PODS Moving and Storage

Please do not use Pods. I think a gaggle of monkeys runs this company. Their website is useless. For example, when you want to schedule them to come pick up your Pod there's a link on your account page. Great, I thought, that's easy. I click on the link, it leads me to a dead end. Finally I get on the chat with someone and he just says "You can't schedule a pickup from the website, you have to call the customer service number." I asked if I can't use the "schedule" link then why does it exist? He said I couldn't use the link because my move is long distance. I explained that I'm in Albuquerque, and I need the local Albuquerque driver to come get the Pod and store it in Albuquerque..how is that long distance? He couldn't answer.

On the night before my Pod is due to arrive I get an automated call telling me our Pod will arrive between 7am and 10 am. That's fine, I understand they can't get more detailed than a three hour window. We play musical cars and get the driveway cleared out and even had our neighbors who park on the street move their car in order to give the Pod driver lots of room to maneuver since we had the biggest Pod container, 16 feet. We get up early. We move all our cars. Our neighbor's car. We wait. 10 am comes and goes. No phone call, no email. No nothing. Eventually 5 pm comes..it's getting dark. No Pod, no phone call, no update. No nothing. About 7 pm I call the main number in Florida and tell them no one showed up all day. They just said that they'd reschedule it for the next day. No explanation, no apology.

Two weeks later we're ready to have this god-forsaken company come and get their empty Pod. They scheduled it for the next day and said that I would get an automated call later that night telling me the three-hour window in which they would arrive. That's right, you guessed it. No phone call. No email. No nothing. Again, I have no idea if we'll have to wake up at the crack of dawn to move vehicles and ask neighbors to move their cars from the street near our driveway. The next morning I get on the chat with the unhelpful "JR" employee. I said "I was told we would be given a three hour window or arrival and we've heard nothing." His brilliant and oh-so-unhelpful answers was "You were supposed to get an automated call last night." I said "I know I SHOULD have gotten a call, but I DIDN'T and that's the problem." He only said "Our driver will call you when he's 30 minutes away." I said that's not helpful as we had a lot of vehicles to move and get ready and since we were asking neighbors to move their cars that's not something we wanted to do and then have their cars be moved somewhere else for 8 freaking hours ahead of time. He then said "Make sure the Pod is empty and unlocked." In other words, complete ignores my previous sentence (in chat) and doesn't want to deal with me because he has no answers for me.

The Pod itself is fine and I have no complaints about the Pod. However, if you want someone with an IQ of at least 85 to help arrange delivery, pick-up, drop-offs, etc., then do not deal with this horrible company. Especially for the exorbitant amount of money they charge for their service. They don't ever seem to know what they are talking about, and worse, they simply don't care. You will pull your hair out dealing with these mental midgets. Choose another company.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2000

Last August, over half a year ago, a PODS driver came to pick up one of two units I had rented from PODS as a result of the fires here in Los Angeles while repairing my home. In the process of picking it up, the winch on wheels they use to load and unload the unit started swinging side to side, and ended up slamming into my trailer parked about five feet away, breaking out a window, scratching up the side of the trailer, and cracking off part of the fiberglass fender. The driver was very apologetic, and told me someone would come out to fix the damage. Thus begins my tale of woe.

I've rented from PODS many times over the years, and for the most part received great service from the people in the field and local offices, but management and the corporate head office are THE WORST! If something like this ever happens to you, prepare for months of absolutely unnecessary red tape, deliberate deflection, and outright lies.

I submitted photos and a description of the incident, verified by the driver (I hope his honesty didn't get him fired), and was placed in the hands of a "consumer advocate" from their corporate office. Months of requests for more photos and more documentation from corporate followed, and the woman helping me confided at one point that most people just give up after her boss rejected yet another attempt to move forward with the claim. The amount? Around $600, about what I had payed them EVERY MONTH while renting units from them.

