<p>I neglected to mention: the day my boxes arrived was exactly one month after the promised delivery date.</p>
<p>I will be sure we store my son's stuff in a friend's garage over the summer --don't need the headaches. If we can't store it, we'll jjust give it away, since there's not much anyway.</p>
<p>Yuck- it seemed like a great solution rather than my H or me traveling across the conutry, renting a van and a storage locker.</p>
<p>I'd check around with other folks at the U (preferably upperclassmen), to find out what has worked for other students. I'm sure there are options beyond renting a van & storage locker with you having to go out there. It's definitely worth asking other students & faculty what has worked. The situation comes up every summer (more often when kids go away for a term).</p>
<p>I am sorry to read of problems with summer storage companies. It sure makes it difficult for those of us with kids who are far from home. I purchased student property insurance for my child from nssinc.com. They have very low premiums, and cover all of the student's property, including laptops. This is first dollar coverage, so you don't have to worry about filing through your homeowner's policy first. I was sceptical if it was legit., but since it was inexpensive, I decided to give it a try. Sure enough, my daughter's purse was stolen, and they did pay us back quickly! If you are going to put items in summer storage, this may be a better bet than using the storage company's insurance coverage. By the way, the nssinc. insurance covers their possessions anywhere in the world, so this is comforting if your child studies abroad.</p>
<p>Havard has again reinstated College Boxes and contracted with them. Personally, after our experience, I think they're crazy. Many of the students affected are protesting the decision.
<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=518781%5B/url%5D">http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=518781</a></p>
<p>Previous Crimson stories
A series of articles from The Crimson on the issues many Harvard students have had with Collegeboxes.com. It culminates with the Undergraduate Council's vote yesterday to severe all university ties with Collegeboxes. Interestingly, the day after Harvard voted to severe ties with Collegeboxes, they "found" all of my daughter's lost items and want to schedule a delivery. A miracle?</p>
<p>bandit
It was because of this thread that I insisted S,who is at University of South Carolina NOT contract with the advertised pack and store provider at his campus(not Collegeboxes).Many thanks for the heads up,I would have had no idea of the problems as older D never had to store things other than at her roomates parents house.
He instead, rented a storage space along with another student,and is in the process (yesterday and today) of moving his stuff.Its tough as he has no car... he has to scrounge rides.But Im sure it will pay off next Fall .</p>
<p>My S says he is planning to store his stuff with a "different company" this summer. We are begging him to ship it home. The UPS fees are not that much more, and we promise not to lose it!</p>
<p>Thanks to OP for this thread. I read it months ago and told D to find an alternative to using that same company for summer storage. She has arranged with 3 future roommates to rent a storage unit. They will split the cost 4 ways and pool their resources to get vehicles to transport their boxes next week and retrieve them in the fall. I called D's college and, while they could not specifically discuss problems with the company, they would not rec'd them either.</p>
<p>Yeah, the stories in this thread had caused me to encourage my S to leave his belongings in a plastic garbage bag at a friend's garage over the summer. (He doesn't own much to leave, mostly linens, long pants, jackets, a printer, small fan & lamp.) He was thinking of bringing it all home but that seems silly & would be expensive given the 50 pound luggage weight restrictions.</p>
<p>Himom - Get him to label those plastic bags clearly and all over! My dear H threw out a garbage bag full of stuff because he thought it was garbage! We were in the middle of moving, and I ran out of boxes. I told him one day, but he forgot the next.</p>
<p>Good point, Binx. I'll tell him (who knows what he'll actually do), we can only try! It is easy to get mixed up & toss things that look like trash. When my brother was cleaning my folks' house, he tossed a lot of their "treasures" because he was going through a lot of stuff in a short period of time.</p>