Moving Companies Suck, part I

We have some friends that moved from Los Angeles to Nashville several years ago, and they were all, "You should definitely hire movers. It is totally worth it."

So after some intense discussion, we decided it was a good plan. In typical Stephanie style (because I am a research freak - a 'knowledge junkie', if you will), we held interviews with a few moving companies, evaluated pros and cons of each, and decided to go for it. And, because we don't like to do things "halfway", we decided to go for broke and have them PACK our stuff also.

Now, I was not aware that such a service existed, until our friends (previously mentioned) suggested it. They said, "It's great! Everything gets a tag, and you know what's in every box, you get a list of all your stuff, it's awesome! And you don't have to DO anything!" So considering all the other things we had to worry about, we figured it was probably worth it.

WELL... let me start by saying our house is small. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, only 1300 square feet. See, isn't it cute?? Want to buy it??

The lady at the moving company said it might take all day for them to pack, but probably not since it's such a small house. So around 9:00 AM on the morning of the scheduled packing, 2 guys (which heretofore shall be known as Darrell and his other brother Darrell) show up to start the dirty work. It was bizarre. I mean, to have people going through your stuff, you know? And you're suddenly wondering if you have anything weird laying around that you should have packed yourself that might be... incriminating or embarassing in some way. But then Justyn (the hubby) says, "They do this all day long. They don't care about our crap. Don't worry, it'll be fine."

Anyway, to get to the point: it took ALL DAY. I mean ALL day. Not to mention the fact that Justyn had to basically pack up the entire garage on his own because the Darrells didn't know how to handle all those "fancy" tools. At around 6:00 PM, they were finally wrapping up, filling out paperwork, etc. so I decided to do a final walk-through. And I realize that there are random objects still sitting around: kitchen rugs, my deflated exercise ball, a set of dumbbells, our cordless phone, etc. So I walk down the hall and open the hall closet (a.k.a. the "junk" closet) and BAM! it's still full of crap. Then I go in the bathroom and BAM! everything is still in the shower, linen closet, medicine cabinet, you name it. The room was untouched. So I go up the to head packer (Darrell #1) and I'm like "So, what about the hall closet and the bathroom? " And you know what he says? He says, "Oh, my bad, you know... I didn't even think to look in there."

WHAT? Come again? Isn't it their job to pack up all our stuff? Why am I the one doing the walk-through and seeing this stuff? Why aren't THEY going around to make sure they didn't forget anything? So the Darrells run out to the moving truck and grab 2 huge boxes, and proceed to basically dump everything from the bathroom into one, and the hall closet into another. *Mental Note: those will be fun to unpack.*

So anyway, they finally finish up, and ask us to sign all this paperwork, which basically has a list of all the boxes, and what's in each box. Well, we don't know what's in each box... I mean, we didn't pack it. Isn't that the point? Oh, and then Darrell #1 says, "You need to fill out this form stating all your high value items (worth more than $100 per pound)" and on the form is a place for you to put the box #. Well, again... we don't know what's in the boxes, so then Justyn and I and the Darrells spend like 45 minutes trying to figure out which boxes have artwork in them. Good times.

I guess I'll have to talk about the actual movers in another post. This turned into more of a venting session than I anticipated. Sorry.