Share moving day horrors

[lookingforward]

We had the movers from He** when we moved across town. They came out and gave us a written contract, I called the day before to verify....and then they never showed up. Told us that they might be able to do it later that week (I had a signed contract) because their salesmen forgot to put our address down on the "board". They were rude and then demanded cash payment..their contract stated check or visa. Horrible.

Also, we were moving back from Japan and our "crate" that they load on the top of ships got caught in a typhoon. We were the lucky ones because some actually dropped into the water for good. When they opened my "crate" and water came out I knew I was in trouble. It was a mess.

 

[barkley]

we were moving from one second story apartment to another across town. i hired a company wherein the owner came out to give an estimate and i pointed out our stackable washer/dryer which was located in a small closet type area. the owner assured me it was "no problem". day of the move the crew (and one guy in particular) is cursing about this unit and how it's impossible to get out (i bought the appliance so i know the apartment was not built around it as they claimed). they damage the door jam and tear up the laminate flooring getting it out. at the new location there is a much bigger space but the 'experts' damage another door jam as well as rub paint off one of the entry hall walls. i call the owner and tell him i'm not paying until i get an bill from both landlords on property damage (and btw i'm not paying for the hour and a half "break" his crew needed to 'recover' from emptying the first apartment). it took a few days but it finaly got settled (he got less than half of the entire moving bill after repair charges).

funny thing is about 3 years later we bought a sofa at sears and set up delivery. when the delivery guys arrive (3) one takes one look at me, stomps back to the truck and refuses to get out (he looked familiar but we could'nt place where we knew him from before). so the other 2 struggle to get this thing into our house and in doing so knock over a table and break a $90 crystal bowl (which i asked if i should move elsewhere but they assured me was not anywhere near where they would be ). when i call sears to get reimbursed they tell me it's my fault because one of their staff said i had an "old axe to grind with" him and prevented him from entering my home. all of a sudden we realize it was the mover from 3 years earlier! since we had neighbors who had witnessed the whole scene sears apologized and paid us in full.

just hope this guy has entered into a new career path before we do our next move

 

[tkd lisa]

My last move was pretty horrible, but I'm still repressing it!

The one I'll share was the time my soon to be ex- and I helped a friend move, over 4th of July weekend in the midwest (extremely hot and humid).

The guy in the couple (my exs friend) was a very quiet guy who never wanted to put anyone out. So it turns out that the only people he asked to help was my ex and me! Ohhhkay. The wife of the couple had a baby about 3 months before, and was still on very light duty because of back trouble, so she couldn't life ANYTHING. Ohhhkay #2!

My ex and I show up at the house about 8 oclock expecting to start loading the truck. I walked into the house and found that there was literally about 5 packed boxes! This was when I knew it was going to be a LONG day! Everything else was still in the drawers and cabinets! The wife was dropping off the baby at her mom's so I just started packing. I think it took us about 4 hours to pack the entire house, another 3 hours to load the trucks (remember, only 3 people could carry anything), 2 hours to drive to the new location, and 4 hours to unload and re-assemble the furniture. Followed by our two hour return ride to our house (I clearly remember getting into the house at 11:30pm, because I had a message saying that my dad had died in Texas).

My ex and I made arrangements to leave the next morning, and left about 6 am on the 20+ hour drive to Houston. We finally made it into the north part of Texas about 7:30 pm, and decided we were being stupid continuing when a downpour reduced visibility to nothing about 8:00. Got up the next morning to get to the funeral by 2, then left to drive partway back that night.

Yep, that was a memorable weekend!

 

[reddixie]

TKD Lisa your experience sounds like some I have. Sorry about your dad. I have moved countless times and moving is always hard. I am moving my mom and dad to Florida in 3 weeks times with two 13 year olds. My dd bf is helping. Her granddad is having transplant surgery on the 29th of this month and mom moves on April 10th. Yeah. I am so looking forward to the next 3 weeks. I have two 8 hour chaperone trips with the 7th grade, a transplant surgery which requires me babysitting 2 dogs (newfie and a german shepard) a child and a cat. Then I move mom. I hope that all goes well and we don't end up like you guys I don't think I could handle it.

