The End of the Nightmare. And Beginning. (1 Viewer)

BarrieJ3

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So I’ve obviously mentioned our move to France. Timing with Covid not so great, had some issues, yadda yada.

Coming back, we made sure to hire a super reputable moving firm, and just hope all the subcontracted work would go smooth.

They loaded up a truck in France, then after they took half of our belongings, said oops it was a miscalculation, if you want the rest taken it’ll be an additional 10k. They had half our stuff hostage at the docks, we had to say okay. Next day they show up with a tiny truck, fill it, and say that’s all you paid for. We ended up leaving quite a bit behind, but grabbed most of the favorites. It was last minute, and sadly chose between some really meaningful, powerful stuff to squeeze in vs throw away in the airport parking lot. Boo hoo, you’re going home suck it up.

Arrive in the US! Go buy some cheap target clothes because they took your suitcase of clothes. House gets delayed repeatedly, spend a fortune on air B&Bs, but today’s the day!!!

We’re in the house, movers are delayed. And delayed. Delayed again. It’s 8 pm, no one knows where they are. I don’t even know who’s lying, the contractor, dispatcher, sub contractor?

Aha they’re here! That’s not a shipping container on a semi....it’s a family in a Uhaul. This is not making fun of their physical appearance, it’s strictly regarding their line of work - a short, portly man and 3 short, VERY portly women. In a Uhaul.

They proceed to carry in a mattress for us to sleep on (my kids are asleep on the floor in their empty rooms). They don’t have the physical capabilities to lift the mattress, so they drag it upstairs, barely able to breathe to completion. They bring one more in. They’re parking the Uhaul and will be back tomorrow. Showed me some pictures, somehow all of our stuff is unwrapped. We watched the movers wrap stuff. But now it’s unwrapped. Some broken. Random non painters tape all over furniture.

And in all it’s glory, this is our King size mattress they dropped off at 11 PM for us to sleep on:

Unwrapped/unsealed, torn, and brand new stains, yay. We obviously won’t be sleeping on it tonight.
09A33D59-D052-45C0-B366-28328C0BF2A4.jpeg


This isn’t complaining, or misery loves company. My wife and I just stood in the room and thought this was as insane as anything we could’ve imagined. Literally don’t know if it’s time to laugh or cry. WTF happened? This isn’t customs, they don’t just undo everything and send it off. How the hell did our stuff get tossed and wrecked between France and here?

It’s a mystery whodunnit, and story that I would say is some fake reddit post if I wasn’t living it. I don’t even know how these “movers” are going to get everything in tomorrow. At least maybe they’ll have masks or shoe coverings tomorrow, doubt it.
 
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So I’ve obviously mentioned our move to France. Timing with Covid not so great, had some issues, yadda yada.

Coming back, we made sure to hire a super reputable moving firm, and just hope all the subcontracted work would go smooth.

They loaded up a truck in France, then after they took half of our belongings, said oops it was a miscalculation, if you want the rest taken it’ll be an additional 10k. They had half our stuff hostage at the docks, we had to say okay. Next day they show up with a tiny truck, fill it, and say that’s all you paid for. We ended up leaving quite a bit behind, but grabbed most of the favorites. It was last minute, and sadly chose between some really meaningful, powerful stuff to squeeze in vs throw away in the airport parking lot. Boo hoo, you’re going home suck it up.

Arrive in the US! Go buy some cheap target clothes because they took your suitcase of clothes. House gets delayed repeatedly, spend a fortune on air B&Bs, but today’s the day!!!

We’re in the house, movers are delayed. And delayed. Delayed again. It’s 8 pm, no one knows where they are. I don’t even know who’s lying, the contractor, dispatcher, sub contractor?

Aha they’re here! That’s not a shipping container on a semi....it’s a family in a Uhaul. This is not making fun of their physical appearance, it’s strictly regarding their line of work - a short, portly man and 3 short, VERY portly women. In a Uhaul.

They proceed to carry in a mattress for us to sleep on (my kids are asleep on the floor in their empty rooms). They don’t have the physical capabilities to lift the mattress, so they drag it upstairs, barely able to breathe to completion. They bring one more in. They’re parking the Uhaul and will be back tomorrow. Showed me some pictures, somehow all of our stuff is unwrapped. We watched the movers wrap stuff. But now it’s unwrapped. Some broken. Random non painters tape all over furniture.

And in all it’s glory, this is our King size mattress they dropped off at 11 PM for us to sleep on:

Unwrapped/unsealed, torn, and brand new stains, yay. We obviously won’t be sleeping on it tonight.
View attachment 535324

This isn’t complaining, or misery loves company. My wife and I just stood in the room and thought this was as insane as anything we could’ve imagined. Literally don’t know if it’s time to laugh or cry. WTF happened? This isn’t customs, they don’t just undo everything and send it off. How the hell did our stuff get tossed and wrecked between France and here?

