5 Weeks and 1 Day Later...

Today is five weeks and one day since our moving truck pulled away with our household goods. Today is also the day that we received our final delivery of our household goods. If you count the days that the movers were packing us up, we actually went five weeks and three days before finally receiving all of our stuff. Oh wait. We have some missing things so I guess I should say most of our stuff. To say that I am a dissatisfied customer would be a massive understatement. Let me tell you how today went.

I got up at 7:30 am because we were told the local movers (they called last night to set up a delivery time) would be here between 8 am and noon. No biggie. Then I get a call at 10:36 am (I checked my caller ID thankyouverymuch) from our moving coordinator, Tonya. She's calling to ask how the offload is going. This is part of her job. She calls during packing, loading, and delivery. So I tell her, "It's going great seeing as how nobody is here." Insert awkward pause. "Nobody's there? I'll give the local company a call to see where they're at." Yeah. You do that. I don't bother to tell her we'd already gotten notification of when they'd be here and they weren't late. As a coordinator, she should have already had this information. She calls back a couple minutes later to tell me they'll be here by noon. Yup. I knew that.

So, the local moving company gets here about 15 or 20 minutes after noon. I've already waited over five weeks. Being a little late isn't something that even hits my radar but the driver explained that they went to the wrong house. I actually tell him that I've been waiting for five weeks so don't sweat the extra few minutes. Then he's all, "Is this an overseas move?" Despite the fact that our stuff is in wooden crates (Overseas moves always involve crates. Domestic moves usually don't.) and we've been waiting FIVE FREAKING WEEKS!!!! No, this isn't an overseas move. I don't say that in an all caps tone of voice. This poor schmuck has very little to do with the end results of this move. He just had the misfortune of being the third party company that was called to deliver our overflow. Seriously, our stuff was in storage so long that it had dirt and cobwebs on it. Not.Kidding.  >:|

At this point, we coordinate our lists, go over some paper work, and then the main guy and his helper dude start prying open the crates. We had two with a little over 1,000 pounds total. The first things that get in the house are our two bookcases. Out of all of our furniture and with the exception of the beds, the bookcases were the things that I was looking forward to getting and the things that I missed the most. My books are still in boxes lining the wall of our sitting area. As he unwraps the shelves, I immediately see damage. They're pine bookcases but they have that thin backing on them if you know what I mean. The backing on one has been torn completely off and there's a gigantic gouge on the back. The other has two scuff marks, a huge gouge on the front, and the backing is loosened. They both had drawers that go into the bottom that we use to keep DVDs in. Only one drawer was delivered. The other drawer has a chunk missing out of it too. I don't think the damage that has been done can be repaired. Structurally, the one can't even hold books in the condition that it's currently in. Cosmetically, they both look like crap now. I don't even want them in my living room. I'm so upset. I really loved these book cases.

Zoomed out view of bookcase 1

Up close pic of damage to bookcase 1

More upclose damage to bookcase 1

Damage to bookcase 2

Damage to bookcase 2

This is the same damage to bookcase 2 but how it looks from the inside. It's a hole.
It was really hard to get a good angle for pictures. Just so ya know.

We also had a mystery box delivered. On the inventory, it was listed as "pots and pans". We have the kitchen completely unpacked and couldn't, for the life of us, figure out what was missing that would be in this box. I open it up, and it has a really old griddle pan in it...to be fair. But then the rest of the contents was old soap making stuff:  the stick blender, kelp, rosemary, lavendar, and other colorants and additives. Yeah. Pots and pans. Sheesh.

So far, we're filing claims on two book shelves, the sofa, the Youngest Child's bike (it was delivered today minus a brake line), a broken computer monitor, a scrape on my bed, a box of missing DVDs, some missing bedding, and something else that I can't think of right now. Also thinking that an espresso finish on wooden furniture might be a bad idea if you're a military family. It shows every scratch and scrape. Then again, I don't treat my furniture like crap and it was in perfect condition before Stevens got a hold of it.