 

[TheRatPack]

I really hope that our move goes well. We're procrastinators and I'm obsessive about things being just right so I've been organizing and packing for months LOL, from the minute we decided to sell this house. I've purchased boxes every few weeks and I'll go room by room and fill up boxes with thing we won't need, I label each box twice with printed labels and then we take it to a storage facility.

I'm really hoping that when the day comes to take all the stuff left, and complete the move that things will run smoother because I've prepped so long LOL, probably setting myself up for disaster though. Everytime I overly plan something, everything goes wrong.

 

[Divamomto3]

Moved from Alabam to Kansas. As the movers lifted up the door of the truck, the plate glass mirror from my bedroom set fell off the back. Also all of our record albums, vcr and stereo equipment was stolen. I had inadvertently cancelled our renter's insurance and according the the homeowner's insurance, we weren't covered yet.

Even funnier, there was a box labeled "grene thang". DH and I were shaking our heads wondering what in the world this "green thing" could be. It was our artificial Christmas tree! Granted, it was not a gorgeous thing, but it was identifiable as a Christmas tree. From now on, we call our Christmas trees (we've gotten a few new ones since then) Grene Thangs.

OMG

First of all, as someone about to make the biggest move of her life from one state to another, I should not be even reading this thread. But OMG...that was the hardest I have laughed out loud at a DIS board thread in as long as I can remember! Grene thang!

 

[disneynutt1225]

My father used to travel often to Hong Kong on business, and as a result my parents developed a taste for oriental decorations in their house. They got remarried in Hong Kong in the 80's and wanted to bring home some souveniers, so they purchased 2 $500 hand crafted fish bowls (the really large ones that you can plant things in).

During the move from NJ to NY, things shifted in the truck (it was definitely not packed properly by the "professional movers"). When the guys went to open the side door of the truck, both of those fishbowls fell out, along with an additional $1,000 worth of stuff. My mother cried every day for weeks because she was so upset - there was no chance of them ever going to Hong Kong again, and granted they sell similar fish bowls in Asian stores here, it just wasn't the same. My father tried filing a claim with the moving company for negligence, and the insurance company finally wound up giving them about 50% of what their belongings were worth.

Now, whenever we see a moving truck from that same company, we cringe.

 

[we3disneygo]

ok dh is a retail mgr., I am going to have dd, we live in Chicago area, dh co. closes store he works in, he finds new job back home in Central, IL. not the best job but they'll pay for the move and hey were havin' a baby, we have 2 cars and a U-haul. the only person we can get to come help is brother in law, he proceeds to get drunk the night before ,sleeps in, I go to my last dr. visit to tell the dr. come home u-haul is getting loaded, ok. dh doesn't want me to drive alone, car has no heat, this is Dec. a week before Christmas, so brother in law is to drive with me in the car, bird is in u-haul to keep warm. bil takes off on interstate and ticks dh off...no cell phones back then. we stop for dinner , bil thinks he got extra food...no it was mine. we finally pull in apt. complex and start to unload where mil helps. I go to new dr. and at the end of the week go have dd....2 days before Christmas, nothing is unpacked dh just started his new job--retail mgr. at the busiest time of year.....he get's the baby's room put together, comes to hospital...up 24 hrs. goes home takes shower and has to go to work... so I sat by myself in the hospital.....had a fever so they kept me an extra day, got out on Christmas eve we had no tree, no presents, no nice dinner, mil didn't think to bring us any..... about a week later they cleaned out their fridge and brought that to us.... oh and during all this dh had a little python we had to find a new home for before we left Chicago....fun times. that's only 1 moving story......

