PODS® Reviews
The drivers are very knowledgable, polite, skilled and professional, however the over all billing and scheduling has been a terrible experience for us. We have had several incorrect charges, and numerous scheduling snafus. When we try to schedule drop off and pick up online, Thomas Houlihan takes sometimes days to respond and seems nearly incapable of getting it right. I have to call PODS to get the order corrected and delivered in a timely manner. I would not feel comfortable recommending them to a friend
Everything with my experience with PODS was extremely disappointing except for the driver that delivered (the second time) the POD at my new home. The three hour time frames were useless. Additionally, when they took my original order not only did they get my address wrong but (more importantly) my new home does not have a driveway and I explained there was a foot retaining wall around the house. I was told as long as I had a place to put/drop the POD (which I planning on the lawn) I should be ok. Not the case - this scenario turned into them telling me I needed to get a permit from the town to put on street/my property (not the case) to telling me I may need to rent a truck to come and get my stuff out of the container. It all worked out but not without a lot of stress.
Every person I interacted with at PODS was friendly and courteous. The delivery and pickup people arrived on time, perfectly positioned the POD on both ends of the move, and were genuinely nice people. Oh, and our stuff arrived in perfect condition. Will definitely be using PODS on any future moves.
They had no set prices and they kept raising the price on storage every month and there was nothing you can do. Pods kept charging me without my knowledge and I eventually had to shut my card off because they were draining my bank account. Everyday I was on the phone with billing about Pods charges for that day. Even after I empty the Pods and they picked the pods up, they were trying to charge me storage fees. Pods messed up my request from the beginning and tried to blame me. It was the worst experience I have ever encountered with a storage and/or moving company. Being in the military and moving a lot for over the last 25 years, Pods was the worst. I am going to turn over all my documentation to the BBB and the Military BBB in Washington DC because it was that bad.
We had a three bedroom, two bath home, with kitchen, great room and garage. Pods recommended a 8x8x16 pod and said it would be just fine. Thankfully the movers were experienced with packing these boxes. Almost everything fit and we still had to leave a few things behind. I believe Pods should re-evaluate their calculations for sizing a home. Otherwise, everything else was just fine.
their size estimator was wrong, they said a 2 bedroom with garage would fit in one 16 foot pod, but there was a whole room left in my garage because it didn't fit. Very expensive to just deliver and transport pod itself; I paid $1300 just for transportation and storage which is a bit too much. I called to report I was unhappy with the size and haven't been able to talk to the incident rep yet, we keep playing phone tag, but they appear to be willing to compensate me somehow, just don't know the details yet.
In general, I had a very good experience with Pods. The pickup and dropoffs were all handled smoothly, even though the locations to which I needed the Pod brought were somewhat difficult. I chose them because of the price, and it ended up being exactly what they quoted me. The Pod actually arrived at my new location about four days earlier than I expected. The ONLY hiccup in the process was that upon arriving at my destination, I was told that the Pod had already arrived, but it could not be delivered until THREE WEEKS later. However, I called back the next day and was able to get the Pod delivery scheduled just a few days later. I'm not sure why that scheduling glitch occurred, but it ended up being fine.
Everything was undamaged and arrived as expected. The large 16x8x8 POD was about 3/4 full. Very pleased with the on-line status system. The container was delivered as promised at the time and date requested. The company helped with the POD delivery restrictions associated with the address and the move went off without a hitch! Key was hiring experts to pack, load (correctly) and unload (separate from the POD contract). Excellent moving solution for smallish amount of household items.
The POD concept is excellent if you have a need to store your items and have them transported to another state. The containers were in very good condition, their customer service was excellent on the telephone and the driver called when he was going to be a little late for pick up. I chose pods as I was the most familiar with the brand and frame reading reviews. I would definitely use them again. The thing that I would recommend for improvement is: 1) having a POD rep come and size up the contents, I couldn't fit everything in 1 1/2 pods I needed two full size. I ended up needing to get a moving truck for the overflow items, not a lot, but it was extra time and expense and I lost a day in travel. Overall, a good experience!
So far PODs has provided me with one of the three PODs I will be using. The first one has been delivered as scheduled, loaded by the HireAHelper men, and was picked up as scheduled, by the same man. The man who delivered the POD seemed to be very knowledgeable and experienced in his work. He maintained a very positive attitude and was very pleasant while he was here, even answering my silly questions. I have already arranged for two more PODs to be delivered and picked up in the near future and hopefully he will be the person who will do that for me. Based on my experience with PODs and the man who delivered and picked up this first POD, I would highly recommend them.
