Tom and I moved out of our house in April, 2014.  We sold or gave away most of the stuff in the house that wouldn’t fit in the RV.  But there were some things too precious to part with:  books, toys, mementos.  John and Jackie graciously agreed to give us some space in their basement storage area to store these things.  When I cleaned out my office at church, I added a couple more boxes to their storage.  A couple of years later Tom cleaned out his office at the University and added several more boxes.

We knew that John and Jackie would be moving out of their house before we could move into our new house.  And we didn’t want to move the stuff we had stored at their house twice.  So what to do?  The answer was a PODS storage container.

I went online to get a quote from PODS and their pricing seemed reasonable, so I called to get the service set up.  Even though PODS has local franchisees, you have to make your arrangements through the national call center in Florida.  I was on hold for 40 minutes.  When I finally got a live person, I set up delivery, pickup and storage of the pod.  I double checked dates and prices.  Then I signed the e-contract they sent me.

The Pod was delivered to John and Jackie’s driveway on a Friday, and we loaded it quickly on Saturday.  John and Jackie gave us some furniture for our new house (more on that later) and that also went into the Pod.  The Pod wasn’t packed full, but it was packed tightly.  We put a padlock on it and waited for it to be picked up.

It was supposed to be picked up on Monday, but I didn’t receive a call about a pickup time like I was supposed to.  I checked the account online and their wasn’t a pickup date scheduled.  I called the national center in Florida and, after 45 minutes on hold, talked to a person.  The woman I talked to this time didn’t care what I had arranged with the other service person I talked to.  She kept telling me I had done it wrong.

I finally told her that I didn’t care who did it wrong, but the Pod had to be out of their driveway before Friday.  John and Jackie had the moving company scheduled for Saturday.  She told me it couldn’t be moved for a week after that.  I told her it had to be moved but she was unmoved by my pleas.  Finally I had her schedule it for the first available date, several days after John and Jackie were supposed to be moved out of their house.

After I hung up from talking to her I was very upset.  John and Jackie have been so generous in letting us mess up their lives and here we were messing up theirs.  I couldn’t get on with doing anything else because I was trying to figure out how to get the PODS container moved.  Finally, Tom mentioned that I had gotten a call from a local delivery person on Friday.  Maybe I could call them back.

So I tried that.  I called the local franchise storage facility in Grove City and a live person actually answered the phone.  PODS policy is that you can only talk about pickup or delivery with the national call center.  The guy on the phone was extremely helpful.  He explained there would be an additional $30 charge for an “emergency” pickup, but they would be able to get to it that week.  I was so relieved I would have agreed to anything!

The Pod was picked up a couple of hours after I talked to the guy at the local office.  They took it to the storage facility for two weeks until Tom and I were ready for it at our new home.  Once we had a move-in date, I was able to go online and set up a delivery date and pickup date with our new home address.

The day we closed, the Pod was delivered to the new house.  That night, Tom and I unloaded it, putting most of the stuff in the storage room.  John came over and helped carry in a few heavy pieces I couldn’t lift.  The next morning the PODS guy came and took it away.  It was fascinating to watch him load it onto the truck.

PODS is a great convenience if you need to store something temporarily.  The price ended up being about three times what I agreed to pay originally, but I had to pay it to get our stuff back.  Dealing with the national call center was very frustrating but the local people were wonderful.