Our Move From Hell

I’ve always known moving is stressful, but I never expected to be living through a horror story . Yet here we are.

A few weeks ago, we hired a moving company to handle packing and loading for us. The plan was simple (or simple for a moving company whose job is to do exactly this): they would spend 7.5 to 8 hours packing about 70–75 boxes (per their quote), and then load everything carefully into our pod. We even had a great first experience with them two weeks earlier when they packed our first pod, so we trusted them.

That trust didn’t last long.

The movers showed up a little late, around 10:25 a.m… and right away, one of the guys left to “run an errand.” They smelled strongly of weed, which definitely wasn’t reassuring.

Around 1 p.m., my in-laws arrived to check on how things were going – only to find the movers preparing to leave. Outside, they saw them shoving part of our couch into the pod, crushing it against my Peloton bike. My mother-in-law had to step in to stop them and even offered to handle that piece herself so the bike wouldn’t get damaged. Thinking they had somehow finished the entire job quickly and efficiently, she tipped them $20 each.

Once she went inside, though, she discovered that NOTHING had actually been packed. Not a single box had been used. Instead, they had just thrown all our things directly into the pod, loose and completely unprotected. In photos, you can see they stuffed couch cushions around a gas-powered weed eater (which isn’t even allowed in pods) and casually placed baby monitors in an open tub.

They claimed they were done because the pod was “full.” Meanwhile, they were supposed to pack the entire house. They didn’t disassemble furniture as promised (they didn’t even bring tools) yet they still attempted to take things apart, damaging our bed in the process. They also ripped my daughter’s closet system out of the wall without any tools (a later mover said it might have been unscrewed?).

They left random things up in the loft, but packed random including roof shingles (which were supposed to stay with the house)… but only some of them and not all of them?

My husband had even taken the time that morning to carefully disassemble and set aside two $500 BedJet units so they could be packed properly. Instead, they threw them into the pod loose, which we were never able to get them out… so we will see if they are in working condition when we unpack.

The company offered to send the original crew back. We refused at first because we didn’t trust them, they did come back though to at least unpack part of the pod.

Two weeks before, the first crew had told us everything would fit in a single pod, and that matched what the guidelines from Pds suggested. Because of this, we didn’t order a third pod. But thanks to the poor packing job (by both the first and second crews — since they were supposed to fully unpack and repack but stopped halfway), we couldn’t fit everything. We ended up using the in-law’s trailer and making multiple trips to store items at their house. We now have to pay extra for movers to retrieve these items when we move into our new house next week.

Around 5 p.m., a replacement “elite squad” finally arrived (later than promised). They didn’t have us sign in or out as required, and they showed up without tape or tape cutters. One of the helpers assigned to the kitchen admitted he didn’t know how to pack a kitchen and that he had never done it before. My mother-in-law had to teach him how to wrap and box fragile kitchen items. Additionally, the movers that showed up (although nice and willing to listen) didn’t even know how to assemble a box. They were doing the thing where you fold the flaps in and not use tape because they didn’t know how to do it with tape. My mother-in-law also had to show them how to build boxes.

Both of my in-laws, plus my husband, ended up spending the entire day fixing the mess. My husband was moving boxes and furniture down to the pod himself, even though we had specifically hired packers so we wouldn’t have to do this work (especially since I was 4.5 hours away).

The first crew returned to start unpacking the pod so the new team could repack it, but they only did it halfway, even though they said they’d fully reorganize it. They also needed to remove my daughter’s closet system from the pod, which they left sitting out rather than reinstalling. My father-in-law had to come back on Sunday morning to reinstall and re-anchor it.

Meanwhile, my mother-in-law also had to spend four hours at our house on Sunday morning cleaning because my husband couldn’t do it Saturday afternoon as planned (he was supposed to start around 3 p.m. once packing was done).

And it didn’t stop there. Both crews packed all of our cleaning supplies and even a case of beer, even though we were explicitly told they couldn’t pack liquids.

We also had three mattresses that needed protective covers – either ones we provided or those they were supposed to supply (which of course they didn’t bring any supplies). They only covered one mattress. The other two were shoved bare into the pod, completely unprotected and exposed to dirt and damage.

There was still stuff that wouldn’t fit in the pod since they didn’t completely unpack the pod like they said they would. Joel had to have his parents bring the trailer back over the next day to load up and store at their house.

What was supposed to be a professional, stress-free move turned into a nightmare that forced our family to step in, created unexpected costs, and left us with potential damage we won’t fully know the extent of until we unload everything. We paid extra to avoid this exact situation and instead, it was worse than if we had just packed everything ourselves.

The biggest lesson? Vet your movers deeply, ask very specific questions, double-check everything in writing, possibly stay the WHOLE time (which seems unnecessary), and always have backup supplies just in case your “packers” show up and decide to wing it.

I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone….we will be working with the moving company to see how they plan to make this right.