Greetings from Summerville South Carolina

I know it’s been a while, but we have been very busy getting settled into our new home and there hasn’t been much time to write.  We did make it to the pool at least once and it was very nice. We have even had some nice conversations with people who live here and found a lovely church to visit. Whether or not we join will be seen as time goes by.

This is our twenty first move as a couple. Between the navy and my second career, we have followed the wandering star. It is interesting that I was in a high school musical called Paint Your Wagon and one of the key songs was “I was born, under a wandering star”. I guess life imitates art sometimes. As I looked out my back porch last night at dusk, I saw that star.

I wished that it would leave me alone this time.

I’ve established some relationships with my submarine veteran brothers here in Charleston. I’m looking forward to getting more involved once things settle down here at the house. I’m also in discussions with the Navy League and Naval Submarine League about how I can contribute. The country is in such bad shape right now in regard to the navy and defense issues. I still believe what Teddy Roosevelt said over a hundred twenty years ago about a strong navy:

“A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace.”

• President Theodore Roosevelt, 2 December 1902, second annual message to Congress.

I think that all of us need to be a part of that conversation. Since three quarters of the world is still covered with water, having a strong navy is the only way we maintain our presence on the world stage. We are smaller now than in any recent time and while our capabilities are still impressive, China and many rogue nations pose a real threat to our security. That drives my passion and makes me want to dig in harder despite my age.

The move had its challenges

I’m not going to dwell too much on what happened except to say a few things that should be a cautionary for anyone that is about to make a decision on moving companies.

After twenty moves supported by the navy or the companies I worked for, this was the first time we made all the decisions on our own. In the past, the moving companies we used were assigned to us. Some were okay and some were not. But with the government behind us or at least the corporation we worked for, we always got the service and backup that we needed. This time we flew solo.

I investigated four different moving companies and had three finalists. This was based on their on-line ratings, personal interviews and three different companies giving us quotes based on in person visits or video visits. Thie was a pretty interesting way of getting a quote. I got all of them in writing and made a decision based on the amount of money and the ratings. The winner was US PRIME MOVERS INC out of Linden New Jersey. On July 31, after an extensive interview with Brian from their company, we received a quote for $11,500 to pack and deliver our goods to our new home. Ot was a significant savings over all of the other movers, and we made a decision to lock in the price. That cost me $3026.36. Non-refundable of course.

A few days prior to the actual move out date (the house here was already closing and we were about to close on the new house, we had not heard from “Brian” so I called the office, and the next guy informed me that they needed to do a video visit to make sure no errors had been made in the original quote. (Brian, the first guy, was conveniently not available. By the time we were done, he had increased the estimate to over $18,000. To say that we were shocked would be an understatement. And at that point not only was the deposit already non-refundable but we were out of time. But this guy assured me that we were going to have an amazing experience, and he even found a way to lower the cost to $16,000. At that point, we were totally screwed, and they knew it.

And how did this golden move go?

A short time after we were finally free from this horrendous company, they sent me a note asking how the move went.

This is my response:

“You have got to be kidding me? We have been married for 44 years and moved 21 times. This is the single most horrendous move in all of that time. The bait and switch pricing to start the process was soul crushing. We went from eleven thousand plus dollars to eighteen thousand dollars with even less stuff than we started with. The only reason we continued on was because I had put a non refundable deposit on the job. Reducing the price to sixteen thousand was still not acceptable.

The crew that showed up at our house only had one English speaker. That alone caused frustration and confusion. The guy doing the garage spoke zero English so could not read the well written signs on things not to pack. Including all the flammable items and matches (packed in the same box) that I had carefully segregated and used bright blue tape and signs saying DO NOT PACK.  We had reviewed this in the walk through with Alex the lead, but I guess the garage guy was asleep at the wheel.

The boxes from every part of the house were crammed full of every manner of fragile and non-fragile items. We keep finding stuff that is misshapen and broken. My one cart for the microwave was a gift from my mom and was broken beyond repair.

We had three people in the house watching yet they still managed to mix up rooms and items we eventually would need to find. The absolute worst thing beyond the carelessness of the packing was the fact they did not label the boxes other than a few scratch marks which are not intelligible. We will be searching for weeks to find the computer cables and tvs which were haphazardly packed in the unmarked boxes.

The twelve-hour day packing and loading was not what we were told in the first part of the process. At ten thirty that evening, your crew was getting outwardly hostile to both of us. To be honest, it was a bit intimidating. Enough so that I made sure my concealed weapon was at the ready if needed. These guys really should not be around customers. One guy even shouted at my wife to bring him water in his broken English. We had already supplied them with nearly a case of water and kept finding half empty bottles strewn all over the property.

As they were finishing the load, they could not close the door to the truck. So, the three workers started shoving as hard as they could against the boxes and my 600 dollar bike. They still didn’t have enough room and told us we needed to take the unused boxes. I told them no since we were also leaving the next day and did not want to leave the new owners with this unwanted gift. As it was, we have found garbage inside our packed boxes which we now have to dispose of.

That day was horrendous but getting the stuff on a different truck made things worse. As an example, Debbie’s Christmas ornaments were not wrapped and a lifetime of memories are scrap now. 44 years. Tool boxes were placed on top of lamp shades. Who does that?  Oh wait. That’s your company. Taping furniture without padding ruins the finish on once useable items. That is moving 101.

The fact that we had to pay in cash before they would deliver our property was the icing on the cake. I had to get rid of my u haul so Debbie was alone when they arrived. He was not very welcoming in the way he practically threatened to not deliver without the money in hand. That was maddening to me since I was still twenty minutes away.

The delivery guy spent more time on his phone talking to his wife than actually delivering was pretty frustrating too. The other two guys (especially the contract guy) did most of the work. We even pitched in which is not the healthiest thing for two people in their seventies. Otherwise, the work would have taken two days.

I would give you a hundred negative stars if that was possible. But here is something that is. I belong to six national veterans’ organizations and have three social media platforms that reach thousands of followers around the country. My blog has over a half a million views and many of my followers have asked the same question about the move.

I can’t wait for all of them to get a really great picture of your deceptive business model and even worse methodology.

As a disabled American Veteran, I expected some respect and a fair exchange. We got neither.”

The gift that keeps on taking

We continue to find broken and unsalvageable things that meant something to us. The packing was the worst I have ever seen and believe me we have seen a lot.

To be fair, the corporate people did send me an email saying sorry about all of that. The response was filled with nothing but excuses and no real resolution. I’ll never see any compensation for the messes they made or the horrible service. But I wanted to make sure that if you are looking for a quality moving company that is fair and honest, US Prime Movers out of New Jersey should not be your first or even last choice.  Lesson learned for me.

I’ll be back to writing about submarines and our navy soon. But a promise is a promise and now I can move on.

Mister Mac