Our moves never go smoothly. Its a rule.
But nothing, in over 40 years of my life...military moves with daddy, civilian moves with my parents, military moves with Hubs...NOTHING has ever been this bad.
Thanks to some new changes with the military contracts, you now can have several different companies handle your belongings.
In our case it was 3.
One to pack us up.
One that stored our stuff for a year.
One to deliver and unload.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster right? Well it gets better. You see, the last company to touch it gets to pay for the damages.
To begin with I did not want my stuff now. I wanted to finish painting before our stuff arrived. So the whole thing already started with a strike against it. And I told the company if they couldn't deliver before my husband left again I didn't want it. So they declined. I was happy. Then they called back and said they would do it.
And they actually tried to be very accommodating. The guy showed up at the warehouse to get our stuff on a Monday a week out from when Hubs leaves. But they said they couldn't get to our stuff -- come back Wednesday. He returned Wednesday and they had piled it in a big pile in a room with no lights and had no workers to help load. Come back Friday. So he shows up Friday and there is still no help. So the driver decided he would load it himself. And they said go ahead. But then he wanted inventory to check it off as he was seeing broken items already and wanted to note that. They said no, just put it on. He refused. And stood in front of them and called me to let me know he was trying to pick up my belongings but the warehouse was making problems and he could already see many broken items.
So they left him to figure it out himself. And it took him 12 hours to get it all loaded and inventoried. And there were lots of phone calls flying. And in the end the warehouse people would not sign the inventory because they said they didn't break anything. So the driver said to call him when they were ready to sign and he would come move his truck. LOL. So they signed.
And our belongings showed up the day before Hubs left. Exactly what we did not want. But hey, it wasn't the fault of the guy delivering.
It gets better. Once the poor guy gets here and makes the calls to have unpackers meet him at our house he finds no one has any workers. In November. The slowest month for moves. Right. So the guy had to call a day labor company and hire two guys that had never done this before to come move my belongings. I did warn the driver that my walls and floors were new and I would file for any damages. Him and his son did all the furniture and heavy stuff to ensure there was no damage. And I must say they were the best I've ever had for that. More points for this guy.
What should have been done by noon took until 8 pm. Day labor cut off at 4:45. Not that they were much help to begin with.
The inventory sheets were a complete mess. Usually you might have two different colored sticker sets - one for large items and one for boxed. No. Not this time. Three different colors. And they started and stopped at odd places. So I'm trying to mark off three different sheets as things are being unloaded. It was a major pain and slowed things down.
Almost every antique furniture piece has been destroyed. The china cabinet -- the fold down desk has collapsed inside. The corner china cabinet they busted out the glass and the frame and broke the woodwork. A dresser is pulled apart. The drawers are all collapsing and you can see daylight. A super solid brass floor lamp looks like a pretzel. No really...like they tried to tie it in a knot. Broken things. Destroyed art. Missing boxes...and one missing support bar for Mouses bed...so the whole thing is worthless.
Each box must be gone through slowly and the damage cataloged. I think I'm up to the 6th damage sheet now. And I'm not even doing Hubs stuff.
Slowest unpacking job I've ever done.
Please God let it be the last.
So that's how I'm spending my days. A box at a time. New damaged items every day.
And I know it will actually get worse. When they offer me next to nothing for what we turn in.
I actually think we might have to get an attorney on this one.
What a way to say goodbye to the military.
