Storage Company Loses A Senior's Two TVs

When Tanya Fenmore '94-'95 placed her belongings in storage on May 28, 1993, she expected to retrieve them--all of them--upon her return.

But Fenmore, who took a year abroad in Italy, filed a report with the Harvard Police after not finding her two 13-inch Sony Trinitron television sets this fall.

According to Police Chief Paul E. Johnson, Fenmore's September 14 report charged the Packaging Store of Needham with returning only four of the five boxes they had packed.

This isn't the first summer storage debacle for Harvard students in recent years. Last year, two area storage companies allegedly mishandled the property of dozens of Harvard students.

Undergraduates accused one of the firms, All-Pro Moving and Storage Company, of stealing computers, stereos and other high-tech items.

The firm Fenmore stored with, The Packaging Store, is a privately-owned, franchise operation which advertises on campus. Approximately 30 Harvard students used the company this past year, according to employee Edward Jolebiowski.

Fenmore, who is originally from Beverly Hills, said she still has the storage receipt which indicates that the missing box was supposed to contain the two televisions, valued at $600, and a printer, which she found in another box.

"The TVs, we picked them up loose," said Jolebiowski. "At the time, I probably thought they were to go in the same box [as the printer], but when we started packing, we packed them differently."

But Fenmore does not buy Jolebiowski's story.

"They have been giving me excuse after excuse," she said.

Fenmore was not allowed to place a complaint with the company because the employee in charge of complaints will be away in Colorado until the 26th of this month.

Still, Fenmore said she felt "taken advantage of" and decided, "If you don't get mad, get even."

Harvard police officer Robert Kotowski, who took Fenmore's complaint, told her that last year two men posed as a storage company, picked up packages and disappeared.

Although that does not seem to be the case here, Fenmore is concerned.

She said she is further troubled because the man she originally dealt with, Brian Burke, left The Packaging Store roughly six months ago.

Since then, she has dealt with Jolebiowski, who estimates that it will take several weeks for the complaint to be ironed out.

"Somehow either [the TVs] were stolen or they were shipped to someone else by mistake," Jolebiowski said.

Yesterday Fenmore faxed a copy of her receipts to The Packaging Store, but the fax did not come through, according to Jolebiowski.