You get what you pay for? - Moving Review

Okay... here's how the moving hilarity went down:

phone call at 7:45am on Monday telling me that since the moving truck is dispatched from the same town as me that it should arrive shortly.

I pull my fish out of the tank and we start dragging our 195 boxes onto the driveway, where they sit in the HOT sun for the next 4 hours.

Truck shows up at noon, one fish already dead and the others are looking wobbly...

The moving truck is the most hoopty looking vehicle I've ever seen... parts of the top were duct-taped together where it had obviously smashed into a low overpass.

The three slacker dudes then take 4 hours to load the thing... dropping boxes, spilling an entire Gatorade on a tv and other boxes, getting bike chain grease all over a mattress and other cushions because they are just piling shit up as high as it will go with no attempt at organization... busted lamp, dinged up furniture, crushed boxes... etc.

We're hauling out stuff as fast as we can and there isn't a moment during the move that at least one guy isn't just chilling and talking on his cell phone or standing in the truck and staring into space.

Nobody knows how to get to my new address so I explain the directions 495 to tysons, 7 west... THAT'S IT! I tell them to follow me in my ORANGE car and yet they take the wrong exits TWICE and we drive around for a half hour trying to get back on course (all on my dime, of course)

We get the joint at 5 and things slow to a crawl... these guys are moving one box every 5 minutes... I'm moving 3 boxes for every one that they haul... then they spend 45 minutes trying to get a box spring up a stairwell... totally baffled by the geometry of the event... I throw a tantrum at this point and FINALLY things starts moving along... at about 7pm I get a call from some guy who says "I'm checking on my crew" I tell him that things are going poorly and that I can't talk now because I am carrying my own furniture up the stairs so that I can be done before midnight.

Anyway... finally tally: 9.5 hours of moving at $115 an hour plus a gas fee, plus other fees (and an attempt to retroactively ding me for insurance options that I didn't choose)

All this in an attempt to save a few bucks by not going with a bigger name mover. Next time I'll rent a truck, hire a few movers and do this myself since I'm sure it'll go smoother that way.

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