The facts in this review of Danville Self Storage are supported by Yelp PHOTOS, and a YouTube VIDEO posted by renters.
Danville Self Storage is my 1st experience with a sub-standard storage facility. It is the first negative review I have ever given a company, publicly or privately. I have a history of generously praising 99.99% of those I deal with on social media, and I have posted my experience on Yelp of great storage facilities nearby.
SUMMARY: Here is a short summary of the problems we experienced:
1). Danville Self Storage is not climate controlled, but it's costly:
2). It LEAKED rainwater on multiple occasions (and not just in my unit).
3). My unit was BUG INFESTED.
4). The entry security GATE BREAKS DOWN (as described by others on Yelp). You get locked inside or outside the gate for 10-15 minutes.
5). The OWNER of the facility (Kim Wood Wright) insisted I deal with her initially, but then refused to be fully accountable for the leaking ceilings inside of the storage units. (Details are below).
6) The RENTS at Danville Self Storage are in my opinion, HIGH, compared to other facilities of superior quality. I've rented elsewhere.
7). Some customers are given discounts, while other customers are not given discounts. (During my 10-month long rental, I was not offered a discount for my unit. ) The few discounts that are offered to some, do NOT make up for the rain damage and the significant time a person loses in cleaning up muddy messes, when their unit's roof breaks. More info below...
DETAILS: Here are the details of my experience and those of OTHER renters at Danville Self Storage:
I needed to vacate my storage unit at Danville Self Storage after I personally observed, with a front-end staff member and several others on site, that the roof of my unit might leak. At 5pm, I had to call movers and BEG them to move me out by 8am the next morning. It was a huge hassle.
My unit had ALREADY leaked, but I did not discover the leak until now. (I've shown the old water damage in the photos and in the videos). On visiting my unit, after renting for 10-months, I noticed:
1). A HOLE in the white ceiling inside my storage unit.
2). RAIN water had caused the ceiling to SAG (as shown by the white roof lining, seen in the Yelp video here).
3). The CEILING lining had SPLIT OPEN open, down the middle seam, threatening to BURST MORE WATER water onto my property inside the unit. (Shown in the Yelp video uploaded here).
4). MUD had accumulated inside the front of my unit.
5). There were old CIGARETTE BUTTS outside the entrance to my unit (I don't smoke so those butts were someone else's dirty trash).
6). A BLACK WIDOW spider had made my storage unit her home. There were other SPIDERS, and INSECT EGGS on top of my boxes in the unit.
7) NEGLECT: In my view, this Owner was UNWILLING to spend money to make repairs, when needed, and she was not professional.
The evening that I discovered my unit had been leaking, I gathered approximately ten (10) friends, family members, and moving professionals, to help me inside of my unit, and also back at my temporary residence (where I was now forced to clear a ton of space for my belongings). Over a five (5) day period, ten (10) of us moved water-damaged, dirty, bug-infested boxes out of my (10x30) storage unit. My professional helpers made four (4) trips to the local dumpster over a four-day period, because the boxes were too dirty and bug-infested from the Storage facility, to bring indoors.
According to OTHER RENTERS on Yelp, some of the units at Danville Self Storage "have roofs that seem to need repair". The Yelp photos & YouTube videos speak for themselves. The Owner Kim blames others for the failures of her business. Specifically, she points the finger at her staff. Not once did she apologize for the mess. She did help me, for 1-2 hours, at the unit, the night of the rain storm, but she lost my respect when she blamed her employees and refused me fair compensation.
ALL I asked for was $1,800 and for the Owner not to raise my rent for 2 years. She refused the latter. In my view, she was not willing to own the problem or to fairly compensate me for the full damage -- she was only interested in doing the BARE minimum, to avoid a lawsuit. She did offer me, VIA her insurance firm, $1,800, but Owner Kim refused me fair compensation -- the $1,800 covered only HALF of my financial loss. The $1,800 did not cover my property damage, nor did it cover the five (5) days that I spent away from work. I had to cancel all my appointments to clean up.
Many professional business owners would have reached into their own pockets (and/or the pockets of their business) to achieve a fair compensation, above the meager compensation offered by insurance. In my view, for many reasons not detailed here, this Owner is unwilling to spend money to make repairs, and she is not professIonal. read more
