Friday, November 05, 2010

I COULD write a book!

A friend recently suggested, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that I could write a book about our shockingly horrid moving experience thus far! I could, but I would include other horror stories shared by other victims of monstrous moving ordeals! It'd be an interesting read as I'm certain people have endured moves gone wild with various and sundry unfortunate outcomes.
I'd start our personal story with...
"They were Better Business Bureau-accredited. They had an A-rating." Several paragraphs (about bogus excuses, hidden fees, etc) later, "We imagine our antiques are smashed up somewhere on some massive truck, that numerous missing items, like James' weights, the tops to our lamps, etc, are scattered about the states who knows where, and that the one thing James emphasized needed to be crated carefully, our framed art piece, is perhaps.....hanging on someone else's wall now. $7,000.00, which happens to be what the movers were paid up front, is also the sum of damages to furniture, crystal, appliances, etc that made it here, however, destroyed beyond salvage. We spent another couple hundred dollars printing pics and mailing assembled packages to the PUC and Attorney General, who couldn't do anything to help us out. We did the same for the Federal Motor Carrier Administration, who had a case to sue them for failure to provide our contract, etc, to us, but the fight would be theirs, and the win as well. After several complaints made formally to the BBB, we soon realized their A-rating remained, the negative comments of others, as well, were deleted , and only flattering praises stuck to the site. We pressed the BBB to investigate, concerned that there might be corruption there, as well. Finally one break-through. The BBB dropped this moving company's accreditation and changed their rating to a big, fat, victorious F. So, we did succeed in protecting others! We received only $1,200.00 in compensation---60 cents per lb. Such an injustice as it would take us a long time to earn the money to replace the things that are forever gone, but we decided to move on rather than pursue on-going and potentially costly legal recourse. All that was just the beginning..."
Then, I'd share how hard it was to try to sell our house in WA, even at a loss of $80,000.00. How nobody bit, and how it took longer, much longer, than expected to finally rent it! The rent is a fraction of what we pay monthly, and we pay the management company and lawn care folks. So, that house is still a burden, and will be for some unknown number of years.
Then, I would describe the horrendous scam that so recently shook us up----the efforts of some lurking bad guy to convince potential renters that our house was HIS in order to take their money! I'd include his message to one woman, a message in which he claimed to be a missionary in Africa, and that "she should enjoy 'his' home as if it were hers."
Finally, I'd talk talk about the transition back to Texas, and how hard it was to move two young babes in the heat of the Texas summer. I'd add how trying it is to get used to the lack of indoor play venues for small children, and how available housing here isn't exactly what we'd hoped to find.
In summary, I would assure my readers that this account is entirely accurate. Then, I would remind my readers that I do know that my family is blessed beyond belief, even with this current hardship. It's not a good feeling to suddenly need something that you know you had but now realize is another thing lost by the movers, or simply isn't handy as it's being stored at my folks' house, but that is a necessary sacrifice. And, our rented town house is small and sometimes uncomfortable for the lot of us, but love DOES grow in small places, and a simplified life forces one to become introspective, to value the true blessings in life, like my kids' health and well-being, like the love I know I have from James and our families and friends, and I know that some day, HOPEFULLY sooner rather than later, our trial will come to an end, and a new beginning, our new beginning, will eventually evolve into something lovely. Because life is like that.

1 comment:

KatieLee Photography said...

NO, not a book. YOu need a REALITY show.......I'm sure some network would pick it up!