 

[Disneyrsh]

Also, we were moving back from Japan and our "crate" that they load on the top of ships got caught in a typhoon. We were the lucky ones because some actually dropped into the water for good. When they opened my "crate" and water came out I knew I was in trouble. It was a mess.

Holy cow! Did all of your stuff smell like fish?

We had the classic U-haul breakdown on the highway, and then the replacement truck that eventually found us leaked carbon monoxide into the driving area and we kept yawning and getting nauseous. We had to drive in freezing weather with the windows down to stay conscious

We also had a former owner come back a week after we moved in to 'get the rest of his stuff'. He was so surprised when his key didn't work-I was sitting in the living room nursing our daughter when I see him walk up to the front door, put the key in, and wiggle it fruitlessly for a minute, then start pounding on the door. I told him through the door that it was no longer his house and if he didn't leave I was calling the police.

So, he decided his five boxes of junk and six bags of concrete wasn't worth fighting over.

Get your locks changed when you move!!!!

 

[liamsaunt]

My moving day story is about my sister. She reads these boards, but she knows the story is true!!

So, many years ago my sister and I decided to rent an apartment together. I was still living with my parents (just finished college), and she was already in Boston, at the time living alone in a studio. We found a great 2-bedroom apartment for lease by our mutual employer, and made plans to move in. The plan was that my DH (then fiancé), his brother, and one of our friends would help me load my stuff into a u-haul, then we would drive to Boston, load Laura’s stuff into the truck with this crew and the added assistance of Laura herself and her boyfriend, and then everyone would help unload and unpack into the new place. Much beer and pizza was promised for all who helped.


The day started fine—fiance and brother were a little late, but no big deal. My stuff was ready to go and my dad had picked up the u-haul the night before. Loading took about 2 hours of work. We called Laura and said we were on our way.


So, we get to Laura’s apartment, head inside to find….she is not ready. She has packed nothing!! (Well, maybe two boxes) Her apartment is a disaster, stuff everywhere!! OK, fine. We will help her pack. Laura’s boyfriend has not arrived yet, but he lives around the corner, so Laura said she would go and get him. We start “packing” (really at this point just throwing things into industrial garbage bags). In an hour or two the packing is pretty much done, so we start to load up the u-haul. Suddenly we notice something. Laura has never come back!! She is still over at the boyfriend’s while we packed her entire apartment!! Ooh, I was so mad.


Finally Laura and the boyfriend arrive, and we all head over to the new place to unpack. it is June 1, our agreed upon moving date. Our apartment door has a huge sign on it that says “DO NOT OCCUPY UNTIL JUNE 3 DUE TO FLOOR REFINISHING.” You could smell the chemicals wafting out from under the door. Well, we had no choice. The van was due back, our crew had to work the next day, and we needed a place to sleep. So, we all unloaded the van into the newly finished apartment and went out for pizza and beer.


I love my sister, but I am never helping her move again!!

 

[TheRatPack]

when i call sears to get reimbursed they tell me it's my fault because one of their staff said i had an "old axe to grind with" him and prevented him from entering my home. all of a sudden we realize it was the mover from 3 years earlier!

Wow what are the odds of that happening....good thing he didn't break it though, then you might have thought he did it on purpose. Glad Sears paid you...good to hear that some companies still believe in customer service (after having to prove yourself of course...ugghhh) LOL

 

[TheRatPack]

My mother cried every day for weeks because she was so upset - there was no chance of them ever going to Hong Kong again, and granted they sell similar fish bowls in Asian stores here, it just wasn't the same.

Too bad the pieces of the bowls couldn't be salvaged in to some sort of grouted broken tile type table? Atleast that way they'd still have those items, and the memory of their trip to buy them.

I hate when things get broken that are not easily replaced...and sometimes over the year things have gotten broken that are not able to be replaced at all, those hurt so I usually try to do something with the pieces as to not forget the item.

 

[poohtown]

We have a solid granite dining room table. 500lbs for the table top and 250lbs for 2 seperate bases (yes, the table weighs 1000lbs, it is a chunk of mountain).

