Fragile.

Now that we secured jobs, school, daycare for the kids, and a long term rental, it was time to get our belongings sent to Port Angeles!!

In hindsight, we should have either A) sold or donated everything we owned and purchased new stuff when we arrived here or B) kept everything in PODS until I was able to make my way back to Texas to load up a U-haul and deliver our belongings to Washington myself.  But that is the beauty of hindsight right?  If we knew that everything we owned would be delivered damaged, after spending a small fortune, of which we didn’t even have left in our budget, we clearly would have made a different decision.

To say that dealing with movers was miserable would be an understatement.  The salesman I spoke with was silver tongued, assuring me numerous times their company would be up to the task of moving our belongings, making the transition quick and easy.  I informed him of our situation, how we were not in Texas so we would be needing someone to load up our PODS without us present.  He assured me it was a non issue and something they do all the time.  When I asked him where I needed to send the keys so they could gain access to our units as one of our locks was theft proof I was told they cut locks all the time and it’s not a big deal, they could cut it no problem.  I was glad to hear that they had experience with situations like ours and my mind was at ease for the time being.  I made a down payment to secure a delivery date.

A few days before the movers would be picking up our stuff, they called to make sure that all of the items I would be having transported were accounted for.  I was able to think of some items that I had not originally included in our initial quote so, for accuracy, we added those to the inventory.  After the moving company added the items that I had forgotten about they informed me that the price essentially doubled due to the added items.  Not cool.  I expressed my displeasure with this new information and told them I had been given one price and I highly doubted the few small items I had forgotten to mention would take up that much more space. I was told that if the space I paid for was not needed, I would get a refund, but if on the day of pickup if I didn’t have enough space reserved on the truck they would not be able to fit all of my belongings and I would have to pay a premium price to get additional space.  Against my better judgement, I agreed and paid the additional cost and tried to be hopeful that the space we paid for and ultimately would not need, would be refunded with ease upon delivery.

The day before our possessions were to be picked up by the movers I received a call verifying the time they would arrive at the storage facility.  I reminded the movers that no one would be on sight when they were loading up our belongings and they would need to cut the locks off of the units. It was in this moment that alarm bells went off again, something wasn’t right.  The guy I was talking to had no idea what I was talking about and informed me it was actually against his company’s policy to load without someone present and to cut locks.  I informed the mover how I arranged this move according to the information I was given, to which said he would call me back soon after he looked into it more.  A short time later I received a call back and he said that he would be able to accommodate the arrangement I had made.  Whew.

However, the next day I received another call from the movers telling me that they had tried numerous methods and were unable to cut our locks. They were going to go to a local hardware store to buy a metal cutting saw.  Awesome.  Roughly one hour later they called back saying that they were able to cut one lock but the “theft proof” lock was living up to its name.

I had paid for enough room on the moving truck to get every single one of our possessions hauled here, paying per square foot.  Now because they couldn’t open our lock we were basically being told “too bad you reserved the truck and we can’t fill it so arrange another truck and mail us the key this time”.  But again on the phone I was told the exact opposite, that whatever space wasn’t used was reimbursed,..  Are you kidding me?

We so wanted to have all the stress of moving behind us.  This was our last hurdle to be able to just relax and start living a normal life again.  Now it looks we have to fight to get half our money back and arrange another moving truck.  Although not the end of the world, super annoying and completely unnecessary.

We were really looking forward to the morning the moving company was set to arrive.  The kids were excited to get their toys.  Kileigh and I were excited to get our family pictures, clothes, and really just all our stuff that made up our home.  Once the truck door was opened my heart dropped.  It looked like all of our possessions had just been hurled into the trailer with no care taken at all.

Kileigh watched as box after smashed box was taken off the truck and hauled into the house.  She quickly had to excuse herself to the bedroom where she shut the door and lost her shit.  To go from such a sense of excitement to utter heartbreak seeing all of our belongings being handled with such lack of care or regard.  And it isn’t like we got a screaming deal and paid on the cheap.  We spent money that we didn’t have to assure that our belongings would be taken care of and delivered to our door.

The saga continued as all the furniture that was unloaded was either scratched, scraped, or warped in some way.  There was no protective padding put on the exposed furniture.  Our things were clearly pushed and shoved into the truck to be able to fit as much as possible.  Paint from one piece of furniture rubbed onto the other.  Boxes were stacked with the heavy boxes on top of boxes that were marked “fragile”, “glass”, “wedding china”, etc.

Although we took inventory of the damage and immediately reached out to the moving company to file a claim.  It will never fix Kileigh’s childhood bedroom set missing part of the headboard, Henry’s new fire truck toy chest arriving crushed, the bookcases my mother-in-law gifted us after the purchase of our first home having dings and corners stripped off.

As to be expected the claims process is a bit of a mess and unfortunately will probably take a while to work out an agreement that we feel is fair, but we will not give up and see this through to the end.  Being taken advantage of, as I 100% feel we were, feels awful and I will not settle for the “service” we received.  My family deserves better.

 

We still have a storage POD in Texas.  By the grace of God the POD that had the theft proof lock is full of heirloom furniture.  If this moving company had gotten their hands on Kileigh’s grandparents china hutch or grandfather clock I cant even think about the outcome.

 

For now we have the essential things, and even if they are in less than perfect condition, they are ours and they are here in our home.