Self Storage Article Directory

Storage-Locator.com : Locations

Storage Locator is an online resource engine who offers self storage locator services to customers needing self storage or RV storage. Storage-Locator.com offers free customized quotes. By submitting one request, customers receive several options to choose from.

Storage-Locator.com suggests on their home page that they make it easy to “compare Public Storage, Mini Storage and Self Storage facilities”. The company goes on to say “Our storage facilities provide all services including pick up and delivery, climate control, mini storage, self storage and storage containers.”

The statements found on the home page promise self storage customers quick, easy access to self storage units and self storage quotes, with the ability to compare self storage providers.

From the Storage-Locator.com home page, users are given two options:
1. Get a free quote
2. Find a public, mini or self storage facility in the local area

It’s interesting that Storage Locator uses the phrase “Our storage facilities…” because attempting to find local self storage will make any user scratch their head.

Let’s say you decide to click on the “click here to get a free customized quote with one request” link. You will be taken to what looks like a simple, easy to use pull down menu. The menu asks you to select a location and then press the “GO” button directly to the right of the pull down menu.

Clicking the pull down menu will bring up a list of options from Phoenix, Arizona to Miami, Florida to Kansas City, Missouri to Seattle, Washington and many major cities in between. The pull down menu even offers Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

What appears to be a promising and mostly comprehensive list may shock self storage customers who expect a list of self storage providers in their local neighborhood to pop up once they push “GO”.

What happens next? Say you select Minneapolis, Minnesota. The page you are directed to is not a comprehensive list. In fact, it’s not even Storage-Locator.com anymore. You’ve now been redirected to the web page for Door to Door Storage and Moving.

Customers are not given a choice of which location in Minneapolis, Minnesota they think they might like to rent self storage at, they are automatically thrusted into a new website. Not only are they no longer at the Storage-Locator.com self storage search engine, where they were looking for storage in Minneapolis, Minnesota, they’re at doortodoor.com’s home page. Customers now have to begin the search for local self storage all over again.

“No big deal”, you may be thinking. “I can just push the Back button and get back to Storage-Locator.com.” If it were only that easy. Clicking the Back button on your browser will only take to back to the home page for doortodoor.com. Only when you pull down the menu on the Back button can you click on Storage Locator to try another search.

At no time are you offered a free quote from Storage-Locator.com. Storage Locator is a hoax that drives customers to only one web page, Door to Door’s web page. The “Free Quote” option offered by Storage-Locator.com, combined with their claim to “submit a single quote request to several storage facilities at once” and “make it easy to find and compare Public Storage, Mini Storage and Self Storage Facilities in your area”, lingers dangerously close to false advertisement. There is no comparison shopping because online customers are directed to one website with no listings of alternate self storage providers.

Storage Locator has thrown those quotes on their home page to, most likely, use a few keywords in hopes of catching a few self storage customers in their marketing net, never intending to allow self storage shoppers to compare prices, or give them several quotes from self storage facilities.

Such business practices are unethical and should red flag any self storage customer . Perhaps Storage Locator’s misleading promises are why research on Alexa.com shows that, on average, visitors to Storage-Locator.com view only two pages before exiting the site. Online users are smart; they know what to look for in a reputable search engine and Storage Locator just doesn’t have it.

But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that maybe Storage Locator may provide better service on their home page link, “Click here to locate Public, Mini or Self Storage Facility in your area”.

Clicking on that link will bring up a new page within Storage-Locator.com. From this page, viewers can select from that seems to be the same pull down menu as provided from the “Free Quote”. There is also what appears to be a list of three self storage companies.

Let’s say that now you’re looking for self storage in New York, New York. From the pull down menu, you choose your city and click “GO”. Lo and behold, you’re taken right back to the Door to Door Storage website. Door to Door must have some heavy investment in Storage-Locator.com because the so called search engine can’t seem to find any other self storage provider.

Once again, users have to enter their zip code and begin their search for self storage all over again. And just like before, clicking the Back button on your browser only takes you to the home page for Door to Door.

Say you do go back to the Storage-Locator.com page where you had the pull down menu options, before you got suck into Door to Door, and you decide to check out one of the three self storage providers listed.

The companies listed are: Door to Door Storage, Shurgard Storage Centers, and Executive Self Storage.

At least now customers have options but they seem to be dwindling fast. For one thing, Shurgard Storage Centers is no longer in business. Public Storage bought that company in August 2006. So now, you only have two options left: Door to Door Storage or Executive Self Storage.

Let’s start with Door to Door. We already know we’ve been pulled into their website numerous times but you choose to click on their link anyway. Doing so will take you back to the “Free Quote” page within Storage-Locator.com. Now you’re caught up in a vicious circle and you have to deal with that deceitful pull down menu again. Choosing your city and state, you are taken to the Door to Door web page where you can request a free self storage quote. (Why weren’t users taken to this page from the “Free Quote” link and not taken to the home page for doortodoor.com?)

How about if you choose a Shurgard? You are then directed to the “Free Quote” page within Storage Locator. You choose a city and state near you and click on “GO”. Moments later you are once again, on the Door to Door web page.

It makes absolutely no sense that you click on a Shurgard link and are sent to Door to Door. Forget about red flags, this web site send up flares warning users not to enter.

There’s one last hope. The Executive Self Storage link just might give self storage customers another service than that of Door to Door.

Just like the other two, clicking on the Executive Self Storage link takes to into another Storage-Locator.com page where you have the pull down menu and chance to get a free self storage quote. You choose a city near you and as the window refreshes itself, you see a familiar combination of yellow and black. It’s none other than the Door to Door website.

So it seems that Storage-Locator.com does not, in any way, offer the chance to view and compare self storage facilities in your local area. No matter what venue you take from the Storage Locator website, you are directed to Door to Door.

Storage Locator does not offer several self storage options within your local self storage market. Storage Locator offers only one self storage provider who does not have storage in every market.

The guarantee made by Storage-Locator.com is false and misleading.

Sarah Little

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