Public Storage

This place is good until you have to deal with them. Out of no where, there was a lock that appeared on our unit preventing us from removing our things. After a call to customer service they explained that it must be due to non payment. After the realized it’s on auto-​pay they said there must be notes as to why it was locked since they don’t just lock up random lockers. As it turned out, the locker was mistakenly locked by an employee who confused the numbers.
As a result of them locking our locker, we had to rent a truck for an additional day and incurred other expenses. The district manager, Drew, said that they would refund us for the previous month. This all happened on January 31^st and was only resolved today. As a result they charged us for an extra month and tacked on a refund to make it seem better. We would have been out of the locker and not paid for this month anyway had our unit not been mistakenly locked.
Bottom line — the price is OK and as long as they don’t hold your belongings hostage due to the inability to differentiate between numbers you should be OK.

Pros:
The place is always very clean and well lit.
It’s always dry and secure.
I have only once had trouble accessing my storage locker and that was because it was after 10pm.
Cons:
Getting use of one of the functioning dollies is difficult, especially if it’s a weekend day.
The staff can be somewhat unhelpful.
They have slowly increased my rent from $ 75 a month to $ 150 a month over the course of four years.
If you are late with your rent they slap hefty fines on you.

I don’t know what others expect but this is what I expect:
— safe: 5 star
— clean: 5 star
— customer service: 5 star
— convenient: 5 star
They’s storage units. They’re clean, climate controlled and very inexpensive for Boston (I got quotes from $ 220 — $ 520 /​month for 10X30 units). I choose this not because they were at the low end but because other people I’ve met in the area recommended them (I’m new to the area).
I expected them to be a bit ragged since they were at the low end of pricing. But not at all. Clean lobby/​office, clean hallways, clean units. No paint peeling, no dings/​damage.
It’s easy to find (thats important in Boston as it’s a confusing area if you’re new to the area). Very accessible.
When I completed an inquiry on-​line, I got an immediate call that was professional, courteous, and direct. No hidden fees, everything was explicitly stated. When I showed up the gentleman in the office (Gary?) was great. Very helpful. Walked me to my unit to inspect it, answered all my questions about access and showed me all the ways to access the unit. Explained how I could make it simple on move in day. Since I am new to the area, he even gave me pointers to local venues, etc.

We have been very happy with our unit and interactions with the staff at this Public Storage facility. Yuri has been extremely helpful and informative. Access is very easy and we feel confident that our belonging are in a safe, secure facility.

Yesterday we were in the process of clearing out our storage unit, and had a series of unpleasant experiences. To start off with, there were only two dollies for the entire building, which meant that they were being used by other customers for the first 2 hours we were there. It’s utterly ridiculous that there’d be that few carts to use, especially on a busy day like the end of the month. I also noted that several wall fixtures were broken and we saw a mouse running through the halls.
My first encounter with the only employee on duty, who later identified himself as Iury, was when I tried to use the bathroom on site. The door was locked and there was no sign or other indication that you needed a key from the office. After fetching the key, I found that both the paper town holder and toilet paper holder were empty. I went to the office and was told that I couldn’t have any paper towels, because «people take them» and «unfortunately I still have to give you toilet paper.»
A little while later, as we were loading our truck, Iury walked by, asked if we’d thrown any trash in the dumpster, then claimed he’d seen us doing this on video. He then informed us a charge would be added to our account. I assumed I’d deal with it later, and continued clearing out the storage unit.
Once we’d finished clearing out the unit, I asked Iury to check it and agree that it was clean and empty. He refused. At this point I asked him for his name at least three times and he refused.
We finished loading our truck and I headed into the office to close out the account. Iury handed me a desk phone with his district manager, Andrew Berg on it. Andrew informed me that he had video of us throwing trash in the dumpster, there would be a $ 1500 fine for doing so, and our account would stay open until their trash people could come empty the dumpster. I asked for a copy of the video and he said he could share it with me in a few weeks. Iury gave me Andrew’s card and finally told me his name.
My friend and I stepped outside the office to discuss the situation. At this point Iury locked the door, put up a sign saying he’d be back before 5 and disappeared. It was about 3pm at this point and we’d finished loading our truck.
I then tried to call Andrew twice, both times leaving voicemail. We took at look at the dumpster at that point, which was full of far more trash than we’d have been able to fit in our storage locker and had quite a few items which I’d seen other Public Storage customers hauling out earlier that day, making it fairly clear we were the only ones being harassed like this. Eventually Iury returned, after about 45 minutes.
At this point, we told Iury that while we hadn’t left anything in the dumpster and didn’t believe he had any video of us doing so, we’d take a portion of his trash away to get finished. Iury told us he was unable to do anything for us and that we should call Andrew back. I told him we had twice, and Iury said he’d text Andrew. It was a little before 4 at this point. So I spent the next half hour posting on Public Storage’s social media and calling their corporate office to try and get in touch with Andrew. At about 4:30, Andrew called me back and said that if we removed some of the trash, that’d be fine by him.
Iury then told us we needed to remove all the black plastic bags at the dumpster, regardless of the fact that quite a few of them had papers spilling out with other people’s financial information on them.
We removed the trash bags from the premises, and Iury told me he’d go verify this and close out our account in the morning. I told him this was unacceptable, and with a great deal of rudeness, he agreed to come verify that we’d actually removed the trash bags.
If the way Andrew Berg and Iury handled this matter is typical of Public Storage, I’m incredibly happy to no longer be a customer of their’s.

Real quick update: I am no longer a customer here. It just got too expensive for me. They also decided to tack on a $ 9 fee at the end of my time there for no reason at all and not even tell me. I am never going to pay that, ever. I moved out on time, payed all my rent, that’s all you guys get. On a plus, they bought some new carts finally!

Public Storage is a total scam. I need to move out my storage unit… did my storage move for today. paid my storage through the 15^th of this month. guess what They do not prorate your rent when you are moving out past the 6^th (they only prorate when you move in) You have to pay for a full month if you are still in that month past the 6^th — whether you want to move out on the 8^th, 10^th or 12^th. you still have to for a full month — thats bullshit! they can prorate your rent moving in but not moving out? bullshit. Oh and I lost my keys to my unit. I went up there last month to get my lock cut off so I can replace it with a new lock. Young man laughed at me and said I had to get a lock smtih — I was like what?! I never had a storage place that did not cut locks off. I mean shit if I was behind on my rent and they wanted to auction my shit they would cut off my lock then right? He told me to come back when the manager was at the property. I decided I just wanted to move so I said I would wait until I come back to move out. I rented a uhual and ask a friend who lived 25 miles away to help me move out of the storage — got to property and was told that I had to hire a locksmith to cut my locks off because the manager only cuts locks off once a month and that it was already done so it was my responsibility to hire a lock smith. They only do lock cut offs once a month and they do not keep bolt cutters on property — WHAT?! I jst walked out I didnt even say a word. I went back to get the managers number and the young lady told she was the manager — I said you just told me to call the manager — she said I said the district manager — so I said can I have her number. She said she doesnt work weekends — I said Im not going to call her today. When I got home I called the number. — guess what??? the number was wrong. I called customer service and he explained to me that not only was he not going to waived the 25 late fee charge they gave me — after I already scheduled a move out for May 12^th because I was a new customer and they only do it to customers that been their for a year but he assured me I would have to get a lock smith and see if I am lucky to get the district manager to come out and cut my lock off. I called the number he gave me just to see if it was a real number and it was! I will be calling the district manager to see if she can cut my lock off and waived the damn 25 dollar late fee! I will never use public storage again — NEVER!