Extra Space Storage

How bad could it be? Well… I’ve filed a fraud report with Mastercard. After 5 months, rent was increased significantly, (What?) and they simply charged the higher amount to the automated payment system. Yes, they charged a higher amount than I had approved, without notice. Email asking for information about what was happening was ignored by the business. When I went in person to protest, I was told a «postcard» had been mailed. I pointed out that that I had not authorized the higher payment, and their claim of «authorization» was comically unverifiable. Silence from the poor person at the counter, who no doubt suffers from a lot of angry customers. Avoid at all costs.

I’ve been a customer of Extra Space in Berkeley for several years and was generally happy until recently, when they raised the cost of my unit twice in a year (its been raised a few times before that as well). I was just appalled that they raised the rate again so soon and this time by an extra $ 20/​month. The gal I spoke with on the phone when I called to complain confirmed my suspicion that other folks get a cheaper rate on the exact same type of unit. Basically, the longer you are there, the worse they treat you — they know that moving your things to another location will be cumbersome and they take advantage of it by consistently raising the prices. If they raised prices for all customers to pay for rising employee costs or operations, I might have an easier time swallowing the increase, but that’s clearly not what they are doing.
It will be a few months before I can tackle moving all of my things out but they’ve definitely lost me as a customer.

Nestle and Ronald are THE BOMB! Seriously — reliable, efficient, affordable. Absolutely exceeded my expectations in customer service. Highly recommend!

Very convenient location. The structure is safe and clean. Employees were all courteous and helpful. I could tell that they value the customer. They made the process easy. Thank you.

These guys Are really nice. We were helped by Valhentine Williams. He was kind and patient and showed us different options and helped us pick the one that best our need. They different size options and one can upgrade of degrade anytime.

Staff were very helpful and answered all my questions to get me set up in the right size unit. I like having the ability to start with a small unit and be able to increase or decrease my space and adjust the contract as my storage needs change. Space was clean and the halls are well lit. Like the later hours to have access when I need to get in there after normal work hours. Elevator has worked when I needed it… so far so good! Only complaint was when signing up I was told I had to have the minimum insurance coverage which was supposed to be $ 10/​month. When I got home and reviewed my receipt I was signed up for $ 13/​month. Still need to get that resolved. The initial online quote made their prices seem a little cheaper than other facilities. However when the mandatory insurance is not discussed online, so be prepared to have to add that to your monthly rate. They do offer specials for the first month and if you pay ahead for a full year you get a 13^th month for free (except for the $ 13 insurance charge), so depending on the length of time you need storage you could get a little cheaper rate.

Had a great customer service experience at Extra Space Storage on Cedar Street in Berkeley.
Ricki helped me set up a new unit and she was extremely knowledgeable and patient with all my questions. I look forward to being a longtime patron.

This place is great. The people working there are super helpful and kind. i highly recommend this for small or large storage rooms, ground floor or elevator access. Excellent all around.

I reserved a unit on line and was surprised to find when I signed the agreement in the office that there was a mandatory $ 13/​month insurance charge. This is NOT on the web site. The units are more expensive than average (first month was $ 154 for a 6×6!) but I wanted the convenience of a nearby unit. I moved my possessions to CSI Mini Storage this month and recommend them instead. CSI will move your stuff for free and charges ½ what Extra Storage Space charges.

I give this place one star for location, one for nice people on the other end of the phone, and a half for cleanliness, though the lights are often out near my unit. My biggest complaint is pricing! I have had this space for almost 10 years (unfortunately) and the rent goes up more than once a year. I am paying $ 61 for a 3×4 space and was just sent a notice of increase to $ 70! I looked on the website and the online price for this same size space is $ 38!!! The onsite price is $ 45. I called and they are going to look into not raising it, but it has to go through a «regional manager» who may just agree that it doesn’t have to go to $ 70. I asked if it could go down to the onsite price they list on the website. They said the prices on the website change all the time! Is storing your precious stuff supposed to be like playing the stock market? If Extra Space Storage adjusts my unit price, I will be happy to send an update to this posting.

The ladies at the desk were so helpful and friendly. She gave me her card, but I lost it… maybe her name was Gina? She gave me a really thorough tour of the place, showing me all the available options and helping me find the right space for my needs. I’d highly recommend this place to anyone who needs affordable storage in the East Bay!

