U-Haul Moving & Storage of Austintown

The poorest customer service I have EVER experienced!
The staff is EXTREMELY rude! They have no de-escalation skills. They actually just make the situation worse by hanging up on you!
After speaking to the locations GM it’s no wonder its team is as poor as it is.
You would think they’d treat people that pay hundreds of dollars to store at their facility better.
I’ll never be using this location again for any reason. I’d suggest you bypass this one too!
This whole experience has completely turned me off of the company as a whole and in the future I’ll be sure to take my money elsewhere.

I am enjoying my move thanks to manager Ashley Miller and her crew out there in the old Austintown Kmart. I bought packaging materials, rented trucks and equipment, and a 10 x 15 storage.

I have some ideas for improvement. Fix the garage door that is broken. Sometimes that place is rocking and all loading bays are taken. Need more carts because some people take them and unload them SLOWLY while in the isles. THAT LOUD ALARM AND BUZZER DOOR WARNING IS OVER THE TOP! AM I SHOUTING??? I think the same level of safety would be there at 70dB as it is now at 110dB.

The place needs a better cleaning. The liad bays are filthy with dirt, dust, leaves and it needs swept daily, it would only take fifteen minutes. (I will do it for a rent discount!) My lights above my unit go on and off ad odd times, it seems to be movement and timer controlled, however the timer fights the motion control and it gies dark in my unit and part of the hallway.

I find their security level at a 4/5 star, thry have a lot of cameras, alarms and card swipe boxes are designed properly. I have a few questions about security and will withhold my 5th star until then. Nothing major, and I do appreciate seeing Austintown Police outside that load area with doors facing Raccoon Road. If you see police, GOOD, you are seeing patrol and prevention.

Great job so far and using Uhaul saved my family $1,400 in moving expenses. We decided why pay pros to move boxes and bins when we could do that first, then bring in pros for heavy furniture.

I am MOVED IN, breathing a sigh of relief!

If you are thinking of moving into any apartment or warehouse owned by the Brookfall Group, LLC, with office addresses in Warren and Austintjwn, THINK AGAIN! Read the Google reviews. I was in an Austintiwn unit for 19 years, they bought it from Waldon in July 2023. Their first vile acts was to post notes on every door raising rents 20% complete with all leaseholder info on that for anyone to read. Then the first of the month proceeded to post red paper letters again woth all info on doors saying WE WANT YOU OUT. I never was a single month late on rent in 19 years. They demanded I sign a 39 page lease all in their favor and I told them I hope it's on two-ply so I can wipe with it.

MORAL OF THAT STORY:
Im not a tree, I called Uhaul, and found I could move.

Welp, they asked for this...
My experience with this Uhaul shop was like something out of a clickbait horror story article on social media.

On short notice, I needed to move and store my stuff in December '23. I drive OTR and need to park my car as part of the storage. Shopping around, I found this Uhaul facility, which looked like it had an enormous parking lot due to its previous use as a Kmart. When I called U-Haul about renting a unit, I was abundantly, EMPHATICALLY clear about the need to park my car as well. I asked three different ways to make sure there was no confusion, and was told that would be fine. I also made sure they understood that my truck would be there for a couple of days while I was moving, since they did not have an appropriate towing trailer, and I would have to make an additional trip to go get my car, my truck would be there while I was bussing back to retrieve my car.

Moving day came. When I arrived to pick up the moving truck, I again confirmed that parking my car would be no problem, and specifically asked about video surveillance so I would not have to worry about my car being vandalized. I parked my truck where the staff directed me to, got in the moving truck, and went to go get my stuff.

I pushed myself physically and got things moved a day ahead of schedule, finishing late at night. I still needed to go get my car, and spent the night in the truck on the lot. Early the next morning, management woke me up by beating on my door and reprimanded me about having the truck there. I explained that it was only temporary as per the original agreement and I would move it after I got back with my car. It took 2 days nonstop by bus to get my car thanks to Greyhound's lovely route schedules. It should have been a red flag that they tried to throw me out in the middle of the move-in process.

Couple months went by, everything seemed fine. Then, coming home after a trip on Tuesday, March 5 and found a parking ticket on my car, but it was not filled out. So I took the ticket to the police station to ask about it. I was told they would not have put that on the car unless someone had called it in, and that was just a warning that gave me 72 hours to move (Friday.)

So I thought maybe one of the other businesses on the lot called it in, and I should park closer to the Uhaul entrance to avoid confusion.
When I got back to the U-Haul to ask them if they knew anything about it, I was told I needed to talk to Ashley, who was out of the office that day.
So I came back to talk to Ashley the next day. She confirmed that she had called it in and if I didn't move my car it would be towed. She said it was an insurance matter, but Ohio requires car registrants to carry insurance, and Uhaul insists that storage tenants record their car info in the lease, so that's a lie. I explained that I thought I was allowed to park there, and asked if she could work with me and give me some time to find another location. Her answer was a no, phrased as a yes. She said she would give me until Friday. The police had already told me that Friday was the earliest she could have it towed. So her idea of 'working with' someone means she won't have your car illegally towed, commonly known as grand theft auto. How considerate.

This may have been the result of miscommunication between staff and management. No matter. Speaking as a businessman myself, this was a complete botch by Ashley. If I had a customer who was interested in a long-term arrangement with one of my more expensive products and paid automatically, I would happily make a concession of otherwise unused parking space.

So I found storage with your competitor, Life Storage/Extra Space.
They have leased parking available. It costs more, but at least I won't have to worry about my car being towed on a whim. The general staff at this Uhaul facility was good to work with and the facility itself is very nice, but Ashley's management methods and style are best described as 'crazy ex-girlfriend.'

They stay busy . So reserve what you need .