I had a very hard time to find a mover. Monday, I gave phone calls after phone calls and I pretty much got always the same answer: we are booked up till mid July :-( It seems this is a busy period for them, most people prefer to move in summer...
I was starting to worry until the 10th mover I called, after telling me the usual "booked up till July" had the good idea to propose me to put my stuff into storage until there is room in a truck to deliver it to Atlanta! Delivery should be in mid july but they would be able to pick up my stuff this week... That's sound perfect except it is more expensive.

An agent (named Pat) was assigned to my move. He came tuesday in my apartment to make an estimate of the move. Basically he wrote down every peace of furniture I had and how many boxes they would need to load (32). That's seem to go pretty well and he told me he would fax me an etimate with price and exact delivery date tomorrow (wednesday).

I am starting to be pretty happy about how things are going. I would be able to take the road on saturday, arrive in Atlanta wednesday and it will leave enough time to take care of all the stuff you need to setup when you move to a new place (cable, phone installation, car registration, etc...) since I start my new job the next monday.

On wednesday, instead of a fax, I received a phone call and Pat tells me the pickup date will be friday (perfect) and he checks the price with me over the phone. OK deal. The only thing left for him is to fax me the estimate so that I can sign it and he will be able to enter the data in the system...

Two hours later, he phones me again, telling me his supervisor just audited my estimate and he is sorry but he had to add $500 to it because he forgot a few stuff like the gas surcharge fee...
Now this is getting a little above my budget so I ask him to cut on some expenses, basically I had planned to let them pack the dishes, to save money I will now do it myself. No problem, it will cut the price about $400, he says, but he needs to make a new estimate to take that into account.

One hour later, he calls again saying he is sorry but he made a miscalculation, the $400 cut becomes a $200 cut. OK, I can live with that, please fax me the damn paperwork! This was wednesday 4:30pm, since then I have not heard of him :-(

I am waiting for the fax for the remaining of the afternoon wednesday. On thursday, I try to reach him to know what is going on. I called him every half an hour all day long, on his regular phone, cell phone, I keep having answering machines. I left messages as well...
Now it is thursday evening, I still don't know the exact time of the pickup date on friday, have not signed any paperwork yet... I start to worry but I prepare everything as if the movers were going to come tomorrow, first thing in the morning, you never know...

Friday, of course nobody comes. I try to call Pat a few more times. Still no sign of life. I then decide to call the moving company directly, explain the situation and ask to talk to Pat's manager. I manage finally to talk to his manager and she told me "Pat does not work for us anymore". What the f...? He managed to get fired before he had the time to fax me the estimate!!!!!!!!! :-(
I explained I was supposed to move today but I never received fax from Pat. She looked at my file and tells me that since I never signed and approve the estimate, my move never got into the system and she is sorry but it is too late, she cannot do anything before mid July, they are completly overbooked!!!!!!!

I really starts to be upset, tell her it is not a way to treat customers, I have to drive to Georgia next week and they just made me lose 1 week! OK, hold on, let me see what I can do, she says. She looks at my estimate, which btw was finished, just not faxed, and she tells me, "OK you don't have too many stuff so I thing I can squeeze you tuesday next week but I really can't do anything earlier than that, sorry you got caught into all this..."

That sucks, I have to stay 4 more days in Riverside, and I won't have a lot of time to drive to Atlanta! But anyways it is either that or driving to Atlanta right away, fly back to California in mid July just to move, and that will also include one more month of rent to pay here... So I am not doing so bad in the end.

I am sorry for Pat, but he did not look very efficient indeed, and I guess the mistake he did with my estimate (forgetting $500) upset his managers which was probably already unhappy with him that's why he was reviewing his estimates closely...