Berkeley Police says: «The facility is plagued by break-​ins and thefts»
Update 11÷26÷14: To further add to the unfathomable negligence of the staff here, from the investigative narrative of my police report, quoting the detective working the case: «…I contacted William, Valentine at Extra Space Storage. He aids in security at the business. He nor anyone at the business knew how to operate the video surveillance system. The manager Moore, Ron was contacted but he did not know how to operate the system. Williams put me in touch with a person who knew about the DVR. I spoke with Mario from Ideal Protection Security. He would be able to assist me with the DVR but he was on vacation in Arizona until 10÷14÷14. I was not able to recover any video from Extra Space Storage.»
To be clear, I had a face to face conversation with Ron Moore on ⁹⁄₃₀ where he told me he would review the footage, in his «spare time». He gave no indication at that time of not knowing how to operate the video system. Furthermore, the staff informed me that they knew that the person responsible for the break-​ins was using a tenant’s gate code, which should give them viable timestamps with which to review the footage. Yet, nothing.
Regardless, the cameras are not in any useful locations. They won’t capture the person actually committing the crime if your unit is inside a building.
The backstory:
I arrived to retrieve my bike from my unit on ⁹⁄₃₀ and found a new, unfamiliar lock on my unit. When I go to the office to inquire, I am told «Oh yes, that’s been happening. Someone’s been cutting off locks and replacing them with their own.». What? Did you notify the other tenants? «Hey, we can’t communicate with ALL of our tenants.» Really? Pretty sure that’s exactly what you do every month. «Well we don’t want to scare all our tenants.» I think you mean you don’t want to get the reputation you deserve, which is an unsecured facility rife with theft. So they cut the lock off and sure enough, my unit has been ransacked. $ 10k worth of equipment, gone. Police report filed. The detective at Berkeley PD had this to say, quoting from his email «The facility is plagued by break in and thefts there. I see several reports there a week. The management is of little help and their video surveillance is of poor quality.»
In short, theft is rampant here and the management is unwilling to take steps approaching that of even the most basic of neighborhood watches. Their security is a façade. Over the course of two days, I witnessed the gates kept wide open and individuals on bicycles, on foot, and in vehicles, flowing through unchecked. They have no video monitoring inside the buildings so they can’t be help accountable for knowing when your unit is being robbed. Based on evidence at the scene, I know that my items left via bicycle over multiple trips, right past the windows of the office, possibly over the course of weeks. The staff inside are blissfully apathetic. The amount of negligence at this facility borders on criminal collusion, if not outright.

No drama and easy to work with staff– Ron’s, Ricky’s, and Valentine’s service sets this place apart from other storage facilities. Moving your home is never fun and they take one less stress out of the process.

Update: 6 months later. Moved everything out of storage and into a new apartment.
I showed up at the office on the 3^rd of the month, and mentioned that I had moved out on the first and wanted to cancel the rental. Although I assumed I would be charged at least for a partial month, they refunded the entire month. No coaxing was required, even though they were within their rights to charge me for the whole month.
Very friendly. I also appreciate the very reasonable access hours.

We have been renting storage space here for one year. So far, two 5% rent increases. I would advise you to go with another storage that won’t gouge you.

For some reason I always pictured storage places to be a place where they would rip you off, but this just was not at all the case here!
I picked them because I needed a storage space really last minute and they were able to help me right away whereas the others were slow to get me in. I called them at 9am when they opened and was moving stuff in within a few hours. They were super helpful and friendly and helped me figure out what size unit I needed (even suggested one smaller than I requested to save me money!) Not only that, but even though I had called in to rent the unit, the woman on the phone gave me the discounted online price.
Then when I got into my new apartment late and had to leave stuff there for a few extra weeks they said, «Sure! Just pay for a few more weeks and we won’t charge for the whole month… but we can only do this once.» When things got even more slowed down in moving in I told them what happened and they said, «well, the computer system won’t let you pay only a week or two again and will charge you the whole month, so I’ll just put a note to the employees to treat it as if you’ve paid and you can pay the portion when you’ve cleared out.»
The staff was consistently friendly and helpful and even went above and beyond to circumvent the computer system to help me!
Plus, I always felt like my stuff was safe and that I was safe going there alone even at night. It also all seemed clean to me — much much cleaner than any personal storage shed I’ve seen in someone’s yard or something!
If you’re looking for a storage place, store here!