I'm happy that I can now turn on a lamp instead of using the overhead ceiling fan lights. They delivered our lamps in the first load but not the shades. But I still can't unpack my books. :(

This move has been a nightmare. NIGHTMARE. And it's not even over because we have to go through the whole claims process. I never want to move again. DO NOT HIRE STEVENS WORLDWIDE VAN LINES. PLEASE!! Not once, not one single time in the last five weeks have we gotten an apology or explanation for anything. It's shameful and I fervently hope they lose their military contract.

Our Move: The Ongoing Saga

Our packers arrived in San Diego on June 10th. We drove into Pensacola on June 15th. We got the keys to our house on June 17th. Our movers arrived on June 24th...with the first load of our household goods. That's right! They couldn't fit all of our stuff on one truck so we have to have two freaking deliveries. I said in my previous moving post that this is probably our #1 worst move. There is no longer any probably about it.

When you have professional movers, you get two teams of people. The first team consists of packers and loaders. The second team consists of drivers and unloaders. Every move we've had, these two teams have always been different people. So, Team One is responsible for wrapping your stuff up, packing it into boxes, and inventorying everything including the large items that don't fit into boxes like bicycles and sofas. As far as we can tell, Team One was full of illiterate idiots possessing no common sense whatsoever. Our things were packed in ways that made no sense. We opened one box labled "spices" that had one pepper grinder in it and the rest was all plastic storage food containers. Another box was labeled "lines" which I had to interpret as meaning linens. We open the box and the top actually had linens in it but underneath was all miscellaneous junk out of the office. And it goes on and on. Honestly, mislabeled boxes aren't that big a deal except when your things are being delivered in two shipments.

Team Two captain told us upon arrival that he didn't have all of our stuff. That's right. Our moving coordinator who calls with updates and schedules pickup and delivery couldn't even be bothered to tell me this when she called to set up delivery. Her name is Tonya and she sucks at her job. Anyway, Team Two captain apologizes and said that he tried to bring everything that he thought we'd need right away, leaving behind items that he thought could wait a week or more. It's a nice thought and makes sense unless you have a Team One that doesn't know how to pack and label boxes in ways that make freaking sense!!! Oh. And in his infinite wisdom, he didn't think a lawnmower was necessary to a family living in Florida where it rains everyday and the lawn needs to be mown at least once a week. Mmkaythanks.

Also, thanks to the lack of foresight and terrible scheduling of our moving company, our stuff sat in storage in San Diego and then again here in Florida before they finally delivered...most of our stuff. That means that our belongings were loaded and unloaded a minimum of five times that we know of. We've never had that happen before. Usually, the company gives you a tentative date for delivery until you give them a destination address. Then the driver arranges to be there around the same time that you are. When we moved from NC to CA, the driver got to our house minutes after we pulled up with the keys. Minutes, not days.

Some of our boxes were in such bad shape that they were entirely crushed and open and things that were just wrapped in packing paper had the paper completely ripped away. This is the first time we'll be filing damage claims with any of our moves. We've had damaged stuff in the past but didn't think it was worth the hassle of filing a claim. This company, Stevens Worldwide Van Line, will not be getting off so lightly. A computer monitor is broken. We're missing glass shelf clamps that were specific to the furniture the glass goes in and can't be replaced. One of my bookcase drawers has a huge chunk broken off of it. One of the recliners on my sofa appears to be broken as well. It functions, but looking at it, you can see that it's sitting out of line with the rest of the sofa. They also broke a piece off of my Dyson. It's not essential to how it functions either except that now when I have it in the upright position, my hair gets sucked down the wand thingy. And on and on.

