I felt it necessary to share my extremely poor experience after recently being robbed at the 2099 Placentia Ave Public Storage location. I have included a letter I wrote to the Public Storage CEO, and while my experience may be atypical, would encourage those considering this location to be very wary of security (or lack thereof).
"I am writing you to share my very disappointing recent experience as a Public Storage customer with your Orange County division, managed by Todd Haynes. As a business owner myself, I would want to be made aware if a customer of mine was less than pleased with my product or service...so I thought it only right to bring it to the attention of the Public Storage Executive Team.
In September of 2014, my wife and I were married in Northern California. At the time we were living in Newport Beach, CA and had been renting a 5' x 8' Public Storage unit for over a year as of that September (2099 Placentia Ave, Costa Mesa, CA location, Unit #141). Prior to our wedding, we primarily used our storage space for extra household items that could not fit in our one bedroom apartment. Leading up to the wedding however, we began storing many of the registry gifts received from loved ones in our storage unit.
The last day we visited the unit was Saturday, August 30th prior to our departure for the wedding. It was not until Friday, October 31st that we went back to the unit for the first time since the wedding and honeymoon. Upon arrival we noticed that our key was not fitting into the disk lock on the unit door. Only after several minutes did we realize that the door jam had been badly bashed and cut...and the lock on the door was clearly not our own.
As you can imagine, it was incredibly nerve-racking to discover we had just been robbed...likely of many of our wedding gifts. Luckily a woman was still in the location office and was able to call Todd Haynes (your District Manager I believe) who was able to cut the thief's lock. We discovered that the unit had been ransacked and a number of our wedding gifts had in fact been stolen, some were also broken or damaged, and an expensive hunting rifle and ammunition was also taken. After filing a report with the front desk, Mr. Haynes offered a replacement lock and said he would get in touch with us about moving our belongings into a more visible unit (we were on a second floor hall about half way down).
We followed the standard procedure of filing a police report, but when several weeks later I asked for a copy of the Public Storage report, or a print-out showing when our gate code had been used...the office workers were unwilling to help. I was told that this information was Public Storage property and was not available to customers. It is very surprising that this is the case, especially in the event of a robbery where police are involved.
I am writing to you now primarily because my wife and I just completed the claims process with our insurance company and discovered that of the ~$2,500 in stolen gifts, we will only be reimbursed for roughly $750 after deductible and depreciation -- we essentially lost $1,750 in wedding gifts purchased by those closest to us.
Perhaps you are already familiar with our rental location, but there are no security cameras beyond the gate entry...and otherwise the location remains unmonitored. The method of entry in the case of our robbery means that somebody was able to bash or saw their way through our lock, add a lock of their own, and escape the facility undisturbed with no small number of items. How could this be possible? Particularly in conversations with the police, I had absolutely no recourse because no camera footage, gate code information, or on-site security staff could provide additional details of any kind.
I reached out to Mr. Haynes several months after the robbery -- he never contacted us following the robbery to discuss a new unit despite taking down my direct contact info -- to see if Public Storage would be willing to reimburse us at least for the month the robbery was likely to haven taken place (October), and the additional time it took us to remove our belongings from the unit altogether and cancel our rental with Public Storage (November and December). Mr. Haynes refused, sighting that the only thing he could offer in "this type of situation" is willing cooperation with insurance or police. However, we could not even get a desk clerk at the 2099 Placentia Ave location to print out a record or copies of the report...which feels nothing like "cooperation".
Since the robbery, my wife and I have moved permanently to Northern California and will no longer be renting with Public Storage. More than anything, I would implore you to review the security precautions at this location. It is heartbreaking that my wife and I will not be able to replace some of our gifts and that we alone had to deal with the financial repercussions of this incident." read more