Public Storage — Attraction in Houston

I am moving here because my previous facility (another company) is tearing down the building. The W. Gray Public Storage is close to my house, and the unit is the same price but much larger than I was getting at Extra Space. It was easy enough to sign up on line. However, I was forced to take and pay for the unit 3 weeks before my move-in date, because you cannot make a reservation for further down the road than one week. There was no rental agreement or rules to read on-line. After that, things were not so great. I had to go sign the contract in person. When there is no one in the office (they are showing units to other customers), they lock the door. They don't bother to put up a sign, so you have no clue if they are open or not. The girl was decidedly not friendly and not thrilled about helping people. she muttered something about the company having set three back-to-back appointments first thing in the morning, and she had not even had time to get set up when she arrived at work. I was really irked when she told me that they "require" you to have rental insurance. Since this had not been mentioned on-line, I did not have time to see if my homeowners insurance covers rental storage. So I was forced to sign up for their insurance, at an additional $11 / month ($132 / year). I was also told that they "require" you to have a certain type of lock, also not mentioned in the on-line material, and I didn't have time to drive to Home Depot, so I was forced to buy their $20 lock. She locked the front door and then disinterestedly walked me to my unit on the 2nd floor of a building in the rear. It's nice that you can drive right up to the entrance. There's no special parking in front of the building, so your vehicle will be blocking other people's access to their units. There were no carts or dollies in sight, so you will be hauling your boxes from the car into the elevator and then down the hall to your unit by hand, or bring your own dolly. The locker is climate controlled, and it's large, 5'x10', which is nice. And it's close to the elevator. But there was a chunk of ceiling tile caved down, and insulation hanging 3' down into the unit. I asked if the unit had had a roof leak, and she said, "No, it's just an old building," and gestured to some falling ceiling tiles out in the hall. This does not answer the question of water leaks. I asked if they could have it fixed in the three weeks I had paid for but will not be able to move in. She disinterestedly said "maybe." The second time I asked if it would be fixed, she commented that probably not, and that their maintenance crew isn't good about things like that. While I was in the office, a lady came in who was told that her rent had gone up from $50 to something like $75 (50%!), which she had not been advised of, and they had slapped on a late fee because she was two days late in paying (she said she had not received a bill). It's also not clear how they bill you - via U.S. mail or via e-mail. I tend to delete e-mails that look like advertising, so you could easily overlook a bill, and become delinquent. So I'm definitely not pleased with the customer service. Nor the bait and switch about the required insurance and the required pad lock. I'm worried that my unit might be subject to rain / roof leaks. But I want to keep the unit because it's close to the elevator . All the other available units are way in the back, and remember, I didn't see any cart or dolly. I could look for another facility, but I have a really short time frame and need to get something quickly. This one is close to my house. Not that I go to my storage unit all that often. I hope that I have not made a...

Horrible, horrible, horrible!

I would give it zero stars if that was possible. Rented here for about 8 months, and every time I needed to access the unit, there was some kind of problem, either they forgot to give us the elevator code, or they forgot to give us the stair code, or they are working on the elevators so they changed the stair code, or the number pad is malfunctioning. So every time, need to look for the on-site mgr, who is nowhere to be found and when she is found, she is rude and unprofessional. Bottom line, average time to access the unit: 1 hour. And this if it is during biz hours. If not, you are SOL, as nobody answers the phones, all endless automated messages. So the last straw for me, came to the unit to pick up my kids' winter clothes, as it was getting down to the 40s and again, stair code not working, elevator closed for repairs. Go to look for onsite mgr, nobody in the office, everything locked. This is 4 pm, during biz hours. Then, 30 min later she shows up and asks me if I was the one banging on the door. Really? So I get out of the car and ask her why I do not have access to my unit when my bill is paid in full. A shouting match ensued ending with her physically pushing me to prevent me from entering the office! Unacceptable!!! After another 30 min, the district mgr showed up asking me to verify my account to make sure I had the right to be on property. Add insult to injury. After verifying the codes he went to the stairs to demonstrate how to open with the given code. Guess what ? He couldn't. So again he calls the star onsite mgr and she explains that that door has a mechanical malfunction. During all this I decided that this place is not worth my time, my money and my peace. So ordered a UHaul and moving out tonight, same day as all this happened. Would never recommend this place to anyone, even if they give it to...

My storage unit was broken into and the employee working at the office, named Lizzetta, did absolutely NOTHING to help me. No assistance, no sympathy, and the absolute worst costumer service. I called the insurance company to place my claim, and she refused to give me essential information that they were asking me for in order to get my claim started (this is the insurance company that Public Storage works through, mind you, and she was still unwilling to assist me). Every time I left the office to attend to my phone calls (insurance and the police), she would make sure to lock the office door behind me so I wouldn't be able to come in again, knowing very well I might need her assistance, and even though it was pouring rain outside. And when the police officer showed up to file my police report, she put up the "I stepped out of the office, I'll be back soon" sign and disappeared, so when the police officer wanted to come in and speak with her about surveillance, she was not there. I understand that she might not care about my belongings being stolen, but I would've hoped that as a human being she would have shown some compassion towards what I was going through and offered some help. I have worked in the service industry my entire career and this woman embodies the absolute opposite of what hospitality should resemble, let alone what Public Storage might want to portray as their customer service standards. Honestly, the lowest of the low. I would be ashamed to have such a person to be an ambassador of my brand, but if they allow someone like this to represent their vision, mission, and loyalty to customers, then that says more about them as a company than I care to know. Long story short, don't bring your business here, it's not worth your hard...