To top it all off, I have a fling flangging cold and I feel miserable. This move definitely takes the top, #1 spot in our list of bad moves. One time when I moved, I was pregnant and outrunning a hurricane. This move is still worse than that one. And it's not even over yet. I still haven't heard from the moving company on when they'll be delivering the rest of our stuff. Please. If you ever hire your own moving company, do not choose Stevens Worldwide Van Line. This is our fourth professional move and we've had different moving companies for each one. Stevens is unprofessional, their employees are incompetent, and they have horrible customer service. Just read their reviews on Yelp and you'll see I'm not the only one dissatisfied with this company. I wish there was a way to ensure that they lose their contract with the military.

Why the USPS is Going the Way of the Dinosaur

#USPS #badUSPS

This arrived in my mail yesterday:

It's postmarked from December 28th and it once contained a prepaid gift card inside of it. First of all, it took the post office almost a month to get it to us so that we had some idea of why it never arrived. Second of all, they apologize for it arriving damaged but not for the fact that it had obviously been purposely opened and the contents stolen.

Luckily, when it didn't arrive in a timely manner, I was able to let the person who had sent it know and they were able to contact the bank who was able to verify that the card had never been used and then proceeded to cancel it. So a big fat HA to the thief.

But seriously, the USPS has been struggling for years to compete with e-mail and other delivery companies and to stay afloat. They're considering not delivering mail on Saturdays and raise the price of a stamp annually. Personally, I can probably count on one hand how many times a year I use the USPS to send a letter or package.

This is most definitely not the first time I've had issues with the USPS and have even had to file official complaints when I didn't receive packages because the postal worker was too idiotic to read the mailing label. And that was seriously why we never got them, because they were delivering them to the incorrect address even though the correct address was written on the mailing label and then that person was keeping our stuff.

Maybe, just maybe, if the USPS would raise the level of customer service and actually do something when a customer has an issue and catapult themselves into the 21st century and actually compete with technology and their competition, they might not be having such a hard time staying a viable option when it comes to people's mailing needs.

USPS, you don't care.

Hear Me Whine

So, I’m currently, as I type, on the phone with Panasonic’s customer support. I’m on my third transfer just so you know. Anyway, we’ve been having an issue with our LCD TV for about a year now. It started out as a small yellowish blob in the lower left hand corner. That blob has spread so that the entire screen is now yellow. Of course, it’s out of warranty. It’s out of it’s extended warranty too. I got a bug up my butt today and decided to call around to some repair shops to see how much it would cost to fix it. After describing my problem to a very helpful and patient man, he told me that the PART is going to cost $1400. THE PART!!! $1400!!! I also just found out today that Panasonic was involved in a class action lawsuit having to do with the life of the projection lamps. Ours blew in less than a year, but WHATEVER.

I just disconnected with the customer support person. I gave her an earful in a very dignified voice. I didn’t cuss or yell at all. And then I told her to enjoy the few thousand we spent on the thing and hung up on her. Panasonic sucks. Their customer support sucks, their technical support department is worthless, and they purposefully design their products to breakdown directly after the warranty expires. Okay. That last part is my opinion but I’m sure it’s probably true. I’m not happy. Oh. And they design the stupid TV’s so that they only fit on certain stands that cost $314.96. They suck for that too.

I’m tired. I’m sorry. I didn’t get to sleep until 3 something and I was up again at 4:45. I went to the Harris Teeter to pick something up for dinner and forgot to get my Starbucks on the way out. I should forget about the Starbucks and have a glass of wine. I have a nice Pinot Grigio I should decant. Have I ever mentioned that I hate people?? BUT COME ON!! $1400! What a load of bull. It’s not even four years old yet.

It Wasn't Just Me

I found this article this morning about airline complaints. I thought the timing uncanny seeing as how I had the worst experience flying on my recent trip to California. Check this out:

Airline Passenger Complaint Soaring

I find it odd that airlines are complaining about not making enough money and fuel prices being high while at the same time lowering their quality of customer service and care. Wouldn't it make more sense to keep customers happy in able to ensure that they'll keep flying and thus, keep money coming into the companies? I'm not saying that they should offer first class services to coach class passengers but they shouldn't leave people behind in the terminals, arrive to the gate half an hour late or more, and take off an hour late or more (personal experience from my trip). Because of one bad experience, I will never fly with U.S. Airways again. I really wish this article had come out before I bought my tickets because I may have made the decision to fly with another airline since U.S. Air has so many customer complaints, "The biggest change was in the rate of consumer complaints, up 60 percent overall. The rate more than doubled at US Airways...". Tickets aren't cheap and I expect more for my money.

