It's so bad we're out of tears and are left laughing...

[LisaKinVA]

In the world of moving -- you can't make this stuff up -- we're winning.

So, they packed up my house in Italy in June.  This isn't my first rodeo (I've moved 17 times in 50 years).  We are on Day two (probably will finish getting stuff off the truck around 8pm tonight), however, we will be a long, long way from being moved in.

Here's the thing... you know how you put things into boxes (usually things that belong in the same room, or are at least of the same type)?  Well, it's fairly customary to you know, LABEL the boxes with what room they go to, and maybe what is in them.   About 20-25% of my boxes are either missing labels or are completely and utterly miss-labeled.  How bad is it?  Let's start with the minor things:

• Box #4 -- Girls' Room -- Box Spring (on the inventory sheet), in the box? Mattress.
• Box #5 -- Girls' Room -- Mattress (on the inventory sheet), in the box? Box Spring.
• Items 55-70 -- Plastic Tote (every line on the inventory sheet says plastic tote -- these totes contained everything from school records, to clothes to cassette tapes, to electrical cords, home decor, to doll clothes to garden tools -- one of the totes that I had packed was already labeled "Blankets" -- but nothing was put on the inventory or on the outside wrapper-- you get the idea).
• Box #35 -- Plasticware (in the box -- CHINA)
• Box #235 -- Linens (in the box -- DVDs, remotes, etc.  We still have no idea where our sheets and blankets are...let alone towels.)
• Not in a box...just loose in the crate... a collectible LEGO set (probably about $60 new, now valued at $100+).  Needless to say, it came open during shipment and LEGOs are everywhere.  I doubt we have all of the pieces.  It was the ONLY set my son didn't hand-pack, he figured it would be okay since it was, you know, IN a box.  All they would have to do is either put it inside one of the other 500+ boxes they packed or wrapped up...but no.
• They packed my Waterford Crystal in a manner I've never seen... unwrapped, in between items that were wrapped.  And, in other news... how do you break glasses that are packed in their original package?  You know, the kind with styrofoam?

 

To put the sheer amount of how bad this is into perspective -- we have 505 boxes on the inventory sheet (not including all of the random stuff wrapped and stuffed inside things like book cases).  At 20-25% completely wrong (I am being conservative), that leaves us with 100-150 boxes/bins we either have had to open to figure out where they go, or once we open them, have to move them somewhere else entirely.  The only thing that is keeping the number this low, is the fact I packed 95% of the books myself (we probably have about 50-75 boxes of books).  I had also packed all of my clothes into my dresser (apparently, they removed the stuff I put in the drawers, boxed it up somewhere else -- and then packed the drawers with other stuff???).  That may go up as we open boxes to look for broken things (you know, the stuff I can't put away because my furniture that was supposed to hold them is... well... broken).  

We bought a grand total of 5 pieces of NICE Italian furniture (3 pieces are antiques, 2 are more modern).  Thus far two of the antiques are broken and one of the modern pieces is destroyed -- but the Ikea Billy shelves made it just fine (I can't even...) My purple Italian sofa bed is in 5 pieces (not including the cushions).  I have no idea if that can be put together again  (ETA:  Nope, it's broken beyond repair.  One of the major frame boards is broken and through the fabric) 😞

This too, shall pass -- on the bright side, my bed is off the floor.  Meanwhile, photographing and adding the broken things to a very long list for this moving claim.  I thought the one from moving to Italy was long -- but it really wasn't.  We just lost a few large $$ items (punched whole in a $800 sectional, broke my Waterford pitcher, a couple of inexpensive dressers and the kids' play kitchen).  The breakage coming back is much more extensive and in some ways harder to replace in kind/quality.  Wish me luck -- it's going to be a very, very long weekend.

Edited September 4, 2019 by LisaK in VA

[unsinkable]

i would be curled on a ball, sucking my thumb. 

Good luck seems inadequate but I don't know what else to say.

[WendyLady]

We moved this summer as well.  This move has gone surprisingly well, but the move before this one, I had a large collection of totes like you (your #'s 55-70).  They were dumped into random boxes and the totes were stacked in a nice tidy stack. It was beyond frustrating and made finding things impossible.  Craft items dumped in with baby memory boxes. Table cloths labeled as blankets, boxed with a couple of blankets, and all of my sewing thread.  It took me a full year to get things back in order.  Just in time to move again.  That had never been in issue with any of our previous 8 moves....

