We are ready for the PODS! I cannot tell you how exciting this is for me. We have been living with the bare minimum, of everything, for the past 11 months. The garage build was the hold up and as you already know, that is finally done. We have been waiting on the builder to arrange the final inspection. I have not heard anything for a couple of weeks and I’m sick of waiting, so last week I called PODS and arranged delivery.
We have three 16 foot containers that were shipped from Wisconsin to Charlotte, North Carolina (or so I thought). I was worried about the humidity and possibility of mold, so we paid extra to have them stored at an indoor facility. (FYI: PODS storage is not cheap, it cost us just shy of $700 a month, for indoor storage of 3 PODS.) Because we moved “long distance,” I had to call customer service when we were ready for delivery, as opposed to doing everything online. Really? This is 2016, everything is done online!
So, last week Monday I called. I was advised by the computer generated voice that my wait would be 30 minutes, unless of course I wanted to go online to www.PODS.com and schedule my delivery that way. Oh, how funny! Well I was stuck waiting with no way around it, so I did what any other good woman would do, I went shopping! Online, of course and to stores that were a long distance away! Okay I’ll give it a rest, in a second. Do you know how many times I heard the message: “all call reps are busy assisting other customers, someone will be with you shortly in the order the calls were received?” Every 60 seconds, that would be 28 times. Okay, I’ll stop.
Seriously, it was 28 minutes later when a live call rep finally took my call. She introduced herself and I explained we had a long distance move and I needed to arrange delivery. She assured me that would be no problem. Great! She would calculate the delivery fee, but first needed my zip code, fine. Then she said the PODS were at the Indian Trails facility and that zip code was… Wait just a second, I asked why they were not in Charlotte. She explained there are two facilities considered Charlotte locations: Indian Trails and the Airport. (Didn’t make sense to me as the Indian Trails facility is on the southeast side of Charlotte and the Airport facility is on the northwest side of Charlotte, the direction we live in.)
Okay, so what would the delivery fee be? She needed to put me on hold. Thankfully it was music and not the recycled message I kept hearing before. Six minutes later she was back and explained that, due to our home being so far from Charlotte, the delivery fee she calculated was quite substantial and she wanted to double-check “some things.” Oh boy!
She told me the delivery fee would be $1400. I couldn’t speak. She went on to explain that the Indian Trails facility does not deliver to us (it’s on the wrong side of town), so the PODS have to all be transported to the Airport facility and then they can be scheduled for delivery. I could speak now, but she didn’t know why they went to Indian Trails initially and there was nothing they could do about the transfer fee, she had already checked. Well they had me over a barrel, they had all our stuff. What else could I do but agree to pay it? Alright, now lets schedule the delivery. She needed to put me on hold, again. More music, this time 8 minutes.
Yes, she could schedule the delivery. She explained that normally they are required to wait until the PODS arrive at the correct facility before scheduling the delivery, but she got approval to override that. Outstanding, my luck may be turning in the right direction. So after some more discussion and a lot more time spent on hold, the PODS are coming next week. I can’t wait! (FYI: that phone call was 1 hour and 44 minutes.) Now I need to break the delivery fee to Steve. Wish me luck!
WOW!! Nice to have your stuff though!