This Pissed Me Off

The timing of this story that I saw on the news about 15 seconds ago is eerily uncanny. One of our news channels profiled a story about a website that lists people, first and last names, as bad tippers. The website gets its contributions from waitstaff at various restaurants and they get their information off of credit card receipts. This is perfectly legal too, btw. Considering the outright lousy service that we had at the Outback, we still left a reasonable tip just because I feel bad when I don't. What pisses me off is that maybe the reason why they're getting bad or no tips is because their service SUCKS or the food is NASTY. I'm of a mind to start tipping according to the service that I receive and not because I feel obligated to do so. Tips, like respect, should be earned. Also, I'm perfectly aware that there are people that don't tip or don't tip enough because they're just rude, but I'm also perfectly aware that waiters and waitresses receive tips when they don't deserve them.

Also, I perused the database to see what's what and you wanna know what? While they post the first and last names of the so-called offender, they don't post the names of the servers. I think it would be telling if one certain server had frequent postings because this would say to me that they either have very rotten luck or they actually suck at their job. If they are so willing to post the names of the accused they should be willing to back that with their real names as well.

And I'm not posting the link to the website or the news story because I won't be a party to them getting traffic. Do your freaking job or get one where the majority of your wages isn't based on your people skills.

One last thing: No, I didn't see my name or anyone else that I know on the database. This isn't a personal rant, lol.

Picky, Picky

The story of our trip to the Outback isn't a huge deal. I'm just starting to think that I'm too picky and I expect too much from the food service industry. Anyway, to begin with, we give our name to the girl and she said the wait would be about 25-35 minutes. We didn't consider that to be too terrible so we settled in to wait. We waited an hour for a table. By this time, my patience was pretty low and I was thinking that the food had better be worth it since we had never been there before and didn't know what it was like. Our waitress took our drink orders and I ordered a mixed martini which was on the specials menu. The girl brings me my drink in a regular martini glass with about a shots worth of drink in it. She asks me if it's ok and I'm like, "This is it? This is $7.50 worth of drink? The glass isn't even half full." She looked like she expected that sort of reaction and said she'd take it back to the bar and ask if that's how it was supposed to look. A couple minutes later she brings my glass back filled with strawberry mix. Whatever. I took a drink and there wasn't enough alcohol in there to get a flea buzzed. As for the food, my shrimp and scallops were overcooked and the Mister said that we make better steaks on our grill at home which is exactly what we did Tuesday night. We might go back and give it a second chance but I'm not in any hurry to do so.

Below is my drink. It's the after picture though because I didn't have the opportunity to take a pic before the waitress took it back to the bar. The line, however, shows where the glass was filled the first time she brought it to me. All the other times I've ordered martinis, the glass was filled to the brim but oh well.

In other news, the Mister and I are on the hunt for a Wii. A very unsuccessful hunt. We have looked everywhere and nobody has one. I've looked at every online retailer that sells them and they don't have any either. We wanted to get one for the youngest child's birthday tomorrow but it isn't going to happen. Nintendo needs to get off their collective butts and start manufacturing these a bit faster. Everyone we spoke to said that Nintendo sends them Wii's when Nintendo feels like it and in whatever amount they feel like sending. Nice. So, she's getting something else that was on her list and we'll get the Wii at the first available opportunity as a gift for the entire family. This is the first time that the Mister and I have bought a gaming console for somebody other than ourselves, lol. It's a weird experience. I guess we're growing up.

Much to Say

I had a full weekend.

