Public Storage review: overcharging 21

I work at PS. First of all, the promotional price is for NEW tenants, not existing. Second, pricing is determined by our headquarters, and supply and demand determine the rental rates, as well as region and economy. Also typically once a year all tenants get rent raises. Third, if you wished to move into another unit then you should have done a transfer, all of the amount already paid on an existing unit would carry over prorated to a new unit, and then thereafter you will have a lower monthly rate.

I am a Public Storage customer in central New Jersey. Public Storage had systematically hiked my rent twice a year on average over the six years that I'd been their customer, starting in the early 1990's. During that period of time the cost of living index went up by 17%; Public Storage raised my rent by 51% -- with the result that I was paying $25/month more for my unit than the advertised price (of $73) on their website for an identical unit on the same floor of the same building. Needless to say, it left me feeling, um, like a dupe.
The local manager of my Public Storage facility was powerless to help: Rent increases are doled out by corporate, so she gave me the phone number for the regional office. I left two courteous messages with the district manager over the course of a month; I spoke to her once and she said she'd look in to it. Besides being snappy and vulgar (muttering obscenities under her breath when the computer was slow), she didn't call back, didn't resolve the issue, and didn't remember me. At long last I got through to the regional manager who offered to reduce the rate to $81, but wouldn't reduce it to $73. Corporate would let her give no more than a 10% reduction. The only way I would have been able to get the advertised price was to move to another unit down the hall. Also, and this is interesting, she said that prices fluctuate on a daily basis.
Company flacks/apologists, like Redheadedhellion, are probably right to say that Public Storage has the right to set its policies any way it chooses. Public Storage has the right to overcharge existing customers while at the same time offering much lower rates to new customers. Public Storage also has the right to arbitrarily set lower promotional prices while charging existing customers up to 30% more for an identical unit. Public Storage also has the right to change its prices daily. But as an existing customer, the issue for me is: How do I feel about being screwed by Public Storage, and what can I do to stop it? I'd urge all PS tenants to check their bills, verify the advertised rates, and request an adjustment if you are being overcharged. Check your Public Storage bill every year -- check it every time you get a rate increase -- because those increases are cumulative and over the years you'll be paying hundreds more to Public Storage than you should. They are counting on their good customers to either not notice, or not complain. You owe it to yourself to ask Public Storage to lower your rent.
By the way, if you call their headquarters in Glendale, CA [protected]), they will bounce you back to your regional manager. But it's worth calling and complaining at the highest level possible.

I too went into my Van Nuys Public Storage facility yesterday to complain about my upcoming (most recent) rate hike. I pretended to be a new customer and asked how much it was to rent a 10 X 10 unit on the second floor. $161. Great, I said, because you're charging ME $215 for the same space. I got the same ### story about "rates being fixed by corporate, " and that I should really complain, because (the front desk girl, who makes 'a little over minimum wage, ' as she told me -- y'know, to justify the "rates are being increased to reflect higher costs" company line they print on your rate increase notice every year -- a lot of customers are upset over this. I asked her to give me the customers' names, or have them contact me, because as a newly minted California attorney, I'd love nothing more than to file a class action suit against PS.

Wait -- it gets better.

I went up to my storage unit, which I haven't visited since last August, to grab a few of my stored CDs, and realized that my unit had been burglarized. My unit was packed so full that you couldn't put a fist into it; you can put a helluva lot more than a fist into it now. Every box was pulled out and ransacked. My clothes were just thrown back in, and all of my carefully packed and stored items are now sitting loose. My filing cabinets were rifled through, and God only knows what was taken. The best part? My unit wasn't the only one this happened to. Back in September, as I was told, someone was hitting all the units in my area. Did PS call me to notify me of this problem? They did not. Have they installed any safeguards or additional security measures to protect others? Not according to the rather angry-sounding detective investigating the break-ins. Did PS get upset and rip down all the flyers that a previous victim had put up after her unit was broken into? They did. Will I be suing Public Storage for the loss of my inventory? I sure as ### will.

Caveat emptor indeed.

