The saga continues...

The movers are gone...but not before they broke the plate over the cable outlet, the moulding on a plant ledge in the basement, AND made a HUGE hole in the wall by my bedroom.

And to think earlier today, I was impressed with how well they were doing. I guess I spoke too soon...

This afternoon while I was explaining to a girlfriend everything that has happened with these movers, my cell phone rang...and who was it, but the customer service manager from the movers -- the woman I've been talking to since my contact went out on "leave". "Leave" is in quotes because this manager lady was calling me to tell me that my contact had been fired for telling me negative and false things about the company. What???

Yup - apparently my contact was fired for being HONEST. Imagine that!! And, oh by the way, my contact DID NOT say disparaging things about the company. She merely told me some websites where I should check out the reputations of movers. After some random man at the office told me that these 2 companies were actually one in the same, I used these websites to find out that the 2nd company was the bad one. My contact did nothing wrong, and I told this manager lady that...in fact, I told her that I CHOSE her company because of the service I received from my contact. Go figures that you lose your job over bringing in business! Sounds to me like they are trying to hide something.

Oh yeah, and don't forget that all my stuff is halfway on their trucks by this point...no turning back! So, after this manager lady asks me to write a glowing review of my experience with them (yeah, right...I'm not opposed to that, but let's wait until the service has been performed, don't ya think?? and see if it's worthy of a glowing review), I hung with her and continued to tell the story to my friend, who I'm pretty sure will NEVER move again, or will at least do it without the assistance of "professionals".

About 45 minutes later, they finish loading everything, and the foreman says we need to finish the paperwork. He walks into the house and goes right for the paperwork, and I say, hold on, let's walk thru the house and make sure everything got loaded. Man, am I glad I did that! On our walk-thru, we found that everything had been loaded, but we found the 3 beforementioned problem areas. He had the nerve to say to me..."are you sure that wasn't there before?"

YES, I'M SURE!!

So, he has to call the office...who promptly says that we can have a $150 discount. Oh, I forgot to mention that this man offered to TAPE up the broken moulding. This isn't a trailer park, is it?

Next up is an issue with the money situation. On top of the astronomical amount to move our goods, he claims to have used $1000 worth of packing supplies -- including 50 rolls of tape! Now, we have spent the last 2 weeks packing EVERYTHING in boxes, with the exception of the furniture. I didn't argue this too much because they did do a good job wrapping and taping all the furniture. So, because of this, the total is higher than I was quoted by a couple hundred dollars. Well, now my check for 40% of the total isn't enough, and he wants the full 40%. I told him, in a calm voice, that the manager lady had said that I only needed 40% of the ESTIMATE, and I could pay the balance at delivery...well, here goes another call to the office. Turns out I'm right...of course.

So, with all things settled, paperwork signed, check handed over, he then turns to me and asks if I want to give him something for the guys? What the???

I said, um, there's a hole in my wall, I bought them McD's for lunch, I think that's enough...so he said thank you and left. And now I'm pretty sure my stuff is scattered on the roadway somewhere on the grapevine, never to be seen again. I'm sure glad I took those scrapbooks out!

The next chapter of this story will come once our stuff, or what's left of it, is delivered...unless I've been committed by then.