PODS Moving and Storage

I had a POD delivered to my home in advance of listing my home for sale. It arrived on a Tuesday, and I wasn't able to start loading until Saturday. When I opened the POD that morning, I discovered that water had leaked in all around the base of the POD. Worse yet, black mold was present on the walls. Thankfully, I had not been storing anything in it. I called and explained the problem and asked for a full refund and POD pickup. After a LOT of hassle, they agreed, and I thought the problem was solved. The POD was picked up when I was at work. When I arrived home I discovered that the driver had dropped the POD on my air conditioning condenser, crushing it beyond repair and causing nearly $4,000 worth of damage. Neither PODS nor the driver called to tell me about it. I called PODS yet again and was told that the driver had filed an incident report, and I would hear back from someone in "about 30 days". Since that was obviously an unacceptable answer, I had to file a claim with my homeowners insurance company, who, thankfully, processed the claim quickly. I'm now trying to get my $500 deductible back from PODS, and that's going about as well as all of my experiences with them so far. My advice--STAY AWAY.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $379

A disclaimer allows the company to place the POD at the "driver's discretion", which for us was a 25 minute drive away from our house not in the driveway as promised.

Then they picked up our POD 2 days early with no notice and for no reason causing the contents to appear as if they went through a rock tumbler. In addition to my shock when I went out to pack the POD only to find the POD disappeared, there is no 24 hour help line nor GPS on the POD. So, we just didn't know where our possessions were and received zero customer service. Then, once we tracked it down the next day, because it was picked up early, boxes that had started neatly stacked but not ready for transport were smashed and strewn throughout the POD 24 hours before the real pick up date.

Finally, despite all of this truly awful moving experience, the Company did not apologize, but rather offered me about a $200 credit if I sign a form barring me from leaving reviews like this one for other potential customers.

We had previously moved using a long-haul carrier. I think it was Atlas? That cost us about $5,000 in 2006. We thought we'd save money and gain flexibility with PODs, but in the end, using this method cost us $4,770 once all of the ancillary costs were factored in but with a TON more work, aggravation, and anxiety on our part.

PODs just isn't worth it. My dad, who worked his whole career in moving & storage always used to say, "Customer service is about how a company acts when things go wrong." PODs was AWOL when the many aspects of this move went wrong.

Do yourself a favor, and for a long-distance move . . . (Ours was about 1,500 miles) just hire real movers.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3500

Not to exaggerate, but I would not wish my experience with PODS on my worst enemy. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND!! I have recently moved with my wife and 9 month old baby and we used PODS. We were supposed to receive our POD on 9/15. We even received the message the evening before (9/14) that our POD would be delivered between 10:30am-1:30pm. Around 12p that day, I received a call that my POD was delayed..to the FOLLOWING WEEK! Everything we possess is in this POD and we are now in our empty house with nothing. When I asked where my POD was, they replied that it was just “in route”, not at the warehouse it should be, and they had no way to track the actual geographic location (seems unbelievable in this day of age). My POD was supposed to be shipped on 9/5 and arrive at the local warehouse within 5-7 days (well before 9/15). That day, the employee that called me said he would contact the warehouse for accommodations to get the POD delivered sooner and get back to me right away. I have not heard from this employee since this phone call. The customer resolution team was also supposed to call me that day for compensation “as needed” for the delay and I have yet to hear from them too. I called again later that day and reached a new employee (PODS will never redirect your case to the same service person). This employee, Cindy, could not help much more but she at least she kept me on hold as she called the warehouse and submitted this to her supervisor Maria who was supposed to contact me again. Additionally my contract was changed without my verbal or electronic agreement because “it would not arrive that day, so it had to be changed”. No..this means PODS BROKE its part of the contract not that it needs to be “updated”! A contract is between 2 parties, not the business doing what is best for their behalf.

Sept 16: Cindy said she would call first thing in the morning for updates, which she did (only employee I am grateful for) but nothing new and she pinged Maria again to contact me. I have since called multiple times to reach Maria with multiple employees pinging and emailing her and she has not responded to me now 3 days later. That evening still no word from the warehouse or updates. Only that a scheduling dispute was submitted (I don’t know what dispute there is..the POD didn’t show up when it was promised). No word from Corrine, the agent assigned as my advocate (not a great advocate we will see).