This time I very specifically asked the movers to keep items in the totes!  It worked!!

I'm so so sorry about your beautiful furniture.  They better figure out a way to make it right for you!!

[prairiewindmomma]

This was my last move. The claim paid out $,$$$ which was laughable considering how much flat out never arrived. We did find a really fantastic furniture restorer.

[prairiewindmomma]

And my heart is crying for you. Dealing with moving insurance is a whole added layer of suck.

[Kassia]

That sounds miserable and overwhelming.  I'd be a mess.  I'm sorry.

[LisaKinVA]

17 minutes ago, WendyLady said:

We moved this summer as well.  This move has gone surprisingly well, but the move before this one, I had a large collection of totes like you (your #'s 55-70).  They were dumped into random boxes and the totes were stacked in a nice tidy stack. It was beyond frustrating and made finding things impossible.  Craft items dumped in with baby memory boxes. Table cloths labeled as blankets, boxed with a couple of blankets, and all of my sewing thread.  It took me a full year to get things back in order.  Just in time to move again.  That had never been in issue with any of our previous 8 moves....

This time I very specifically asked the movers to keep items in the totes!  It worked!!

I'm so so sorry about your beautiful furniture.  They better figure out a way to make it right for you!!

That's about how I feel right now.  I think we've found all of the spices... but you never know!  One would think the spices (that are all in the same cabinet in the kitchen) could be found in say one or two boxes?  FOUR.  Spices have been in FOUR different boxes.  I wish I could say I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have someone dump the bins -- but I do (maybe not as badly as yours -- I had all of my school supplies in nice stacking bins (one for pencils, one for crayons, acrylic paints...etc. etc.)  I opened this box of all of my stacking bins... which are now EMPTY.  I have yet to open the boxes labeled "school supplies" out of sheer fear.  I *hope* they are all in the same box, but if they packed my school supplies anything like they packed my spices, I'm done for.

I've taken to putting the boxes of randomness into the dining room.  I'm going to have to unpack, sort, and repack some things -- it's going to take awhile, and it's the room with the most "free" space.

[LisaKinVA]

14 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

This was my last move. The claim paid out $,$$$ which was laughable considering how much flat out never arrived. We did find a really fantastic furniture restorer.

 

I may not have a couch to sit on until this all gets through the insurance.  There is just so much.  I guess we need to re-focus our efforts on unpacking/sorting/repacking what needs to be repacked to figure out what survived and worry about getting everything really functioning later.  This insurance claim is going to be awful.  I'm not sure how DH is going to sign off on the paperwork (we have this sheet of "no number" -- and at the end we're supposed to count the empty spots and guess what is there or not there?  At this point, I may tell DH just to make sure all of our HVG are actually there and accounted for, and well, if random stuff is missing we'll have to deal with it later.

[freesia]

Oh, no!  I would be so upset.

[Katy]

Oh no!  And I thought we had a bad move this summer.  Yours puts ours to shame.

And how and why do they always break the solid wood stuff but never the cheap particleboard that I want to replace?

[May]

2 hours ago, LisaK in VA said:

In the world of moving -- you can't make this stuff up -- we're winning.

So, they packed up my house in Italy in June.  This isn't my first rodeo (I've moved 17 times in 50 years).  We are on Day two (probably will finish getting stuff off the truck around 8pm tonight), however, we will be a long, long way from being moved in.

Here's the thing... you know how you put things into boxes (usually things that belong in the same room, or are at least of the same type)?  Well, it's fairly customary to you know, LABEL the boxes with what room they go to, and maybe what is in them.   About 20-25% of my boxes are either missing labels or are completely and utterly miss-labeled.  How bad is it?  Let's start with the minor things:

