After more than four years as a customer, I cannot recommend this facility. A monthly rate that has…read morerisen from $162.90 to $361.80, combined with an unexplained December 2025 billing issue and the much lower rates advertised to new customers, has destroyed my confidence in the fairness and transparency of the pricing.
I am filing a formal consumer complaint regarding the pattern and magnitude of rental increases imposed on my 10x10 air-conditioned storage unit at Public Storage, located at 1515 N. Greenfield Rd., Gilbert, Arizona 85234:
I have maintained this unit for more than four years. My payment history demonstrates the following progression:
$162.90 per month prior to May 2022.
On May 4, 2022, the charge increased to $200.64, an increase of approximately 23.2%.
The following month, the charge was reduced to $182.08, where it remained through January 2, 2023.
Beginning February 2, 2023, the charge increased to $229.20, an increase of approximately 25.9% from the previous monthly amount.
Beginning November 2, 2023, the charge increased again to $261.84, approximately 14.2%.
Beginning November 2, 2024, the charge increased again to $308.76, approximately 17.9%.
I have now been informed that beginning October 1, 2026, my monthly charge will increase yet again, this time to $361.80, another increase of approximately 17.2%.
The result is that a storage unit for which I was paying $162.90 per month is now being priced at $361.80 per month.
That represents an overall increase of approximately 122.1%.
At the proposed rate, I will be paying $4,341.60 annually for a single 10x10 air-conditioned storage unit.
I also identified a separate billing issue in December 2025 that requires explanation. My account history shows total charges of $617.52 during that month and total payments of $617.52. That amount is exactly twice my monthly rental rate at the time of $308.76.
I am therefore requesting a complete accounting of the December 2025 activity, including an explanation of whether two separate $308.76 charges were assessed and, if so, the rental period or obligation to which each charge applied. If the same monthly rental obligation was charged twice, I request that the duplicate amount be refunded or credited immediately.
I recognize that businesses may adjust their prices and that self-storage pricing may not be subject to traditional residential rent-control restrictions. My complaint, however, concerns the repeated and substantial nature of these increases and whether customers are adequately informed at the beginning of the relationship about the extent to which their rental rate may escalate after their belongings have been moved into the facility.
This is particularly concerning because comparable 10x10 climate-controlled storage units in the Gilbert and Mesa market are currently being advertised at dramatically lower prices. Current advertised pricing suggests that comparable storage may be available for a fraction of the $361.80 monthly amount Public Storage now seeks to charge me.
The disparity becomes even more concerning when promotional and new-customer rates are substantially lower than the amounts ultimately charged to established customers who have already incurred the considerable effort and expense of moving their belongings into a facility.
This raises a serious consumer concern regarding the disparity between rates used to attract customers and rates ultimately charged to long-term customers who face substantial practical costs if they decide to leave.
Moving the contents of a fully occupied storage unit containing household furniture and personal belongings is not comparable to simply canceling an ordinary monthly subscription. Relocation requires transportation, labor, time, and potentially professional movers. Once a customer's property is inside the facility, the customer therefore faces significant switching costs.
Those switching costs increase the customer's vulnerability to repeated price increases. Each increase presents the customer with the choice of accepting another substantial increase or undertaking the cost, time, and physical effort of relocating an entire household's stored belongings.
My concern is that repeated substantial increases can take advantage of precisely that circumstance.
A customer evaluating a storage facility at the beginning of the relationship may reasonably focus on the advertised monthly rate. That customer may not appreciate that, after moving furniture and personal belongings into the facility, the monthly price can potentially increase repeatedly until it bears little resemblance to the original rate.
In my case, the progression from $162.90 to $361.80 is not a minor adjustment for inflation or a single isolated increase. It represents an increase of approximately 122.1% over the course of my tenancy.
