PODS® Reviews
My loading was in the afternoon, so I imagined the loaders would be tired out from an earlier move. Not the case. Two guys (sadly, I didn't get their names) from Lewis Moving Company came in and loaded a 16-foot pod, plus moved a bunch of heavy furniture into the garage in way under 3 hours. How they managed to fit everything into the pod I don't know, but they did. Of course, I won't know how secure everything is until I unload after a long-distance move, but from this point, 5 stars!
We were cleaning out a 10 x 20 storage unit in NJ, having moved to Florida over a year ago. Everything went smoothly (we haven't yet had the delivery in Florida yet, but I expect excellence again). We had the POD for 3 days & that worked fine. If we could've used PODS with our full move last year, we would've. Logistics prevented that.
Pods phone staff are very good and helpful, and the company is flexible about changes. My one complaint - the latch on one Pod was very difficult to operate; the moving guys could figure it out but not me. Pod deliverers should demonstrate locking/unlocking, and Pods should get its latches fixed if they are very hard to operate.
I would not use PODS again. The container left several days late despite assurances that it was on time (I know this because I put an AirTag in the pod, so I was able to watch the entire trip). The CSRs seem to have no way to check the actual location of the pod while it’s in transport or storage, which is a problem during a cross-country move. The pod was then late despite a 9-day lead time, so we had to cancel our movers. The customer service during booking was exponentially better than the customer service after drop-off and during transport. Also, it's extremely frustrating to not have a delivery window or a confirmation that the pod is on-time until literally the night before delivery. It's impossible to book movers this way.
Efficient, timely, and customer driven. We only has two small issues with the contents but they can easily be repaired. POD arrived as ordered, transported as requested & delivered when expected. We were also able to change the pick-up date with no issue. Thank you POD for making this move seamless.
PODS seemed to be the most efficient way to conduct our move, from a cost basis as well as given their one-month storage included in the base rate. I'd recommend them, however, with several caveats: 1) They are very dialed-in on the front-end sales and online scheduling/tracking/billing technology side of the equation, so everything gets done (for the most part) on time as expected, including drop-off, pickup, re-delivery, and final pickup of the empty container on the other end. 2) They are inconsistent in terms of driver attitude, willingness to be careful when delivering and picking up the PODs, flexibility re: placement in slightly difficult situations. We actually used two large PODS delivered and picked up on separate occasions around a week apart, and we really liked the flexibility to change the re-delivery dates for our PODS while still keeping the cost within the 30-day storage window. I would strongly recommend that users of PODS measure their planned placement at their location VERY carefully, including overhead obstructions you might not have considered. This is not always easy if you're moving to a new, unfamiliar place as we were. Plus, even at our home where the move originated, it was a tight squeeze to get the POD into its place in an otherwise VERY long and wide driveway given overhangs from roofs on either side and grass, etc. Thus a significant amount of tear-up of grass resulted from the PODS placement by the driver. And we STILL needed a 15-foot UHaul truck, plus a 12-Foot UHaul trailer hauled behind a totally full private SUV and another SUV full of stuff (plants, dogs, etc.) to complete this move, so the PODS cost must be supplemented by around another $1500 in cost for the UHauls, gas, etc. Too much stuff - and this was AFTER we thought we had downsized quite a bit!
PODs customer support was horrible. They messed up the date, I was told 2 different things by 2 different people as to timing and deliver and they really could not have cared less that we got the service we paid for. They attempted to throw the actual people who moved and delivered the POD under the bus, when the deliver folks were amazing. On the other hand, the actual company that delivered our PODs were wonderful, they made sure to fix the delivery and pickup and communicated the entire time. They were wonderful.
The services provided were not adequately explained. Apparently each location is franchised and fees add up with multiple transports. Additionally, although pour location was listed on the website the local franchise did not want to deliver there. Pods main office intervened and the CSR was very helpful. All in all PODS seems great for local moves and storage but for the cost and aggravation I could have thrown out all our furniture and bought new!
