Central Self Storage

Well, I just reviewed the other reviews and realized 6 of the 16 reviews were 1 star and another was 2 stars. So almost half of the reviews were unfavorable.
The good:
The 2 women there are friendly and do their best to be helpful
Rarely any trouble finding a parking space
The bad:
1. There was a theft in which the police were involved just 2 months ago.
2. The hours really suck, even compared to other storage facilities that I shopped around for but I needed to be near a location close to my ex-​wife and kids since I live out of state and visit once a month and mostly keep clothes and items I need for weekend visits there.
3. 2 months ago, I was late and charged a $ 15 fee. But this month I was 2 months late on paying and when I arrived to pay assuming $ 30 in fees for 2 months, I was told I had $ 160 in fees, which is more than twice the cost of the actual unit rental had I paid on time. That’s a bit excessive.
4. There was a leak in my unit that formed a small pool about the size of my palm.

I am extremely disappointed & angry in the lack of communication & professionalism exhibited by this company. I had spoken in person to the property manager explaining that I was going to be moving furniture, etc., from Discovery Bay in East Contra Costa County to the storage facility in Alameda & was told that there would be no problem if I was a little past closing time, which was 7 pm. She told me as long as I got there by 8:30, she would be there. I got there at 7:20. I made several attempts to contact the manager by calling the direct office phone number from the time the moving company came to pick up my things at 5 pm & received absolutely no communication back.
We got there with a huge moving truck to find that the manager was nowhere to be found, & there was no emergency number provided anywhere on the building. I ended up having to take everything to my new apartment. On top of what I had to deal with yesterday, this morning the representative at the main office made no attempts to rectify the situation. Her response to me was that I was to use some kiosk to set it up on my own account, which I was never informed of, because the storage size was not going to be determined upon until I got there. She implied that I was lying.
Companies who are reputable do not behave this way & place the responsibility on the consumer to figure things out, especially when they have no knowledge of their business practices to begin with. The property manager lied to cover herself.
This is a review that is completely justified because of bad business practices. I will never do business with them EVER & recommend that no one else does either! They did not earn the one star that I had to use to post this review. From my experience, zero stars is appropriate.

My experience was from buying moving supplies, not using the storage or Uhaul at this facility. Its hard to find a place to buy boxes on the island, so appreciated this option. The boxes were good. The tape they sell there is not. Its strong and durable, but it does not work well in tape dispenses.
The 2 star rating is for something I observed as leaving. While still in the parking lot a person working there came out, got in a Uhaul vehicle, and drove off in a very unsafe manner including a high speed and then sped down the road. It was very irresponsible driving. I was there with my son in the parking lot when he quickly backed out and drove off, and it worried me to have a child in the parking lot while that type of unsafe driving was occurring. If not for this, I would have given a 3 stars. Hopefully this is an isolated incident and not usual.

This place is amazing especially the wonderful girl who works there christy. She could not have been more friendly… we are moving from Los Angeles to San Fran and it has been very stressful and with people like christy it has helped to make it stress free. Thank you, christopher and Marco

