All Forum Posts by: Wendy Carpenter

Hi @Jon Keeney, unfortunately, I am still seeing some quite major issues going on with them. Case in point, earlier this month, they sent out an email telling everyone that OOPPSIE DAISY we just accidentally deleted the payment information for quite a few of your customers! ARGHHHHHHH. You can imagine the colorful words that came out of my mouth. Particularly when I had been dealing with other issues over the 2 days before that. Among other things, one of our customers was double charged and it showed no evidence of it in our system. It didn't credit her account or even notify us. The only way we knew was that she called after seeing it on her card statement. I called ESS and they basically shrugged and said "whoops." I have had quite a few more high blood pressure moments with them since I wrote my previous posts. :-I

@Zach Quick , to name a few things: the “automated” software not adding the monthly charges it’s supposed to for late payments and such (and when we called about it, we were literally told in writing [to paraphrase] “too bad, be thankful for what you get,” you can imagine that did not go over well with me), the system double charging people’s cards, and then not even issuing a credit on the account or in any way alerting us (the only way we found out was one customer saw it on their credit card and called us). They told us that some of the charging of cards and automated fees and payments are slow now because they have more customers and haven’t bought the bandwidth to keep up. Ummm my response is: then buy it. You’re a company who provides a service based on that?!

We’re on our third card processor with them because the first one kept putting the wrong name on people’s credit statements, which rightfully caused a lot of chargebacks, then outsourced their call center, and we could never get anyone to fix the chargeback problem (ESS nonchalantly said “oh yeah we’ve been having a lot of complaints about them.” So then we went to another company who apparently wanted me to lie about the PCI compliance forms (yes, they actually said to me “well, we’re not supposed to fill out that form for you, but we do because we know the tech speak is above most people’s heads, but now that they know we were going to fill it out, this is a problem,” but didn’t tell me they wanted me to lie, so then they got mad at me, and stopped doing half of what we paid them for when we bought another facility and tried to add it to the card processing (it’s a convoluted weird story). It baffled me. I wasn’t about to fill out the 500 question PCI compliance form because I did not understand 75% of the questions, and if I filled out an answer wrong because I was guessing, then if something happened with a hacker or security breach, we could be held responsible based on our not understanding the questions. ESS told us to “just do our best,” and that was a collective big fat NO. 

Then we switched to their system they just started doing in-house, and just a few days ago, they emailed us saying “whoopsie daisy, we accidentally deleted the saved autopay information for some of your tenants,” and apparently that happened to most of the facilities using them.

I just wrote this off the top of my head, so it’s scratching the surface. The people who answer the phones at ESS when you call for help have always been nice, they have just seemed to be getting very disorganized more and more over the last 6 months or so and I feel like they need to regroup and get their act together.

I used to recommend Easy Storage Solutions, but I have been very unhappy with them over the past few months. There’s been some major screw ups and I’ve encountered some very unprofessional behavior. 

I'm in the middle of a refi on a BRRR self storage right now! Bought a facility run by meth dealers 15 months ago and doubled the NOI within 6 months. Physical occupancy was 100%, but economic occupancy was more like 60%. We then bought 2 more lots 8 months later using owner finance and it's worth around double what we paid for it. BRRR'ing self storage is the best way to do self storage!

We have 2 in a very small town and they’re doing great. But yes, very dependent on supply and demand. 

We have a pest control company who come out once a month and check the bait boxes and replace the bait that’s been eaten. People are dumb and no matter what you say, you will always find people with food in their units. 

We just evicted a prepper who (unbeknownst to us) had all of their zombie apocalypse food stored in their unit. Total mess. 

And yes, many door companies who will come out and fix any doors with problems. 

I have 2 facilities with portable units and I’m currently in the process of adding more units to both. I think it depends on where you are for what company you use, because of freight cost. I’m using Modular Mini Storage out of Oregon for mine. Lucky for you, it seems as though most of the modular companies are on the east coast or south. I know Janus also has modular (roll up doors are what they are mostly known for) and Kiwi is another one. 

I am copying and pasting my edited response about Easy Storage Solutions from another forum question. I want to make sure anyone considering them has all information necessary.

I just wanted to edit my response about Easy Storage Solutions. Apparently, as they have grown, they are caring less about their customers. I just sent off a very strongly worded email response to them. Their servers are now being very slow in processing customer payments, fees, invoices, etc. It has caused us to lose money, and when we called to see what was up, we got a "too bad, so sad, we don't care," response by phone and by email. This wasn't just from a lower-level customer service rep either, this was from a higher up and a direct response from the owner of the company. I am shocked at their response to a legitimate concern regarding their software and will actually be shopping around for a different software company.

I just wanted to edit my response about Easy Storage Solutions. Apparently, as they have grown, they are caring less about their customers. I just sent off a very strongly worded email response to them. Their servers are now being very slow in processing customer payments, fees, invoices, etc. It has caused us to lose money, and when we called to see what was up, we got a "too bad, so sad, we don't care," response by phone and by email. This wasn't just from a lower-level customer service rep either, this was from a higher up and a direct response from the owner of the company. I am shocked at their response to a legitimate concern regarding their software and will actually be shopping around for a different software company. 

I feel like I’m always following @Michael Wagner’s comments like a little parrot saying “I use ESS, too, and they’re great!” Hahah 

And I totally agree with everything he said about kiosks!