Follow-up question: How do I Pods/Uhaul pod?
December 13, 2022 7:39 PM Subscribe
Last question was about a UHaul trailer because a friend with a CDL was going to drive me. Just the same, I decided I'd rather let a company do it. I sort of started the process and have....questions.
1) So I signed up with Pods. And then got thirty thousand calls and texts, which I ignored, because I was having a bad day. Am I supposed to google all these people? Pick one randomly? How can I begin to guess if it's someone to trust with my STUFF?
2) The people that texted, are they doing the actual move or are they coming to my place with a pod and packing it and taking it to....a central company that is Pods? Or something else?
3) If I do need to hire separately for someone to pack my boxes and furniture into a pod (which maybe will already have been answered in response to the above) where do I find them? I looked on task rabbit but couldn't tell if "packing" or "moving" or what was the way to pull up people who know how to get furniture and boxes safely into a pod?
Thank you. I'm going through some stuff and I imagine my questions are a little bit...helpless in a regressed way.
Ok I guess bonus question of extra pointlessness: I have a heavy musical instrument. Not piano heavy but, well, metal-frame harpsichord heavy. I am planning on transporting this in the pod. Am I insane? The legs come off, and the thing is worth almost nothing, but I really want to keep it and not pay someone a fortune for musical instrument transport for a very cheap instrument.
1) So I signed up with Pods. And then got thirty thousand calls and texts, which I ignored, because I was having a bad day. Am I supposed to google all these people? Pick one randomly? How can I begin to guess if it's someone to trust with my STUFF?
2) The people that texted, are they doing the actual move or are they coming to my place with a pod and packing it and taking it to....a central company that is Pods? Or something else?
3) If I do need to hire separately for someone to pack my boxes and furniture into a pod (which maybe will already have been answered in response to the above) where do I find them? I looked on task rabbit but couldn't tell if "packing" or "moving" or what was the way to pull up people who know how to get furniture and boxes safely into a pod?
Thank you. I'm going through some stuff and I imagine my questions are a little bit...helpless in a regressed way.
Ok I guess bonus question of extra pointlessness: I have a heavy musical instrument. Not piano heavy but, well, metal-frame harpsichord heavy. I am planning on transporting this in the pod. Am I insane? The legs come off, and the thing is worth almost nothing, but I really want to keep it and not pay someone a fortune for musical instrument transport for a very cheap instrument.
You mention "Uhaul Pods" and then go on to talk about "Pods". Are you using (U-Haul's) U-Box or Pods? It helps to be specific.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 7:56 PM on December 13, 2022
posted by Ahmad Khani at 7:56 PM on December 13, 2022
3) If I do need to hire separately for someone to pack my boxes and furniture into a pod (which maybe will already have been answered in response to the above) where do I find them? I looked on task rabbit but couldn't tell if "packing" or "moving" or what was the way to pull up people who know how to get furniture and boxes safely into a pod?
I don't know anything about pods, but for this you should be able to hire movers -- you are just hiring them for the loading, not for actually hauling your stuff. Uhaul advertises that they can provide this, but so can any small or large moving company. They'll probably charge by the hour, plus charging for materials if you have them supply the packing material.
If there is a Facebook community page for where you live, or Nextdoor, there will always be posts asking for mover recommendations which can help with figuring out who to call.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:12 PM on December 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
I don't know anything about pods, but for this you should be able to hire movers -- you are just hiring them for the loading, not for actually hauling your stuff. Uhaul advertises that they can provide this, but so can any small or large moving company. They'll probably charge by the hour, plus charging for materials if you have them supply the packing material.
If there is a Facebook community page for where you live, or Nextdoor, there will always be posts asking for mover recommendations which can help with figuring out who to call.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:12 PM on December 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
When getting quotes for moving services of any kind, try to use a throwaway or "just for spam" email address, and try to avoid giving your actual phone number (or input a fake number). You can always change it to your real number once you choose and book a specific service. These companies will spam the daylights out of any and all contact info you give them.
As said above, you just need a service to pack up your stuff and load your pod. You are not obligated to use any of the ones that the pod company recommended. Get some local recs from online neighborhood groups (Nexdoor, Facebook, Reddit, etc), then get quotes, explaining that you only need help loading the pod. They will usually ask if you want to purchase stuff like moving blankets, bubble wrap, etc, but you can usually purchase these yourself for much cheaper.
