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.