Extra Space Storage — Local services in El Segundo

Do not rent here! Unprofessional & uncaring management & a major termite infestation!

The live-in manager, Lisa, is extremely unprofessional & heartless. Mark comes across more caring, giving the impression that everything is well while throwing out friendly recommendations, but he ends up just being a little spy for Lisa reporting to her, snitching & stabbing you in the back! They start out friendly at first when interest is shown in renting a space at their facility. Then like night & day, they suddenly display a terrible uncaring & unfriendly attitude towards renters (once the lease has been signed & things moved in, of course).

I actually loved this facility at first. The property is awesome, there are a wide variety of storage options, multiple entrances & they have extended gate hours. The good qualities, however, are all overshadowed by Lisa's horrendous customer service & uncaring heart. I definitely suggest bypassing this storage option & renting from another more friendly facility. Save yourself from the awful & unfair treatment that Lisa in particular has no problem inflicting on unknowing renters. She behaved this way on several occasions, not only towards me, but also to my grandfather who rented a space, & a good friend of mine who was renting a space here too (both after I had given this facility a good recommendation, my mistake!). I'll share some of my experience below.

FYI: Another issue that I was witness to is that there were on several different dates, THOUSANDS of what appeared to be flying TERMITES, BREEDING & INFESTING this facility! Not good if you have wooden furniture, paperwork or any other items that may be tasty to termites. Who knows what other nasty critters or bugs are infesting this facility!

Its truly a shame such horrible unprofessional local management operates such a well appointed facility with the potential to be a great storage solution for people in the area! They have a large secure gated underground drive in garage for car storage, an elevated loading dock with roll up door, and they advertise extended hours for access till 10pm. Unfortunately, there are no clocks anywhere to know the time if your phone dies while you are hard at work moving stuff.

Be warned: if you accidentally run behind & are still present within the facility running late (even if you have been obviously working hard for hours throughout the day & into the evening trying to move your grandfather's household into his just rented space!), the unfriendly live-in manager Lisa will show up with her boyfriend in a confrontational manner & give you a mere 5 minutes to finish moving what normally would be over an hour's worth of items already in the hallway outside the storage unit, (including a washer & dryer!); WITH THE THREAT OF CALLING THE POLICE OTHERWISE!

Totally heartless & unnecessary, she did this instead of just letting me know that I was running late while being more understanding of the situation. She just as easily could have kindly & reasonably allowed me to take the time needed to finish moving everything in with the care my grandfather's things deserve. Instead I had to literally throw everything left frantically haphazard as quickly as I could into the unit. I found this especially cruel considering my grandfather just started renting there & I was at the end of a very long day of the initial move of his entire household. All day her spy Mark had been around, sharing friendly conversation & giving me 'advice.' So they knew how long & hard I'd been working. To add insult to injury, Lisa then went further by changing the gate hours for my grandfather's account. She said we could now only access his storage space until 5pm instead of the 10pm extended hours that were advertised, that everyone else enjoys & that he signed up for. Unbelievable! So rude! We moved my grandfather out that first month & into a more customer friendly facility. For these specific reasons & more, I recommend avoiding this poorly managed facility. Don't be lured in by these charlatans, they'll stab you...

I had not previously ever used a storage facility. I selected this location because it was conveniently located, appeared to be very clean, well lit, and the Assistant Manager could not be more professional and pleasant. However, the security of this facility is what is most important to me (and the primary factor for me choosing this facility). The Extra Space Storage website, and the specific website for this location express how important the security of the items are to the company. The site specifically mentions "sentimental" items. As I have learned from reading so much about storage facilities, they basically take no responsiblity for the items stored.

This is directly from their website -- still posted to this day:

"When storing valuable or sentimental belongings in self storage, you want to know that they’re safe. At Extra Space Storage, we strive to provide a safe storage environment and peace of mind for our customers by utilizing the latest security features."

With the above type of advertising on their website, one gains some confidence in this company's concern for security. Just about all my personal items I entrusted to store them at this facility. These boxes included so many items, to include from my nearly 30 years of military service.

