Actually one of the worst experiences I've had at any business in the DC/NOVA area. Let me just help you avoid the land mines. The lock they provide, you are buying it, not renting it. Its a fine lock... but can only be used on their doors. You have to buy their insurance, there is no other option.
And then THE BIGGEST ISSUE, the gate locks at 9:00pm and thats it. If you and your car, you and your Uhaul or other rental truck are inside... then you're staying in for the entire night, at 6:00 am the gates can be opened and you can get out.
They do make it clear that they close at 9:00pm and that's all well and good. I figure you probably can't get IN to the facility past nine, and there's probably someone to warn every one that they need to exit by 9:00pm. So when no one warned me at any point in the night that closing time was approaching, I assumed that this meant, "Sweet, I can unload my truck in an organized and sensible manner rather than rushing around to be out by 9:00." So again, no staff, no warning, nothing as 9:00 pm approached.
So, at 11:00ish I'm finally ready to leave and my gate code wont work. I tried bluetoothing it from the app, I tried typing my code in everywhere... myself and one other couple and their Uhaul were all locked in for the night. This is simply how they run the business. I missed the final walk through with my landlord because of this insane policy held by Public Storage.
I ended up calling the police who showed up with 7 officers in four different police cars, and a full fire truck with 4 fire fighters. All these responders had to show up to this Public Facility in the middle of the night because this place chooses to just lock you in for the night with no warning anywhere. So eventually after 40 minutes or so, one of the firefighters had a code to unlock the gate and I was able to get out. I don't know what happened with the other couple who was still stuck in there.
So on top of this insanity, I got a couple warning emails from the staff at this location, warning me that "Hey, the gates close at 9:00, our convenient hours should give you more than enough time to get your loading in and out done in a timely manner." Absolutely tonedeaf response, I will never ever give this place my business again. They got all the money they're going to get out of me. This is a business to ABSOLUTELY AVOID if you're looking for a storage solution short term or temporary.
I would also say avoid this place if Sundays are a time that you see yourself visiting the facility as they did not have enough bay doors to serve all the tenants on my visit when I was moving my things OUT of this hell hole. I was able to get a hand truck but not every visitor was this lucky at the time of my visit.
I'm glad to be out of there and I will NOT be going back. Absolutely god awful experience and this is one bridge I'm happy to burn as I would rather burn my items on the street than go through the experience of renting from Public Storage again. read more