This company lies, engages in illegal false advertising and is totally unethical. Strong accusations I know, but please - let me tell you my story:
I've been renting a 10' x 20' storage unit from here for a little under 6 months, but when a week ago I got a notice that they were raising the rent on my unit by more than 10% (GASP!!), I decided I needed to downsize. I asked to look at a 10'' x 8.5' unit that they were advertising on their website for $163. Great! Vicky the site manager showed me the unit and it seemed a bit small for a 10' x 8.5' but I figured I'd take her at her word and signed their paperwork. When I started to move in I happened to have a tape measure and found that the unit actually measured 8' x 8.5'. I brought this up with Vicky thinking she'd made a mistake, but she told me that no, this was correct, and that the sizes they quote are "approximate." She showed me two other units that were supposedly 10' x 8.5' that were also actually 8' x 8.5' when I measured them, and said that if I needed the next size up she could move me into their 10' x 10' which I measured and found was actually a 10' x 8.5'. I told her that this was the size I was supposed to be getting with my contract, but she insisted that no, this was the next size up. With a straight face, and my measuring tape right in front of her clearly showing that the space was 10' x 8.5', she insisted that this was actually a 10' x 10'. And again, their measurements are "approximate."
Friends, I know we are now in Trump's so-called post-truth era, but does that really make it ok for a company to lie about length and width?? Is it now ok for a company to say that 8' is actually 10' and thereby screw me out of 20% of the space I signed a contract with them to rent?? It's like getting 4/5 of a gallon of gas when you thought you were buying a full gallon and the attendant telling you, "our gallons are approximate." Or like a guy that you hired to paint 4 walls of a room only painting 3 but insisting that he painted approximately 4. Absolutely unbelievable.
So I called the corporate number on their website, talked to customer service and they listened to my situation. Good news! They said that they were going to put me in touch with the district manager. Unfortunately it took almost 24 hours to get a call from him (his name was Pedro) and he spouted the same corporate line as Vicky - the unit sizes are "approximate." He even tried to call into question my measuring technique. After he totally exacerbated me by not budging from his corporate newspeak, I hung up on him. Is this company so desperate for profits that instead of making a messed up situation right for a customer it instead has a manager belittle my measuring technique? Hey Pedro, guess what - I know how to measure stuff, and I'm actually really good at it. Does squeaking a little bit more out of a company's bottom line now make it ok to false advertise and lie to their customers? I suppose the horrible customer service I experienced shouldn't surprise me coming from a company that apparently systematically trains it managers to stand behind their lie and say 8 is 10.
So dear reader, don't let this happen to you. Realize that when you see a price quoted for a unit here that there's a good chance it's actually a few feet shorter on a side because their sizes are "approximate." Better yet, bring a tape measure and call out the site manager when the dimensions are smaller. Maybe if enough potential customers call this company out on their lies they'll stop making them. Ah but even better still is probably to avoid this place altogether. Who wants to deal with a bunch of liars. Do you??
My story will now move on to me making complaints to LA county's Bureau of Weights and Measures, as well as the Federal Trade Commission. False advertising is, after all still illegal. I've got my fingers crossed that these jokers will get slapped with a nice hefty fine that will help them to see the error of their ways.
And hey - if someone from Personal Storage is reading this - I'M STILL WAITING ON A UNIT THAT IS ACTUALLY 8.5' X 10'. Would you please do the right thing and give me what I'm paying for in my contract?? read more