Most movers will charge by the hour. Some will 1) charge for the travel to your home and 2) have a minimum for 2-4 hours. Search previous threads on what to expect on moving day. You can pack stuff up yourself to save time/money, and just have the movers load, or you can leave it to the movers to pack and load everything. The latter may be preferable because they are super fast and know how to pack stuff up well.
You will also need movers at your destination to unload everything.
As a data point, I've used ABF U-Pack in the past and they've been great.
Moving is a super overwhelming process. There are a lot of moving parts to tie together. You'll get the hang of it though, and I wish you all the best!
posted by aquamvidam at 8:26 PM on December 13, 2022
As said above, you just need a service to pack up your stuff and load your pod. You are not obligated to use any of the ones that the pod company recommended. Get some local recs from online neighborhood groups (Nexdoor, Facebook, Reddit, etc), then get quotes, explaining that you only need help loading the pod. They will usually ask if you want to purchase stuff like moving blankets, bubble wrap, etc, but you can usually purchase these yourself for much cheaper.
Most movers will charge by the hour. Some will 1) charge for the travel to your home and 2) have a minimum for 2-4 hours. Search previous threads on what to expect on moving day. You can pack stuff up yourself to save time/money, and just have the movers load, or you can leave it to the movers to pack and load everything. The latter may be preferable because they are super fast and know how to pack stuff up well.
You will also need movers at your destination to unload everything.
As a data point, I've used ABF U-Pack in the past and they've been great.
Moving is a super overwhelming process. There are a lot of moving parts to tie together. You'll get the hang of it though, and I wish you all the best!
posted by aquamvidam at 8:26 PM on December 13, 2022
I haven't used these myself. But my understanding is that it works roughly like so:
* The container company (such as PODS or U-Haul) brings the container to your home. The container company doesn't pack it. But when it is packed, the container company picks it up and takes it to your new home. The container company does not unpack it.
* Either you or someone you hire packs the container. Either you or someone you hire packs any boxes that will go in it. I doubt you can hire anyone from a big moving company such as Bekins or Allied to do this; they do only moves where they put your items in their truck. But at least if you go through U-Haul (I don't know either way about PODS), they affiliate with a number of small movers where you can add on their services to the cost of the U-Haul, usually when you book through U-Haul. We have generally had good luck going this route, although we rented a truck, not a container.
Good luck! Moving is hard.
posted by NotLost at 8:56 PM on December 13, 2022
* The container company (such as PODS or U-Haul) brings the container to your home. The container company doesn't pack it. But when it is packed, the container company picks it up and takes it to your new home. The container company does not unpack it.
* Either you or someone you hire packs the container. Either you or someone you hire packs any boxes that will go in it. I doubt you can hire anyone from a big moving company such as Bekins or Allied to do this; they do only moves where they put your items in their truck. But at least if you go through U-Haul (I don't know either way about PODS), they affiliate with a number of small movers where you can add on their services to the cost of the U-Haul, usually when you book through U-Haul. We have generally had good luck going this route, although we rented a truck, not a container.
Good luck! Moving is hard.
posted by NotLost at 8:56 PM on December 13, 2022
Also, try to make sure you get enough container for your household.
posted by NotLost at 8:57 PM on December 13, 2022
posted by NotLost at 8:57 PM on December 13, 2022
PS, to clarify some terms:
* "Packing" generally means packing individual items into boxes.
* "Moving" generally means moving the truck, or container.
posted by NotLost at 9:07 PM on December 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
* "Packing" generally means packing individual items into boxes.
* "Moving" generally means moving the truck, or container.
posted by NotLost at 9:07 PM on December 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
We moved motorcycles across an ocean among our other possessions using pod-like things (U-Pack), so you can certainly move your harpsichord. The main thing is to make sure that you or the people packing your pod secure and protect it. Lord Oscar made wooden scaffolding and used a lot of straps that hooked into...things you can buy (technical term)...that slotted into the walls of the pod.
posted by LadyOscar at 10:06 PM on December 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by LadyOscar at 10:06 PM on December 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
I did a cross country move using Pods last summer. The spammy emails are probably from various companies offering to hook you up with movers to actually get your stuff into the Pod. We used one of the companies to set up guys on either end of our move to load and unload the pod. The company (we may have used different ones for each end of our move, I forget) were basically intermediaries for various small local moving crews. We basically just needed a couple of strong guys with dollies and lift straps to get our heavy furniture and boxes into and out of the pod. The intermediaries had reviews of the various crews available in the areas we were moving to and from, and asked about things like how large a home we were moving, how many flights of stairs were involved, etc.
