i can see why other people have rated this place highly. i've had some good times with the place. it is in fact a bit more human than the bigger storage locker companies (Public Storage, etc.) - but sometimes that's the problem.
i've had a locker here for about a year. FULL DISCLOSURE, i have a hard time keeping track of my shit, so am often behind in paying them. NOT THEIR FAULT. but, it's way harder to catch up than it should be. for example:
- two months ago, i went into the office to pay whatever i owed and the guy who runs the place (he's in the photos here on Yelp) wouldn't allow me to pay with a credit card. surprise, i didn't have (about) $250 in cash on me, so i had to drive to the bank (outside of which i got a parking ticket!!), get cash, and then drive back to SPS and pay them. wtf? it's probably some corporate policy, but it's stupid - if i don't need to get into my unit right then (which i didn't), what's keeping them from accepting payment and waiting for it to clear before i'm allowed back in? this doesn't happen with the larger storage companies. that day, i certainly paid more for the sake of going with a smaller company.
- today, i went into the office for the same reason (the first time i'd paid since the last time! of course! sorry!) and the guy working (not the guy who runs it) accepted a credit card (hallelujah) BUT couldn't make the computers work well enough to know if the payment had gone through. i cranked up the old Bank of America app on my phone and, yes, the payment had gone through - but it took (i'm not embellishing this) TEN MORE MINUTES to have their computers catch up and to print a receipt. i want to be clear, i don't mean some vagary of the banking and credit card system kept them from knowing - it was that their computers would not work. the guy sat there apologizing, clicking the mouse quickly, rolling his chair over to the other computer, and apologizing again. do you think, perhaps, a larger company would buy some computers that work? or maybe retain the services of an IT professional or two to sort out what the fuck is going on if they stopped working? i... do.
anyway, i really want to move my stuff out of here because of days like today. i think we're conditioned to interpret this sort of criticism of sort of mom 'n pop operations as personal attacks on the people who run them, but that's not what's happening here. the people who work here seem nice enough, and it's hard to imagine what kind of bullshit one deals with when one runs a storage facility in suburban California. that said, i'm not a customer because they seem nice - i want dependable service, i want to be able to get things done when i walk in. too often i can't at SPS Walnut Creek. read more