I'm stubborn. More trips trying to locate a local shop and calling every repair place I could find to repair the damage for even less eventually uncovered a gentleman willing to come out and repair the window and fender for $495, and I told PODS I didn't care about the scratches to the paint. This was several months in, and the woman helping me told me that she would do her best to get that amount approved. I scheduled the appointment and had the window ordered. The day it was getting fixed, PODS notified me that they would not pay for the repair because I didn't submit the estimate properly. The window was already fixed, so I paid $275 for that and told the repair guy I'd call him back for the fender. He was not happy and told me he did not want to come back just for the other repair at $200.

The next several months went from me trying to find someone willing to fix the fender for less than $200 to me giving up on that after all, just asking for the $275 I had spent. I was getting no reply from PODS, no returned calls, no returned emails. It was very frustrating. Repeated calls to other PODS numbers eventually revealed that my "advocate" had left the company months before for unknown reasons (although her frustration had been clear on the phone), and they had not bothered to assign anyone to follow up.

I kept calling, over and over, probably 30 or 40 times altogether, before someone new finally contacted me and promised to help. He apologized, said he couldn't access any of my previous communication regarding the incident to the other advocate, and asked me to send everything again, which I did. After reviewing it, he said he thought he could help me finally resolve my claim, and at least get me the $475 for the window and fender.

If you were hoping for a happy ending, you are going to be as disappointed as I was.

I hadn't posted any negative reviews, despite all of my frustration, or contacted the Better Business Bureau, but before they would pay for the damages, the man I talked to said there was a form I would have to sign.. Here are the final two paragraphs.

"Customer further understands and agrees that confidentiality is a material condition of this Release. Customer hereby agrees, promises, and warrants that the terms of this Release and the underlying facts and allegations relating to any claim the Customer may have or had against the parties being released shall be considered confidential and not to be disclosed or discussed with any person, firm, corporation or entity not a party hereto."

"Without limiting the foregoing, Customer further agrees he/she will not make any and, if applicable, will remove any prior disparaging, negative or critical comments regarding PODS made on any customer review on any internet website, blog, or social media site; any complaint to the Better Business Bureau or other governmental or quasi-governmental entity; or any complaint or report to any consumer advocacy group or media outlet of any kind."

So for compensation for the damage, I have give up my consumer rights and promise not to tell anyone about my treatment by their main office, not just regarding this incident, but for any future issues as well. I told them I'm not signing that form, and I'm back to them not responding to my emails or returning my phone calls.

Now I am posting, and I will also call the BBB.

I wonder how many others signed that form and took the money, what should their yelp score really be?

Do you want to do business with a company like that?

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000

PODS completely messed up the permits at my delivery location! I paid them and was told by them I was not able to get the permit myself, that they would get the permit in CO. I handled the permit in DC and it went off without a hitch! Now the POD is scheduled to arrive tomorrow and there is no place for it to go! When I call to check in, I’m now told there is no permit and I just have to clear three spaces on the street! I was on hold 40 minutes to hear that they messed up the permit situation and decided not to share an update with me or to let me know there was no permit (for whatever reason?? I’m not totally unclear on why there is no permit though the city does require it??) and now have been on hold for 20 minutes to apparently speak with a supervisor. Then the customer service person came back on and told me the wait to speak with a supervisor was hours long and she could not wait! This is beyond ridiculous and I have no idea how my things will arrive now, if I'll have to cancel the movers I have scheduled, if I'll be fined by the city, etc. Way to go PODS. Taking something like moving that is already stressful and messing it up beyond belief then making me wait for over 1.5 hours and counting to see how you plan to attempt to resolve this! Use another moving service.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

Ordered the container, they dropped it off on the correct day. We loaded it and called to schedule picking up two days later. Was told they were 10 days out before they had available truck to pick it up. Once the truck arrived at the destination city.. crickets from them. A call confirmed the box was in the city, but we would have to schedule it to be delivered to the house.. ?? They do NO scheduling or communication with customers! It is up to the customer to HOUND them to get your POD picked up and delivered. NEVER AGAIN!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3200

$570 for one mont rental is well and good, but when I went to set up a time for them to pick up the container. I was told I was being charged an additional $300+ plus to pick up the container.