• Box #4 -- Girls' Room -- Box Spring (on the inventory sheet), in the box? Mattress.
• Box #5 -- Girls' Room -- Mattress (on the inventory sheet), in the box? Box Spring.
• Items 55-70 -- Plastic Tote (every line on the inventory sheet says plastic tote -- these totes contained everything from school records, to clothes to cassette tapes, to electrical cords, home decor, to doll clothes to garden tools -- one of the totes that I had packed was already labeled "Blankets" -- but nothing was put on the inventory or on the outside wrapper-- you get the idea).
• Box #35 -- Plasticware (in the box -- CHINA)
• Box #235 -- Linens (in the box -- DVDs, remotes, etc.  We still have no idea where our sheets and blankets are...let alone towels.)
• Not in a box...just loose in the crate... a collectible LEGO set (probably about $60 new, now valued at $100+).  Needless to say, it came open during shipment and LEGOs are everywhere.  I doubt we have all of the pieces.  It was the ONLY set my son didn't hand-pack, he figured it would be okay since it was, you know, IN a box.  All they would have to do is either put it inside one of the other 500+ boxes they packed or wrapped up...but no.
• They packed my Waterford Crystal in a manner I've never seen... unwrapped, in between items that were wrapped.  And, in other news... how do you break glasses that are packed in their original package?  You know, the kind with styrofoam?

 

To put the sheer amount of how bad this is into perspective -- we have 505 boxes on the inventory sheet (not including all of the random stuff wrapped and stuffed inside things like book cases).  At 20-25% completely wrong (I am being conservative), that leaves us with 100-150 boxes/bins we either have had to open to figure out where they go, or once we open them, have to move them somewhere else entirely.  The only thing that is keeping the number this low, is the fact I packed 95% of the books myself (we probably have about 50-75 boxes of books).  I had also packed all of my clothes into my dresser (apparently, they removed the stuff I put in the drawers, boxed it up somewhere else -- and then packed the drawers with other stuff???).  That may go up as we open boxes to look for broken things (you know, the stuff I can't put away because my furniture that was supposed to hold them is... well... broken).  

We bought a grand total of 5 pieces of NICE Italian furniture (3 pieces are antiques, 2 are more modern).  Thus far two of the antiques are broken and one of the modern pieces is destroyed -- but the Ikea Billy shelves made it just fine (I can't even...) My purple Italian sofa bed is in 5 pieces (not including the cushions).  I have no idea if that can be put together again  (ETA:  Nope, it's broken beyond repair.  One of the major frame boards is broken and through the fabric) 😞

This too, shall pass -- on the bright side, my bed is off the floor.  Meanwhile, photographing and adding the broken things to a very long list for this moving claim.  I thought the one from moving to Italy was long -- but it really wasn't.  We just lost a few large $$ items (punched whole in a $800 sectional, broke my Waterford pitcher, a couple of inexpensive dressers and the kids' play kitchen).  The breakage coming back is much more extensive and in some ways harder to replace in kind/quality.  Wish me luck -- it's going to be a very, very long weekend.

I’m so sorry Lisa😕 I’ve heard so many complaints about military moves in the last year. Our daughter and DH are pcsing from Japan. Their express shipment will be packed out on Monday. I’m praying all goes well for them. Hope you get great reimbursement for your destroyed and damaged stuff. 

[EmseB]

The only other move I've heard of going that badly in my military circles was also from Italy. His packing was going so badly that he made them stop and called the inspector and they had to get a new company mid move. It was obvious things, like packing a ceramic wall hanging in a giant box by itself with no paper or anything.

[MercyA]

I am so very sorry. We once shipped our car cross-country with our household goods. When it arrived, we found that things had been piled on top of our car in the moving truck, leaving huge scratches, and that they had put someone else's lawnmover *in our trunk*, leaving it full of grass! And lots of furniture was scratched up, too, as I recall. But that was nothing compared to your story!

Hugs to you! 

[moonflower]

It's too bad you can't pack things yourself and then get reimbursed for what they would have paid the movers - saving money and getting a better result!  It just seems like it would make so much more sense that way.

505 boxes!  That alone would make me beyond crazy with moving.  We move a lot too - at least a dozen times since we've been married - but we're minimalists so we tend to have like 20 boxes, maybe.  We do a lot of soft packing - clothes and stuffed animals and the like - in very strong, industrial quality clear plastic trash bags.  I don't know whether that would survive an overseas move but it works really well for our purposes because you can see right away where the bag goes.

[J-rap]

Wow, that sounds crazy!  We've moved quite a few times, but never with much stuff.  Our next move will be a different story (whenever THAT happens!).  The bad experiences you all have had make me nervous!  

The only time I've had to deal with insurance companies and damaged items was when our home flooded due to pipes bursting in the winter.  It was a long process taking photos of every single damaged item, looking up replacement costs, etc., but at least we were reimbursed 100%.