It’s a mystery whodunnit, and story that I would say is some fake reddit post if I wasn’t living it. I don’t even know how these “movers” are going to get everything in tomorrow. At least maybe they’ll have masks or shoe coverings tomorrow, doubt it.
DAFAQ? Did y'all hire the French equivalent of Three Men and a Truck?? Jeeze, I hope all works out for you and that you have a personal property policy. :eek:
 
I guess the real question here is, has anyone had luck with moving insurance claims of thousands of dollars?

There are SO many people involved and contracted for a stupid move, I have no idea how I’m going to get it through.
 
DAFAQ? Did y'all hire the French equivalent of Three Men and a Truck?? Jeeze, I hope all works out for you and that you have a personal property policy. :eek:
25 fricken thousand dollars. Work helped out, but moving definitely killed our bankroll.

I’m a crappy adult, so I’m not sure what all ppp covers and is considered, but we paid insurance through the original contract. I’m already kicking myself for not going higher.

Should be an interesting tomorrow, I’m sure there will be some frightening photos.
 
Unfrickinbelievable! I'm so sorry to read about this. It's truly frightening that anybody can conduct their business that way AND expect to get paid.

:eek::eek::eek:

No tip, I hope.
 
Perhaps legal advice would be in order? Sooner than later. It has been a long time but in the back of my mind is a note that freight carriage has a byzantine set of rules - rules written to benefit the vendor not the customer.

Be very careful about signing anything. Even if you think you know what the words mean. Also, be mindful that most of these documents have a front and a back with important information "hidden" on parts of the multipart form you can't see without unzipping the pages.

I hate to see this happen. It must be infuriating.
 
As if moving is not brutal enough. Yuck! My positive thoughts and prayers for you and your family. What a nightmare. Stay strong.
 
Perhaps legal advice would be in order? Sooner than later. It has been a long time but in the back of my mind is a note that freight carriage has a byzantine set of rules - rules written to benefit the vendor not the customer.

Be very careful about signing anything. Even if you think you know what the words mean. Also, be mindful that most of these documents have a front and a back with important information "hidden" on parts of the multipart form you can't see without unzipping the pages.

I hate to see this happen. It must be infuriating.
Yeah it’s set up so that you have some very limited amount of time and a lot of moving targets to hit. I need to get paperwork and company ID numbers and everything, but already folks are just signing off and not returning emails/calls.
You moved a mattress from France? WTF? It probably cost you more to move it than a brand new one to replace it.
When you’re moving a whole shipping container, you just have em throw it in with everything else! (Well not literally, but looks like someone took it that way :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:)
Unfrickinbelievable! I'm so sorry to read about this. It's truly frightening that anybody can conduct their business that way AND expect to get paid.

:eek::eek::eek:

No tip, I hope.
Yeah I think I wrote this up for the shock and laughs (incredulous), as for the moment that’s holding tears back. I’m hoping tomorrow there’s enough anger to hold the tears back. My wife is a strong woman, but this may be too much even for her.
 
I just messaged the mover asking what he meant by some stuff is unwrapped and damaged, as I’m not worried about a ding.

He responded with well here’s one piece....(wtf is it doing in some garage with cars!?!?)

1600409102924.jpeg

1600409132350.jpeg

1600409175822.jpeg


I’m heading to bed, at least appliances and internet come tomorrow. Thanks for being a place to commiserate, I know a lot of folks are going through worse right now.
 
You moved a mattress from France? WTF? It probably cost you more to move it than a brand new one to replace it.
Lol as @BarrieJ3 says when you move continents you just take as much as you can fit in a shipping container. Everything goes with you
 
Wow. That is the worst I’ve ever heard of and I‘be been around a lot of moves. Tons wrong with what was going on in OP. Lots and lots of questions. Namely, who do you work for so I never go to work for them? And, then, where were they in all of this? You got shook down in France, which was a portend for everything that came after. The moving company may be on the hook for a paltry, per pound amount, but any real coverage you are going to get will come from whatever supplemental insurance you added.

Ugh. Nightmare.
 
Lol as @BarrieJ3 says when you move continents you just take as much as you can fit in a shipping container. Everything goes with you

This isn’t always the case, especially if you will eventually be moving back to the original country. Or your employer puts a limit on the weight they will move, and/or store, at their expense, which is common. You may have to make choices in what to send overseas and what to put in long term storage or, in OPs situation, abandon.

Man, what a nightmare.
 
This isn’t always the case, especially if you will eventually be moving back to the original country. Or your employer puts a limit on the weight they will move, and/or store, at their expense, which is common. You may have to make choices in what to send overseas and what to put in long term storage or, in OPs situation, abandon.

