As a handful of businesses in the self-storage industry have engaged in the practice of aggressively and frequently raising rate costs on existing customers, more and more customers are feeling misled by contracts and advertised rates. A customer of a Texas-based self-storage company, for instance, recently complained that her $45 monthly fee for a 10'x10' unit had jumped all the way to $220 in only 9 months.
She talked of her experience in an article published this week by Slate magazine titled "Some Self-Storage Operators Are Sounding the Alarm on Sneaky Policies Sweeping the Industry." Towne Storage president Burke Bradshaw was one of the industry operators who spoke out against such practices in the news story.
He noted that a majority of the facility operators in the industry are "embarrassed and disgusted" when other self-storage companies treat their customers that way and talked about the efforts Towne Storage has taken to warn customers how to look out for such practices and vowed that Towne Storage would never treat their customers that way.
For added peace of mind, Towne Storage even offers a 12-month price-lock guarantee, so its customers know their monthly rates won't sneak up on them for any reason.
It's just one more way we try to show our customers that they really do come first.