[LisaKinVA]

12 hours ago, EmseB said:

The only other move I've heard of going that badly in my military circles was also from Italy. His packing was going so badly that he made them stop and called the inspector and they had to get a new company mid move. It was obvious things, like packing a ceramic wall hanging in a giant box by itself with no paper or anything.

I heard that story -- in hind sight, we should have just stopped everything too.

11 hours ago, Plum said:

I had a move once where we had to have the moving company put our stuff in storage for a couple of months. We had many items on the list that were vaguely labeled. By the time we got our stuff, some things were missing. We had 6 months to remember what was missing and request a reimbursement. At about 5 months, I realized one of the "large boxes" missing was an unopened 2 room tent. 

Sorry so much was broken. 😞

I haven't been able to determine if we are missing anything yet -- so far, the most we've noticed are "extra" things that were packed in our things, but are not ours (a random coffee cup, a strange coke-a-cola flask?  We have 75 days to file a claim

8 hours ago, MercyA said:

I am so very sorry. We once shipped our car cross-country with our household goods. When it arrived, we found that things had been piled on top of our car in the moving truck, leaving huge scratches, and that they had put someone else's lawnmover *in our trunk*, leaving it full of grass! And lots of furniture was scratched up, too, as I recall. But that was nothing compared to your story!

Hugs to you! 

OH no!!  Our car(s) are supposed to be shipped separately and empty (we didn't ship a car this time).  That does not sound pleasant!

6 hours ago, moonflower said:

It's too bad you can't pack things yourself and then get reimbursed for what they would have paid the movers - saving money and getting a better result!  It just seems like it would make so much more sense that way.

505 boxes!  That alone would make me beyond crazy with moving.  We move a lot too - at least a dozen times since we've been married - but we're minimalists so we tend to have like 20 boxes, maybe.  We do a lot of soft packing - clothes and stuffed animals and the like - in very strong, industrial quality clear plastic trash bags.  I don't know whether that would survive an overseas move but it works really well for our purposes because you can see right away where the bag goes.

The whole pack yourself part appeals to me more now than ever before.  I packed up my books (because of our prior moving experience), so our school stuff would be easier for me to find.  I put all of the decor in one spot, packing up anything that we had original packaging for (figurines, things like that)Part of the problem is that they took stuff I had in certain drawers and packed it in boxes (like clothing), we did have stuffed animals in clear plastic bags.  Many of the drawers were then shipped empty.  If I had been packing, the linens, towels, sheets, pillows, blankets would have been "packed" into the empty bookshelves, clothes and other soft goods packed inside dresser drawers.  That would have saved a lot of container space (and shipping weight.    We still haven't found most of my silverware -- we've found bits and pieces in various boxes, and the Longaberger basket we kept it in (my dishware was all on top of an open counter, as we didn't have drawer space).  None of this makes any sense.

2 hours ago, J-rap said:

Wow, that sounds crazy!  We've moved quite a few times, but never with much stuff.  Our next move will be a different story (whenever THAT happens!).  The bad experiences you all have had make me nervous!  

The only time I've had to deal with insurance companies and damaged items was when our home flooded due to pipes bursting in the winter.  It was a long process taking photos of every single damaged item, looking up replacement costs, etc., but at least we were reimbursed 100%.

Oh, I miss the days of one large U-haul trailer...lol  I do expect over the next several years many of my books will be leaving me as my youngest grows up. As they move out, they will hopefully take some of their own books (also reducing my collection).  I had two very large bookshelves of books to get rid of before we left Italy...I expect I will lose at least that much again in the next four years.

[linders]

Oh, Lisa, that you are laughing is amazing. It sounds like a scavenger hunt.

When we moved 10 years ago the only - only! - piece of furniture that I told the company was precious was my piano. My first purchase as an adult, and I spent a ridiculous sum to have a nice one. Make sure you have piano movers! Make sure they have a piano dolly! Guess the company heard "blah, blah."

So what is the one piece of furniture that they dropped?? Cost half as much as the original piano to repair.

