06 Sep
The Chicago Moving Saga
After what felt like endless discussion back and forth That Husband and I decided to use a company called Compass Van Lines for our move. (Can we take a second and talk about that name? What does it even mean? Maybe they are trying to convey that their vans (trucks) never get lost?)
There are so many options for moving. Throw everything away and pack what you can in suitcases you take on the plane (as TH did when he first moved to Dallas before we were married). Throw most of your stuff away and pack the rest of your belongings in your car (which my friend Janssen just did). We also considered good old U-Haul, and the PODS that all of our friends seem to be using lately. I immediately nixed U-Haul after considering what it would be like to have TH driving the truck while I followed behind with the baby in the backseat all by myself. We almost went with the PODS, but Compass Van Lines ended up costing less and they packed the truck up for us, and will be unloading all of our stuff as well. Win!
The experience in Dallas with the loading was a great one. We had a pile of free stuff in the garage that we let the movers pick through, which made them happy because they walked away with entire garbage bags full of food and clothes, and they were courteous and careful with our stuff. From what TH told me, they took our stuff, drove it to a storage facility, unloaded it, and then left it there until they had enough stuff from other people moving into the area surrounding Chicago (or on the way) to make it worth the drive. Then they load it all up into the same truck and drive up, dropping things off as they go. It’s a great system because we get a full service move for less than other companies quoted us, but it’s probably not the way to go if the thought of being separated from your possessions (and having no idea if all of your possessions will be correctly loaded up again and brought to you) makes you anxious.
They loaded up our stuff on August 26th. Yesterday, September4th, we finally got the call that the truck was almost here. HOORAY!!! (3 exclamation points definitely necessary for such news.)
We’re going to be there at 11 pm to move you in. Okay, well that won’t work since we have to use a freight elevator and loading dock and they won’t let us do it that late at night.
Nevermind, we’re going to stay in _____ tonight, so we won’t be there until tomorrow morning. Expect us at 7 am. We schedule the freight elevator for 7 am.
We wake up on Sunday morning, movers-are-coming-day, and it feels weird to not be getting ready for church. It’s 7 am, now 8, now 9, now 10:30, and finally they call. TH goes downstairs to get them and bring them up so they know the way.
Awesome apartment you have, can we take pictures of the view? Oh yeah, please give us $$$$$. No, we will not give you that money, we already paid it back in Dallas and here is the receipt you gave us that proves this.
Oh, well we don’t have the original receipt with us because we forgot it back in Dallas, and we called our boss and he said that he doesn’t want to go into the office to verify that the receipt is the real deal so we’re going to get a hotel for the night and move you in tomorrow. Well thanks for making us skip church and put away our blow up beds and get all excited about no longer having to eat with our plates in our laps while sitting cross legged on the floor.
This picture, taken on my iPhone, is from our walk home from church last week. I love my boys!
After sitting around with bummed looks on our faces for a few minutes we realized that we still had enough time to get to church, albeit with the singles ward instead of our regular family ward. (LDS wards are divided up into family, single, and sometimes language wards. We heard that there aren’t any Polish wards in Chicago anymore which is sad because I kind of wanted to go!) We walked in right before they started and T1, being only one of two babies in the room, was passed around from pew to pew while all of the students did their best to try to make him laugh and smile.
It’s late Sunday night now, and all we can do is hope that the movers show up as promised to drop our stuff off tomorrow. Though it was fun at first, sleeping on blow up mattresses with T1 in between us on the floor has gotten rather old, and my hips are aching because I spend all of my time at the computer sitting hunched over sitting cross-legged on the floor while I edit photos.
I’ll update this post and let you know how everything turns out. Right now I’m feeling optimistic, hoping that our Labor Day will be spent directing movers, doing a little bit of unpacking, and then hitting up Taste of Polonia 2010 later in the afternoon! TH is salivating over the thought of real Polish sausage, Pierogi, and Polish bread. I am, of course, most excited about all the great photo opps!
Update: It’s 11:00 am and we still don’t have any movers here (actually we haven’t even heard from them yet.) I’m not only bummed because we might not get our stuff today, but because we’re going to have to sit around waiting for them until they call and we might miss Taste of Polonia.
12:21 pm the movers are here! I think things are worked out and we should have everything unpacked in a few hours.
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Wow! He didn’t want to come in to check for the original receipt?! That’s just ridiculous. I’d make a big hoot and holler about it, if things get sour again tomorrow. I’m glad you were still able to make it to church. Isn’t it great that there’s always a kind of back up plan in the church? I love it! I hope you will still have fun tomorrow. Sounds like it will be really cool to go to the Taste of Polonia. I can’t wait for the post!
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1I guess they figure that since you won’t move often they don’t have to worry about treating you nice enough to have you come back next time… I can’t believe the boss wouldn’t go check! I’d be ticked, you sound much more calm than I would be! I’ll be crossing my fingers it gets settled tomorrow!
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2Ugh. Moving is such a pain in the butt. I really hope they bring you your stuff tomorrow because I’d be ready to throw a fit (by which I mean, give them mean looks) by this point.
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3Sorry about the experience you are having. Do you think you’ll use them again given the service you recieved? My husband and I moved back to the East with our then 3 month old and mailed all of our crap after donating and throwing away a lot. It was way cheaper but then again we didn’t have huge stuff either, mainly clothes and appliances.
