It’s that time of the year again — classes are ending, rainy afternoons have finally turned into sunny spring days, and Vanderbilt students are getting ready for the long process of moving out.

Finding an adequate storage space plays a key role in leaving the university for the summer. Although some campus buildings offer basement storage, these spaces can contain only two items per student and are not offered in all dorms. Finding storage that is both reliable and affordable is a difficult task, even in Nashville.

In previous years, students have frequently stored with UPS. This proved convenient, especially for freshmen and students without cars, because UPS’ services include picking up all units for storage directly from dormitory lobbies. Despite high prices, students used this service for its utility.

This past August, however, students who returned from their summer vacations were extremely displeased with UPS’ quality of storage. In the days and weeks following move-in day, many disgruntled upperclassmen complained about lost or broken belongings. Others still were upset with UPS’ handling of items — instead of personally delivering items to dormitory lobbies as promised, many students’ belongings were left in the wrong dormitory, left outside in the parking lot or simply not delivered.

The Hustler repeatedly tried to talk to UPS about the complaints with no success.

“UPS sounded so convenient with a claim of door-to-door service,” said sophomore Megan Murphy, who chose to store with the company last summer. “When I returned after the summer,

I found my room empty and no sign of my belongings. After I inquired, UPS delivered a few things each day over the following two weeks.”

After the long delivery process, many of Murphy’s things were damaged and/or lost.

Sophomore Alex Holman told a similar story.

“When UPS hadn’t delivered my refrigerator and failed to return my phone calls inquiring about its whereabouts, I decided to take things into my own hands,” he said.

Holman searched the dormitories and parking lots around campus and found his refrigerator standing in the lobby of Crawford House.

“It had a huge sticker that said ‘Deliver to Stambaugh’ on top of it,” Holman said.

Many other students have similar complaints.

“They lost some of my stuff,” said sophomore Victoria Malkin, “and they didn’t tell me the rest was in Lot 77, where it sat unsupervised for over a day.”
And the price they paid for the service upset many students.

“UPS charges an arm and a leg for boxes,” said senior M.C Hooper.

Prices last year were $50 per box or $280 per room for the facilities, and many students said they felt these were too high. The Hustler inquired about pricing this year and was told that the per-room fee would be abolished; however, the manager was not sure how much UPS would be charging per box and asked a reporter to call back later.

Not all students were upset with the service UPS has provided.

“When they were set up in Towers, it was easy to bring stuff down,” said senior Samantha Schreiber. “They’ll bring it to your dorm. They followed up to make sure I got everything. They misplaced something, but they got it to me within a week.”

Many of UPS’ disgruntled customers will find some place else to keep their belongings this summer.

“Needless to say, I will not be storing with UPS again,” Murphy said, “and recommend other students to seek other forms of storage.”

—Nikki Bogopolskaya can be reached at veronica.bogopolskaya@vanderbilt.edu