NOTHING in their contract says anything about pick-up fees for the container. NOTHING. I looked and looked, and found nothing. I am done with my container a week early, and while I didn't expect to get a refund, being charged an additional $300+ is ridiculous.

I am beyond livid and will file a complaint with the BBB, the Arkansas Attorney General's Office and write multiple online reviews for this deceptive practice. I am also filing a charge a dispute against my credit card company for it because this is NOT even good business practice! If it's not mentioned in the contract, it shouldn't be applied afterward.

If it were $100, maybe I wouldn't be so pissed, but $300 or more is highway robbery.. That means it was close to $1,000 for 3 weeks of use. PODS SUCKS!

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $1000

We ordered two PODS at staggered delivery times. The first one was received on-time, we packed it and scheduled the pickup. On the the scheduled pick-up day they were to also drop off the second empty POD. The day of pickup we received a call saying they will not be working that day due to unhealthy air conditions. Which I agree with, the air quality in our area due to wild fires was terrible. They informed me that they needed to reschedule our pickup and delivery of the second POD to be a week after our move. I told this them this would not work so I emptied the POD into my garage in the smoke and they picked it up the next day empty. I requested a refund for the first POD of 492.89. They charged me this fee on September 2nd and to date I still have not received a refund. I have been calling nearly every day for over a month and been passed to several different people. Each of the individuals will not email me back, return a phone call or answer the phone. Because of their unwillingness to work with us to get a date closer to our move date I had to rent a U-haul and drive across the United States. The fact that they refuse to refund the money adds insult to injury.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $7000

Every step of the way PODs screwed us.

When I initially called to schedule in July for our October move the guy took all of my info, scheduled my move, and said I could set up city service later and that it was $3-400.

I called the next day to set up city service and they have no record of my reservation and surprise, city service is $500. I say fine, no big deal, this stuff happens.

Day of move - they don't show up, the $500 city service we had reserved several months in advance, doesn't show up. I call PODs and they tell us “oh we had truck problems A WEEK ago and so we moved your move date”, claim they left a voicemail but we never got it, no one talked to us on the phone and we didn't receive an email or anything, they just changed our move date on us without confirming anything with us. They tell me that they have very specialized trucks and everyone on that Saturday had their move in date changed on them.

I later find out this is a lie, one of the PODs people I talked to let slip that the available truck already had two runs that day which is their maximum - we scheduled our move THREE MONTHS in advance and still got bumped, despite their suggestion of scheduling a couple weeks in advance to secure your move date - what a joke.

So, the day before we are supposed to be out of our apartment we find out we have no truck, and no way to move, can't get a uhaul the same day - we're screwed. Our 60 year old parents come over with their SUVs and we drive 45 minutes across DC on a Saturday several times to get all of our stuff into a POD at their warehouse.

We think ok, off to a rocky start, but it's done! Our stuff is in a POD, we're good to go.

We were wrong.

We drive from DC to Grand Junction, CO via I-70 from Denver. We literally drive a good bit of the way next to a PODs transport truck and think "sweet! PODs comes out here!"

We call PODs when we arrive in Grand Junction to schedule our delivery, they say it’ll probably cost us DOUBLE delivery as we aren’t near a distribution center, we are annoyed but say fine what cost are we looking at (ballpark 6k when initially quoted 2-3k) oh wait - SURPRISE - they don’t deliver out here. Why? You deliver to Denver, and you deliver to Salt Lake City via I-70, literally pass us, but you won’t come out here? Nope.

Despite all their claims that they store and deliver to you “anywhere in between” they refuse to deliver our POD to us when we are on a major highway that they use regularly.

We say fine, we’ll figure it out, please deliver our POD to the Denver warehouse and we’ll come and get our stuff. They say “whoopsie, we can’t ship your POD for another few weeks”, we’re irritated but say fine, ship our stuff, we just want to be done.

So now, apparently, our best choice is to drive 4 hours to Denver, rent a uhaul, get our stuff from our POD, and drive 4 hours back (or pay ANOTHER moving company to get and transport our stuff, but at this point PODs has bled us dry). The nice customer service rep and manager offer us a 10% discount on shipping because of all the issues we’ve had - we’re very grateful because now we need to use that money for a uhaul.

