PODS® Reviews
We had one 16' POD for some of our things when we staged our home for sale in March. Then in June we had a second 16' POD delivered for the rest of our stuff, but it wasn't big enough. This was a cross country move for myself and my partly disabled husband and we had to catch a plane the next day to move to our new home thousands of miles away. We feel PODs customer service should have advised us at the beginning that based on the size of our home and our furniture, etc, that we should have reserved another POD just in case. They failed to do so, and when I called in desperation the day the movers told us the POD wasn't big enough, one of the reps even had the nerve to tell me that we should just give some of our things away! Things we worked hard for, some of which are irreplaceable. We were counting on them to advise us, and ended up with an awful situation. It was only with the help of the moving company that we were able to find a solution to get the rest of our things to our new home. Maybe we just had a couple of bad customer service reps, but we would hesitate to use them again.
The Pod it self is Great. But I have a Huge issue with the price. I ordered 2 with the understanding that if I canceled 1 the price would split in 1/2 that is not the case. When we canceled the second Pod the 1st Pod became more expensive the price did not split in 2 we now pay over a 1,000. More for the first Pod on its own. Beware of there taxes we are being charged over $400.00 in taxes. The 20 ft U hall moving truck we rented is 1/2 the price of the Pod and NO taxes! We have not loaded or picked up the truck yet but have paid for it. We will never rent from Pod again. They say they tape all conversations I told them to pull the conversation with the booking agent and honor the 50% split. I'm still waiting. I will be following up with them and contacting the Better business bureau.
POD was ok for a cheaper alternative to a moving service. I had a few things get damaged but that's par for the course. My only complaint is that they tell you delivery/pickup just needs to be scheduled a week before then they charge you extra if you want it done the same day. That was a hassle. Otherwise I was happy with the service.
The folks at PODS were great. I called numerous times with questions and concerns and every single time they were polite, responsive, and solved my issues. I would use them again. They were more expensive than a truck rental, but since my daughter had some time lag between moving out of her old apartment and moving into the new one, the 10-day storage was well worth it.
Overall, I was happy with using PODS. Certainly was perfect for my situation - I didn't have time to fully load a truck, drive it the 850 miles and unload it. This allowed me to load the POD at my pace and then schedule some help to unload it at the destination. My only nit pick is that when I called to schedule the final pick up of the POD (it was all unloaded and we were done using it), they were unable to come get in for another 9 days...which was exactly one month after they delivered it. Since I was on auto-pay, they charged me the 2nd month rent. I expect that this will be refunded and will keep an eye out for it in the next week or so.
The individual that actually picked-up and dropped-off the pod I give five stars. The folks that initially scheduled the pod, that was another story. I asked for same day drop-off and pick-up and they said that was possible if we selected the appropriate time window, which we did. However, when I called back to confirm the pod the day before they (Pods) were unaware of the time window we previously discussed as reasonable. Had I not called back to clear things up, the time window for the movers and Pod would not have aligned. I then had to pay a special premium fee to get the same day service I requested in the first place. The folks I dealt with were all very nice, but there was a clear communication/messaging breakdown at Pods.