My mom made sure a bunch of times that the movers would have enough people to move the table because if it chips... it can't be fixed and it certainly can't be replaced. She reminded them each time the movers looked at it how much it weighed. They were all well aware. Moving it out of my old house went fine. They had 6 or 7 huge guys lifting the top. Moving it into my new house was a disaster. They got the bases where my mom wanted them (since they cant be moved again). They carried the 500lb top of my dining room table into the house with 4 guys. 3 guys on one side and 1 guy on the other. My mom was panicking, my dad was saying "are you sure you dont need more guys???" and they kept saying "we got it". Well they dropped the top on one of the bases and chipped the base pretty badly. You can't see it because it is the base but we all know what happened. We can't talk about moving day around my mom because she starts to cry again and it's been 7 years . They also dented the fridge and almost tipped the piano and moving took over 12 hours cuz they were really slow.

this is why when (if) we ever sell our house, the granite table is STAYING!!!

 

[poohtown]

let's see:

remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine couldn't move the armoire? Well picture the armoire being an entire truck of belongings. My husbandsand my first apartment allowed us to start paying rent on the first but forgot to tell us that you had to 'sign' up to move in and they had already had someone moving that day. So we had to sit in the parking lot with the truck and all the people helping us move until the first people were done. After about an hour, my husband jumps up and says we have to get going so he starts helping them move while the rest of us pretend to be helping them and start sneaking our own boxes in.



then when we bought our house I remember screaming

"something just ran into the house!".

took us two weeks before we caught the something...a tiny field mouse that freaked the .... out of me.

 

[malibuconlee]

When DH and I were first married he took a job out of state. We were two young kids from small towns in Iowa and we didn't have a clue!!

When he got the job offer they gave him a set amount to spend for moving. DH, being the smart guy he is, looked into the cost of a rental truck and told them it wasn't enough before he agreed to the offer. They said, OK, rent the Ryder truck and we'll reimburse you.

So we did. We packed up the Ryder truck, left his in Iowa since he was supposed to get a company vehicle and proceeded to move from Iowa to Salt Lake City IN THE MIDDLE OF JANUARY!!!!!!

Going thru the Rockies there are semi's jacknifed along the side of the road, but we pushed on. Pulling my little Cavalier behind the truck. That was a long boring ride with very few radio stations in some spots. I actually climbed in the back (very unsafe I know) and laid on the couch to read for awhile.

Oh, and one morning it was cold and we ended up with a rock chip, as the windshield heated up you could jus see the crack spread all across the windshield.

 

[malibuconlee]

Other moves -

From Dallas to Pierre, SD in February. It was below 0 when they were unloading the truck.

From Iowa to Kansas in January. It was sleeting. and the ONE piece of furniture that I wanted kept nice, my dining room table has so many dings on it. I just wanted to cry. I did, but not until after they left.

Some of these stories are the exact reason why I wont' lease back to a seller and why I always insist on a final walk-thru before going to the closing.

 

[CheshireVal]

I had a horrible experience about 4 years ago. I was moving into a new apartment (away from an annoying roommate into my own place!)

The movers were supposed to show up at 10am. They didn't come until 3:00! By the time they got everything loaded up and we got to my new apartment, it was late afternoon which, in July down south, means prime thunderstorm time. Of course it started pouring, and the movers refused to move me into my new place until the next day!

So I had NOTHING. My brother was in town to help me with the move, and we had to go to Target to buy some towels, pajamas, and pillows, and we slept on the floor (we should have gone to a hotel, but I hated to leave my cat all alone in this new place with no furniture.)

The movers came the next morning and my mattress was drenched on one side... I think the truck leaked overnight. I had to prop it up and tilt a fan towards it for 24 hours to get it to dry out!

Worst. Ever.

 

[disykat]

I got really sick on closing day. We were just moving across town so I was continuing my normal schedule despite fighting a little bronchitis. I really felt okay so I was helping mom at preschool that day and then took my younger child to his weekly speech therapy appointment. While I was there I suddenly started having trouble breathing - my one and only full fledged asthma attack.

