PODS® Reviews
Pods were great! We needed two of them. The drivers did a great job placing them in our driveway and street for easy access. On time drop off and pick up. Only concern was a miscommunication with the national office insisting that local ordinance would not allow street placement of one of the pods, who insisted I get a letter from the city police, even when I told her the city police said they would not provide a letter for me because the house was actually in the county area outside their jurisdiction. But after arguing with me, she did put me in touch with the local office making the delivery, and they were much more understanding and willing to verify with local officials, making the street delivery possible. The movers who helped us unload noticed a dent in the floor where the piano leg was, and pointed out broken top shelves of book shelves, and suggested this was due to the pod being dropped, or perhaps the driver hitting a speed bump or pot hole causing the contents to get airborne and slammed down. But no major damage other than book shelf tops.
PODS failed badly on our move. They dropped off and picked up the pod on time; but then two days before scheduled delivery, they called to say it was still stuck in our departure city, they didn't have any trucks. This was after I had checked in with a live agent online asking for status (literally the day before) to be told "no news is good news" - direct quote. And then when they finally delivered, a week late, they missed their delivery window by an hour and a half (late, of course). Love the concept, but poor execution for our move.
I will reconsider using PODS again. The drivers were not knowledgeable about the actual PODS-the drop-off driver didn't understand where to place the POD (driveway or street) and the pick-up driver didn't know how to work the locks on the unit. He stated that he "had never seen this type of unit" before.
Everything was good except they totally screwed up the parking permit issues in San Francisco. Told me they would take care of it - they didn't. I ended up calling the city and getting the permit myself, and it resulted in a 2 day delay (on top of the 8 business days!). They also have not owned up to their mistakes or tried to set things right in any manner. Not happy, never using them again.
POD people were very helpful on the phone and in person. The POD drivers were excellent. We stored it for a month and everything was in perfect condition when we unpacked. We hired recommended movers by POD to load and unlaod ahd they were good also. THis was the most pianless move we ever made. Moved from Tampa Florida to Stevens Point, Wisconsin
For a 2.5 month gap in having a house to live in, the PODs was the best way to go. Just remember that you need to pack it for riding down the road. I used pieces of plywood between my dressers and nightstands so that I could stack one on top of the other. Get the most out of the height of the container via stacking and strapping down your goods.
PODS was okay. There was no size in between using a 7' and a 16'. I could have used a 12'. As it was, the 7' was very tight (I ended up having to load up my car as well as leave things behind) A 16' would have been much too big. What the commercials don't tell you is that how you pack it is very important. I can't help but think that in the end, the money would have been better spent hiring movers who would have packed everything up and loaded it on the truck for me.
I would caution anyone securing help through HireAHelper to NOT buy extra hours on-line because if you don't use the extra hours, you won't get a refund so estimate low and then buy it as you need it. 2 College Movers is an excellent company with superb customer service, conscientious employees, and a responsive owner. They packed 2 POD containers for us and I would recommend them to anyone who needs two strong young men to load your household items.
PODS is a horrible company, their online system is simple and easy to use but the buck stops there entirely. I ordered the POD for the 24th it was moved to the 27th by the company (I was notified of the change). Then like most companies they give you a window of time, mine was from 1:15-4:15, at 4:30 I called the company to request an update on when I might see the POD. They said in 45-50 mins. That was alright...ish. Then after 60 min I called again they said they would have the driver call me. Dante was great (not trying to shoot the messenger here)! He explained to me that he was not going to be able to deliver the POD that night because the company would not allow him to take one due to the fact that the weigh station was closed for the night (we would not have had this issue had the company not overloaded Dante's schedule for the day making it impossible for him to succeed). So he called his supervisor and they came to the agreement that I was going to get the POD that night but that I would need to move my stuff to a different POD the following Monday (I was driving my car from MA to CO starting Sunday so that would have been impossible). The POD finally arrived at nearly 8pm! I can honestly say that I will never be using PODS again, including deterring friends from making my same mistake!
PODS was a super convenient and cost-effective way to move across the country. I would highly recommend it. I had a few glasses break, but I'm sure they would have been broken any way I moved. The vast majority of the stuff made it just fine, even with not the greatest packing on the load-in end of things. I recommend using a quality mover who knows how to pack a POD versus just a regular moving truck. Customer service was always very responsive. I'm glad I chose PODS!
This crew took advantage of a 84 year old man that couldn't really supervise them or really know better. I hired another crew the following week and were able to get everything done in just over two hours. Almost a complete house when these guys only moved items in two bedrooms in three hours. I imagine if I was there to ride heard I would have fired them or they would have stepped up. My bad for being out of time for my dads needs, but I had hoped this company would have performed better and not be rude to its customer.
