LifeStorage of State Street

BEWARE MICE INFESTATION!
I rented this storage at Little Village for only around 6 months and more than half of the time this storage has mice problems. When we found out my sofa, mattress, bed frame, shelf and other wood furniture were all badly ruined. The manager told us this problem has been a while — its ridiculous they’ve never sent out any warnings not try to solve the problem asap. Even though we filed a claim the management team has never responded! My total lose is over $ 5000 during this extremely unsatisfied experience and what really disappointed me was the management team has never taken any action to respond my request and this is definitely illegal and not acceptable from all standard. And I’d never go nor recommend any one to go here if you want your precious goods really be taken care of while you paid them for such a service.

I have not used LifeStorage yet but it is close to my home on 35^th Street in Chicago. What I do not understand are the awful reviews… why so many?

Awful! So terrible, do not use this place. The locker conditions are inexcusable. I stored my furniture in one of their lockers for about a year, and when I went to retrieve it, the mattress and sofa were completely ruined. There was some sort of puddle in the locker, and there was mold on the sofa and mattress. I ended up having to throw away the mattress, which was purchased only the year before. I might as well have left my things outside for the year, and saved myself the money. The staff could not have cared less, and informed me that because I didn’t purchase some special insurance package, I was out of luck. I would not recommend this place.

They did not abide by their own contract. They have rat droppings everywhere. Management is very poor. It is not temperature controlled or well maintained. I would keep looking elsewhere.

I was moving and bought some moving supplies at Life Storage of State Street. As it turned out, I didn’t need the supplies and decided to return them. I arrived at the Life Storage facility to find the door locked and a sign on the door saying to call management for service. When I called the number, the person that answered said that she was at the bank and could be back to the store in 15 minutes. She arrived about 20 minutes later carrying a bank bag and became defensive about how her trip to the bank was for business. Next, she advised me that she would have to submit a check request for my refund for the return and that I could expect payment in 7 to 10 business days.
So the owners of this business think that its okay to a) leave the store unattended and hope that customers will hang around and wait; and b) get paid by credit card and receive cash credit immediately, but make me wait over 2 weeks for a refund.
Are they tripping or what?
Don’t buy moving supplies here!!!

Bait and Switch! over and over
First, the signs outside that say 50% of storage are only for two months. They sign you up at one rate then it doubles. There was no mention of the price doubling after the bait period.
But heck, that one any savvy person can figure out.
The REAL bait-​and-​switch was when I reserved a storage space on the first floor with drive in unloading and convince location. I even have a copy of the agreement.
I even had someone go in before and have a look at where the unit would be.
First floor, off drive in docking.
But when I arrived with the movers the space was allocated in a completely different area. Not on the first floor. Not with drive in loading and the location was the furthest possible spot away from the loading dock. I kid you not.
I actually gave directions to someone saying it was the furthest possible spot away from the loading dock.
But there was nothing I could do because the movers were there charging by the hour.
If that wasn’t enough, I signed up for automatic pay.
But I kept getting Late Fees applied!
Even though They had my credit card number and they applied the charges.
Bait and switch #1 50% off
Bait and switch #2 changed locker AFTER I had someone check
Bait and Switch #3 Autopay incurring late charges.
The only positive review here starts with «life storage has revolutionized the industry»
It’s a cut-​n-​paste from their website. Obviously an internal post.
Lastly the place lacked adequate monitoring, it had RATS and twice I came by with no one in the building but the doors left open.
WORST POSSIBLE!!!
stay away
Additional edit: Saw an article in the news about a rat problem. Peoples stuff got destroyed and pooped on.

Life Storage is AWESOME! Clean, professional, not too expensive. I felt very safe leaving my stuff there for 4 months.
Everyone working there was courteous to me and helped make the entire experience a lot less stressful. If you need storage in the South Loop, GO HERE.

I recently rented a U Haull truck here and had a pretty mixed experience. To be fair, this is a storage facility, so I guess that is not their specialty.
The fact that the truck was actually there and the correct truck is a minor miracle when it comes to renting these things. That and lobby was nice and clean were good signs. The big drawback was that despite being able to rent them on the website you cannot rent furniture dollies, blankets, pads, etc. here.
I picked the truck up on Sunday afternoon about 4:30, and had it for 24 hours. At 9:30 the next morning they were already calling to see if I knew when I would be bringing it back. I told them about 4.
When I got there at 4 there was a sign that said out to lunch, be back at 4. There was another sign saying I could put the keys through the mail slot and leave. Unfortunately that door was wide open, so putting the keys through the slot would have meant dropping them on the sidewalk.
When the manager finally got back about 4:20, rather than thanking me for not leaving truck keys in the middle of the sidewalk, she asked me if I read the sign, and then told me I should have just left them because there are cameras… Gee thanks.

As everyone knows, U-​Haul is one of the most unpleasant experiences ever. Ever. I had high hopes when I walked into this place. It looked clean, organized and professional. It had a certificate in a frame about its U-​Haul Customer Service. «This is it» I thought. I have finally discovered the one decent U-​Haul place. Alas, it was just as dismal if not worse than every other U-​Haul location.
I actually ordered a truck from another location, and they forgot to put the padlock key on the keychain (confirmed that this was their normal practice) and during the hectic course of moving, my friend locked it. The location I rented from said not to worry, just drive over to another U-​Haul location (address given) and ask for a padlock key (apparently they’re universal). As I was describing this to the woman behind the desk, I saw her face contort and twist, as she attempted to understand what I was talking about. Unbeknownst to me, U-​Hauls don’t really share information or do things the same, so as I explained my predicament, she said things like «And, what do you want me to do for you?» and «Is it for a TM truck?»
Here’s the deal. I don’t work for U-​Haul, so I don’t know whether or not there are universal locks/​keys or what a TM truck is. All that I ask, is that I am respected as a person when I come into your place of business, whether or not I am paying you. When my U-​Haul location finally did their job and called this friendly site, she rolled her eyes a couple of times, hung up and said to her customer, «Ugh, I have to go cut off a lock.» To which, I said, «No thanks but thanks for your help.»
The irony is that they had signage up that made them look like they were very community oriented. Business cards of other small business in a rack, etc. As someone who lives less than .1 mile away, I was expecting some sort of neighborly treatment. If you can’t fix the problem, no big deal, just don’t make me feel like the moron for asking after being told to go there by another U-​Haul location. The customer service was laughable. However, the storage units did look nice, and the woman did seem quite dear to other PAYING customers. My advice? Store your things there. But if you fall off your bike or something nearby and need some help, don’t go into this business looking for help.

Life Storage has revolutionized the industry. The building is well maintained, clean and temperature controlled. Cameras everywhere, with a nice drive in garage that can fit 2 cars or a nice big truck. Friendly staff and customers!