I’m giving Central Self Storage 1 star instead of zero stars for the friendly helpful staff and the overall cleanliness of the facility. Now the reason for the bad rating. I can not state this strongly enough: DO NOT STORE ANYTHING OF MONETARY VALUE IN YOUR UNIT IT WILL BE STOLEN. And I’m not talking about someone breaking your lock and ransacking the place. I’m talking about one person or group of people carefully picking your keyed or combination lock, spending hours going through your belongings and cherry picking anything easy to sell online or at a swap meet or flea market. once their finished they carefully replace all your unwanted items back in the same manner they found them and re-​lock your door. They do this so professionally that it can take you months to realize you’ve been robbed. I found this place about a year and half ago when I was moving from a large apartment to a much smaller one. the manager Christy was very helpful setting me up with a unit, then when I discovered the unit was too small for my needs she assisted me in transferring to a larger unit without incurring any extra fees. This really seemed like a great place to store my stuff, it was within walking distance from my new place and the units being inside made them seem all the more secure. DO NOT BE LULLED INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY BY THE UNITS BEING INSIDE. The units being inside actually provides the thieves with the privacy they need to spend the night going through your unit without having to worry about being seen by people in neighboring buildings or just walking by like they would if the units were outside. The problems started soon after. I had stored my 40 inch 3-​D TV in the unit unboxed but bubble wrapped. Over the next week I proceeded to put more and more boxes into the unit until they completely surrounded the TV. I didn’t do this out of any concern for thievery I just had a lot of stuff. I came back by the unit a couple of weeks later and realized I couldn’t see the TV but I figured it had to be there behind the boxes as nothing looked out of place. It wasn’t until a couple of months later when I pulled out all the boxes that I realized my TV really was gone and I started noticing other smaller but expensive items were missing as well. To name a few 2 medieval style helmets, a limited edition Thor helmet, a hero cam, a korg prohecy synthesizer, a yamaha cs1x synthesizer, a telescope and an akai so1 sampler. These are only a few of the items I can remember now. I immediately let the assistant manager at the time Tony know about the theft he was mildly apologetic and asked me to provide him with a list of the stolen items. I provided him with the list a few days later but he didn’t seem to do anything with it. I procrastinated going down to the police station to report the incident as I figured they wouldn’t do anything about it. This was until the same debit card I had been using to pay Central Self Storage came up stolen. I don’t have any proof Central Self Storage had any thing to do with the stolen debit card but it seemed like an awfully big coincidence. I went down to the Alameda Police Station to report the stolen items and my stolen debit card. While the officer I spoke to was polite he made it pretty clear they weren’t going to do anything about it and his only advise to me was to move my belongings elsewhere. I asked him if they had any other reports of theft from this place he looked down at the address and said «1913 Sherman, yeah we have had quite a few from that location recently» he went on to say «I was called down there a couple of weeks ago by a lady that said some of her belongings were missing from her unit, her unit was so neat and organized i had to ask her if she was sure she actually had the items there. The people who report items stolen from this place always say the same thing the locks didn’t seem to be tampered with and everything looks exactly the way they left it». I should have taken my remaining stuff to another storage place but since I didn’t have a car at the time and figured they had already stolen everything they wanted I just changed the locks to a couple of combination locks. These thieves obviously have access to the building after closing hours. They feel free to spend hours going through your unit without any fear of the units rightful owner showing up or being discovered by management. They also don’t just hit your unit once they will keep coming back to see if you have brought anything else they might like. I found this out the hard way in the past month. After changing the locks and not noticing any further theft I was foolish enough to put an 800 dollar projector in the unit 2 weeks later it was gone. This place is probably fine for non-​valuable items but know that thieves will be going through it to make sure you don’t have anything they want.

Central self storage failed to upset their schedule to reflect that they were not open on Labor Day. I made an online reservation of a uhaul van. Arrived at the appropriate time and the store was closed. I called them directly and their response was essentially «not our problem, call uhaul.» This does not make for good business.

After researching storage options we went with this Alameda facility. We rented trucks on two weekend days and a large storage unit during our recent transition between houses. We also handled the moves ourselves. We were tired and stressed. Christy and Chris were super helpful. I found them courteous and on top of the details. They helped us find the right size unit and took care of the trunk rentals and paperwork quickly. It’s nice to have real customer service, clean and well maintained trucks, and a secure spot with easy access by driving right up rather than one loading dock.

Wow. I’m stunned. I have never received such poor customer service in my entire life. I reserved a unit online yesterday for my move tomorrow (my last resort after not getting a call back from the facility despite a conversation and a follow up voicemail last week) and not only did I get charged SIX TIMES for my reservation, I find out today that I DON’T EVEN HAVE A UNIT RESERVED!!! I called to confirm with the facility (because I hadn’t gotten a confirmation) and Chris, the guy on the phone, told me that I would «just have to wait» because he rented out the unit that I reserved online to someone else. When I got understandably upset and told him that I can’t «just wait» for him to call me tomorrow, my move is tomorrow, and he would have to fix this problem, he said «Thanks for speaking to me like I have a tail» and HUNG UP ON ME.
I will never, ever, ever, EVER rent from this company. The only reason that I would even give them 1 star is because the woman I spoke to on the corporate phone line when I called to complain was incredibly nice and understanding. She offered to find me something else, but forget it. I went with Public Storage instead.
Update: I got a follow-​up rude phone call from Chris telling me that «they’re working on it» before quickly hanging up again, but I still haven’t gotten my money back. The corporate number (who didn’t follow up with me — I had to call them again) says that they can’t refund my money despite my online reservation — only Christy, the manager at the local office (who won’t call me back) can do that. This entire thing is outrageous, completely shady, and a scam. I feel like I just flushed $ 120 down the toilet. Never, ever do business with these people.

I normally don’t do Unilocal reviews, but the great customer service impressed me and I’m happy to toss a well-​earned five stars to the fine folks at Central Self Storage.

