THE NIGHTMARE MOVE

We’ve all probably moved and moving at best is traumatic; at worst, it’s a nightmare. Last January I flew down to West Palm Beach in search of an apartment. Through the magic of the Internet, I found an honorable, delightful, clever and funny broker who showed several apartments to me.  Name upon request. One was perfect and after very brief negotiations, I bought it. The owner wanted to close on March 1st which meant I had to get my act together faster than a speeding bullet. I interviewed four movers toot suite and decided on one. BIG MISTAKE!

Four burly men arrived at my apartment on Friday, February 28th and packed all my possessions. I didn’t think there was so much since I had given dozens of books to my grandson, a variety of things to my daughter and cartons to a charity. The moving men were very nice and helpful, spent about eight hours moving the stuff and earned a rather large tip. Another BIG MISTAKE.

I flew to Florida on March 1st and stayed with a friend until Friday, the 4th, when the movers were scheduled to arrive.  Two very nice men brought everything to my new apartment. There were an endless number of cartons – exactly162 and pounds of packing paper. I didn’t quite understand how they had filled 162 cartons. But I found out.

Luckily, my daughter has a friend here in Palm Beach with whom she went to high school whose business is helping people move in and/or out. My daughter sent me a funny email informing me that she had found another daughter for me in Palm Beach. She arrived the morning of the move in and was truly a lifesaver (name upon request) accepting cartons, furniture, etc., checking off everything on their master list, pushing cartons around and helping me unpack.  Now there’s packing and over-packing. One item and reams of paper in each carton seemed like overkill. I shuddered to think of how many trees were sacrificed for all that paper. Another BIG MISTAKE.

We soon discovered that they had broken an original Knoll end table in half. How they did that remains a mystery since the pedestal is solid steel. They also broke a wood leg off an ottoman and my ironing board that no longer stood up. Now I have moved a few times in my life and never had a problem. 

To add insult to injury, they billed my American Express card more than $1,200 above the estimate.  Were they kidding????  It cost me over $400 to replace the table and over $200 to repair the ottoman.  The new ironing board was petty cash. What does one do in such a situation? Call American Express and say HELP. Not a BIG MISTAKE.

As of this writing, I have not heard from this bungling company which surprises me since by now they have to know that the overcharge was stopped. I’m cool. When they get around to calling, the conversation should be most interesting. The moral is: Always owe the money and laugh all the way to the bank.