As a former employee of Public Storage all I can say is this. MOVE YOUR ITEMS ELSEWHERE!
That $1 move in special is a JOKE..why? Because after you pay for admin fees, insurance and locks the least you can get in is around $50 and thats WITH the $1 special. They push the insurance because of the kickbacks. If you read the policy you will see that alot of the things that can do damage to your items, water damage, theft, ARE NOT COVERED and they FORCE their employees to SELL THE INSURANCE.
Next, LOCKS...BRING YOUR OWN! Their locks are WAAAAY over priced and now they want you to buy 2 locks talking about its more "SECURE" but think about it...if someone will take the time to cut one lock...its not that much harder to cut 2!
Next, your items. I've seen it too many times where items are damaged because of the property. Public Storage do not put money back into the property. Water gets under the doors, no gutters on buildings, roof leaks. and they don't care.
At my property it was a wind storm that damaged 10 out of 13 roofs at my property. This was in Feb 09 and they didn't get repaired until oct 09. Water was getting into all those units. I was required to RENT units when I KNEW they were leaking.

Bottom line is this.. DO NOT RENT FROM PUBLIC STORAGE. DO NOT BUY MERCHANDISE FROM PUBLIC STORAGE!

Hey Angry Attorney, good luck suing a company that you signed an agreement saying that they wouldn't be responsible for your items. I highly doubt that they "got upset" and tore the flyers down. I am sure they were laughing as they tore them down and probably even ridiculed their spelling.

i went to a san dimas public storage a month ago the reson im writting this is becouse i never place anything in there told them i did not want the storage now there constintly calling me telling me i need to pay them for nothing first of all they lied its not 1.00 doller the first month its more like 23.00 and then after that the bill goes up to something like 180.00 a month i think this is false advertiseing and i would really wish these people would quit calling me

My unit in the front section of Oakbrook Terrace IL had a substantial roof leak. Several gallons of water had been pouring down the back wall, and through the roof, for some time now. It completely saturated and ruined several boxes of our files, and telephone equipment. The boxes were still very wet, full of thousands of insects, and covered in black mold. The day manager seemed very annoyed and un helpful, and preferred argue with me for several minutes, rather than call the district MGR's cell phone, and find some help for me. Her response, "call you're insurance, were not responsible for anything. Finally after many minutes of arguing she called the district manager, and got through right away. (what a waste of time, she could have done this right off the bat) District manager Michelle Williamson seemed equally annoyed she had to be doing her job. She blamed it on heavy rainfall, and again kept repeating that "we're not responsible". She seemed completely unconcerned that large amounts of water had been pouring into a unit that we pay $160 a month for. She said it was normal given the heavy rainfall. I know they are technically not responsible for damaged items, but aren't they responsible for maintaining their roofs? Providing dry storage units, and good customer service? Michelle Williamson did not seem to care because she has no legal responsibility. She only seemed interested in repeating the fine print boiler plate, "we're not responsible. I called the roofers, don't know when it will be fixed". No, I'll get some one out right away and keep you posted, no we'll move your remaining boxes to a unit without a leaky roof, no help at all. Public storage's slogan should be, "Public Storage... We're not responsible... for anything". Stay away from Oakbrook Terrace Public Storage!

I had a unit since early this summer in Alameda, CA, and I went back last weekend (9/26/10) to retrieve something only to find the Public Storage company lock placed on my unit instead of my own. I inquired the office about it, they knew nothing, and they proceeded to open the lock, and I found a number of items missing. They were unable to tell me anything about how that occurred or even to acknowledge that there had been any break-ins.

Then they proceeded to file an incident report wrongly (for a wrong site, but with a correct manager's information), and the manager never called. I called his direct line again, and absolutely no response. I called the main Public Storage number explaining all of this, and they admitted that "the manager is supposed to contact the renter if the lock was found to be tampered with, or missing, broken, damaged, or open" and yet at the end, I only got the "we'll email the manager and he'll get back to you." Has he gotten back to me? Absolutely not. I am yet to hear any response from anybody.

I found out later that others have had the same experience - I will paste one of the Yelp reviews:

I've used this storage site since before it was public storage and owned by shurguard. Ever since the change in ownership service have gone down. There is no consistent property management. I've received notice of rate increases in error. The grounds are not kept up. Recently I received a call that my payment was not received and please come down and verify the lock on my unit as the lock did not have a PS label on it. Apparently, there had been a number of break ins in the month of January 2010 and since the lock did not have a PS sticker on it, I needed to look at it. Except, the lock on my site had two PS stickers on it but it was not my lock.