This review is for the Uhaul at this location. There are 5 Uhaul’s closer to where we live but we drove to Alameda for professional, reliable and friendly service. Christie is very helpful. Not all businesses offer the same level of service. I strongly recommend you call Christie if you need to rent a moving van or truck.

Christy at «Central self storage» U haul in Alameda made our moving experience smoother providing service above and beyond her duties when we needed assistance.
I can not thank her enough!
I will feel confident recommending this company to anyone for their moving.
Clean, helpful, courteous and excellent .
Thank you!

Clean, Courteous, Safe, Affordable. Excellent customer service. Highly recommend this location.

This review is for my experience in renting Uhaul’s and not the storage facility itself. I rent a 10 feet Uhaul truck about 4 times a month from Central Self Storage as part of my photo booth business and simply put, my business would not be able to function without the excellent service and care I get from Christy and Tony. Their proactive communication and prompt response is a game changer for me. They know how to take care of their customers and even if there are some mix ups, they go out of their way to make it right. In one instance we were double booked for a truck (which happens sometimes) and they went the extra mile and found another truck from a different location and negotiated a preferred rate with that vendor for me as well. I’m a huge fan!

When I first moved into Alameda Central Self Storage (ACSS) 4 years ago it was a highly recommended place. It was the place to go to for truce rental, moving supplies, and of course storage. The staff was friendly and the prices were reasonably. Within the last year and a half it all changed. The first thing they did was jack up my rent. Next they added without my consent an insurance policy. The insurance policy I found out on the local news was a scam that storage places ran. It is ILLEGAL for a storage place to make you have insurance. They use to let you pay online but the function stopped working so you had to call the main line. When calling the main like you had to wait a long time before you can even get anyone. For this I would of given them only ONE STAR.
However, the staff were always helpful and friendly. The place was always clean and secure. They always had plenty of working carts for you to use. Too sum it up. It was NOT the fault of the local management or staff. Rather their corporate policy.
The biggest pro that gave ACSS a third star was moving out. The management was very helpful on letting me know what I need to do to move out. They require 30 day notice but they let me out with less. When i did move out I was free and clear. They did not try to bill me a hidden moving out fee or «unpaid rent» as did the old SCAM PLACE SHATTUCK STORAGE.
If it was not for the illegal mandatory insurance or the jacking of the prices I would of given ACSS FOUR STARS. If they fixed the website FIVE STARS. I do not think this will change anytime soon.

STILL GOING DOWN HILL
I have been a customer of this place for several years. But recently, the big boss Joel, has decided to drive it into the ground. He tried to force the renters to get some bogus insurance (not necessary if you have your own home owner or renters’ insurance) by just putting it on the rental bill. I confronted him and he had it canceled. First it is mandatory then it is gone …
Every so often they would raise the rent by a dollar or two and it is was no big deal. Finally, he decided to raise it by $ 10 per month. No reason … not filled to capacity … just wanted to raise the rent because he probably figured that we had no option. After all the $ 1-​$ 2 increases, this is a big jump.
On the day I went in to tell them this was not good, especially in this economy, three other renters were giving notice that they too were moving out. According to the staff, they had eight others that week. Nice move… raise the rent and lose customers instead of making $ 10 per month he was losing $ 75+ per month times eleven or more units.
I had paid in advance and now a month after I moved out, I have not received my money back. I moved out almost a full week before the end of the month and gave up the locker for them to rent. The manager assured me that I would get it in a week. It never happened. The other manager got Joel on the phone last night but Joel just changed the subject so he must assume that I would go away. I did not go away … I went to Unilocal to tell people to be aware of this poor situation.
Lots of other storage options for you to consider. DO IT.

Central Self Storage is amazing! The staff, especially the manager Christy, are extremely pleasant and helpful. They offer reasonable rates and a nicely maintained facility that stays cool enough. I came from San Diego where my storage unit charged more, had limited access hours, and I’d be sweating in the first few minutes inside the facility. CSS also offers a convenient U-​Haul service with great rates.

Gone downhill since Pacific Mini Storage Days!
I’ve been a customer of this facility for years and unfortunately I feel the service has gone downhill after being acquired by Central Self Storage (a national chain). What’s ironic is that the facility itself is nicer since going corporate, but I would have preferred the old days of actually having an attendant on duty.
What I find most annoying is their new access policy which simply electronically locks both the entry and exit doors exactly at 7pm – even if you’re still inside. Better yet, there’s NO number inside to call to ask for help and your only option is to leave your car there overnight and walk out on foot. Talk about customer service.