The whole rental started out on the wrong foot when I opened the account on New Year's Day 2023, to which I received various confirmation emails and text messages saying my unit was ready and available immediately, and to come and meet the manager to start my move-in. I loaded up my car and headed over, only to find a sign on the office saying they're closed for New Year's Day despite those several (presumably auto-generated) messages to the contrary. That was a bad omen off the top indicative of this company's poor communication.
There was another occasion where I showed up at my unit, and the facility's gate was broken so that nobody could access their unit at all. After waiting for 30 minutes with no updates from the location, the employees finally told us they had no idea if or when someone was coming and that we should come back "another time." I stopped by again an hour later and still had no access, wasting the half day I'd taken off to access my unit.
The biggest RED FLAG for Public Storage and their commitment to customer obfuscation was billing. When I signed up, I was given the option to select Auto Pay to lock in my rental rate for one year. Perhaps I misread, but that's what I thought the offer was. So when I got a rent raise six months in (and to be clear, Public Storage absolutely will raise your rent every THREE TO SIX MONTHS), I called my location and was told there was nothing she could do about it, but that someone from corporate would call me. Two weeks passed and no one reached out to me from corporate as promised; but suddenly my bill updated to my original rent; so I figured the issue had been settled.
Three months after that, I got another notice saying my rent was going up yet again. I emailed to ask why that was after I thought we'd straightened things out through the year only three months prior. I received a phone call the next day, although I missed the call. I called back *60-seconds later* and was routed to another employee at the call center, who looked up my account and said that she couldn't help me, that the girl who called me the first time needed to call me back herself, and that the lady I was talking to would leave her a message to do so. That woman never called me back. I then tried emailing support@publicstorage.com AGAIN to follow-up after two weeks of no response. Yet again, my email went unanswered. And like I'm sure Public Storage hoped I would, I gave up and accepted their abuse/unjust rate hike.
Of course, my rent went up again a few months later. That's three raises to rent in less than a year and a half.
Now jump forward to moving out. I did my research and saw that I could give up to 60 days notice, and could schedule my move-out at any time. As I didn't know what my move looked like, that was perfect for me -- I'd finalize it once I knew. Easy enough right?
So on Wednesday 5/1, when I realized I'd be moved out by the morning of 5/2, I put in my notice. An employee from my location then called to discuss the move-out. When I asked him how I'd receive my pro-rated rent for May, he told me that actually, Public Storage doesn't pro-rate, and confirmed they'd be stealing my entire month's rent despite only occupying my unit the first of the month; and given that info, that I could take my time with my move and leave things in my unit until the end of May. Once again, Public Storage was trying to rip me off. I calmly acknowledged that he was only an employee and none of my comments were directed at him personally and rather the predatory practices of Public Storage as a whole; informing him that purposely hiding information from customers to rip them off had been consistent with my previous experiences dealing with Public Storage, and that he was working for a criminal company that regularly avoids its customers and practices obfuscation in hopes that their customers get so frustrated they just give up and pay whatever Public Storage wants. I also let him know I'd make sure to thoroughly document my unit during move-out in the event Public Storage decided to try and pull any other surprise charges on me on top of stealing my month's rent.
I got a phone call from the Regional Manager "Mike" a few hours later, presumably after hearing from the employee I spoke to. I missed his call, returned it about 45 minutes later, and as is consistent with every other time Public Storage attempted to call me, that message too went unreturned and unanswered. I completed my move out and Public Storage had my money, so they had no interest in being in touch with me -- but yet, that was their policy when I was an active and paying customer too.
DO NOT USE PUBLIC STORAGE. read more