What to do if you are in another Records Center and want to Move?
August 1, 2016
So You Want To Move Out Of Iron Mountain
(or any other record center, for that matter)
Do you get the kind of service you expect and deserve? Do requests go unanswered or, worse yet, denied? Are you being overcharged? Can you even understand what you are being charged? Do you doubt the accuracy of your inventory in storage; if you wanted to pull out, are you confident all your boxes could be found? Do you like calling for service? How frustrating is it?
Sometimes a relationship can get old and stale. Maybe you feel you are not appreciated, or that you are just another number. Perhaps you have had some really bad experiences.
We hate to break the bad news, but you are stuck. Reading the fine print in your contract, you will find a host of clauses restricting you from changing to another record center, regardless of how bad the service may be. Automatic yearly roll-overs, restrictions on inventory reduction, perm-out (hostage) fees, to name just a few.
Is all lost? Fortunately, no. You can follow these steps to improve your situation:
1.) Find and read your contract. Pay special attention to the date, the roll-over clause, and the fee schedule. Be sure to also read any signed amendments to the contract because older contracts were much less restrictive.
2.) Stop feeding fuel to the fire. You don’t have to continue to add inventory! Send us your new boxes. Most of the retrievals will come from newer inventory anyway, so you can begin to experience a better level of service as we get more of the new inventory. Eventually, you may have very little contact with the old center; they will simply be storing old boxes.
3.) Begin a destruction program. If possible, evaluate any inventory that is in your old center and begin to destroy records that have reached their destruction date. Implementing this process is sound advice for all companies who store. Often, you can destroy up to 10% a year without triggering the punitive inventory reduction clause.
This program isn’t quick, but it is cost effective, and will eventually get you into a better situation. Our customers who have done this realized that unless they did something, nothing would get better.
Note: You may wonder how difficult it would be to manage two record centers and two inventories. Call us. We have a convenient solution. Also, do we have those restrictive clauses in our contract? No! We are so confident you will like our service that we feel no need to hold you hostage.