We’re pissed but we have a plan and we’ll finally be free of stupid PODs.

A few days before we are set to get access to our POD we call to confirm that our POD has actually arrived in Denver - nope - running late but should be there in time for us to get it this coming weekend.

I call next day and our POD has arrived in Denver - yay! Oh but wait, we won’t be allowed to access our POD unless we pay a $250 storage fee for the upcoming month. What? We called to retrieve our POD within our included first month of storage. Why are we getting charged an additional month? Oh, because PODs delayed shipment of our POD, so that we were pushed into a second month (and conveniently forgot to tell us), and now our stuff is essentially being held hostage unless we pay. Again, no email, no call, just a hold on our account that we had no idea existed.

We pay the exorbitant monthly fee for storage, drive across state, get a uhaul, get our stuff from PODs and are finally free from them THANKS TO UHAUL.

Save your money, and your time, and your sanity and just use uhaul for goodness sake.

*I would like to note that a majority of the customer service reps and warehouse workers we encountered were friendly and helpful and our items arrived without damage, it seems to just be PODs as a company and their policies that screwed us.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $2500

My POD was to be delivered 11/3/2020. I paid for the transportation on 10/19. I arranged my scheduled, my family, my time off work and my movers to receive the POD 11/3 and unload by 11/6 for pick up (before my next monthly fee). It appears the POD never left NY as scheduled.

I called Customer Service four times and received zero information. Finally reached someone 24 hours after it was supposed to be here. Their new plan is for the POD to still not leave NY until Friday 11/6 (still two days away!) and not arrive to my house in FL until NEXT Friday 11/13. Why is it not getting on a truck immediately?! and why will it take a whole week to arrive ?! This is completely unacceptable. I’m shocked that PODS would operate their business this way. It is bad enough the mistake was made but now to not jump through hoops to resolve quickly is disgusting. No ownership, no acknowledgement of the impact, no urgency to resolve.

I have paid almost $6,500 to PODS for this one POD to go from Houston to NY to FL.

I chose PODS because I thought they were the “leader” in moving and storage. I will never use them again and I would never recommend them.

I slept on a 2” camp mattress on the floor for nine nights, had to cancel my unpackers. This is the most unprofessional situation I have ever experienced. They had the nerve to charge me also the extra days which were from their delay ! I am owed $321 plus the $2666 cost of the totally ruined move.

They have stopped responding, assuming I will go away. Socialmedia, their customer advocacy, has gone dark as well

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2666

If I could give a zero rating I would. We used PODS a few years ago and was pleased with the service so we used them for our out of state move. HUGE MISTAKE. PODS confirmed our container delivery. We scheduled our flights to load the container however while in flight we received a msg that the location was short on drivers and they had to reschedule. Flight tickets, hotel and paid movers all non-refundable. We reached out to the owner John Koch via email and sent a letter to the corporate office in clearwater via certified mail detailing our experience however we never received a response. HORRIBLE customer service. Once the POD was FINALLY delivered, our instruction regarding the orientation of the POD was ignored. The driver was super rude.

AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE! BEWARE OF PODS!

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000

PODS picked up on 1/22, scheduled delivery 2/02. They contacted us 1/31 to move it up to 2/01 to avoid weather. They didn’t show up in the delivery window and never contacted us. When we called them, they said it wouldn’t be in the area until 2/02, but there were no available drivers until 2/03. They were using weather as an excuse even though weather had not hit until after their original delivery window. They called to verify they were coming the evening before, then as they were arriving they told us they were expecting to pick up a POD, not deliver. At this point, they said they thought the POD might be in NJ. They couldn’t reschedule until the 6th. We still haven’t received our property and apparently it isn’t even in MA, where we moved. Never use this company. They have even figured out a way to not be accountable through federal interstate regulation by having a third party cross the state lines for them, so you have little recourse if you never see your stuff again. By the way, customer service will allow you no contact with their logistics team to find out where your POD is or has been. Customer service claims they will contact them for you, but you have to call them back if you want to find out any info they obtained.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2500