Sept 17: called first thing in the morning. Ariel/Uriel answered and said he couldn’t help. Tried calling the warehouse with no response and left a voicemail to respond to them immediately. Refused my request to be transferred to a supervisor, said it needs to be scheduled. Called again and happened by chance to get Ariel/Uriel again and he called the warehouse again. No response. Called a third time, got an Adam who transferred me to Corrine’s (my supposed advocate) voicemail. In her voicemail she said she would respond 24-48 HOURS LATER!! That seems totally unacceptable to me. Regardless she was supposed to have contacted me 48-72 business hours later from 9/15 (still no word or reach out from her). Contacted them again that evening for an update. Still nothing. A “resolution” was suggested that I HIRE ANOTHER moving company to pull my stuff from my POD in the warehouse and move it to my house as other customers have done this before. Really?? Also this employee (can’t remember name) left an email message to Maria to contact me ASAP. Nothing still from this supposed supervisor.

Sept 18: Called in the evening and talked to Sarah. FINALLY an update. Local warehouse won’t make accommodations and so the POD won’t come until 9/22. The person who made that edit was supposed to contact me by phone and email, which never happened (unsurprising at this point). The scheduling dispute was closed without any of my knowledge. Sarah tried to transfer me to the advocacy team (something that until this point was forbidden to me) since Corrine didn’t respond in the window of time she was allotted. Nothing and Sarah left yet ANOTHER message stating for somebody to contact me ASAP.

This is just RIDICULOUS. I have been left in the dark this whole process with clashing abilities of what is allowed from employees. The lack of communication is totally unacceptable. I have now had to go out and get some meager supplies and we have to eat out every day to live because we have nothing. In this time of COVID, this is just unnecessary risk to me and my family. PODS has failed me to an almost indescribable level. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND!!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3200

Future customers beware! What started as a seemingly solid experience has evolved into an absolute nightmare.

The initial scheduling, delivery and removal of our POD went great, which made me think the rest of the process would go just as smoothly. WRONG. After calling to schedule the delivery of our packed POD to our new house, I was informed that the zip of our new home in Staunton, VA was 20 minutes outside of their delivery zone and therefore they could not deliver the POD with all our belongings. Trying to get this figured out with their customer service has been exhausting - each time you get stuck with a new rep, who gives you a different run around, and then it's up to YOU to follow up. And each call takes 30 to 60+ minutes of waiting. They strung me along for a while thinking we could get our POD delivered since it was only 20 minutes outside of their zone (and I mean 20 minutes of easy highway driving, no back roads or anything), but recently I was told my only option would be to go to the warehouse and empty my things from the POD myself. Which defeats the whole purpose of using PODS in the first place.

I find it shocking and disappointing that in a housing market as turbulent as this, PODS has zero flexibility or concern for their customers. I understand needing to draw their delivery lines somewhere, but after giving them thousands of dollars being treated like this is truly unacceptable. Moving is already stressful enough, so leave PODS out of the equation for your own sanity!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1800

Lies and false advertising. You can’t do anything they claim on their website. All lies. Can’t delete a payment or manage auto pay. Have to deal with reps who can’t ever do anything for the customer because the company is too archaic on services.

There is a five day city ordinance on pods. I set my pod up to be delivered, emptied and picked up five days later. They are fully aware of this and the pick up date was set for yesterday, 5 days, because of it. They didn’t schedule the pick up tho! Now not one person at PODS cares. Can’t reach any supervisors that will fix what they did. Supervisors refuse to make this right. This POD is now abandoned on my driveway. They refuse to pick it up til the 17th which is a city ordinance violation and a huge failure on their part that they refuse to fix!

Even the city called them. No one there cares! They don’t care that the city is considering fining them. They don’t care that their service is terrible. They don’t care that you can’t contact anyone about this!

BEWARE! This company hides behind reps working from home who are either rude or can’t do anything for you. They can’t reach anyone in headquarters to correct anything and no one there cares.

Of anything goes wrong with your POD order, you have absolutely no recourse with this company. NONE! Corporate is not even involved with any customer service. You are stuck with employees working from home who can’t or won’t help you.

ABSOLUTELY NO WAY TO GET ANYTHING CORRECTED WHEN THEY SCREW UP!

Now I have an abandoned POD on my property!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $428

We recently ordered two PODS for our in-town move because we thought it was an interesting concept. The units were delivered as expected but when we contacted PODS to retrieve the units, along with most of our belongings, they informed us that they couldn’t pickup them up for 2 weeks. WHAT??? This company actually thinks it’s acceptable for people to leave their personal belongs on a pubic street, in 100+ degree heat for 2 week. I tried to reason with their offshore support reps and even tried to appeal to one of their “supervisors”, but there was no getting through to these idiots. We ended up calling another moving company to remove our belongings from the PODS and take it to a traditional storage unit. The bottom line is this is an amateur company with a broken business model, so don’t use PODS unless you want your move to suck more than it already does.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $800

Never in my life has a company disappointed me so immensely that I felt compelled to write a review. This will be a first.