Friday night, my oldest had a sleepover. Those two kept me up until 1:30 in the morning. UGH! Also on Friday, the Mister got a call at 11:30pm informing him that he had to be back at work at 7 am Saturday morning. It was just supposed to be for a few hours but he didn't end up getting home until 6:30 pm. That pretty much put our entire Saturday in the crapper. However, the reason he was at work means that lots of other families were having an even crappier weekend so I let it go. It's all about perspective.

Saturday night after the Mister arrived home, we went to the mall for a little shopping. I got the best smelling candle. It's a Yankee Candle in Buttercream and it smells like vanilla cake batter. YUM!! The only thing is that it makes me crave sweets, lol.

Sunday, we loaded up for a shopping trip to Greenville. TONS of fun. Our first stop was the Barnes and Noble where I fed my book addiction. I also decided to drop out of the Graphic Novel Challenge as a result of my trip to B&N. I had no idea how expensive those books are. I'd rather spend the money on three regular novels than one graphic novel. Ho hum. Who knew I could be frugal?

From Michaels, I bought some new yarn and a new book of patterns for crocheting. It's been so long that the pattern I tried out last night kicked my butt. I couldn't even remember the abbreviations. I suck. I can't wait to get it going again though because I got some nifty mohair yarn and some pretty alpaca yarn. I've never made anything with that type of yarn before.

From Bed Bath and Beyond, we got a new set of knives. My old one was missing several. The new ones are so sharp that I'm half afraid to use them. It came with a cleaver, lol. I also bought a pizza cutter (our old one was accidentally thrown out inside of a pizza box, heheh.) and a new set of sheets for my bed.

That's it for the fun shopping. We also went to Target for some essentials and to Lowes for some Draino. But the shopping wasn't even the most interesting part of our Sunday.

We decided to hit the Wendy's for dinner. It was a risk. Why? Because the last time we were there, we sat in the parking lot for 20+ minutes waiting for our food and then they forgot something and we had to go in and get it. Fast food? Yeah, right. But, we took a chance and tried again. Everyone deserves a second chance, heheh. BIG mistake. The girl at the drive thru window gave new meaning to the word "rude". She didn't bother reading our order back to us and when we get to the actual window, she just looks over and then walks away. After a few minutes, she finally comes over to allow us to pay. Then, she comes back with our drinks, four of them, and starts to hand them out the window one by one. The Mister asked if we could have a drink carrier and she slammed our drinks down on the counter and walked off to get one. At this point, other than "Can I take your order?" and "Your total is..." she hasn't said a word to us. Then, she comes back with our bags of food and said that they were waiting on part of our order. I check the bags to see if everything was there and we were missing a fry. The Mister tells her this, she rolls her eyes, walks off to get our fry, bags it, and tosses it out the window at us. No, "I'm sorry" or "Oops" or "Go fuck yourself" nothing. When she brings us the rest of our order, the Mister lets loose and tells her how lousy the service has been, how rude she has been, and how she has conveyed her hatred of her job and people in general while we were waiting for our order. I'm sitting there shocked because he NEVER complains to people about stuff like that. NEVER. Then I start to smile because he's really giving it to her but without raising his voice or cussing and her manager is standing there listening. I was so proud of him. Then, we get home and start taking our food out and our order, aside from the one kid's meal, is wrong. The whole, dang blasted thing. The Mister abhors, hates, and detests mayo. He ordered his sandwich sans mayo and lo and behold, the bun had the remnants of mayo on it. It was clear that they realized it was ordered without and instead of getting a new bun, attempted to wipe it clean. WIPE IT CLEAN!! At this point, I lose my cool, and call the Wendy's to complain to the manager. I didn't raise my voice or cuss either. Pat on the back for me. I did, however, make it clear we won't be back. The service at the fast food restaurants here in New Bern blows. I know I shouldn't expect much, but damn. We are paying for lousy service. I just think it's a sign we need to stop eating out so much.

And that, ladies (I don't think I have any gentlemen readers) was our weekend. Jam packed, full of books, and we'll ignore the rest.