I really appreciated the friendliness of the staff and the cleanliness of the facility and the convenience of the location.
I also felt had when, after a few months, the price on my unit increased. At that time, of course, my stuff had been put in and to pull it out would be a huge waste of time.
Somehow, I would like Extra Space Storage to be more up front about their pricing, and not subject the local customer to pricing fluctuations from corporate headquarters 3 states away.
Ultimately, I ended up moving my stuff to another storage place nearby and have been much happier overall.

So I normally don’t write reviews (yes I’m a lurker), but I just canceled my storage unit and the service was fantastic.
The lady over the phone (forgot her name) told me that it would be $ 64 to pay of my overdue partial balance of 6 days. So I think, ok it was $ 220 for a whole month, but perhaps there’s an overdue fee. Whatever, too early in the morning to think.
I gave her my credit card number, and then she tells me that SHE thinks the charge was too high and would look it up for me. A minute later, she comes back and my $ 64 has shrunk to $ 32 magically. WOOHOO!
Apparently the system was glitchy and was charging me as though I was canceling my unit at a later date. She set my cancellation date back a few days as I told her I moved out earlier this week. Would totally use them again, except I live in Mountain View now.

2 stars for cleanliness and location and a somewhat friendly staff.
Otherwise, I can only recommend this place if you sign up online for autopay and and only plan on using the storage for a short period of time.
I had no issues — signing up, moving in, cancelling and moving out all went fine.
However, as has been mentioned before, my main complaint is the regular rate increases. I just re-​read the lease, and they do not specify that there will be regular increases, only that they CAN increase the rates if they give 30 days notices:
from page 2 of CA lease:
«7) All terms in this Agreement are SUBJECT TO CHANGE upon 30 days prior written notice to Occupant, including, without limitation, rental rate changes, usage and other charges.»
from page 4 of CA lease:
«POLICY CHANGES: I understand that I will receive one month’s notice of changes to the policy and/​or premium rates, and the policy and/​or new rate shall be effective on the 1^st of the month following the month in which advance notice of such change is provided.»
I signed up in July and my rates were to be raised in December but I moved out before. I don’t find any email about the rate increase — they must have sent it via postal mail which I never read (not a good idea btw).
Anyway, today I received an email about a class action lawsuit — at first I was hoping it was to do with the price increase, but it has more to do with if you were denied access for not paying and had to pay foreclosure fees:
So not really a consumer friendly business — they settled out of court to avoid litigation and are only paying $ 10 or $ 20 depending on your case.
Good luck — maybe you should find a friend with an empty garage instead?

Moved here a month ago from San Diego and between the two cities feel like a storage guru. Not by choice of course. We all don’t choose our life paths. Sometimes they chose us. By guru I mean, I have literally reached the internet and checked out several storage facilities in person. Including, storing my stuff temporarily in Petaluma, CA at North Bay Storage which was fantastic and Richmond’s Public Storage which was a rats nest, literally. For that review refer to my other review.
By the time I looked at Extra Space I was aware of what was out there. I also looked at many different sizes of units there. Both Patrice and Joseph were super helpful during the process and willing to answer all my questions and show many as many units as I wanted.
One unit smelled a bit gamey but it was localized to one unit specifically and apparently the renter has been a no show and they have a court order to open his unit and clean it out. I simply asked to be in a different building. They then showed me the newly renovated units and they were nice.
One main thing I look for is cleanliness as well as if you share open space with your neighbors at the ceiling or any other cracks– just in case your neighbor is messy thus increasing your chances of pests. These newer units had mostly floor to ceiling walls except for a few cracks. Not sure what the other units in the building look like so keep in mind because of the way these places are built every unit varies.
You do have to pay insurance unless it is covered in your renters insurance. The minimum package is $ 10. Pretty average compared to the other places I checked out. Know that all places I checked out (6 in total) charged some sort of processing fee. Extra storage was $ 20.
Check out the rates quoted on their website and reserve at that price or ask about deals such as first month free or long term discounts. They are willing to work with you on this.
A few of the Unilocal reviews say they do not represent all costs up front. Maybe I was asking the right questions or something because I felt they were up front. They even reminded me that the price is only locked for 7 months then they can increase the rate which is unfortunately often the case at these places. Kinda lame but that’s the way the world goes round. Guess there’s always the option to move to another place that’s cheaper but until then Extra Space it is!
If you wanted a nice place a bit further off for a little cheaper try StoragePro in Richmond. See my review for further details on that one.
Best of luck!
Your Storage Guru