Extra Space Storage, Milpitas,CA, United States-Best Storage place !

Customer service experience was very pleasant and professional. I spoke with three managers at your different branches and actually met one in person. All were lovely to interact with and very supportive. They were very courteous , patient and interactive. They all were flexible and were willing to go a step forward to give me personalized customer service . They all contributed greatly in my reaching the right decision about selecting Extra Space Storage ! They were willing to adapt to my needs about a later move in date and reserving a space or two that suited me so as to give me some time to decide.  My compliments to Melissa ,Anna and Mark(if I remember his name correctly). I did not have the pleasure to meet Melissa in person but she provided great customer service experience over the phone and understood my needs completely. She was so courteous and welcoming that on that day itself I had decided that I would want to have association with her company.  Her follow up on things was great and she gave good advice regarding convenient upgrading of storage space online itself on the day of move-in and explained the process since the office was closed on the day of my move-in of luggage . That made me feel secure that I could  easily change my storage space in minutes if at the last moment my storage unit was not able to accommodate all my luggage. 

Melissa also gave me timely and valuable advice about timely securing of the storage unit I was interested in by locking the rate so that I didn’t lose that unit to someone else. I am thankful to her for that as well as following up on my requests and meeting my needs.  She also ensured that the decided moving in date as well as the rate agreed by the manager on duty that day was honoured by ensuring the pro rating of the rent of the unit as promised which spoke of her co operation and co ordination with not only her colleague but with the customer too. I valued that she stood by the commitment. Ahe valued me as a customer. Anna was the manager I met in person the first time I visited extra space storage since Melissa was on leave that day and even she provided excellent customer service experience. Anna was professional, helpful and understood my needs completely too. She devoted time in making me feel comfortable about making the right selection for myself and offered many options as well as choices by giving my brother and I a tour of the units we were interested in. I wanted a unit close to the elevator and she showed exactly what I wanted . Anna gave great advice about the size of the storage that would accurately fit my needs and best accommodate my luggage which demonstrates that she had great knowledge about her work and she knew how to completely match the needs of the customer. Anna advised me in details about the various ongoing specials and offered me various options for the sizes of units I was interested in  . 

Both Anna and Melissa informed me about how like apartments the market could sometimes fluctuate the rate of the storage units as well which was knowledge for me. But they also advised how I could be protected from the raise in rent.  What I liked was their transparency. They were there to help me at a time when one was already stressed out with the move out of an apartment. I felt that they really value their customers and so I have recommended Extra Space Storage to so many in my circle and one of my friends rented out a storage unit there too soon after that. I just wish though that there was some reward for referring others to this great storage space.

 I loved how Extra Space Storage is so well maintained and spotlessly clean ! It is also so conveniently located and the security can be relied upon too. The one I chose is a newer one and was very attractive and the layout of the units was great. Extra Space storage made me feel at home and made me feel that I am leaving my luggage at home only. I would recommend them to everyone as they can be easily trusted yo keep your luggage safely.  

Loyalty does get rewarded at Xfinity !

 Often in today's fast paced world one does not find the time to know what benefits one can enjoy for being a loyal member of a company. Sometimes one's customer loyalty goes unnoticed or unrewarded. However, today David from the loyalty team of Xfinity went out of his way to acknowledge my loyalty as a customer of Xfinity for 5 years. He goes above and beyond to give professional customer service and ensures that he devotes time in rewarding customers for their loyalty to Xfinity. 

In all these 5 years nobody ever gave that much time to update my account correctly in terms of the number of years I have been with Xfinity. I have been their customer since 2017 and my status with them should have been that of a platinum member. David updated that information on my account by taking time to retrieve my previous addresses and Xfinity account numbers to give me the rightful status of a platinum member so that I could enjoy more Xfinity special rewards. I so appreciated his doing that for me. People like him makes a customer keep returning to Xfinity as a customer even if one is away from States for some time.

I may have had a bittersweet journey with Xfinity but I have always chosen them. There are bound to be challenges and problems but what matters is that their loyalty team is willing to devote time to customers and willing to work with the customers to resolve problems and give pleasant customer interaction experience.   

      

Right 2 Safety & Protection

 

Enough is Enough !!! We are not doing enough to provide a safe environment in schools. Children shouldn't have to live in fear ! Children should be living a life free from violence, grief and fear !  It is time to act and take the right stand ! Take the right action to initiate stringent action against gun violence ! 

My heart goes out to the families of all those precious lives that were tragically lost in the recent firing in an elementary school. Innocence of children has been massacred as they had to witness and experience such a terrifying incident which will scar them for lives and will instill insecurity forever. Innocent young lives were destroyed ! Great selfless teachers lost their precious lives in protecting your children. 

