Tsaiberspace

We’re basically unpacked now.

The moving company billed us for a total weight of 4460 lbs. The total weight of the boxes was 3490 lbs. (previously blogged). Generously estimating the weight of furniture and other padding materials (all our furniture, mattress, TV, etc., was wrapped in big heavy blankets), I ended up with 4360 lbs., which is still less than the billed weight, but close enough for me to not raise a fuss. The total charge was $5135.42, which is of course very conveniently just under the original binding do-not-exceed estimate of $5365.48. But I guess I was expecting that kind of shadiness.

The mover in Boston did comment that it was the first time in his 15 years of moving that he had seen anyone label all the boxes with their weight.

The car arrived without incident, although I had to wait a lot longer for my car because the girl who normally drives cars out from the garage to the customer pick-up area didn’t know how to drive manual transmission. This was my second time using Dependable Auto Shippers (the previous time was a California-to-Atlanta move back in September 2001), and there were again no problems. I didn’t purchase any of the extra options (covered transport, top-level transport, or expedited delivery).

There were a few slight problems with the move:

• The local moving company didn’t have any complementary paperwork, so we had to work with our own inventory of items and boxes.
• I’m missing one box that I inventoried as a 15-lb. box of “Dell 2+1 speakers”. Hopefully I didn’t stash anything else valuable in there, which means I’m only out a set of plain computer speakers. This means we have to file a claim for lost property reimbursement.
• We somehow picked up an extra metal support strut for someone’s bed frame. So we have to wait for the local moving company to send someone to pick up this extra piece.

The move was not a total disaster, but the one box could have very easily contained something more important or valuable. Given that there are many many other options out there, I will probably go back to using Wheaton Worldwide the next time I need long-haul moving services.