American Self Service Storage

Great customer service for the entire time I rented a unit with them. The manager (Naomi) was the best. She was kind and very professional. She runs a great facility. The staff was always polite. Rent a unit here if you don’t want to be jerked around and don’t want the prices to sky rocket when it is renewal time… Great units and facility overall!

Really, really bad… If you do chose to rent here, beware of the following
–Utterly infested with mice. Do not store anything that is not sealed in plastic. Cardboard boxes will be shredded very soon. And your unit’s floor will be covered in mouse droppings either way.
–Be extremely careful about your payments. As in, pay at least a week, if not two weeks, in advance. Over three years, I had three occasions where I received a late notice, complete with overlock notifications, penalty fees, etc., despite the fact that my check had cleared at least a week before the notice was sent out. Each time I had to go in personally, with copies of the canceled check. Each time they took the lock off my unit, and waived the fees, but never once apologized. This can’t be an oversight: It’s a tactic.
–Watch out for unexplained, and unnounced, changes in rates. My rent went up three times, twice without any notice (see below). Despite that fact that they will rent a new 10×20′ unit for $ 245, my rent was $ 308.50 when I closed my account. Their strategy appears to be, get the renter to move his or her stuff in, then jack up the rent, over and over again, and hope they don’t feel like moving their stuff again.
–On two occasions, my automatic payment went through, but then they waited as much as three weeks to tell me that the rent had gone up. By then, several late fees had kicked in.
–Rude, unhelpful employees.
–I actually liked their RFID key access system (as opposed to punching in a code). Problem is, they mounted well back from two steel-​reinforced pillars, making it virtually impossible to reach from inside a vehicle.
–Finally, when I had moved out all of my stuff, and was dropping off the key, I was informed that my account still owed funds — despite there being several days left in the rental period. I asked how much, was told it was about $ 70, and said «bill me.» Nope — they tried to hold me hostage, basically saying that until I completely closed the account, the amount I owed would continue to go up, day by day, for eternity one would assume. So basically after three years of being a customer, having spent thousands of dollars at their facility, they still had to extract an extra $ 70 from me. To be honest, had they just waived that — as any well-​run business would — there would be no Unilocal review. But they got their $ 70, and I wrote my review.
There are many other storage choices in the Alexandria area, so there is simply no reason to use this one. Stay away.
Edited March, 2016: I received an apology email from the GM. That counts. A shame we couldn’t have worked out something before things got ugly, but in appreciation for the gesture, I’ve bumped the rating from 1 star to 2.

We had two storage units as American Self Storage for one year and were very pleased. The customer service is exceptional. The staff is always willing to help you if you need an extra hand. If you call or go into the office, the staff is knowledgeable and ready to help. Our property remained safe and dry. If you are looking for storage, you should check this place out. The prices may be higher then one of the national companies but it is well worth it for the service.

Polite, fast service, and they even called me to let me know that I had accidentally locked my door open. Why even manufacture a door lock that does that? Who wants to lock a closed storage door in the ‘open’ position? I was out of the area at the time, and when I got back, it was still locked open… But nothing was missing, so yay! There is key-​gated access, and it’s right off the intersections of 95 and 495. Military discounts.
Oh! And they’ll either give you a month free or a free trailer to pack your stuff into that they’ll pick up and deliver to the unit at the end of the day.

Charles took us around to show us a lot of units at different sizes and prices to help us figure out the best unit to fit all our stuff. He also helped us get a good deal. We never felt rushed, and they had several different sizes of units so they can accomodate anything from a box to a couple rooms of stuff. Facility is humming with activity, so it feels safe to me as a female. The facility is easy to access as well. Definitely recommend!