For the first five years and two months, the only issue I had was when the facility was painted. Clearly the painters did not properly seal off the gaps between the door bottom and floor as I discovered considerable white paint dust on my boxes. During that time, the price of the unit was frequently raised, and I continued paying as required, without complaint. However, sometime between the five year and two month mark to the six year and eight month mark, my unit was burglarized. The combination lock, which I had purchased from Extra Space Storage upon first renting the unit (in part, due to a misplaced trust in the product the company was offering) had been manipulated at the bottom. Upon attempting to open the lock, the rolling numbers would not turn. Even at that point, I simply could not imagine that someone had burglarized my most important possessions. The Extra Space Storage employee cut the lock after I signed the authorization, the door was opened, and I was shocked (devastated) to find that all my boxes were not only in different order than I had placed them, but I immediately could see that many items and storage bins were missing. One large storage container contained so much sports memorabililia with so many old mint condition sports cards (to include some tremendously valuable rookie cards). The other storage bin contained both sentimental and valuable items to include every single photo I had from early childhood until the modern digital time.

The Police Officers with El Segundo Police Department were truly professional, and took a report. Most importantly, they expressed sympathy for all that I had lost. Although I completely feel that I was naive to ever think all those items were safe at this facility, I was assured by the El Segundo Police Department that I am not alone in having been burglarized of very valuable items at these storage facilities.

As I was recently reading the reviews on Yelp, I was surprised to see others who have been burglarized at this facility. To include many years ago. With that type of record, I am surprised that the company has not implemented more effective...

Actually this is a mixed review. I have had a locker at their Wardlow/Long Beach CA facility and have been satisfied with their service until now…

So my review of Mondays experience in short?

Extra Space Corporate? Absolute evil. Personnel at both the Long Beach and El Segundo locations? Good people ALL. So what happened you asked? Let me tell you…

Monday morning, April 25, 2022 at 8ish a.m. I was on the Extra Space website and saw a 5x5 storage locker on websale for $59 per month which I immediately grabbed as a rental (not a 7 day free reserve, an option which was also offered on the site at this same time). When I came to checkout after providing all the information the site requested, the website said my checkout failed. However (a big one), my money ($116) had indeed been immediately debited from my Discover Bank checking account. At this time the local El Segundo store wouldn’t open for at least another hour. So I called the corporate office and explained to customer service person what happened, after which, she put me on hold to check what happened to me.

Upon her returned she explained the issue was mute because in the time it took for me to call their corporate offices in Utah (a couple of minutes) the storage space in question had been rented out an there was nothing she could do even though I must have clearly reserved it first. WTF#%=!!!!

No matter how I pointed out that my ATM card has been debited despite what their website (which had been undergoing maintenance the night before) said, she said their was nothing she could do BUT offer me an identical locker not on websale for double the price ($99). I then asked for a supervisor and after talking to her (Bri) said she’d have a local supervisor call me within 48 hours (it’s now been 72 hours), still waiting………………………………………….

Can we say ‘bait and switch’? However, the money they took from my Discover account was quickly refunded back to my account. So what happened next?

I needed a locker immediately so I rented the space at the El Segundo location that was double the price of my initial attempted purchase. However when doing so, I got the distinct intuition that they were going to raise even the price of my new locker ($99) in the next 4-5 months. LAME!!!

You know I don’t get it! I’ve done business with Mormons Enterprises, many times to a positive outcome, but these folks? Let’s just assume they’re are not Mormons, because I certainly didn’t feel like I was treated morally or ethically. I never got a call, text or email (or offered any accommodation for what was clearly a tech mishap on their side) even though I’ve had an account with them for years.

I have no idea if this BS is normal or abnormal for the industry. So… If this is how you’d want to be treated several years into a rental arrangement? Go Extra Space, otherwise????

Good luck everyone?

PS if anything changes with this situation and the review guidelines allow, I’ll let you...