Man, what a nightmare.
That's true. I was speaking from the experience of a permanent move, unrelated to employment.

Hope you get some resolution @BarrieJ3
 
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Very common in NY for the less-than-premium movers to quote you a price, get to the site, then refuse to unload until you pay more. Sadly, it happens WAY too often.
Glad you’re safe and sound, at least.

I was going to say the same thing, definitely heard of moving companies holding the stuff hostage for more money.....even after signed contracts and shit......I can only imagine how horrible it would be going between countries....!
Here's an article with some info on this:
https://www.movebuddha.com/blog/movers-holding-items-hostage/

Good luck dude!
 
So I’ve obviously mentioned our move to France. Timing with Covid not so great, had some issues, yadda yada.

Coming back, we made sure to hire a super reputable moving firm, and just hope all the subcontracted work would go smooth.

They loaded up a truck in France, then after they took half of our belongings, said oops it was a miscalculation, if you want the rest taken it’ll be an additional 10k. They had half our stuff hostage at the docks, we had to say okay. Next day they show up with a tiny truck, fill it, and say that’s all you paid for. We ended up leaving quite a bit behind, but grabbed most of the favorites. It was last minute, and sadly chose between some really meaningful, powerful stuff to squeeze in vs throw away in the airport parking lot. Boo hoo, you’re going home suck it up.

Arrive in the US! Go buy some cheap target clothes because they took your suitcase of clothes. House gets delayed repeatedly, spend a fortune on air B&Bs, but today’s the day!!!

We’re in the house, movers are delayed. And delayed. Delayed again. It’s 8 pm, no one knows where they are. I don’t even know who’s lying, the contractor, dispatcher, sub contractor?

Aha they’re here! That’s not a shipping container on a semi....it’s a family in a Uhaul. This is not making fun of their physical appearance, it’s strictly regarding their line of work - a short, portly man and 3 short, VERY portly women. In a Uhaul.

They proceed to carry in a mattress for us to sleep on (my kids are asleep on the floor in their empty rooms). They don’t have the physical capabilities to lift the mattress, so they drag it upstairs, barely able to breathe to completion. They bring one more in. They’re parking the Uhaul and will be back tomorrow. Showed me some pictures, somehow all of our stuff is unwrapped. We watched the movers wrap stuff. But now it’s unwrapped. Some broken. Random non painters tape all over furniture.

And in all it’s glory, this is our King size mattress they dropped off at 11 PM for us to sleep on:

Unwrapped/unsealed, torn, and brand new stains, yay. We obviously won’t be sleeping on it tonight.
View attachment 535324

This isn’t complaining, or misery loves company. My wife and I just stood in the room and thought this was as insane as anything we could’ve imagined. Literally don’t know if it’s time to laugh or cry. WTF happened? This isn’t customs, they don’t just undo everything and send it off. How the hell did our stuff get tossed and wrecked between France and here?

It’s a mystery whodunnit, and story that I would say is some fake reddit post if I wasn’t living it. I don’t even know how these “movers” are going to get everything in tomorrow. At least maybe they’ll have masks or shoe coverings tomorrow, doubt it.

How was France. Did you like it there?
 
What a brutal experience. So sorry this happened. I’ve audited big moving companies that do corporate moves over seas. Worst I’ve seen was when someone had all their earthly possessions packed into a shipping container which subsequently fell off the boat and sank to the bottom of the ocean. I remember reading those emails....
 
Your story reminds me of the movie "Moving" with Richard Pryor. It's one of those movies that years ago I just stumbled across while flipping through movie channels on TV, and found it amusing. After what you've gone through, (or still going through), I recommend it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095662/
 
Your story reminds me of the movie "Moving" with Richard Pryor. It's one of those movies that years ago I just stumbled across while flipping through movie channels on TV, and found it amusing. After what you've gone through, (or still going through), I recommend it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095662/
Isn't that the movie where he randomly is moving to Boise Idaho in the 80s.... GREAT. APPRECIATE THAT RICHARD.
 
This is terrible, I'm cringing just reading your experience with this company. I'm I'm paying $25k to move my belongings, there better be (1) no scratches on anything and (2) a rack of gold 25k Southern Indiana Horseshoe chips included with the drop off!

Sorry, I would be very upset and hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the contract. Taking advantage during COVID is especially unethical.
 
Your story reminds me of the movie "Moving" with Richard Pryor. It's one of those movies that years ago I just stumbled across while flipping through movie channels on TV, and found it amusing. After what you've gone through, (or still going through), I recommend it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095662/
Thanks everyone, got some early morning smiles here while I call trying to get ahold of mgmt level folks.

And thanks for the recommendation, this might be just what’s needed when it’s all said and done. First movie up for the theatre room!
 

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