[LisaKinVA]

Thanks everyone... the saga continues today.  I had to leave around 3pm yesterday to take two of the girls to practice -- the movers and my husband gave up trying to figure out what anything was, so it's all been dropped wherever there was floor space. 😂  We are starting in the garage today (I know, weird place to start).  The garage also houses my laundry room.  There are about 12 nice plastic garage shelving sets that are buried out there... and we can't put anything away until those are up.  So -- we have to empty the garage.

After that, I expect we'll move a few of the things to where we know they will be and then stack boxes around the perimeter of the rooms, so we can put together a couch to sit on.  Then, probably fix the rest of the beds -- and then let the kids work on putting their clothing away.

The randomness as to how everything was packed escapes me.  Two of my couch feet (not sure where the others are) were in a bedroom dresser.  My oldest started putting together a set of corner shelves.  The box contained all of the legs, and half the shelves.  We don't know where the other shelves are.  In some ways, I feel like you have to really try to pack this badly.

[TheReader]

Oh, Lisa, my heart hurts for you. I cannot even imagine. I hope you're able to get through filing the claim in a timely, and accurate, manner, and that somehow, miraculously, you find a way to repair (find a person to repair) the Italian furniture...and that the claim covers doing so, and doing so well/properly. 

I can't even imagine. ((((hugs))))

[LisaKinVA]

23 minutes ago, linders said:

Oh, Lisa, that you are laughing is amazing. It sounds like a scavenger hunt.

When we moved 10 years ago the only - only! - piece of furniture that I told the company was precious was my piano. My first purchase as an adult, and I spent a ridiculous sum to have a nice one. Make sure you have piano movers! Make sure they have a piano dolly! Guess the company heard "blah, blah."

So what is the one piece of furniture that they dropped?? Cost half as much as the original piano to repair.

I guess it is a scavenger hunt.  Although, this one goes something like:  Missing half the shelves?  Well, set the legs there, and when we find the rest of the parts you can finish putting it together.  

I'm so sorry about the piano!  I can only imagine (we moved my childhood piano ourselves.  This move marks the 7th time I've helped to move it (14, if you count the packing and the unpacking ...ha!)  The piano is older than I am -- probably about 70-80 years -- so it's been moved a lot!

[LisaKinVA]

12 minutes ago, TheReader said:

Oh, Lisa, my heart hurts for you. I cannot even imagine. I hope you're able to get through filing the claim in a timely, and accurate, manner, and that somehow, miraculously, you find a way to repair (find a person to repair) the Italian furniture...and that the claim covers doing so, and doing so well/properly. 

I can't even imagine. ((((hugs))))

Thank you -- I hope so, too.  Muddling through....

[Katy]

Why have movers suddenly started removing clean folded clothing from drawers and then packing different (heavy, breakable) stuff in the drawers instead?  As recently as 4 years ago they just put plastic wrap around the whole unit and left the clothing alone.  That way you didn't have to track anything down, let alone launder everything or get grossed out by the fact that they unfolded all my lingerie!  Seriously, the way I've kon-mari folded or containerized everything you could probably shrink wrap it and roll the dresser down to the moving truck, it wouldn't have been jostled.

And yes, I launder or wash everything that can be.  Ever since I witnessed a mover wipe his nose on the back of his hand and go back to packing up my dishes.  This wasn't a new day laborer, it was the driver (and head of a crew).  During flu season.

But seriously, I've had less than $100 of damage for all previous moves combined.  I never bothered to fill out a claim form before.  This one is already in the thousands and we haven't unpacked 20% of our boxes yet.  Something must have gone seriously downhill with the workers.  A good sign for the economy maybe, but bad for my house.

[LisaKinVA]

20 minutes ago, Katy said:

Why have movers suddenly started removing clean folded clothing from drawers and then packing different (heavy, breakable) stuff in the drawers instead?  As recently as 4 years ago they just put plastic wrap around the whole unit and left the clothing alone.  That way you didn't have to track anything down, let alone launder everything or get grossed out by the fact that they unfolded all my lingerie!  Seriously, the way I've kon-mari folded or containerized everything you could probably shrink wrap it and roll the dresser down to the moving truck, it wouldn't have been jostled.

And yes, I launder or wash everything that can be.  Ever since I witnessed a mover wipe his nose on the back of his hand and go back to packing up my dishes.  This wasn't a new day laborer, it was the driver (and head of a crew).  During flu season.