My unit apparently had been broken into sometime in the past month. What I wanted to know is why the management did not alert customers that there were break ins occurring so we could check out units? This would ensure a swifter identification of loss, increasing the opportunity for recovery. If my payment had arrived on time they would not have called me. Apparently, the only way customners find out there is a problem is when they arrive at their storage unit and find it does not have their lock on it. Extremely poor attitude by the "Acting District Manager" that finally responded to open the unit by sawing off the lock that had been placed after which I found a significant amount of property missing.

These people do not realize that they are responsible to keep the buildings up. I too found a problem, told the on site manage (which has changed a number of times) and finally had to remove everything for evaluation. Any lawyers who would like to form a class action out there? I would join in.

Wwwoooowww I thought I was the only pissed off tenant with Public Storage! I went to my unit yesterday 10/9/2011, I was suppose to replace the lock that they had placed on my unit due to non payment. However, when I got to the unit that lock that was cut of wasn't even mines. When I went into my unit I saw that it had been burglarized and the employee that was on scene was shocked. He had no answers and couldn't explain how it happened. When the police arrived I was told that this happened a lot at the Van Nuys location and that they have a Det. that is assigned just to work on this cases. I want an attorney to start a class action law suit!

stop flaming and refer to the law: All state storage laws are online at www.storagelaws.com. The Calif law is at http://www.storagelaws.com/California.htm. The non-judicial way to deny access is listed at 21705. (a) (i.e. 14 day letter giving another 14 days notice = min 28 days). 21713.5. (a) specifies the maximum late fee and that only one may be assessed per month. So if you showed up and your gate access was invalidated prior to this minimum 28 days, if you were denied access or assessed the 2nd late fee ("lien fee") we are investigating and invite your experience. washington.dale@gmail.com (consumer lawyer, fountain valley, CA).

My rent just got jacked nearly 28% (not counting the insurance) after only six months, after promises made (on the phone and in person when I moved in) that the rate would be locked in as long as I kept the unit.
For a storage operator's viewpoint about when to raise rent, see this article (it's "always", by the way):
http://www.insideselfstorage.com/blogs/speak/2012/02/10-things-to-consider-when-raising-selfstorage-rent.aspx
archived at http://www.webcitation.org/6GqrJa7jI
In the article, it's said that long-time renters of larger units on upper floors tolerate increases. Mine is a large unit on a high floor, and I just moved in. Let's just see how well I "tolerate" 28%. Will advise.

Me again - I should have mentioned that I got in on a half-price special offer (they offered, I didn't ask), and I scrupulously pay on time. The manager has seen my car (a very nice car, but borrowed) and he's seen how fully packed but nicely organized my space is. I've been visiting my space more frequently lately. I just wonder if all this info somehow was involved with their decision to bump my rent by ~28% in a single 6 month period..

Why do consumers bother with public storage anyways, their is plenty of mom and pop self storage areas with good customer service, safe and affordable.
I found one here in Pasadena, CA 91105 they are called Raymond Avenue Self Storage on Raymond between Del mar and California if you are familiar with the area. The manager Carlos is very nice, respectful and professional. I got a unit for 3 months 1/2 off just the other day and they told me up front that the rates never go up. Only two employees work their and they keep the place clean and safe. Call them let them know Mr. Lee sent you for a great discount. Overall look around your area for a self storage facility and stop giving your money to big business like public storage.

I have well had a storage at public storage in Sacramento ca.. A few days ago I went to get some things out of it my code wouldnt work so I went in and thee manger tells me we have till 3pm to get are things out because we are evicted due to breakin contract rules. How can she do this and just keep my families stuff? She knows my family and I are homeless and everything we have is in there. We tried to get it all out but we couldn't find a uhaul then my sister and my son were in a car accident so now no car. I really can't believe they can do this all my moms things I just lost my mom in October.. If anyone knows what I can do to stop them please let me know... I have tried talking to main manger but she won't return my calls.

The "$1 move-in special' is just to get the phone to ring.

