Pods (trucks, furniture, mattress, cheaper)

[kygman]

I work with a man who is related to the man who started PODS. PODS is catching on like wildfire. Last year they started setting up in Australia and Great Britain.

As for the cats. A family member was moving with 2 cats, in a carrier, in the back of a Jeep Wagoneer. Ride was fine for about an hour. Then one did a number in that carrier that was strong enough to almost bring tears to our eyes! The Jeep came to an abrupt stop, the carrier was wrapped, leaving plenty of air holes for now where all the air was blowing through, with duct tape! The carrier was then strapped on the luggage rack on top of the Jeep. The cats made the ride safely, and we had fresh air the rest of the trip. But I could almost swear I saw one of the cats kissing the ground when they were let out! lol

[caligurltotx]

Just called PODS for the heck of it to get an actual quote. I was making my decision on what I heard. From door to door Ca/Tx the total was $2794. And with AAA it was about $275 off.
So ABF has them beat by about $1600/1700 for door to door drop off.

[findingmesomeday]

Our POD was dropped off today. I love the "podzilla". This concept is very well thought out and executed. They came exactly when they said they would. The unit is so clean you could eat off the floor. There are tie down hooks/eyes every 4 ft or so (and on the ceiling) so you can secure your things. They gave out a great list of packing tips--how to pack the pod to maximize the space. (Did you know you could store stuff in the fridge? I never thought of that!).

So far so good. They're coming to pick it up a week from Friday. It will spend the night at the warehouse (extra $50 off the price. I have no idea why). Then they will deliver it Saturday AM.

[GnosticCyn]

I meant to post on here more frequently, but I've been busy packing. I looked at ABS, but I wanted to send my stuff to storage for at least a month and PODs seemed to work better. I also asked about the AAA discount and got almost $600 off.

I like the concept of PODs, but their customer service has been horrible. I live in an area where if you put something on the street that does not have an engine, you have to get a permit from the city. To get the permit, PODs has to send the city proof of insurance. Everytime I called PODs they said I didn't need the permit. Now, who do you think I"m going to believe, the company or the city. It took two weeks and I don't know how many phone calls to get things cleared up.

Well, mine isn't being delivered until the end of the month. I'll try to write from the road after all is done.

[findingmesomeday]

So far so good w/ PODS. They delivered the POD when they promised. They called beforehand and gave us 1/2 hour heads up notice. We had it picked up and it spent an overnight at their distribution center--no other reason for this other than they knocked another $50 off the price, though it seems like more work to me.

The next day they delivered it exactly when promised and also called us to give us the heads up that they were about 1/2 hour out.

We haven't finished unloading it but plan to do so this weekend and then we'll have it picked up. I didn't know about the AAA discount. I'm going to see if I can have a credit on my bill.

I would definitely do this again if we had to move again (which I hope is NOT for a long, long time unless it's a corporate relo...). It was much cheaper than the last move we funded ourselves, when we hired movers to handle all the boxes and heavy stuff. It was definitely more labor intensive and tiring but I was very organized about packing, labeling etc., and my husband packed that thing perfectly. We really could have used two though. I think if we'd had the second, smaller POD in addition to the larger initial POD, we would have fit everything. We wound up having to make about 4 extra trips with our cars and truck. Not too big of an issue (more of a hassle) when only moving 3 miles. Much bigger issue when going long distance!

[gizmobizmo]

I moved from Ohio to VA Beach a couple years ago and due to poor planning, we had to use a POD at the last minute. The POD was to travel to the new house 2 weeks after we were to be moved in. It was just storage stuff and wasn't needed right away.
The POD cost us $$$$$$$$$ because it was traveling out of state and had a 2 week storage period. PODS are generally more expensive than renting a unit and transporting your stuff to and from it. A POD IS more convenient though since you only move it once. The staff at PODS were helpful and worked with us to handle our last minute emergency, which was appreciated. The cost will depend on how long you need to use their POD and how far they need to travel to deliver it to you. Remember, although you will load and unload it, they pay for the gas to deliver it to you.
Hope this helps!

[caligurltotx]

Gizmo I can understand the distance thing but I don't understand why they are not even the least competitive with ABF. Now I do know that relo cubes are pretty small so for someone moving a larger home it wouldn't work but for me moving a small 1 bdrm apt, the POD was way higher than ABF 2 relo cubes at $1400 for door to door. PODS was almost double in price.
Now a negative about ABF is they don't do weekends, just Mon thru Fri. But I guess since they give you 3 days to load you can have it dropped off on Fri and picked up on Monday or Tues.

[johnrex62]

I relocated a 3br house w/2car garage of storage and a 25x25 storage building of boxes in three 16' pods from Alabama to Texas for less than 1/4 of the Mayflower or United Van Lines quotes. The transport charge increases only very slightly from one pod to three because they can all fit on the same transporter. Try that with U-haul!

My total move, including buying a 16 foot garden trailer to haul my animals in and gas and lodging for us on the way, was under $5k.

[caligurltotx]

Okay just updated my decision with ABF and will have two relo cubes dropped off. According to the lady I spoke with one reload cube is equal to 5 linear ft of space on one of their trailers. So if I can manage to use one relo cube it will be $1149 or for two $1419. And that is for door to door service. I say not bad for a move from Ca to Tx.

[wanderintonc]

The relo-cubes sound good for smaller household moves. I looked into those and found I would need several! But, they are a good price for smaller household moves.