It is time for parents now to act firmly in safeguarding their children and taking huge steps to ensure protection of their children in schools and streets !  Time for All to take the Right Stand against against gun violence ! Nowhere is safe enough now even for adults leave alone children ! Time to protect our children and ourselves ! The right action has to be taken to prevent such violence around us. Gun violence is not only happening in schools but on streets, places of worship, grocery stores, freeways etc. Seriously what kind of  world are we creating around us ? What kind of life are we giving to our children !? Gun laws have to be questioned ! We have a right to feel safe in our communities. We have a right to a violence free life...    

TIME 2 TAKE THE RIGHT STAND & RIGH ACTTION AGAINST BULLYING & ASSAULTS AT SCHOOLS !

 Every second people who believe in rights are signing the above petition to stand up against assault at schools! Already so many people have signed and as I write more people are coming forward! BE ONE OF THEM! Sign the petition. At reaching 300,000 this petition would become one of the top signed petitions on Change.org. Be a part of that change! Create a difference and contribute to creating a safe environment at schools! 

 AAJ SE BULLY BANDH! People who have gone through similar experiences anywhere in the world would know how traumatic it is to be assaulted and bullied in school! Often the attacker goes unpunished! Accountability has to be fixed on the person who attacked Shaan as well all those who supported the bully including the children who cheered on while all this was happening! The school cannot ignore this! 

Sign the Petition against assault & harassment at schools

#ShaanPritmani

BULLYING & ASSAULT AT SCHOOL SHOULD NOT BE ACCEPTED! Courageous Shaan Pritmani who stood up against his bully while maintaining dignity & composure! - STAND UP 4 SHAAN PRITMANI!

https://twitter.com/TX_neurologist/status/1525639444484734976?s=20&t=8wUKRGNivweicoQv3uKBqQ

Deeply distressed...How can the Right Stand & Right Action not be taken against such bullying & assault in schools! Stand Up for Shaan Pritmani ! Act now and sign the petition or this could happen to your child too!

Shaan maintained his composure & dignity throughout the unpleasant interaction with that abusive & horrible bully! And yet he did not get justice & no action was taken against that bully!

It takes immense courage to stand up against such a bully and while maintaining your composure.

Please stand up for Shaan & support the petition against bullying and assault at school! One Right 4 All !!! 

#shaanpritmani!

#shaanpritmani

https://twitter.com/TX_neurologist/status/1525639444484734976?s=20&t=8wUKRGNivweicoQv3uKBqQ

The Decline of X-Finity Customer Services

 Here it goes again! There was yet another unexpected Xfinity internet outage in my area and support was not available as they usually have these outages late in the night. So, it is highly inconvenient for those who work in the night. Luckily this time it was restored after around 40-45 minutes, and I was glad to resume my work. But frequent outages and scattered internet connectivity is becoming difficult to accept. I am thinking of trying another company for a change after all this while of being a loyal Xfinity customer for five years.

Since last week, I have been calling Xfinity as a loyal but dissatisfied customer and in the capacity of a consumer rights blogger with certain questions regarding their services, packages etc. I have been researching on it based on others' experiences too in different States.

My question was that how they are rewarding their longtime customers for their loyalty and continued association. They may have a loyalty program now, but that is of no value as such to me. As a customer of theirs since 2017, I expect them to do something more in terms of valuing their relationship with me. My question was also regarding the lack of uniformity in their treatment of customers.

My concern was that there is no uniformity in their treatment of new customers and existing customers in the sense that they offer much more attractive and reasonable packages/rates to new customers but not existing ones! Some packages are only limited to the new customers so as to target them. The same goes for a lot of companies or even apartment communities for that matter out here but I will address that at another time. Also, for some they are waiving off the new high charges they have adopted to recover their costs while for others they are being so rigid as to even giving some waivers particularly if there are problems with cable connectivity.

As a customer, one has a right to information or clarification when one is denied what another customer may be availing. One is then forced to consider as to what are the benefits offered to a loyal customer and is loyalty to a particular company actually rewarding or not in the presence of better options available elsewhere. I like to keep old associations alive and so like to try my best to salvage that business association or continue with their services as far as I can despite hurdles before considering moving on to another company. But now Xfinity services are declining, and one is tempted to choose another company for uninterrupted internet service. Their charges have increased but the quality of their services has declined. As of late even the approach of their managers and most of their representatives is quite rigid and unpleasant.

Before I used to prefer them particularly because of their good customer service since I felt that they were always pleasant in their dealings with customers and would really take the time to provide fine resolutions or suitable alternatives. But as of late that has changed, and their telephonic customer service has become as bad as that of AT&T. Now they are abrupt and will have a negative response before even a customer has a chance to prove why the customer is entitled to a credit. They just don't want to hear it!

This time they were not able to successfully address my concerns at all or resolve my queries. They are not interested in even feedback of customers anymore. Instead, they are evasive and reluctant to even approach what the customer tries to address with them, and I say that on behalf of many of their customers who are having the same experiences as me. They have adopted quite a rigid attitude these days and are not ready to even honour what they promise a customer. Many in my neighbourhood share my concerns.

