The movers have finally delivered all of my worldly possessions – at least the ones that I didn’t bring with me in my car. It only took 9 days longer than their original estimate. I should’ve known they wouldn’t get here in 5 days. Now I can relax and really get settled in. Like I said on Facebook, I don’t know what I’m more excited to have back: the TV, the Xbox, the clothes, or the cooking equipment. Reese has been sleeping on the couch most of the night, so I know he’s glad to have it back. Between the moving company and the management company of this place I’m living in, moving has been a little bit of a nightmare.
I hired a moving company (America’s Moving Services) that had good reviews online. After the experience I had when they came to pick up my stuff in Starkville, I researched some more. It turns out they contract the work to other companies. I don’t know if this is standard in the industry. That’s why it was a different company (World Wide Van Lines) listed on the van took my things away. Maybe this was obvious and I just missed it somehow. While I was waiting, I had a hard time getting answers out the original company. The original guy who set up my move wasn’t reachable anymore. They never called back like they said that would. They would try to connect me to people and I would get hung up on. For a while I was getting a little worried. When they finally emailed me to tell me what the final amount due, they told me to make my payment out to a third company. A day or two ago, I got a call saying they would be here on Sunday and this morning I got a call saying they would be here today. The company that delivered my stuff today (company number four) was United Van Lines. I should’ve gone with them originally. I wonder how many times my belongings changed trucks and if it would’ve been the same if I had chosen United from the beginning. The United guys were careful with my stuff, they were very cooperative, and they joked around with me the whole time. I gave them a tip. I did get charged $75 extra because they had to take steps up a hill to get inside and they had to take stuff upstairs to the bedrooms, but I was expecting that. The contract said 1 flight of stairs was free. I noticed that someone else’s belongings were on the same truck as mine and their stuff was better than mine. A little advice: don’t use moving boxes purchased from Walmart. Most of them are damaged and I’m afraid the contents are damaged. One of my boxes of precious books seems to have suffered the worst damage. I’ll probably have to repack many things that I planned to leave in boxes until I found a more permanent place.
The property management company needs to get itself together. The people who work in the office obviously don’t know much about their rental properties. They’re unorganized. I may have mentioned it before, but I overheard a conversation when I went to sign my lease where they basically admitted how unorganized they are. They thought I was coming 2 days later though the paperwork clearly stated which day I was coming. I was promised that this was a one-story townhouse, but it’s two. I should bill them for the extra $75 the moving company charged. There was supposed to be a washer and dryer here and there wasn’t, but they fixed that problem. There’s a lot of stuff that’s broken, but I’ve documented it all. They’re working on getting it taken care of. I have to stay on them since they don’t return phone calls.
I don’t even know where to begin unpacking. I was exhausted after the movers left, even though I was feeling pretty good beforehand. I went to see The Phantom Menace 3D tonight like I had planned to days ago. It went anyway instead of staying home just to get away from these boxes. My next move shouldn’t be as bad as this one. Before I left Starkville, I told myself that a lot of my current furniture wouldn’t go with me when I found a more permanent place. Some of it’s over 10 years old and is well used.
Anyway, time to get to work on around here. Now that my electronics are here, DirecTV can come install my satellite. Then I’ll get around to enjoying Portland.
P.S. – It was still Saturday the 25th when I posted this. I hadn’t changed the time zone on the site yet.