The crews we ended up with were totally fine- on one end it was a guy and his cousin and on the other end we had a more professional set of guys who unpacked our stuff crazy fast. The actual Pod experience was pretty good, except for us hoping to get one last load of stuff into the pod on the morning they took it away and watching the truck carry it away while we still had a couple of boxes and odds and ends to load. The pod itself was dropped off and picked up by a Pod truck (they have these crazy spidery pod lifter trucks, I think there’s a video on their website!). The drop off was more complicated because we had to direct the guy where to go (we were moving out of a condo building in a city) but when they picked it back up we didn’t have to be involved at all.
posted by MadamM at 10:59 PM on December 13, 2022
The crews we ended up with were totally fine- on one end it was a guy and his cousin and on the other end we had a more professional set of guys who unpacked our stuff crazy fast. The actual Pod experience was pretty good, except for us hoping to get one last load of stuff into the pod on the morning they took it away and watching the truck carry it away while we still had a couple of boxes and odds and ends to load. The pod itself was dropped off and picked up by a Pod truck (they have these crazy spidery pod lifter trucks, I think there’s a video on their website!). The drop off was more complicated because we had to direct the guy where to go (we were moving out of a condo building in a city) but when they picked it back up we didn’t have to be involved at all.
posted by MadamM at 10:59 PM on December 13, 2022
This is from my cross-country 1,500 mile move in July. Just to be clear, I used U-Haul U-box, not Pods. They are roughly similar but don’t work the same.
I couldn’t use Pods because I didn’t have space to load, and U-haul lets you fill the containers at their facility, so I use U-box.
Reserved the containers online but hired a local moving company I was already familiar with. Called the local U-Haul the day before and told them I wanted access to the containers. I packed, movers put it in a truck, took it to the U-Haul center. U-haul had pulled out the containers I ordered and parked them in the parking lot and my movers filled them. Took 2 hours for the movers from start to finish. U-Haul included more moving blankets than I could possibly use per container. I ordered one more container than I thought I’d need. I didn’t need it and U-haul was like, “cool, we’ll put it back. No charge.” I needed to provide a padlock for each container. U-Haul sells them.
Then told U-Haul where and when I wanted them. (May have been set when I reserved?) I could vaguely track where the containers were, they arrived at the U-haul facility in my destination city in about 3 days and they held them until I scheduled to have them dropped off in my new driveway. (I think 30 days storage was included.) I called and they delivered them the next day. We spent a week emptying them. (No movers on that end. We did it ourselves, though U-Haul had deals with local movers, I can’t speak to that.) Another phone call and they picked up the empty containers and that was it.
Sometimes the web site was a little out of sync with reality, but a quick phone call always resolved it quickly. (I hate the phone, but it worked.) Honestly very happy with it. U-haul’s web site had useful FAQs.
posted by Ookseer at 9:29 AM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
I couldn’t use Pods because I didn’t have space to load, and U-haul lets you fill the containers at their facility, so I use U-box.
Reserved the containers online but hired a local moving company I was already familiar with. Called the local U-Haul the day before and told them I wanted access to the containers. I packed, movers put it in a truck, took it to the U-Haul center. U-haul had pulled out the containers I ordered and parked them in the parking lot and my movers filled them. Took 2 hours for the movers from start to finish. U-Haul included more moving blankets than I could possibly use per container. I ordered one more container than I thought I’d need. I didn’t need it and U-haul was like, “cool, we’ll put it back. No charge.” I needed to provide a padlock for each container. U-Haul sells them.
Then told U-Haul where and when I wanted them. (May have been set when I reserved?) I could vaguely track where the containers were, they arrived at the U-haul facility in my destination city in about 3 days and they held them until I scheduled to have them dropped off in my new driveway. (I think 30 days storage was included.) I called and they delivered them the next day. We spent a week emptying them. (No movers on that end. We did it ourselves, though U-Haul had deals with local movers, I can’t speak to that.) Another phone call and they picked up the empty containers and that was it.
Sometimes the web site was a little out of sync with reality, but a quick phone call always resolved it quickly. (I hate the phone, but it worked.) Honestly very happy with it. U-haul’s web site had useful FAQs.
posted by Ookseer at 9:29 AM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
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posted by dum spiro spero at 7:48 PM on December 13, 2022 [3 favorites]