A BIT CHAOTIC, A BIT CARELESS
A BIT CHAOTIC, A BIT CARELESS
Over the years, I’ve had no fewer than 8 professional moves, several were long distance (>1,400 km) and one was across an ocean, so I’m not new to a moving experience. I know the work is hard and that the packing crews want to move as fast as possible. Not only is important how our furnishings are packed, but also, how easily can we find what we need when are trying to settle into a new house. Of all of those moves, this was the most chaotic and lacking in care.
THE GOOD NEWS:
All of our goods arrived in fine condition. The unloading crew was careful and courteous. The pricing was fair.
THE CHAOTIC:
The load date was scheduled, we arranged for rental accommodation based on that load date, which was ~6 days in advance of the closing on our home. It was only when I called a couple of days in advance to re-confirm the loading date, that I was told it had changed to two days before closing. We wound up paying for ~4 night accommodation that was unnecessary.
When the load date was confirmed, the scheduler was confident it would be packed and loaded in one day. At the time of quoting, it was determined it would take two days, which the packing crew confirmed immediately upon arrival.
During the price quoting phase, we discussed moving the contents of our wine cellar, which was only about 10 cases of wine. With a shared laugh, the Just Move agent agreed that we didn’t want to leave the wine behind. When the loading crew arrived, we were told that as we would not be with the moving van on the same ferry, customs might confiscate our wine. A call to the manager at Just Move confirmed we should be able to load the wine….until he spoke to the driver. On that load day, we now had to find temporary storage for our wine (at an additional expense, and with costs incurred when we returned to reclaim it).
LACKING IN CARE:
Moving crews want to move fast - understood. As the client, when I am unpacking, I want to be able to find what I need/want amongst my sea of boxes. With the intention of finding a balance between packer’s speed, and our unpacking experience, I created labels for a few specific items (works of art). All the packing crew had to do was to peel off our label and put it on the exterior of the moving carton. It was only after the first few boxes were packed did I realize this request had been ignored. Rather than request the boxes be opened, and the labels affixed, I worked with the packing crew to try to remember what had been packed where, then I manually labeled the boxes. After this intervention on our part, the crew did accommodate our wish to display any pre-made labels.
On the last day, one of the packing crew broke a flushing mechanism on one of the toilets and didn’t bring it to our attention. We discovered it only after the packing crew had gone. There wasn’t enough time to repair the toilet, so we had to make financial reparations with the homebuyer.
3 March 2026
Unprompted review