But seriously, I've had less than $100 of damage for all previous moves combined.  I never bothered to fill out a claim form before.  This one is already in the thousands and we haven't unpacked 20% of our boxes yet.  Something must have gone seriously downhill with the workers.  A good sign for the economy maybe, but bad for my house.

I don't know -- I really don't.  I'm hoping the clothes they took out of my dresser are in the boxes stacked in my room.  But, it's really anyone's guess.  After a couple of near misses, we've told all of the kids to be very careful unpacking their clothing, as we've found breakables wrapped in the comforters, inside boxes of clothes,  At minimum, the nuts/bolts they took off of something to take it apart should all be in the same baggie and either taped inside the item or put in the one box of tools, remotes, etc.  How in the world half of them get in one place and the other half go missing???  I just don't understand.  

[Katy]

3 minutes ago, LisaK in VA said:

I don't know -- I really don't.  I'm hoping the clothes they took out of my dresser are in the boxes stacked in my room.  But, it's really anyone's guess.  After a couple of near misses, we've told all of the kids to be very careful unpacking their clothing, as we've found breakables wrapped in the comforters, inside boxes of clothes,  At minimum, the nuts/bolts they took off of something to take it apart should all be in the same baggie and either taped inside the item or put in the one box of tools, remotes, etc.  How in the world half of them get in one place and the other half go missing???  I just don't understand.  

 

Well if it's like one set of my kids bunk beds, they didn't bother getting the cam nuts and bolts that were stuck out of the bed, and they didn't bother taping over the holes so the stuck ones would stay stuck either.  They just loaded them on the truck, threw stuff on top of them, and then the cam nuts and bolts were swept out of the truck and left in the street. This was all third party contractors, btw.  One of whom just sent us a check for a replacement bed because we live in the middle of nowhere and replacing the set was cheaper than hiring a contractor from the city to drive out, measure the hardware that was put in a baggie, drive back into the city to buy replacement hardware, and then come back here to assemble the beds properly.

[prairiewindmomma]

During one of my lengthy conversations with the assigned coordinator with our last move (they showed up four hours late for the pack, worked only a half day the next day, etc.) it appears that some of the big name moving companies are contracting out the pack & load and unload separately with only the driver being a regular employee of the company. Our unload crew (the one that literally broke a piece of antique hand carved furniture in front of me by He-Man slamming it down--it weighed 10 lbs ) told me that his crew took the job because they wanted a day trip in the city I live in. 

FWIW, do not put in an estimated amount for repair when you do the claim, or if you must, do the replacement price of the furniture. . It's the max they will pay out even if the repairs are more.

[EmseB]

3 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

During one of my lengthy conversations with the assigned coordinator with our last move (they showed up four hours late for the pack, worked only a half day the next day, etc.) it appears that some of the big name moving companies are contracting out the pack & load and unload separately with only the driver being a regular employee of the company.

This is how it's always been for all of our military moves going back 10+ years. There's one managing company, the driver of the truck is the only one directly employed by them and he takes responsibility for the all the paperwork on both ends, unless our stuff goes to storage while we house hunt, in which case there's a guy on the unloading crew who signs off on everything at delivery.

We've had crews of all kinds...experienced been packing for a long time and are quick and careful, to guys who talk about how they were just looking for a job that would take them right out of jail. I felt bad when one time they made a guy who was only borderline literate start the inventory sheet and then were like, "Nah, man, we're just giving you a hard time." Then I saw him sitting on my wooden bookshelf while it was lying in our driveway and didn't feel as bad.

That said, we've never moved OCONUS, so I don't know how that works.

Edited September 5, 2019 by EmseB

[LisaKinVA]

4 hours ago, Katy said:

 

Well if it's like one set of my kids bunk beds, they didn't bother getting the cam nuts and bolts that were stuck out of the bed, and they didn't bother taping over the holes so the stuck ones would stay stuck either.  They just loaded them on the truck, threw stuff on top of them, and then the cam nuts and bolts were swept out of the truck and left in the street. This was all third party contractors, btw.  One of whom just sent us a check for a replacement bed because we live in the middle of nowhere and replacing the set was cheaper than hiring a contractor from the city to drive out, measure the hardware that was put in a baggie, drive back into the city to buy replacement hardware, and then come back here to assemble the beds properly.

