I recommend you DO NOT RENT here.! If you are here now, get out now.
I am currently renting at the Storequest on 55 Golden Gate Dr. in San Rafael. I am a network engineer and store my tools and some personal items in a unit at this location.
The information I give here was volunteered directly to me by employees at this location, other renters here, or from my personal experience with Storequest:
1.) UNLIMITED RENT INCREASES which are deliberately COVERED UP - You will find within 7 months of renting that the unit rent goes up. Mine went up $8 /month my first 7 months here, and, I was told by an employee that there will be rent increases of at least $8/month every 9 months from here on out WITHOUT LIMIT, yet they advertize the same low initial rental rate on the internet continuously, with no clear and obvious mention of rent increases that will occur once you move in!!. I was told today by one of the office personnel that they have been told to deliberately NOT tell new and prospective renters that these rent increases will occur, even though the on-site office personnel feel this is dishonest business practice. Oh yes, Im sure the "1%er" dishonest owners of Storequest will tell you its all "covered " in the contract you sign, but the actual facts are that the lower level office employees know that the 5 or 6 page legal doc you sign in the beginning is designed to cloud the new renters understanding with its generalizations (I personally read this doc closely and asked lots of questions and yet never got the specifics on these rent increases) and beside this these employees have been told specifically NOT to take this up with the new renters even though these employees know this has caused numerous upsets with renters after they had already moved in.
This was my first time renting so I had no idea that this is a rental practice for some storage rental companies. But, in checking around after the fact, other companies don't have increases anywhere near $8 a month. More in the $2 to $3 dollar range.
My main point here is not the business practice of rental increases, though I would not personally do it as it penalizes long term dependable renters , if such practice is honestly and openly made known to costumers from the start and in the advertizing. But, its the fact that Storquest has set company polices to try to hide it from renters. Dishonesty is dishonesty and I got suspicious of other dishonest practices by Storequest.
One comment. This whole situation actually borders on extortion if you think about it. You dont really find out about this for 7 months, after you have spent a lot of time and money getting your things stored, and now you have this shock of rental increase and no way to fight back or move immediately to avoid the increase. Nice work if you can get it!
2.) FALSE ADVERTIZING- One renter at this Storequest location has thousand's in wine storage in units that are advertized as temperature controlled. He came in to check on his wine recently and personally measured temperatures of 90 degrees in the wine storage. When he brought this up with office personnel and pointed out this was and advertized guarantee, office personnel then approached the owner/manager about handling this and were told basically," to bad". Ie., Storequest was not interested in spending any money to fix the promised air-conditioning. Another bad indicator.
IN CONCLUSION - I would like to encourage that all renters at this location take a stand and do something. I personally will be getting with a close friend and Attorney at Law to find out what actions can be taken. I would like to encourage that you do something as well. Show your protest against these "1%er" business practices. Either dont rent here in the first place, or leave, or just delay your rent until these practices are stopped. Did you know that you can just leave and not pay your last months rent and they can't do anything about it?. An employee told me that. But again, they were actually told not to mention such to renters, and so an unsuspecting renter left two days into into the new month and, being honest, came back and paid a full month for basically being there two days. The office employee was told not to tell her. I pose to you, why pay a business that produces a false product or refuses to service anyway, right? read more