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4Oh wow!! What a bummer!! You’re awesome for not throwing a fit about it!
It makes me think of the song from Les Miz, One Day More!! You’re so close!
How fun to take T1 to a Single’s Ward and let him be passed around!! I wish I had been there!
I don’t know anyone in our new ward well enough to ask to hold their baby for long…and Matt and I are both so baby hungry it’s ridiculous!!!
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5That IS a bit of a spoil to such a positive (and sensible cost-wise) moving experience. I hope they don’t mess you about again - it seems silly to not just accept their own reciept copy and get it over with. Isn’t it costing them more money to just ‘get a hotel room’ on a holiday weekend, than to just get your goods unpacked? Some people are strange!
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6Wow, you’re handling this much better than I ever could! I’m very impressed. That sounds like it was extremely stressful, and I don’t know that I could last that long without any of my stuff! I hope you get it today!!
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Cécy Reply:
September 6th, 2010 at 9:22 am
I was going to say the exact same thing. I would have been mad if my belongings were right there. I would have told them to unload because after all they know where to find me!
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http://www.scambusters.org/moving.html
I HATE this!! I heard a piece on TV a while back about scammers that do this. You might want to have the police on standby.
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Jenna Reply:
September 6th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Oh man, I wasn’t nervous until I read that link, but our situation does sound rather similar. I’m still doing okay though because they haven’t yet demanded more outright, just told us that they are going to be cautious and verify that the receipt we have is valid (which I understand, if one of my Jenna Cole clients came to me saying that their contract gave them XYZ I would turn to my own paperwork to verify that they were right). I hope I don’t have to write in to that scambusters site to tell them my story!
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Good luck today! I hope everything goes well and you’re able to get everything in today that you want!
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9I can’t believe they jerked you around like that on time! Kudos to you for being so calm about the whole thing, I would have already penned a strongly worded letter to corporate, haha.
I’m hoping you are directing movers as we speak! Good luck with all the unpacking!
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10wow, hopefully you get your stuff.
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11I hope you get your furniture today. It always seems to take so much longer to unpack and find places for things that to pack to me. So having an extra day of waiting doesn’t help.
I can’t wait to see pictures on how you set up the appartment.
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12Oh how frustrating! I would have cried on the spot! Best of luck!!
So nice to meet you the other day!
~Stacie/MaPo/BikiniBy30
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13Oh Jenna I am hoping that your movers are moving things in right now! So frustrating and scary to deal with people who are holding your possessions hostage.
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14I so hope you get your stuff today. I dont know if I could wait that long!
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15Another example of why moving is the worst. I hope you get your stuff. Can you call them? What does your contract say about how long they have to get you your stuff?
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16i don’t believe in hell, but if i did — it would be moving. a continuous, neverending move. as someone who, 2 months later, is finally working on finishing touches to the new place? i so hear you and also — it DOES get done! somehow, somehow it just does… hang in there mama!
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17What the HECK?? I would be livid. Actually, livid might not even cover it. And I can’t even begin to imagine what Josh would be like. Wow. I sincerely hope you get your things today. We’ve never used movers, but for our next move (in a few years) I know we will. I will definitely not forget this story or this company. Keep us updated. Sending happy thoughts your way!
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18This is a fairly common scam in the moving biz “we forgot the original receipt” and try to get you to pay again by not delivering your items and when they do in most cases it will be damaged or “lost”. A quick Google search found complaints going back to 2008 for the same company in Florida and a few from Texas, sure there were good reviews but usually it’s the owner of the company posting fake reviews to balance out the bad. The BBB site had 10 resolved complaints in the last 36 months for the Texas based company.
I hope for your sake that they are being truthful but be prepared to have the police called in. The whole “didn’t want to go to the office to check the original” sounds a bit fishy to me. It’s called customer service!
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19I’m so sorry this is happening to you! I’m glad the movers showed up finally though!
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20Just checked back in for an update…so glad to hear it’s sorted.
Happy unpacking!
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21Moving is stressful enough, without knowing when your stuff is going to arrive. Good luck! Hope you have your stuff soon!
Chicago is an awesome city, hope you get to really enjoy it!
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22I was so excited to hear about this company but now I’m a little disappointed about their service. Glad they finally made it, and that you get unpacked quickly!
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23So glad to hear you finally have your belongings! I would have been really frustrated. Good luck with the unpacking!
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24I’m so glad this worked out for you and I was wrong in my suspicions…but they really should be more organized and professional and get their act together.
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25Glad to hear the movers are there & hope you’re able to get to the festival tonight!!
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26I know this is super-late commenting, but look into Polish grocery stores in the area. Chicago used to have a great one called Bobek’s, which has since closed but I think it was replaced with a similar store, however it’s out in the suburbs, in the Willowbrook area, but I’m sure there are similar places in the Polish neighborhoods in the city. If TH misses home at all, Chicago is the BEST place in the country to be, what with the huge Polish population (it’s why Casimir Pulaski Day is a holiday from school in Illinois), There are tons of places to get great Polish food (and of course you need to try real Chicago style hotdogs and pizza while you’re there. I recommend Wonderdawg and Lou Malnati’s personally) It’s a great place and you’re going to love living there
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