Well, that's sort of what happened to one of my son's nice LEGO sets ($100+ value) -- I honestly couldn't say regarding the furniture.  But, these stories sort of make me feel better knowing I'm not the only one this has happened to!  A bit worse, because the stories are so bad.  One of my friends saw my photos this morning of my house... just packed with random bins/boxes all wrapped up, furniture on end/side, nothing assembled -- and said, "what? they didn't do a full unpack for you?" I replied they were just glad to get it off the truck after 20 hours -- we don't know where anything goes, because we don't know what most of this stuff is -- and can't find the hardware to put furniture that's not broken together... also, just found out they broke my other couch.  We are officially couchless -- but I have 2 folding chairs, 1 camp chair and 4 kitchen chairs)

3 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

During one of my lengthy conversations with the assigned coordinator with our last move (they showed up four hours late for the pack, worked only a half day the next day, etc.) it appears that some of the big name moving companies are contracting out the pack & load and unload separately with only the driver being a regular employee of the company. Our unload crew (the one that literally broke a piece of antique hand carved furniture in front of me by He-Man slamming it down--it weighed 10 lbs ) told me that his crew took the job because they wanted a day trip in the city I live in. 

FWIW, do not put in an estimated amount for repair when you do the claim, or if you must, do the replacement price of the furniture. . It's the max they will pay out even if the repairs are more.

OUCH!  The company only sent 2 men to unload 9 crates yesterday, so some of the damage happened because they lacked the manpower necessary to unload things... I watched my sectional go end over end off the truck (and it broke).  They really needed a minimum of three, four would have been better, because they could have unloaded the morning truck and sent one guy back to get additional crates while the other three (and I) figured out what stuff was and got it mostly to where it went.

For OCONUS moves, the govt has contracts with various companies (we ultimately choose from their preferred contractor list), they do their end -- and then we get whomever on this end.  The company we used was recommended by a couple of people who moved and used them (one last year, and one this past March).  Sometimes it just depends upon who the actual crew is that went.

When we were packed out to head to Italy, things were by no means perfect (the way they packed my books made me cringe -- but everything down to the plastic lids were wrapped very carefully.  We weren't without damage (loading a fire safe into a dresser probably wasn't the brightest move, nor shoving 2x4s into the couch.  We had one other dresser completely busted -- but it was an inexpensive piece we were able to replace.  But, when it came to loading the boxes, like things were together, boxes were marked, and when you opened a crate it was pretty much filled with stuff from the same room.   So, unloading went FAST.  Unpacking went FAST (at least what we wanted to unpack), Within a day, we had the bedrooms, kitchen, school area at least functional. It took me about 6 months to get the pieces (book cases, additional table space, etc.) to really unpack -- but we were able to function well in advance.  I can't even really function well yet, and we're on day 3.

The men are out in the garage moving things around before the hurricane winds get here.  They are trying to get the shelving units set up, so we can put stuff away.  I told everyone they could work in their respective rooms later -- but for now, please help with that space, so we could begin to move stuff back to the shelving as we found it.  I am currently prepping for my 6am class tomorrow -- assuming we have power & internet (lol)  I've already notified my boss about the hurricane -- so they could inform our leads in China and no one freaks out if my power or internet is gone due to the storm. 

I have three full days to get to functional.  Roughly 60 days to really get through every box to check for damage -- and then sometime by Thanksgiving, we should know about the claim.  

My house has to function.  It doesn't have to be pretty.  I don't need to be putting stuff on the walls, but I need to try to get shelves up (can't find the shelf clips...), desk space, hangers for clothes, and the laundry room working, you know 😄

[BooksandBoys]

Oh no. My heart goes out to you.

Moving insurance sucks beyond belief (ours refused to pay for the missing mattresses because the boxes that were supposed to hold the mattresses arrived. They also refused to replace a bike wheel that they removed after the fact. They had labeled the bike but not the wheel, so they said they did their part by delivering the labeled bike. I was too exhausted and overwhelmed to fight anymore, so we replaced our stuff. 

I send strength and energy to you. And chocolate. And take-out food. You’ll need all of it. You can do this. 

[LisaKinVA]

8 minutes ago, BooksandBoys said:

Oh no. My heart goes out to you.

Moving insurance sucks beyond belief (ours refused to pay for the missing mattresses because the boxes that were supposed to hold the mattresses arrived. They also refused to replace a bike wheel that they removed after the fact. They had labeled the bike but not the wheel, so they said they did their part by delivering the labeled bike. I was too exhausted and overwhelmed to fight anymore, so we replaced our stuff. 