I chose PODS due to reviews about their incredible service, despite being slightly higher cost than many competitors. I believed that it was worth it for piece of my mind. So long as everything goes swimmingly in your move and there are no errors or delays, this may be true. If even the slightest thing goes off course, I hope you have a plan B because dealing with customer service after my ENTIRE POD FULL OF FURNITURE AND CLOTHING WAS DESTROYED has been abysmal.

In preparing for a hospitalization, I used PODS to get my things out of my apartment as quickly as possible. For five months, they stored my things, collecting rental for the space as well as insurance in case it was damaged. I paid over $1,000 to ship my storage pod to a facility to find that my pod couldn’t be delivered to my apartment for more than six weeks. I needed to move before then, so I had to arrange to do a self-pick up with a uhaul almost an hour away from my final destination.

As if this wasn’t stressful enough, I received a call the week it was shipped to tell me my pod had potentially been damaged in transit from a flood in New Jersey. They requested permission to check the unit (which they did not do) and sent a single human to inventory my things with me, without any support of movers.

When I finally made it to my pod, I found that my things had been destroyed in the flood. Because they did not do the preliminary check as they said, the pod sat in water for over a week. Boots that were not even exposed to the water had mold GROWING on them, as an example.

Finally, here I sit almost 6 weeks following this experience without a single piece of furniture in my new home and with just a hope I will receive even a fraction of the nearly $25,000 worth of damage. The company also intends to keep the $3,000 I spent simply storing and moving my things, though of course none of those things actually made it to my final destination. It has been nearly impossible to get in touch with PODS now that the damage has been done.

All of that is to say, I would think twice before using this service.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

DO NOT use PODS City Services. The company is in Breach of Contract and I am looking into a lawsuit.

PODS City Services in Los Angeles pulled my truck and driver halfway through my 4 hour loading window without any notice, leaving me with my belongings in the street, and no recourse for moving to another state the next day.

I was in the process of stacking my belongings behind the truck for easy loading when the driver's manager called him, told him they were cancelling my service, and he was to close the truck and leave regardless of the fact that I still had 2 hours left in my loading window. The driver had never had this happen before, and he informed me that it was possible that he was going to run over his hours and this may be part of the reason for the cancellation. The driver's manager would not speak to me on the phone and it was 30 min more before someone from City Services called me to inform me of the cancellation, claiming that I wouldn't have time to load the truck when my movers arrived. The contract states that I am responsible for loading the POD and that I have 4 hours to load, period. There is no specification on how much, if anything has to be in the POD, as long as it is not a banned item. I was in good standing on payment for the service, they had my credit card on file to charge for the storage fee and transportation fee, I had delivery dates and pickup dates scheduled at my new address. For all intents and purposes the POD was contracted to me for my moving and storage use, and PODS City Services breached their contract, and I was stuck.

On top of that, the City Services manager then offered to allow me to load my POD at their facility the next morning, for an extra charge, but I would be responsible for getting my belongings moved there and loaded before 3pm. Luckily my moving company went above and beyond to accommodate these unforeseen changes, since I was stuck agreeing to this in order to make my out of state move. In addition to this, when I arrived at the Compton PODS facility for which the City Services manager had provided the address, my POD was not there. My POD was in fact at a different facility and I had to reroute my moving company and drive to another location, incurring extra costs with the movers, as well as delaying my own departure. When the movers were finally able to load the POD with my belongings it took roughly 45 minutes to complete and for the POD to be locked up and ready to go.

I have now been charged multiple fees from PODS & their recommended moving services and will be seeking restitution for my move since services rendered were not what was agreed to in the contract. I have never been treated so poorly by a company and it's management.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4000

Terrible process and company, please everyone, don’t use their service! The pod left our house in Ohio on 17th afternoon 4pm, and was scheduled delivered on 27th to CA. Today is 24th, when we called to check the status, we were told that the pod is still in OH and it was our fault that it got delayed. The reason is I turned in a gypsy moth form on the next day when an automated email was sent to me, and I have to manually reschedule the delivery. Meanwhile, I was never reached out for follow ups or confirmation. The container just sit in the storage location for 7 days. I mean, how many more days it will be delayed if I didn’t call to inquiry today?? And of course, “no error” on their side, it was because we sent back a form 1 day late. And what’s funny is the transition fee is already charged to my credit card even though the container is sitting in their storage location! Their operation and logistics system is messed up. Everyone, please read my review first before you make your decision of choosing PODs.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000