I'm still not done dealing with PODS, but it has been a disaster.
I could go through my story, but hopefully this list will give you a shorter story while still understanding the difficulties I went through:
- If your quote expires, expect about a 25% increase in cost.
- If you're not free *all day* on the day anything is happening with your POD, don't even bother scheduling. They may (or may not) let you know the day before when they'll pick it up or drop it off, and if you're not available during that window (for drop offs) you'll have to reschedule - which may be over two weeks later.
- They have clearance requirements on the sides, and top of the POD for all drop offs and pick ups - which they don't inform you of unless you schedule things online. (12 feet wide, 15 feet tall - so if they drop it off in a parking lot area, be sure they drop it between two spaces, because even if they have 12 feet wide they really want about 15+).
- Unless you'll be completely done with your POD within 3 weeks they will, without apology, charge you for a second month rent. You can request to have this reimbursed if you don't actually go into the second month, but it sounds like they won't give you back that extra month rent unless you explicitly request it back. And you can't request it back until your POD is returned to them empty. So you may be out $200+ for two weeks or more.
- Even if you think you only need the POD for a few days (as I did) you may end up having it for over a month because of scheduling issues on their side.
- All charges go through a week before anything happens (another policy they may or may not inform you of). So if you schedule for something to be shipped out on a particular date, expect that to come out of your account 7 days before.
- Also, be on top of your shipping date, because my POD was scheduled to be shipped without my consent or knowledge. This left me with a nearly empty bank account, while my car was in the shop halfway through a 1,400 mile trip.
- The line item prices you're told about (1 month rental, pick up fee, transportation fee, drop off fee) DOES NOT include taxes. So expect to pay 8% more than what they tell you at each phase. The total cost they quote you DOES include taxes.
- The transportation fees are NOT locked in. My transportation fees (even though they knew the address they were going from and to) went up $174 the day they shipped it out.
- They DO require $50 for "transit protection fees" that's effectively insurance - this was not mentioned to me until I had to pay it.
- They DON'T require an additional $50 for insurance up to $10k, but they may or may not add it on without telling you - and they may or may not tell you whether or not it's required. It was added on to my bill without me being informed, and I only found out what was going on there when I asked (after I had already paid it).
- If your POD is being shipped far enough that it's about a 20 hour drive (1 day trip usually) by car, expect it to take a week and a half to get to you from the time they ship it out until it arrives at your new warehouse. Add another 1-4 days (minimum) on either side for it to get to and from the warehouse.
I'm scheduled to be done dealing with them in just over a week - I'll update here if I run into any more problems, or find out any new policies they decided to not inform me of until they caused problems. read more