PODS, P.O.D.S, Portable On Demand Storage PODS moving and storage is a scam! Holding my personal belongings hostage. Nationwide

In May my family and I started to move our belongings from Ohio to California. We called PODS as we'd had a relatively good experience with them prior and were relying more on the storage aspect of the company than anything else (because we weren't sure of our exact address yet).

Yesterday we closed on our house and I called PODS to have my things delivered. The representative told me they do not service that zip code, that it belonged to another franchise farther north. He forwarded me to customer service where I talked to a woman named Jennifer. She attempted to contact the facility manager where my belongings were heald but they were not open yet. Jennifer said she'd call me back when she heard more.

A full day later I heard nothing and called back to hear that the franchises were clustered together under one umbrella and that I'd probably be able to avoid any potential fees but I'd have to wait for a call back.

A day later (today), I still had not received that call - so I called again. The new customer service rep, Robert, refused to put me in contact with Jennifer, saying they're on a busy call center floor and they don't know each other or each other's extensions. This is where everything goes downhill fast.

Robert explained that my belongings were in Carlsbad, CA, 60 miles from my house and that a different franchise was required to deliver my belongings. This other franchise was in Los Angeles, 100 miles from my house and from Carlsbad. He went on to explain that my pod would need to be moved from the Carlsbad facility to the LA facility in order to fulfill my order, but this is considered an additional move and would therefore cost me an additional $846!

I said that was "beyond unreasonable. Why would you move my belongings 100 miles north and 100 miles southeast again when my house is only 60 miles from the current facility?" He explained that there were zipcode borders that kept the Carlsbad facility from delivering my pod. When I asked where the zipcode cutoff was he didn't have an answer, saying that "it depends". So these invisble lines aren't even standard, they're made up and can change at any time when the company decides they need more money from the customer.

After 45 minutes (this is not an exageration) of arguing to speak with his supervisor or a manager and hearing "they're only going to tell you the same thing", he finally relented and gave me over to his "floor supervisor" - who did in fact say the exact same things. It is against their policy to let the customer talk to anyone above "floor supervisor".

After calling this what it was by saying "So you're holding my personal belongings ransom until I pay the money?" they finally gave me a second option - pick the stuff up from the storage facility and finish the move myself. I asked for a partial refund to help pay for the rest of the move that they were not capable of finishing. I was denied and told I could not talk to anyone in an accounting department or anyone higher than the "floor supervisor".

I have called American Express to dispute the original charges in the amount of $846. I've also made plans to pick up my things from the facility in Carlsbad tomorrow morning with a U-Haul truck. Based on other rip off reports I'm praying my things are not water/smoke damaged or crushed. In that case I'll dispute every penny and get the insurance companies involved.