Podlife

We started our process with Podlife by making an enquiry, and received frequent follow up calls from their sales people. We were interested, but were waiting to move into our new house. They were very persistent, as they kept reminding me that all their pods were being sold out very quickly, and that once they were sold, they wouldnt make any more! Podlife explained that they took care of a lot of the administrative burden, covering things like the building consent (at our cost of course) Sounded great. It seemed they took a lot of the worry out of it. Once we moved in, I provided Podlife with our LIM Report with drainage info etc, and then was asked to pay the 50% deposit for them to get started. It didnt take long for a few problems to pop up, some minor but costly and one very major. The major issue was that there was a soak pit under the site Meaning we were unable to proceed with placing the pod there, and therefore unable to proceed. The added annoyance here is that it wasnt particularly difficult to identify, especially given the information I had provided before even paying the deposit. Of course, it was early in the process, and were in between a rock and a hard place. When enquiring about how we would go about cancelling the process, we were told that Podlife would retain 10% of the total cost of the order regardless, as they are entitled to in the contract. Thats about $7,000. Essentially, no work or any real effort had been expended by them. Just a discovery exercise. I went back to Podlife and, while recognising the contract, suggested that surely given the circumstances out of our control and very early process, there was a compromise / some goodwill to be made. I also asked for them to evidence the breakdown of these costs. I would of course, be more than happy to recoup costs incurred (highly unlikely to come close to $7k) But it would surely be unethical for them to be making a profit out of situations like this. I did this three times with no direct answer Except that they would, out of goodwill, they would only take 10% of the cost of the pod. What sits outside of that cost?... Delivery. And installation. Which add up to a miniscule amount of the total cost. As if thats some form of goodwill To have charged us for delivery and installation when the process well before that had barely even started would have just been doubly outrageous. Extremely disappointed with our experience with Podlife. It seems very unethical for them to have made a handsome profit from an early cancellation beyond our control, especially when it seems they could have indicated issues before asking us to pay 50% up front. In the end, they advised us that it was unlikely we would be able to build it. It would seem Podlife does not do any (even brief) checks themselves before taking your deposit. My advice to anyone looking at these products is to do your research and conduct all your checks independently and up front, before even contacting this company. Even get your own draughtsman onboard to check any possible issues beforehand. The refusal to come to the table, or even answer a reasonable question about what the costs to date were, is not a good look. We, as a young family getting started, are now almost $7k worse off - And all we received was a notification from Podlife that it wouldnt work.
Sep 19th, 2022

Thank you Ahna, James and your wonderful team for making the process of purchasing our first pod so effortless and easy. Time to put our feet up and enjoy! What a crew.
Apr 18th, 2023

I love these pods! Thank you to James, Ahna and the team for such an amazing product and experience. You have been a pleasure to deal with!
Apr 13th, 2023

I don't normally do this but I like to celebrate good people and culture where I see it, especially when it's a local NZ owned company. We had our pod delivered last month, and to say it's been a battle with the local council would be an understatement, i knew the council compliance would be a rocky road from my first engagement with them, so having the option of podlife handle the large part of the compliance process was very welcome, and to be honest the best money i have ever spent. Choosing their product was a no brainer, and the engagement quotes made me realise that the pod was a great solution but the service was awesome. - I had no idea at the time how important that would be. Their draughtsman Sam who also helped with the consensts worked so hard and diligently and has had to swallow a lot of the very poor responses from the council All through this Sam has always been professional and so responsive to changes, ideas and finding a solution that I felt we were a team battling this together. This process would never have been successful if it wasn't for the work Sam did. There is doing your job, there is doing it well and then there is above and beyond and that was Sam in this process. I cannot rate him more highly. In short great product, great solution, and the best people. Thank you! Lucas
Apr 13th, 2023

Working with PodLife has been a great experience. I found them by searching online and the process from start to finish has been incredibly good. Despite all the delivery issues with Covid, I was kept informed the whole way and the Pods were delivered on exactly the date and time that I was given. I have to say how impressed I am with all the contractors that PodLife have partnered with. The Stop Digging crew who put in my foundation piles were always on time and worked through some tricky conditions to make sure that my Pods could be safely installed. And then Warren from WozHIAB who delivered the Pods was an absolute wonder!! I confess that I had started to get a bit nervous as I had bought my Pods sight unseen - I had only looked at online pictures and testimonials - and I really wasn't certain how the delivery would work. I needn't have worried! Warren arrived at exactly the time he said he would and proceeded to single-handedly place the Pods on their foundations. He then went one step better and ensured that everything was installed correctly inside and outside and took me through the whole setup. I am thrilled with my Pods and love that although they are very modern they blend right into the landscape and look quite lovely alongside my mother's heritage cottage! Many thanks to all the staff at PodLife!
Jun 29th, 2022