My total for the absolutely smallest space they had was $57.35

The force you to purchase insurance to cover $3, 000 and up even though there are no less than 3 safegaurds to access the facility (one even on each elevator ride!) making this insurance completely frivilous and a rip off.

Then they add administration fees.

Buyer beware.

After calling with complaints about your employee misconduct by joyce harassing with verbal and physical intrusions by placing obstacles and removing assistive devices to restrict accessability that prevent customer to conduct peaceful quiet uninterrupted business. This is ongoing since price was increased from quote heard on speakerphone and among 6 contract violations perpetrated by public storage employee against Gary Rosenthal. The discriminatory practice are excessively impeding my attempts to remove my storage prior to incurring additional fees and afterwards you told me to pay anyways for Jan when I agreed on the contingency that there were workers at a building that i supervise and I believe that will be done by 3 and they weren't so I called you and I have called you several times and left 3 messages to reschedule the appt to pay you and pick up my things as you know joyce at public storage on Venice stands outside smoking her cigarette and quickly goes in side and locks door loudly obviously so I can hear her while she deliberately prevents our agreement and Joyce has breached several contract terms on several occasions that I recorded during the time I fully paid for 2 months in advance. I had not been allowed gate access like everyone else and forced to wait for ridiculously extended time periods for her to tell me she knows I'm there because she watching the camera but Joyce says I have to wait because shes too busy to let me in.
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On Tuesday May 29, 2018, I got stuck at Public Storage on Lee Highway in Centreville, VA. I was there for about 3 hours from 8 to about 11. While there I called Public Storage’s corporate and talked to people who did nothing but blame me for being stuck. I told them the door was malfunctioning. They told me it’s not opening because I left late. That was not the case. Something was wrong with the gate. They berated me and yelled at me. One of the women I talked to was so rude scolding at me “pay attention”, but I was trying to talk to bother her and the police officer, who was on the other side of the gate to help me. Not once did any of them agree with me that the door was malfunctioning. After multiple attempts, I talked to a representative, who told me to call the local police, as they should have a code to open me. So I called the police who tried codes they had. None worked. He talked to them and spent two hours punching in codes to no avail. No one in that company told me of any plan to get me out of there. At around 11, I parked my car in the back and the police drove me home. The next day I called Public Storage about 20 times. Literally. I was nervous about my car being towed while I was working. At about noon I took Uber and got my car from public storage. When I got there the alternative gate was opened because the normal gate was malfunctioning like I told them. I went inside and told the employee that I had to leave my car overnight. Her response was “Oh, so that is why your car was there this morning” I was waiting in line to talk to her about how I had to take uber and how I believe the company should pay for it. She then said to me “So what do you want?” Stunned at her unempathetic response, I just left and got out of the line. It was so rude.
When I went home I wrote a review both on their Instagram page about what happened to me and them on Yelp and Google. The Public Storage Instagram blocked me. The next day (Thusday) I got a call from Public Storage District Manager Jillian Gonzalez. The very first sentence out of her mouth was “how do you feel?” Bewildered by that question, I said I feel fine. Second sentence was to tell me that she called me because she saw my review and then told me to delete it because it would hurt her performance. Taken aback by the same apathy I got from the woman when I picked up my car, I said I would think about it. I didn’t think they did anything to justify me removing the bad review. Because to me, if I knew someone got stuck in a facility I was in charge of and I couldn’t find that person, especially a woman, I would call that person ASAP to make sure they are okay. She didn’t do that. The other ‘manager” who supposedly checked up on me didn’t do that. The woman working at Public storage when I picked up my care couldn’t care less as well. Jillian also told me she talked to me that night I was stuck. So she knew I was stuck there. No excuse why she waited till a negative review to check up on me. She then went to tell me she had someone come to check on me two nights prior. She never told me of this person that night that I called. In fact, I left that place believing no one would come to open the gate for me and that Public Storage, including Jillian Gonzalez, shrugged their shoulders and left me there.

