Self-storage woes

    For a while, I worked for a self-storage company. One of the perks was a free 10x10 self-storage unit, which I very definitely took advantage of. The company was eventually bought out by another self-storage company, and we were told that the owners had negotiated some sort of deal where they couldn't immediately charge us full rate for our 10x10s, which was pretty nice of them. For the last several years, I have been paying less than $10/month for my space and trying to keep as low a profile as possible, so that no one noticed and did anything about it. Sadly, it seems my luck recently ran out. 

    In December, I got notice that my rent would be increasing to $60/month come May. Sucks, but in light of the heavy discount I'd been enjoying, I figured I'd just suck it up. Until I get a reminder that my February rent is due - I was pretty sure I'd paid a couple months ahead, because why not? I log in to check it and NOPE! I owe almost $100. What? They'd upped my rent to $117 without (I'd thought) giving me notice. 

   Naturally, I wanted some clarification here. I'd resigned myself to $60, but almost double that felt like a gut punch. Got on the website with their oh-so-helpful chat function and, after wading through the automated responses and getting assigned a real live person, was told that they couldn't do anything, I'd need to call this number. Which, of course, closed 7 minutes ago. Thank you, very helpful.

   In the interest of time, I'll summarize the next many calls: 

• The call center can't help with that, we'll have a district manager (DM) call you. 
• We'll submit a follow-up email for the DM to call you.
• Hey, I'm the property manager (PM), the call center should have been able to fix that. They wouldn't? Oh. Has the DM called you? I'll send him a reminder to call you...
• There's a note on your account that the DM needs to reach out to their boss, the regional VP. Please wait for a callback.
• You still haven't heard back? We'll submit another request. 
• Hey, it's the PM again. The DM is going on vacation next week, but if he doesn't call you by then, I'll use that as an excuse to reach out to the regional VP. 
• Hey, it's the PM, I called the regional VP, they said that $117 is the average market rate which I (the PM) don't think is true, so they're not gonna change it, and probably won't lower it to the promised $60 either, but if you shop around, there's another self-storage place nearby at (lower rate), you could move there!

     Let me say up front that I don't blame the PM at all, in fact, he's the only person who regularly stayed in touch with me and seemed to appreciate that I wasn't being a jerk throughout the whole process. It's tough being the mouthpiece of sh!tty policies, I get it. 

   I did go back through our rental contract; the contract with the company I worked for had caps on how much rates could go up each month, and formal notification requirements. Perhaps stupidly, I expected similar considerations with the new company, and boy was I wrong. There is no cap, and the only mention of rate increase is a 30-day notice, and you agree to it by keeping your stuff in our space. Technically, they only gave 19 days' notice, by sending out a "Reminder, your rent is due" notice that very quietly, at the bottom, in small text, showed the new rate. And they're right. I could fight that in court, point out they broke their own rules, and I don't have to pay that rate for another month...

...

... but let's be real. I'm not going to. Because then I'd have to move my stuff and pay lawyers' fees, and take time off work, etc. Having worked in the self-storage business, they're counting on their customers to not want to deal with it and just pay up. And this time, they got me. 

But only after several years of way below market rate rent, so I'll take it, for now.