Self Storage Units in Alexandria, VA, on 5321 Shawnee Road

The manager on Shawnee Rd was utterly kind, professional and very detailed -oriented! ~ he made the experience for this first timer easy! A++++

Huge building, two stories. Both elevators out of service. They dont listen to any complaints and do not care about customer service at all. Today im two hours … Read More

Huge building, two stories. Both elevators out of service. They dont listen to any complaints and do not care about customer service at all. Today im two hours late because i had to haul everything thru the stairs. TWO ELEVATORS AND BOTH OUT OF SERVICE FOR MORE THAN 2 WEEKS. HOW???? Come on!

I try to write nuanced reviews, rather than just spew insults or compliments. Though this review is one star, please take it in that light. I had two storage … Read More

I try to write nuanced reviews, rather than just spew insults or compliments. Though this review is one star, please take it in that light. I had two storage units there for three years. There’s one good thing. Staff on site are almost always polite and helpful. But there are very many problems. 1. They convinced me to sign up with them by saying that rent didn’t go up very often or very much. They said to sign up “today” to lock in a low promotional rate. I did, two months before i was actually going to move my stuff in, to lock in the low rate. They said that was a good choice for me. Four months later, only shortly after I had actually moved in, I got a rental increase notice that as I recall was like 25%. So please be aware that they will give you a low rate to get your stuff in, tell you rates don’t go up often or much, all the while knowing that it is super inconvenient to move everything back out which means they can safely jack up your rates. 2. I started paying in advance for a year at a time to prevent further increases. Shortly after doing this, I got a notice that my rent was increasing. Apparently Self Storage had bought out the existing company, and decided to raise all rates. I explained I had a contract with a locked in rate, and they couldn’t raise my rate. They tried to tell me they were a new company, and my contract was with the old company. This is simply false, as any lawyer (which I am) or person with common sense should know. But they tried with me, and I’m sure they succeeded with many people who perhaps had less time (or stubbornness or patience) to see it through to resolution. Shortly after i resolved the rental increase in the middle of my locked in rate, I began noticing odd charges to my credit card for like $16 or 16.50. Despite pre-paying everything for a year, they were now adding “insurance” charges to one of my two units. While it should be obvious, when you pre-pay everything for a year, a company cannot make up new “extra” charges that you have to pay monthly. There is no hybrid option to pre-pay some of the charges and pay others monthly. I spoke to them about this Many times. Each time, they were apologetic. Said they didn’t know why that was happening. Blamed their computer system. They promised several times that this would never happen again. The last time I paid in advance for a final year, I got a notice about 9 months later that my rent would be increasing the following month. At first i thought it was like the last time, when they had tried to increase my rent during a period in which I had locked in my monthly rate. I went down there yet again to speak to them in person. After at first insisting that their system was correct and any error was mine, they eventually realized – after I spent 45 minutes going over their records – that they had already increased my rent beyond the rate I had locked in, never told me about it, and charged the increase against my pre-payment. In other words, they had advertised the ability to lock in a rate by prepaying. But in fact, they treated my pre-payment not as my paying in advance for a certain number of months, but as if I was just giving them my money, in advance, for funsies, and that they could take it at any pace they wished. So my 12 mo’ prepayment had already been used up in 9, and now I was getting *another* rental increase. After my objection, I was able to recover the original term of the lease. There is no way that my circumstances are unique. I recommend that everyone who does business with this company carefully check your credit card for small additional charges. I recommend that you lock in rates by pre-paying, because rent goes up a LOT and very quickly. And if you do pre-pay, I recommend you keep careful records of your pre-payment, the rate you locked in, and the month at which your contract expires, as all of these changed for me, on more than one occasion, due to “system errors.” And now I’m out of there, and never, ever doing business with Self Storage Plus again.