Later when I got home, I saw a self-gratifying email District Gonzalez Jillian Gonzalez sent me where she said things to the tune of ‘I am sorry I tried so hard to help you and you couldn’t be helped’, ‘I am sorry that I sent someone and when they came you were not there’ “I…, I…, I …, I…”. I emailed her back and asked her why she never told me that she sent someone to help me? I got off the phone with her thinking no one would come and that they didn’t really care. I got off the phone with them STILL accusing me of leaving late, and still giving me new codes to put in the access system, after telling them multiple times that the gate was malfunctioning. She emailed me back saying she told the police officer she was going to bring someone. I told her why would you tell the police officer and not me? It makes NO sense. I am the paying customer of this storage facility who happened to have gotten locked inside because of a malfunctioning gate. But you tell a third party, who never told me, that you are bringing someone. I am a woman stuck outside of a gated facility that has NO lights, pitch dark and I’m frightened. Also the police officer told me himself that I should call them the next morning and “let them have it.
I told her I won’t remove my review to help her work “performance”, which I took to mean her BONUS check would be affected by me leaving a bad review. Her response to me was to tell me that her boss knows everything and sat there with her during her phone call where she told me to remove my review so she could get a better performance score. She also told me she has tried time and time again to apologize and make my experience pleasant. In the same email she told me about a man named Dilraj who “who left his 6 month old BABY at home with his wife to drive to the property.” And I found that comment about the baby to be not only laughable but asinine. REALLY? I felt like she was guilting me by saying he had to leave his 6 month old to come get me. He is a manager doing his job. I am sure he doesn’t take his baby to work. And I’m sure Jillian doesn’t take her daughter to work. I don’t take my kids to work. No one does. That is how it is. I never complained to her about leaving my family to be stuck, nor did I say how when I went home my family was asleep. Because I never blamed her nor Public Storage for being stuck there. Because I know it was a mistake. When you are a manager you are responsible for unintended problems that arises. That is what Dilraj and Jillian Gonzalez signed up for.
She then told me she offered to pay for my Uber fare because she felt sorry for me, but she can tell that cannot turn my experience around. No you should offer because you are LEGALLY responsible for paying it. You are not doing me a favor. I sent my receipt to her MULTIPLE times with NO reimbursement. I have tried calling her, because I felt her emails to me were her self-serving way of telling her bosses what she did, instead of conversing with me. She doesn’t pick up. In fact she stopped communicating with me. Half her emails were also about how “my boss knows everything” “I am forwarding this to my boss”. Which tells me she never meant to pay me back in the first place. Her whole purpose in contacting me, which she admitted to when she first contacted me TWO days after the incident, was to make sure I remove my review, for her to get a lucrative payday. When I didn’t her boss and her obviously came up with a plan to ignore me, because they were going to lose money due to a bad performance review. Jillian Gonzalez knows better. She worked at Target as a team leader for 3 years after working there for another 4 years, and knows customer service. I’m sure having a degree in English from Stony Brook University didn’t help much but she has worked in customer service enough to know that you don’t dodge a customer for 7 months. I didn’t know how to go about it because it was obvious she was upset, but why should I remove a review for a woman who did nothing but SCOLD me about someone leaving their BABY at home to take care of a customer who was stuck at a place for 3 hours at night? Having been a manager before. I would have made it right with my customer. And made sure to follow up. She hasn’t contacted me, but I have made attempts to contact her. To me she is retaliating by ignoring me.

Please do not use this company. Jillian Gonzalez is a horrible District manager and the worst manager of ANY company I have ever dealt with. When I left public storage, my items had water damage ALL over them and also water was all over my items. And there are BUGS. I called them about that several times, and they never pick up. Public storage directs phone calls by if you are a current renter or not. If you are not people will pick up, if you are good luck getting someone. Once you are a customer they don’t care. Jillian needs more training in being a manager. She has failed big time.

I have had good experiences in renting with small storage companies and generally good experience with Public Storage as far as the service from the employees concerned. One exception was an employee in Boynton beach FL who did not warn me she was giving me a unit which required their specialty lock for extra $20.00. But generally, behind PS is a greedy bunch of people, whoever they are...investment bankers? They give you "teaser" internet rates, and soon jack your rate up substantially. I assume they figure you will continue to pay more instead of moving your stuff...LOL. I didn't want to move a full 10X20 even when the rate got over $200, a ridiculous amount for an empty tin box with a cement floor! My suggestion is think twice before renting from them, look for other places, or ask for a written guarantee of a price for a period of time...not verbal promises. They're laughing all the way to the bank, of course!

