It's official. We've sold our condo, and we're now homeless. In a manner of speaking of course. The closing itself went smoothly. The actual moving did not. On Thursday of last week, I had scheduled our move for 2:30 pm. The day before I went and picked up the key to our storage unit and made sure of their hours and policies, etc. I confirmed with the movers and went to sleep for the last night in our place feeling confident everything would be fine. I woke up Thursday ready to go. We took the cat and dog to my parents' house to get them out of the way and then went back to the condo to finish up some packing and wait for the movers.
At 1 pm I got a call from the moving company scheduler, E. E told me that the movers were going to be late because the elevator in the building that they were at for the move before us had broken and the guys were going to have to use the stairs. She gave me an ETA of 3:30-4 pm. Ok, fine. This kind of thing happens. I figured that as long as they were there by 4, we would have plenty of time to move everything out and into storage by the closing time of 10 pm. That's a whole 6 hours, and my estimate told me the move would take 3.5 hours. We're doing great! Rah rah, go Team!
My enthusiasm began to wan when the movers still hadn't arrived by 4:30 pm. Our stress levels were building. Finally at 4:45 pm, the three movers showed up with their truck. Within minutes they were moving boxes. About an hour into the move the job foreman, A, took me aside and told me the move looks like it'll take 6 hours. That was a huge surprise since the estimate seemed fairly tight, and I didn't have that many more boxes than I had anticipated. I told A that we didn't have 6 hours since we have to be moved into the storage facility by 10 pm. He kept going and they tried their best to move quickly. E called and tried to tell me I underestimated the amount of stuff we had. I told her to call me only with good news.
E calls at about 7:45 pm asking how the job was going. I told her that we were only half done and that I was extremely worried we weren't going to be finished by 10 pm. She asked if she could send a 4th guy out and I agreed. Of course you can! Whatever it takes. My new slogan.
The 4th guy was the laziest, most incompetent man on earth. He wasted time dragging his feet and drinking his Monster Energy drink. Hello . . . mister No-Energy man, get your ass in gear! We don't have time for you to "rest". YOU just got here. So, at 9:30 pm I am officially freaking out and decided to head over to the storage facility to see if I could get the door open at 10 for the truck. As I pulled in and used the code to open the door, the alarms went off. I thought that was a nice touch. Here storage user, don't freak out! We're just so happy you're here we want to make the lights flash and wake the neighbors. I called the 1-800 number to see how I could open the door after 10 pm if needed. My conversation with the gentleman on the line went like this:
Me: Sir, what happens if I'm in the garage after 10 pm and need to get my truck in to unload?
Man: Ma'am, I don't mean to alarm you, but you need to leave the facility immediately. After 10 pm the facility is on lock down and no doors will open to let you out. You will be stuck until morning.
Me: What? Huh? Say that again.
Man: Please head out now before you are locked in.
Me: (expletives)
Man: Ma'am?
Me: Sorry! Ok, I'm out now.
Man: Maybe you should call your movers . . .
Me: Buddy, you better believe they are getting a call from me.
Man: Thanks for calling. Have a great night! Good luck!
Me: Hah.
So, basically, the movers had to finish loading the truck still and then keep it in a secure location overnight because they were late and screwed up the whole day. The best part is that they couldn't tell me exactly when I could expect them to unload the truck since they were so booked. Sweet. My stuff is somewhere in Chicago for the night, possibly longer.
The next morning, Friday, we had our closing, handed over the keys and told him we left eggs and a loaf of bread in the refrigerator on accident. Make yourself a sandwich friend. At 1:00 pm I got a call that the truck would be there at 1:30 - 2 pm to unload at the storage unit. Tim and I highttailed it from the Loop up north and made it there on time. Much to my surprise they were half done. They had 6 guys and were moving at lightning speed. Finally at about 3 pm they were done and paid. I sold a kidney for this.
All in all, this was the worst moving experience of my young life. It wasn't anyone's fault per se. They were late because of an unforeseen problem and that threw off everything else. The moving company handled it professionally and made it as easy as they could. But now I know. . .I need 4 guys, a bigger truck, and the first move of the day. I've got it all figured out for October 13th. Make no mistake, E, if this takes as long the second time, its YOUR fault.
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