In my case from the beginning there was constant and frequent loss of cable connectivity in my apartment and no number of technicians' visits in a month resolved the issue! After that followed major issues with two seasonal holds or vacation holds. Vacation hold or seasonal hold places your TV/Internet services on hold while you are away at a reasonable rate so that you can retain your TV/Internet package. And there they overcharged the first time because of extension of the seasonal hold and the second time they just deleted my account without my knowledge while it was still on seasonal hold because of which I lost a good TV/Internet package that was of a good price & they refused to reinstate it! It seemed as if they deliberately did that and that too in the middle of the pandemic so that I was forced to upgrade my package at a time when according to them no promotional offers were available at the time.

These various issues caused endless inconvenience and I had to spend days wasting my time and energy to resolve the issues specially to have them credit back the extra charges. The only thing good that came out of it at the time was that after much persistence from my end, one of their managers from the loyalty team then waived off modem charges for 2 years and gave a new package with a price lock for 2 years to make up for all the inconvenience caused but now that is available to everyone with the Internet Pro package of $64. In addition, the TV box charges per month continued to be waived off which had actually started from much before when the technical issues with loss of cable connectivity could not be resolved. But now this year, they have not only started charging again for the TV box but more than before while I am still facing loss of cable connectivity so many times a day. In the past their technicians used to visit my apt so frequently to try to resolve this problem and when at last they could not be done was when my TV box was upgraded at no monthly cost, and it has continued since 2019 till Dec. 2021. But now they are not willing to honour that.

My message to all is that continue being persistent with Xfinity as after numerous calls does someone hear you and may address your issue effectively! But it does involve a lot of time and energy but hopefully in the end you get what you are entitled to as a customer but that's a rarity now with their new policies it appears. A friend recently managed to have the loyalty team reverse the extra charges proposed for his account this entire year while I was not even granted the continuance of waiver of TV box charges despite the continuance of loss of cable connectivity so many times during the day till date! All that I was given was just a $20 credit for the continuing inconvenience.

Now I am forced to say that Xfinity is not what it used to be 5 years back and it is better to simply go to another company. AT&T has some good no contract internet plans at good rates. Even Verizon has better offers these days with no contract, no equipment charges and other discounts for 5G. As it is Xfinity is having frequent outages and internet is slow too despite their assuring seamless and smooth connectivity with their Internet Pro package and so don't go for that package as it does not deliver what it promises!

Expedia Excuses

Expedia conveniently finds excuses not to address concerns of customers by always saying that it is not in their control to do so and so one should contact the airlines/hotels directly as the airlines/hotels have direct control over the tickets/reservations. While it may hold true in some cases but not all.

In my case, I checked with the airlines several times since last year till date and they confirmed to me every time that it was up to Expedia to consider my request regarding extension of the validity of that particular credit that was issued by Expedia in their name when flights got cancelled due to COVID-19 lockdown since it seemed to be under the control of Expedia.

The concerned airlines took the time to explain that credits associated with their airlines started with a certain digit which was not the case with the itinerary number that this credit was issued for by Expedia. Also, if a credit is issued by an airline, it can be used not only to buy a ticket but also pay for extra baggage etc. while this credit did not allow that on checking with Expedia. Therefore, it was obvious that this was an internal credit given by Expedia and not the airlines since the ticket was booked through Expedia. It was a credit issued by Expedia itself and could be altered by them only. But Expedia refuses to accept that. The credit is reflecting in the Expedia account and is only valid till next month, but Expedia is just delaying addressing the issue effectively.

Whatever the reason may be for the refusal, the airline agreed with me that Expedia should take the time to give factual reasons and explanations for the refusal to extend the validity of this credit instead of passing on the responsibility to the airline. This particular airline is always very helpful and works closely with its customers to effectively resolve issues but here they are not able to do anything because this is a credit that was issued directly by Expedia.

I feel that Expedia runs away from taking responsibility for any reservations made through them and are not even willing to cooperate with the customer to resolve issues or address queries. They have support desks to coordinate with different airlines and hotels they partner with but instead they leave it to the customers to find answers and resolve issues on their own. In fact, in the past while working as Manager at a hotel I often encountered challenges in dealing with Expedia to resolve issues pertaining to their reservations of guests at the hotel since they would often create so much of confusion and then just would leave it entirely to the hotel to resolve the mess that they would create.

I feel Expedia is not equipped to handle escalated complaints and is not equipped to co-ordinate well with their partner airlines or partner hotels to create a smooth experience for most of its customers. This is their deficiency, and they are not doing anything over the years to change that. In times of pandemic, I feel it is much better to book directly with airlines and hotels instead of Expedia.