I packed up both kids and took them with me to the doctor. I got right in at the doctors and he took one look at me and put me in a wheelchair to go to emergency. A nurse brought my 4 yr old and my toddler in his stroller. The nurse called my husband and he got there from work as soon as he could, but meanwhile my kids watched as they hooked me up to IV's etc.

Since they told me I'd be hooked up for awhile and we would miss our appt to sign, the mortgage person agreed to come to the hospital. She was waiting to come in and sign while I was at xray to check for pnuemonia. Meanwhile, I passed out cold in xray and this time was wheeled back to emergency on a stretcher.

We didn't sign any papers that day and closing had to be postphoned until the following Monday. The weird thing is that everyone at the preschool can vouch that I seemed reasonably fine a few hours earlier.

It turned out to be an easy move for me. My sister lives a few hours away and came to watch the kiddos for the weekend until my mom could make arrangements to come for a week. I laid on the couch and watched the entire move happen around me. My four year pretty much packed his entire room himself!

Fortunately the people who we bought the house from were angels and left it immaculate!

 

[TheRatPack]

disycat, I've had a similar situation. I was fine, went to work and was about 5 months pregnant at the time with dd. My side started hurting and since I was pregnant my MIL took me to the doctors. The doctor told me I had appendicitis and they would admit me and do surgery the next day.

Well, I'm a baby so I started to cry and then all of a sudden I couldn't breathe. That upset me more, so then of course the crying/can't breathe attack gets worse and they took me to the Emergency room. Did the scan and found out I had pneumonia......not apendicitis. But other than a little pain in my side earlier, I was fine.....nothing abnormal at all. I guess that is called walking pneumonia?

Adorable that your 4 year old took charge and packed his room though.....hope you got pictures atleast , or can write about it so you can remember years later what a big boy he was.

 

[Poohnatic]

Yikes to all these stories!

This is supposed to be the last house, that said, I see having to move to a bigger place eventually, because MIL won't live on her own.

My moving horror is minor compared to others. I came down to Florida six weeks ahead of DH because I'd given my job my transfer date. Selling the house took a few weeks longer than expected because 9 other houses in our section of our community went up for sale the same day.

I flew back to Maryland to help with the move, then we drove to NY for a wedding. I noticed some strange leg pain, but wasn't too concerned. Got back to Maryland Sunday night, movers arrived Monday morning. These guys were awesome-and I kept feeding them to keep them happy they were so good.

Leg pain gets worse, so I call my doctor. She fits me in the next morning and discovers a blood clot. I get sent to the hospital, they do a doppler, and yep, it's a clot. Okay, back to the doctor, get the script for blood thinners, then go back to the hospital to fill the script. They fill it with the wrong type, which I don't find out until later.

Doctor wasn't going to let me leave Maryland! I plead that my moving van is showing up in front of the house in Florida at 9am the next morning and hubby can't go. It was a tense situation, but she says okay if I get an attendant to take me to my gate. I had to promise to find a vascular surgeon and call her with appointment info the next day!

So, DH drops me and the boys at the airport (he had to drive his car down) and I have to navigate the airport in a wheelchair with two little guys. Our flight is delayed on the ground in Baltimore for two hours due to thunderstorms. We arrive at MCO at 11:30pm, go claim my car and hit I4 for the 90 minute drive to the hotel.

Nope, it wasn't a 90 minute drive, it was a three and a half hour drive. I4 was at a stand still due to construction, my car was overheating (no a/c) and I called the hotel several times to say "don't give my room away!!!"

I get to the room, get the boys settled in, go to take the first dose of my blood thinner and find that they gave me the medication in the non-needled syringe. Acccckkkkkk!

Then the truck showed up, and the guy who drove it down went to pick up his four man crew and only got two. I ended up helping unload the truck!

Suzanne