American Mini Storage IV

I don’t know what these other reviewers are talking about. The only issue I had was that I reserved a space from a third-​party agency and they told me I’d have a first-​floor unit when I actually had a second-​floor unit, but otherwise, the staff are totally polite, completely clear and up-​front about all their policies, and the manager personally took me to my unit and told me what kind of lock etc. I needed. I had a great experience. The place is completely secure, and I like having my own code to get in and out. I wish there was an online-​pay option, but I don’t think renting storage gets easier than this. What are we expecting, velvet-​lined units, butlers and a champagne fountain?
Particularly since this is one of the cheapest places around, and there are NO real differences between it and any of the other options, I’d recommend American Mini Storage highly.

Wow. Where to start. Other than the day that I moved in, it seemed like each subsequent interaction with the business was problem-​laden.
So, I moved some stuff from my parents’ house in Arizona into a 5’X10’ in March 2008. At this point, it was called Extra Space Storage, with this very clean looking sign, blah, blah, blah. They did a good job with branding.
I got a call in March of this year in which the staff member from American Mini Storage informed me that my unit had been vacated a few days earlier but that the «customer disk lock» was still on the unit. Two problems, here. One, I did not know the business hand exchanged hands or, at the very least, changed names. I never received a letter informing me of this change. Two, I did not vacate my unit and was completely mortified, because there were a number of items from my childhood that I relocated to Austin after my parents died. They weren’t of any monetary value, but I was devastated.
When I returned the call to American Mini Storage, the woman kept reiterating that the unit had been vacated, blah, blah, blah. I was a bit frantic and said, no, the unit had not been vacated. She then asked if somebody else could have done so, blah, blah, blah. As it turns out, my neighbor had vacated their unit and my unit shared the same number, followed by a B to distinguish it from the other one. Well, when they terminated my neighbor’s account, mine was the one they wiped out. So, it all panned out OK, my stuff was still there, etc. And when I insisted they gave me 2 months free, they obliged.
So I went to check everything out a couple of days later, after the office had already closed for the day. I go to key in my security code. Access denied. Great. Seems that they wiped out my security code from their system after the previous mishap.
At some point in the subsequent months I went to take stuff to my unit. The gate of this supposedly-​secured facility was broken because it struck some vehicle that was trying to go through after the gate started closing. Not so secure when there’s enough room for people to walk through. I can’t tell you how long it took them to get it repaired, as I didn’t go back for another few weeks, at which time I noted that it had been repaired, but I can tell you they were not immediately working on the situation after the incident.
The next time I went to the AMS office was to change my auto-​pay account. Their electricity went out, meaning that the security system did, too, not to mention the gated access, so I couldn’t even go to put some items into my storage unit. I guess on the up-​side people who weren’t already inside could not take advantage of the lapsed security, but it sure was an inconvenience. I have since relocated my storage unit to another part of town after moving, and you can believe there was no way I was going to get another unit with the same company.
But the Pros:
Very clean facility, friendly staff (even though there appears to be a very high turnover rate).
Cons:
Everything else I’ve described above.