not a step

Pack Everything But Your Wallet

If a company, say Dunkin Donuts, tells you its product costs 45 cents, but then at the cash register asks for $12.75, most consumers, even the extremely hungry, would walk away. You might pay an extra nickel, or even a dime if the cashier offered a decent excuse ("cream filling production has been way down and the cost has skyrocketed"), but anything more than that and you're heading to a different donut emporium.

But when a company quotes you a price ($280), and then puts all of your belongings into its truck before mentioning the slightly higher new price ($1,137), your perspective changes. Instead of letting the movers drive off with all your stuff, and presumably sell it to the homeless, you bite your tongue and pay up.

Perhaps trusting all of my belongings to a moving company selected primarily because of its alphabetical prominence in the phone book represented a critical miscalculation. This method has worked for me before - I've enjoyed a few meals at Au Bon Pain and have had excellent cheesecake from Alden Merrill - but maybe it should not be the sole criterion.

Unfortunately, that particular piece of wisdom only became obvious after I selected Always Movers to bring all of my worldly belongings on a treacherous 3/4 of a mile journey to my new apartment. Despite a phone book full of reassuring options like "Reliable Movers," "Safeway Movers," and any of a thousand names designed to transmit competence, I chose the one company whose moniker suggests an inability to find another line of work rather than any particular affinity for the moving business.

My crack pre-interview of the Always folks consisted of exactly three questions:
1. How much will my move cost per hour?
2. Will there be additional charges for materials like wrapping electronic items in padded blankets?
3. Are there any costs you are not telling me about?

They answered the first question fairly honestly, telling me that their services cost $70 per hour with an elevator, $130 an hour without. Since it only took four hours for my last move, one of over 60 miles, I assumed moving down the street would take no longer.

The Always estimator neglected to mention that their men work so slowly that turtles mock them, but I'm willing to accept the blame for that part and deal with paying for a couple extra hours.

On the second question, they bent the truth a bit by claiming that there were no additional material charges and that wrapping items in the aforementioned padded blankets was included. Every item I have, no matter how durable, was covered in bubble wrap and placed in a box. This included suitcases, pillows and a $10 lamp covered in $12 worth of packaging.

If by "no additional charges," they meant "except for $324 for unnecessary boxes" and I simply misunderstood, then they remained completely honest. By any other standard, they committed outright fraud, though I do now have enough boxes to supply a community of hobos.

As to question three, my Always representative assured me that short of some terrible act of nature (perhaps excessive humidity that renders their tape dispensers ineffective), my price remains the same. This apparently did not include charges like $14 for tolls (I must have missed the multiple booths during the two-minute ride) and $130 for "travel time"- a figure which sets their travel rates at $65 a minute. Next time I move, I'm planning on buying all new stuff when I get there.

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