Who has done PODS, Upack, PackRat?
 

They just won't tell you what this shit costs on their websites. It should be fairly easy to figure out a quote without giving them all your info or an email.

Delivery.
Days to pack.
Pickup.
Move based on distance and weight.
Days to unload.
Return.

So, has anybody ever done a move or used one of these services? What did it cost, what were the catches, was it worth it?

The Military gives member the option to move themselves and reimburse you. You weigh all your stuff once it's on the truck and submit that number... then you get paid based on 80% (I think) of what it would have cost Property Office to hire somebody to do it. People can usually make a decent pocketfull doing it themselves. I'm not interested in driving a 30' Uhaul x-country, but I might do a PODS if the price is right.

I had an old roommate who moved from VA back to Cali. She looked into the PODS, they were more expensive then she expected. She ended up renting a half sized container and was allowed to fill up so much of it. From what I understand everything got to Cali fine.

GF looked into it when we moved to SC, from NY, and it was more expensive then we expected.

used Door-to-Door from california to dc. wasn't as expensive as POD$$$ by a lot.
http://www.doortodoor.com/

no complaints. you can leave it with them until you want it dropped off to unload which is nice because I was slumming it in the gf's rental for a couple weeks and then went to italy for a coule weeks. when i was ready to move into a new place, I had them bring it over. piece of cake.

warning though: don't put your couch on the bottom and several sets of wheels and toolboxes on it. it will fuck it up.

Can't speak to the others, but my experience with PODS mirrors what's been said. I got a quote from them for my most recent cross-country move (FL to CA) and it wound up being about double what it cost me to rent a Penske truck and do the move myself, even factoring in fuel costs.

A friend of mine just moved from here (Colorado Springs, CO) to Corvallis, OR. She used ABF's Upack moving service, it included one container that was about 6'x6'x7'h and it cost her about $2200. Sounds like a lot but I have not moved that far in a while. IIRC it cost me about $1500 to rent a Ryder to move out here from NC back in '97.

My wife looked into a POD when moving from cali to GA. Just the price to get the damn thing dropped off was way, way, way more than budgeted for the entire move.. which we ended up doing with all of her stuff piled in and on top of a honda civic.

Door to door looks cheap. I may need it when I man up and move to H-town.

My parents moved 2ish years ago and used PODS or some similar service. We needed more space then originally thought, it took longer to get stuff out them previously anticipated (much of this was motivation, not helped by packing/unpacking in mid-summer), and it cost more then predicted. Before that my parents had driven a Uhaul while moving and I believe they said that was the way he preferred, having done it both ways. Also, if you have big stuff that you don't really want or you don't think you'll have space for, just get rid of it, that was the biggest PITA of all.

I say pay the place the seems the most legit.

I finally paid someone to move me this last time. @#$# never moving my own stuff again if I can help it. It was nice telling the guys were to move my stuff to and back. I dont care how much I can save by doing it myself. It is not fun moving in 110+ degree heat in TX.

Now elsewhere maybe.

+1 on selling anything big that is not important.

Also if you get a quote hold them to it. My Fiances parent moved from TX to Lake Tahoe and the company they used was trying to BS them by telling they had added extra stuff to their house and other crap which was wrong as they had given enough furniture to furnish a home to my fiance and her sister.

Our current 3br/2ba 1car-garage base house is not by any means filled. I'd say we have about 75% of what a normal family living in such a place might have. I figure we'd need 2 pods. Drop off here on base in Ventura County, CA for a week in early Sept. Then deliver to New Orleans first week of December. They can ship it when they want as long as I know where it is... drop off for me to unpack for a week.

It looks like what I'm seeing is that this is going to cost me about $4k-$5k from Pods, but I need to look at some of the other places mentioned.

The big Ryder is $500 week, and I'd need it about that long, plus I think it said $.45 mile... which would work out to about $1000... call it well under $2k even if I have it a few extra days. Then I need a plane ticket back to home and a few other things. I think +/-$2500 is a good total budget for me to move myself 2000 miles, including gas and a hotel if needed, but I'd stay on bases... it's only 3 days.

Then there's storage fees for 3 months there... probably about $600 total, which makes it closer to $3k, plus the help I'd need from friends, beer costs, still hot as fuck in NOLA in Sept... yadda yadda.

Do you have some air delivery bros that could just drop off your stuff for you?

I suspect that Sam may own a few things that he doesn't want pushed out of the back of a C-130 from 10,000 feet. :D

I got two containers from door-to-door and it was about 50% house and 50% garage. it was no fucking way near "a couple grand".

I've done as much homework as I can without giving the fucking websites all my info. I've gone through all of the major ones and given them my dedicated spam email, and none of them will send me an actual quote... they all say "we need more detail" and to call. How much more detail can they need than what their online form asks for?

Dropoff date?
Pickup date?
Time to store?
Dropoff date?
Pickup date?
Rough size of house or how many containers do you need?

How fucking hard is that? If I actually call, can I expect them to try and spam the shit out of me over the phone?

There's a PODS, Packrat, and UMove all here in town and I'm going to visit them in person tomorrow and get the straight scoop... will report back.

I have some serious "in's" with both COD squadrons, but I barely trust myself flying in Grumman aircraft, I'm certainly not putting everything I own in one.

These are my boys!

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...4&d=1310969097

Catapult launch of a C-2A Greyhound: Ballsy.

Carrier recovery of a C-2A Greyhound: Insane.

The fun starts at 1:10.

I'm starting to get the feeling that this industry is a complete fucking scam. I've looked into 5 different companies, visited 2 today here locally, and have discovered that there is no way anybody will tell you shit unless you actually call.

I even went so far as to type in multiple scenarios into the online "GET AN INSTANT QUOTE" thing and every single one ended up with "WE NEED MORE DETAIL, YOU MUST CALL". I'm losing faith.

Yup, total fucking scam industry. I've called 3 companies and they all break it down exactly the same.

1st FEE:
One delivery and one pickup of crates... also 30 days of use, whether stored on your property or at their warehouse. If stored at their warehouse, unlimited access to your crate.
PODS: $1000
PackRat: $500 (but if moving x-country, that $500 is credit towards shipping).
UPack: $500 flat.

2nd FEE:
Storage at their warehouse at pickup city or delivery city past 30days, per crate.
PODS: $200mo
PackRat: $159mo
UPack: $149mo

3rd FEE:
Transportation fee for 2 crates, between 14k and 18k lbs.
PODS: $5864
PackRat: $4784
Upack: $5100

PackRat included weight tickets in price, and you get free boxes and blankets when they deliver your crates. PackRat prices were also for one 16' and one 12'. PODS were for 2x12's.

I'm certain that if I pull the trigger on this, that there will be a few "surprise" fees, but it looks like PackRat is $2000 cheaper and I get far more for my money. I guess that spending around $5500 to move 15k lbs over 2000 miles is kind of cheap all in all.

I'm still certain that this industry is totally fucking sketch and probably ran by straight shysters... but we'll see.