When I moved in a couple of years ago, I thought I was getting a decent rate for a clean and well secured facility (even an onsite residential manager.) But I was terribly wrong! After a horrific burglary in August, and multiple high rate increases since 2010, and attitude from one too many staff members, I recently moved out and will never use nor recommend their facilities to anyone.
Everything looks nice and sparkly clean outside and inside too! I rented 2 units in the climate controlled building because family members had requested certain facility "standards" for storing estate items. They wanted video survellence, air conditioning, residential manager, gated facility, etc. and Public Storage met their criteria. But looks were so terribly deceiving.
The move-in was smoothly. After six or eight months, I received a large rate increase. Another followed not long after. Family members began to complain about the increases, but we needed to stay for the time being, so I offered to move my personal belongings from StorageMart (where I was a long term happy customer) to Public Storage to help defray the raising costs, but nothing could stop the not-so-slow deteriation of my Public Storage experience.
The rent was increased more frequently than once a year, and staff turnover was high. Some staff were very uninformed, and others had way too much attitude. Certain small repairs that I noticed needed attention had never been handled, even though I asked and was told over and over that it would be done in a few days (the definition of insanity!)
This year a new manager, Art, joined this facility. He seemed kind, soft spoken, considerate and always had good intentions, but often couldn't follow through because he always needed approval from "the top" and they never responded very quickly. Art had purchased with his own money, numerous times, hand soap for the bathrooms. Another employee said she kept her own toilet paper in her rented unit just because the bathrooms did run out. And "the top" couldn't get around to providing enough petty cash for these minimal needs. That should be a huge red flag!
This August, appx. 5 units were burglarized, mine included. Art had been out late the night before and apparently the thieves were knew he was gone and spent at least 6-8 hours in the building going from unit to unit. They had a lot of time and knew exactly what to do. Apparently, a total of 13 burglaries occured since January, I was told. The police came to take our individual reports and did a walk-through; looked at the emergency door that was used to enter and noted that it had been tampered with many times. Obviously Public Storage didn't strenghen these exits doors from previous burglaries (oh btw, no emergency exit doors have video cameras. Just FYI, the cameras are only located just outside the buildings in the parking lot area and inside each building's lobby. No cameras cover anywhere inside the buildings once you pass through the lobby.)
The burglars easily cut through an outside fence along the frontage road. They broke through the same door used many times before, then easily cut through the fence wire used on each unit's open ceilings in the climate controlled building. They broke into pairs of units by cutting through the ceiling wire and climbing into the adjacent unit. To exit each unit, they simply unscrewed the hardware from inside and walked right out. They also pulled the doors back down so things looked normal. They had so much time in my unit alone that they put all the lids back on the hundred or so jewelry boxes they left behind and even replaced their rubber bands, AND put them back all back in a larger container. Unfortunately, no good fingerprints. I also found out that storage facilities in Berkeley aren't required to file their own police report if there are fewer than 8 units burglarized in one incident. So it's up to the customers to provide reports so there's accurate information on file with BPD.
All in all, it took until sometime in late October to make the primary repairs. Art had the frontage road fence repaired quickly and he put those plastic tie-downs on to close up the holes in our unit "ceilings", but he left a large area open in mine and never fixed it even though I asked a bunch of times. And since "the top" was so slow to respond, the emergency door was not repaired until October which pretty much gave a welcome to anyone else who wanted to break in. There's more, but its all so ridiculous and I've written so much, if you want more info, write me. I paid way too much store belongings in a facility that looks so pretty, and comes with some "faux" security, and I learned my lesson. Now I'm relieved and happy to be back at StorageMart where it may look shabby on the outside, but its great on the inside through and through (see my review at their page.)
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