How was your issue resolved? They claim that it was solved

Mr. David Lee, I hold you personally responsible for the illegal, unethical treatment I received from Public Storage. What you do to people in need of a storage unit during these trying times is unconscionable. The internet has served you well in your quest for money, creating chaos, covering up the truth, leaving customers in your wake of confusion, at a loss, low on funds, defeated, knowing they have been ripped off, yet too overwhelmed to fight. You deliberately destroy people's lives, setting them up to lose money and their belongings. First you don’t honor your advertised price, you demand we give you our CDL along with our banking information for autopay telling us it is more convenient for us when the reality is you abuse the control of our money and make unauthorized withdrawals, in fact you do not except payment online unless we sign up for autopay, you overcharge, overbill, send false lien notices, illegally sell our belongings for pennies, and continue to bill us for storage rent after the sale of our belongings. Shame on you.

Enlighten yourself, Mr. Lee and learn the results of your actions as the CEO of Public Storage, this is what your company does to people:

Public Storage is dishonest, your business practices are unethical, you start by NOT honoring the advertised one month for $1.00 promotion, then switch customer over to the 50% off one month promotion, false advertising, bait and switch, this is just the beginning of grooming the customer to think Public Storage is always right, like we are a bunch of idiots, throughout all your business transactions you will never admit your mistakes, you never make any price adjustments in the customers favor, you will always be charging us more any way you can, could be unethical, illegal, or illegal with possible loop hole, you play the predatory billing game, you bombard us with an overabundance of confusing inaccurate bills, sending constant letters and emails, changing the bill due date, showing unexplained late and lien charges, saying we are late when we are not, you make critical errors that you do not admit, negligence, you base your billing on these errors and unlawfully charge us more money, you do not post our payments, the late charges keep coming, more wrong amounts, you send us lien threats more late notices, give unlawful rent increases30% or more every 6 mo. or less. We have no way to fight you, get your attention, get answers, you do not answer calls, you do not return calls or messages, we cannot send you emails they are returned; you act like it’s a fake website doing all the crazy billing and harassment but it’s really you, fraud, in order to take our money you don’t allow customers to pay online without giving CDL and bank information, you want people to sign up for your autopay, you tell your managers not to except payments at the location, store hours are often not kept and therefore not accessible for us to make payments or get customer service, your website only collects money and does not offer customer service, we cannot send you a message or contact you through the website, no

message center, you restrict our gate access even when our account is paid up to date, you will not allow a 2 weeks' notice to move out, you do not prorate a month for anything except to switch $1.00 month for the 50% month, you require a 30 days' notice to move out then add on an extra month, or you ignore our move out notice all together, you lie to your employees which in turn they lie to us, employees keep telling us to go online to communicate with management this cannot be done, to add to the confusion you send out contest notices where all we need to do is give you our CDL to enter and win $1000, a scam to get our information, you make it impossible to call you by deliberately recognizing a customer's phone number as NOT a customer, this is done on purpose after a lien is placed so we cannot get a hold of you, even if we pay your ridiculous bill you just keep adding on more charges, when we give notice to move we get more outrages bills to pay thus making it impossible for us to move out, you always leave our account in bad standing just to keep us locked out, we are not allowed to get our belongings and you try to get more money out of us, you unlawfully schedule auctions, you wrongfully auction off our storage contents, and finally to add insult to injury you continue to bill us for storage after the auction.

I was sent a notice that said “pay this today or we keep adding charges on every day”

There is no end to your manipulation, no bill is ever final with you Mr. Lee, your company focuses on stealing money from people by getting their bank information, then you try to convince the customer it’s their fault, you send out fraudulent statements to see if you can get even more money, like maybe we won't notice or we are stupid or desperate enough to pay, you tell us to pay at that very moment or else, the customer is exactly where you want them pay, pay, pay, or lose their business, life’s work, and all of their belongings. You don’t work with people or provide them with a service, you take advantage of them during hard times, drain their bank accounts, and destroy their dreams. You refuse to work with the BBB, an organization who helps people. If not for the judicial system, we would have nowhere to turn.

God bless America.