On moving again. And here I thought the tough work was carting all our crap in paper grocery bags, reusable grocery totes, and then the ubiquitous milk crates. Not at all. Not even a stinky hairy toad's ugly-little-ass-bit.
The real work begins the day the mover's show up. The three Stooges arrived an hour and 45 minutes late without tools or apparently any mental capacity to understand what items were being moved if more than 3 minutes passed. There were only 5 pieces in the vastly empty living room, all to be moved. Nothing else there. They asked at least four times which pieces in the living room would need to be moved. The three Stooges did not manage to drop anything, but they didn't understand physics much either. When Larry set the well loved Aeron chair on the lift , every time he kicked the switch and the platform bumped to a start, the beautiful lightweight chair would roll, almost making it's way to the edge before he caught it. Larry would let go, bump the switch again, and guess what? Yeah. Exactly. There went the chair. The only thing I could do was to sit on the porch watching in stupefied fascination at how many times he did that before holding on to the chair while bumping the lift to a start dawned on him.
Loading 12 boxes of books, 15 pieces of furniture and a few items from the back patio took the better part of 3.5 hours. Lulu and Phoebe could have done it faster. We had already moved all the drawers and any loose shelves, sofa cushions and all that stuff that takes a long time to anchor just so we could save on the hourly rate.
They arrived without a tool box because the driver forgot it. They didn't arrive with a mattress container either. So the beloved and loved Tempurpedic mattress went springing down the stairs like a sponge, twisted like it was being wrung. Sure, they are floppy, but that is what a mattress box is for, I think. They were just going to load it on the truck with no protection at all, but one look from me made them get out the plastic wrap. So there went my Tempurpedic, onto the truck wrapped in industrial saran wrap.
My other favorite Stooges moment was watching them back the large moving van into a tiny cul de sac. They parked the back wheel on a storm drain which tilted the truck so the bumpy lift never sat flat against the pavement. When they used those cart like things with wheels to take things out, they had exactly 6 inches of lift that was level with the ground. The remaining width was up about 5 inches. That would make it difficult to wheel things onto the lift without knocking into the raised lift edge, making the stuff on the wheeled carts tip over. Physics was not their strong suit because several pieces cart-wheeled right onto the lift, where fortunately it would seem they were used to catching flying furniture. I asked them about the storm drain and they actually said they preferred to park on it because then the truck would not roll. I didn't ask any more questions after that.
Delivery? Let us just say that a bottle of wine, an entire bottle of wine was consumed after they left. Meantime, both the chair and the mattress are in the apartment, and even in the right rooms. They did an equipment inventory before they left, the entire 15 minutes it took was another quarter hour we were charged. Now I understand why they had to ask about the furniture so many times. We have a wheeled cart in our bathroom which is bigger than the tub. I am guessing the Stooges still don't know it isn't in their truck anymore.
The real work begins the day the mover's show up. The three Stooges arrived an hour and 45 minutes late without tools or apparently any mental capacity to understand what items were being moved if more than 3 minutes passed. There were only 5 pieces in the vastly empty living room, all to be moved. Nothing else there. They asked at least four times which pieces in the living room would need to be moved. The three Stooges did not manage to drop anything, but they didn't understand physics much either. When Larry set the well loved Aeron chair on the lift , every time he kicked the switch and the platform bumped to a start, the beautiful lightweight chair would roll, almost making it's way to the edge before he caught it. Larry would let go, bump the switch again, and guess what? Yeah. Exactly. There went the chair. The only thing I could do was to sit on the porch watching in stupefied fascination at how many times he did that before holding on to the chair while bumping the lift to a start dawned on him.
Loading 12 boxes of books, 15 pieces of furniture and a few items from the back patio took the better part of 3.5 hours. Lulu and Phoebe could have done it faster. We had already moved all the drawers and any loose shelves, sofa cushions and all that stuff that takes a long time to anchor just so we could save on the hourly rate.
They arrived without a tool box because the driver forgot it. They didn't arrive with a mattress container either. So the beloved and loved Tempurpedic mattress went springing down the stairs like a sponge, twisted like it was being wrung. Sure, they are floppy, but that is what a mattress box is for, I think. They were just going to load it on the truck with no protection at all, but one look from me made them get out the plastic wrap. So there went my Tempurpedic, onto the truck wrapped in industrial saran wrap.
My other favorite Stooges moment was watching them back the large moving van into a tiny cul de sac. They parked the back wheel on a storm drain which tilted the truck so the bumpy lift never sat flat against the pavement. When they used those cart like things with wheels to take things out, they had exactly 6 inches of lift that was level with the ground. The remaining width was up about 5 inches. That would make it difficult to wheel things onto the lift without knocking into the raised lift edge, making the stuff on the wheeled carts tip over. Physics was not their strong suit because several pieces cart-wheeled right onto the lift, where fortunately it would seem they were used to catching flying furniture. I asked them about the storm drain and they actually said they preferred to park on it because then the truck would not roll. I didn't ask any more questions after that.
Delivery? Let us just say that a bottle of wine, an entire bottle of wine was consumed after they left. Meantime, both the chair and the mattress are in the apartment, and even in the right rooms. They did an equipment inventory before they left, the entire 15 minutes it took was another quarter hour we were charged. Now I understand why they had to ask about the furniture so many times. We have a wheeled cart in our bathroom which is bigger than the tub. I am guessing the Stooges still don't know it isn't in their truck anymore.
Comments
Ohhh, much sympathy. I've always done the moving by myself, with the aid of my parents, or my boyfriend-turned-Spousal Unit, or my roommate, or some combination of the aforementioned. But for this time around, the SU and I have talked about hiring movers -- have to say, your experiences make me think it's better to roll up my sleeves and throw out my back...
Oh, this sounds familiar. So many movers are crooks. I've only had two good once in my life, and I've moved a lot. Can't wait until they notice they're missing something.
Wow, I was going to hire someone for my next move. I guess I should skip on the Three Stooges. Do you think Carrot Top needs a moving gig? He is all buff now.
At least Carrot Top would make you laugh. These guys just made us cry.
Emma - it's been five days. they still don't know we have the wheel-y thing.
AshKW - I would still hire movers, but I might interview them differently, and I might still never let them touch anything breakable.
Emma - it's been five days. they still don't know we have the wheel-y thing.
AshKW - I would still hire movers, but I might interview them differently, and I might still never let them touch anything breakable.
Hilarious!
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