked to be packed. As a result, all of the extra weight dramatically increased the price of shipping the boxes by almost double the original price estimate, which was very disappointing for my bank account.
Overall, I’m disappointed with the lack of professionalism in the packing and shipping of my personal belongings. At the very least, I got most of my more important items back, but, I would advise those of you considering using their services to avoid a massive struggle.
