Zippy Shell West Chicago

I was apprehensive about using Zippy Shell when I was moving and needed storage. They were recommended to me by my movers (New City). I did like the idea of not having to move everything from moving trucks to a storage facility and then back onto trucks after storage to move to my new home. Less stress on my belongings and lower moving costs (even after paying the Zippy Shell storage fees). The shells come on trailers and when they are filled Zippy Shell comes, hitches up the truck cab and takes them to their storage facility. Basically there is a «cage» inside the trailer which is lifted out and placed in storage. Zippy Shell has worked with New City (great movers by the way) quite a bit so the coordination went smoothly. Zippy Shell dropped off two trailers the night before and they brought others with no lag time as they were filled (this was coordinated with the movers as things progressed). We used 5 shells. There were couple problems. The movers placed two long ladders on the top of the cage, not inside so George from Zippy Shell told me to wait for the last driver and give him one of the keys to the cage (you purchase locks for $ 10 each to lock the cages and you keep the keys) and they would move the ladders into the cage of the last shell, lock it and mail me the key. The movers were done about 12:45 so I called George at Zippy Shell and he said he would send drivers to pick up shells #4 and #5. It took until about 2:30 for #4 to be picked up and #5 wasn’t picked up until about 4:15. I really couldn’t leave because I needed to give the key to the driver; this was a bit annoying. It was the Friday of Labor Day weekend so I suppose that it wasn’t the best day to move. I also did not like the fact that all planning is done through their offices in Washington, DC. I kept talking to different people and they gave George at the West Chicago facility the wrong number of shells I needed. The guy who said I should call him with any questions, etc. was very hard to reach; I had to make multiple calls before he got back to me (not great customer service). I had the paperwork indicating 5, but they told him 2. Fortunately, I found this out when he dropped off the first two units. Lastly, I was quoted a discounted monthly rental rate of $ 149.99 per shell per month and $ 85 per shell delivery fee (I was quoted approximately $ 799 to rent self storage per month). I checked my credit card bill today and it looks like I was charged $ 199.00 per shell. This is not the fault of George and his crew. It is the holiday weekend, so I have to wait until Tuesday to contact the DC office. Hopefully, it will be resolved with no hassles.
In spite of the problems, I think it’s a great concept that will save some money on the move in.