I send strength and energy to you. And chocolate. And take-out food. You’ll need all of it. You can do this. 

I bought chocolate.  It's sitting next to me.  I'm currently working on a table that is also holding a television, because we can't put together my desk, because we don't know where the legs are (I had to finish prepping for my 6am class tomorrow -- assuming the weather doesn't leave me powerless and without internet).  In other news, we found the remaining shelves to my DAUGHTER'S corner shelving units in a box in the garage labeled "tools." 🤦‍♀️  We can now at least walk through the garage.   Still a long, long way to go.  We still haven't found our flatware -- but we've supposedly opened all of the boxes labeled "kitchen."  I have found towels.  🥰

[BooksandBoys]

2 minutes ago, LisaK in VA said:

I bought chocolate.  It's sitting next to me.  I'm currently working on a table that is also holding a television, because we can't put together my desk, because we don't know where the legs are (I had to finish prepping for my 6am class tomorrow -- assuming the weather doesn't leave me powerless and without internet).  In other news, we found the remaining shelves to my DAUGHTER'S corner shelving units in a box in the garage labeled "tools." 🤦‍♀️  We can now at least walk through the garage.   Still a long, long way to go.  We still haven't found our flatware -- but we've supposedly opened all of the boxes labeled "kitchen."  I have found towels.  🥰

This is remarkable. I wish we could do multiple reactions. I wanted to like, laugh, and cry all at once. Yikes. What a story this will be in your family history. 

[WendyLady]

9 hours ago, LisaK in VA said:

.  Two of my couch feet (not sure where the others are) were in a bedroom dresser.  

This reminds me that we are missing one foot from our couch!  All feet from other couches and the armoire arrived just fine in the "parts" box, but the center support foot for our long leather couch is gone.  We have emptied all boxes that live in the house and no couch foot.  There are still about 15 boxes in the garage we have not opened (camping, hunting, garage tools) that will be opened eventually, but I can't imagine the couch foot is hiding in there.  We currently have a small stack up books supporting the couch.

Ahhh moving... so fun... right?

PS - I cannot believe you only had 2 movers?  That is terrible.  Your poor furniture.  But impressive progress on the garage!!  The good news if you lose power, is that there will be nothing to distract from unpacking, right?  

PPS - chocolate!! Good choice! - coping with moving is really hard on my mental health. coping with chocolate and good bread and ice cream = why I'm up 10 pounds over the last 2 months. 🙂 I'm starting to work on that this week and feeling a little like it was too soon to give up sugar!

[LisaKinVA]

16 minutes ago, WendyLady said:

This reminds me that we are missing one foot from our couch!  All feet from other couches and the armoire arrived just fine in the "parts" box, but the center support foot for our long leather couch is gone.  We have emptied all boxes that live in the house and no couch foot.  There are still about 15 boxes in the garage we have not opened (camping, hunting, garage tools) that will be opened eventually, but I can't imagine the couch foot is hiding in there.  We currently have a small stack up books supporting the couch.

Ahhh moving... so fun... right?

PS - I cannot believe you only had 2 movers?  That is terrible.  Your poor furniture.  But impressive progress on the garage!!  The good news if you lose power, is that there will be nothing to distract from unpacking, right?  

PPS - chocolate!! Good choice! - coping with moving is really hard on my mental health. coping with chocolate and good bread and ice cream = why I'm up 10 pounds over the last 2 months. 🙂 I'm starting to work on that this week and feeling a little like it was too soon to give up sugar!

And here I was all set to start being healthy.  Yesterday, I just wanted donuts.  I don't even really like donuts.  But, eating my feelings... yeah, I've been prone to do that once or twice (one time, I drank an entire bottle of wine in about 2 hours and went to bed... you have to keep in mind that in the roughly 48 years prior, I had maybe had drunk enough wine to fill one bottle).  

No power means we'll continue moving stuff around to try to figure out what to unpack.  We haven't actually unpacked much more -- working on bedrooms at the moment, getting clothes kind of put away.  The kitchen counters are still covered with I don't know what.  Most of the items are going to need to go back into a box until we can figure out what to do with them (you could also read that as... until my furniture is put together, fixed or replaced).