Reader Holly arrived at Chelsea Mini Storage with her movers, only to discover that the 7×10 storage space she had reserved over the phone was unavailable. Chelsea Mini Storage gave Holly a simple choice: deal with a smaller space for the same price, or pay nearly twice as much for a larger unit. Holly writes:

We recently experienced a scam at Chelsea Mini Storage, Manhattan’s largest public storage unit, that (according to an employee) is standard practice- customers who reserve storage units by phone arrive with their belongings to find that their room no longer exists, and are forced to accept smaller rooms for the same price.

In our case, I reserved a 7x10ft room for $194/mo, received a confirmation number, and spoke on several other occasions to salesmen (all of whose names I recorded) to re-confirm the room size, layout, book a moving company affiliated with CMS- Moves LLC, etc. I even called the day before our move to reconfirm and advise CMS of our arrival time. During each call I was assured that “we have thousands of rooms, we’ll have your 7×10 no problem.”

Upon arrival, sales staff kept us waiting for over 45 minutes for no apparent reason while our movers waited nearby with all our belongings. Finally, sales associate Johnny advised us that no 7×10 rooms were available, but that he would give us an 8×10 room for the same price. When we saw the room, we and the movers realized it was significantly smaller than 8×10- my 6ft boyfriend could barely stretch out across the width of the room.

We then asked for Kevin the manager- his bizarre explanation was that when you book a room, you’re only locking in the price- not the room size (?). He rudely asked who I spoke to by phone, and when I produced the names and dates and noted that the same info is posted on their website, he changed tack, saying that he couldn’t be responsible for what his staff may have told me. When I pointed out that Johnny had 10 minutes earlier promised us the 8×10 room for the 7×10 price, he said Johnny had misspoken, and then kept repeating that according to company records our room was in fact 7×10. We asked him to accompany us and measure for himself- he refused, saying he had no measuring tape! His helpful advice- make our things fit into the smaller room or pay almost twice the promised price for a larger room.

At this point our movers said that this was common practice at CMS and that the only way customers could be assured of having the rooms they’d reserved was to come in advance, sign the contract and put a lock on their empty room- otherwise, you’re at CMS’s mercy when you arrive with your belongings.

Hope this helps other consumers avoid the same problems.

Never visit a self storage place for the first time with all of your belongings in tow. Though Holly should have visited the unit in person before moving, she can still file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and New York’s Attorney General. To help find the best deal on a storage unit, read through our seven self storage suggestions.

(Photo: BrilliantTrash NYC)

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