probably a tie between a) the time the truck showed up 24 hours later than scheduled, the company had no human customer service, and they tried to double-bill me for the inconvenience or b) the time that the guy i hired off of craigslist dinged all of my furniture, got sweat stains on my upholstery and curled up in the fetal position on the grass screaming that he was having a heart attack (he was not). fun times.

Well it's not too terrible, but I did move on the weekend of the President's Day blizzard (DC) in 2003. That meant we were stuck in our brand new apt with only 2 chairs and no cable for 4 days - the sofa delivery folks and Comcast couldn't/wouldn't deliver in the snow. One chair was a papasan and one was an old wingback so we'd frequently rotate chairs depending on if we were eating or trying to be comfy. We watched the only DVD we owned (Zoolander) over and over ...

About 35 years ago, my parents moved and the "movers" stole absolutely everything! Thank goodness for yelp reviews, Angie's list and the like that we have nowadays.

Philadelphia to Boston. Eastern Connection movers arrived two hours late and promptly got their truck stuck in the mud at the end of the street. Instead of tagging all the furniture while they waited for the tow truck, they sat in the truck for two more hours. When they finally started moving they dropped boxes and broke things.

They arrived two days later in Boston (instead of one) with one mover and a driver. The mover reeked of alcohol - it wasn't on his breath it was coming out his pores. He became so dehydrated half way through that he nearly fainted. Needless to say more things were broken in Boston.

No customer service to replace broken items.

Beebob, the same thing happened to my parents around the same time! It could have been the same company. Were your parents moving from Philly to New Orleans too?

The worst thing that has happened to me was movers said they would arrive at 8 am one day. I drove an hour from friends house where I was staying, sat in an empty apartment with no wifi, tv, furniture all day, and then they showed up at 10 pm and the building wouldn't allow moves after 9 (and I had clearly told the moving company this). They were furious and I was furious.

Well after hearing these first few stories, my full U-haul breaking down does not seem as bad!

I made the mistake of reserving a Uhaul (4 months in advance!) to move from Gainesville, FL to Orlando, FL at the end of a college semester. The rental center overbooked and had no truck for us on moving day. I ended up having to drive 1.5 hours away to pick up the smallest truck they rent, and then had it break down half way through the move. 6 hours later they had the truck towed to our new apartment. And all of this was in 95 degree weather. I will never use Uhaul again.

I had an expensive black leather sectional that was ubercomfy that I loved. One of the pieces fell out of the back of the truck when moving it from storage into new construction. Went back minutes later and someone had already found it and taken it. Posted an ad on craigslist, received a call from someone who tried to exploit it for ransom (was even questionable on whether they really had it or not). Told them forget it, keep it. Then, they kept calling for days.

Morale of the story, tie your stuff down, good and don't put your phone # on craigslist.

Luckily, I don't have any horror story to share. The movers I found have all been recommended by friends. I guess what helped was that I was usually on those movers' ass, and watched them like a hawk. =D

Thinking it would be cheaper for me to just rent a UHaul, I decided to do everything myself. That wasn't the bad part. The place I was moving out of demanded that I move out by 830am (this means everything out of the apartment and the apartment completely cleaned), the place I was moving into said the place wasn't ready until 5pm.

The guy who was checking my apartment that I was moving out of barely looked at each room, and then walked out and reminded me that I had to move the truck in 10 minutes.

When I call to confirm with my new place about move-in time, they tell me that the tenant hasn't left yet and they will call me. I call at 6pm, 7pm, and then 8pm. I was still told the tenant hadn't left. So I go to the new apartment, knock on the door, figure I can ask how long it would take them to move out (a bit forward, I know) and THEY tell me that the management company hadn't even called them to let them know I was moving in. Then it was a whole ordeal just to get the keys b/c the management office was closing for the day and I wasn't able to get the keys then, but they wouldn't allow me to take the keys from the old tenant without their signed consent. The old tenant was really nice, called the management company to tell them they consented to giving me the keys and were going to do it anyway.

I finally move in at midnight, return the truck, and go to sleep on my mattress that was on the floor surrounded by boxes. 5am I hear a knock on the door; it was the management company saying they were there to clean the apartment "for the new tenant". Pissed, I told them I was the new tenant and that I waive whatever service because I just wanted to go to sleep.

It was basically 3 days of miscommunication, threats and having to email the Renters Rights.

I was moving to a new town for work to live by myself (away from my boyfriend) and we were in a hurry to get the uhaul tow-behind off the station wagon so we could run to the car place on the other side of town to pick up my new (to me) car so I'd have a way to get to work the next week. We mis-communicated when we were letting go of the trailer and I almost lost the end of my pinky finger under the hitch as it dropped. There was a deep cut and a lot of scrapes. To add to that, all my first aid stuff was packed and I didn't know where the hospital was. Once I realized that it wasn't going to fall off I agreed to go to a walk in clinic rather than the ER to save money. We sat there for an hour before they yelled "we're closing!" and then they refused to see me. I was so furious I could rage vomit. He's still feeling guilty about it to this day. But I did get a bitchin' scar out of it so at least there's that. :)

Let's just say, I keep constant eye or verbal contact now when doing a "team lift" or drop.

Also PLEASE people, lift with the legs and not with the back. I ruined my freshman year when I picked up a box with my back...

I was moving to a house and buying a bed from a friend who already had a truck and was willing to move it in for me with her parents help. I had the key for the deadbolt but not for the knob. Someone had locked the knob and I had no way of getting in. The truck needed to be returned in 30 min so her parents got frustrated and decided to just leave my bed outside, then it started raining.....

In the end we found a way to break in through a window and never used the knob locks again.

Not my story...but my brother in law started a new job across the other side of the US. His new employers picked up the tab the moving company...but didn't pay for any extra insurance. Half way there the truck caught fire and the whole thing was a loss. This rest of this story goes on for 5 years and included lots of attorneys and a wrongful termination suit. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

Morale of the story? I meant moral. There's something about comment writing that shuts down the brain at times.

pilotlg wins for worst moving story ever. Horrific. I hope there wasn't too much stuff of sentimental value in that container.

I'm about to hire movers for the first time and am scared sh*tless. New City Movers is the company and they've gotten freakishly good reviews on Yelp. People usually end up hating their movers.

Moving cross-country from NYC to Seattle, my terrible downstairs neighbor stole my laptop computer out of my bag as it sat for my husband to put it in the truck (I was carrying other things down the 3 flights of stairs.) I didn't notice the weight difference because I had been carrying heavy things all day, and it wasn't until the next morning in Pennsylvania that I opened my bag and found it missing. I know it was him and I know the moment it happened. I lost a lot of photos and cried all day. I was tempted to drive all the way back to file a police report, but we were on a schedule, and there were 5-6 more days of driving ahead of us.

girl meets boy. boy moves to another state. boy asks girl to join him. girl stupidly sells client base for business & moves for a contract job. Girl is just smart enough to get own apartment. Apartment is not move-in ready, fridge is filled with rotting meat, etc... Boy dumps girl after 2 weeks...
At end of contract girl descides to move back home, reserves moving truck, day of move, no moving trucks are available, girl drives 60 miles the other way to get truck, it rains, flash floods after a long drought, newly secured truck has a leaky windshield, take a lunch, take wrong interstate exit & head back the wrong way, 20 miles later, get turned around, truck breaks down just over state line, spend several hours @ Hillbilly Haven awaiting tow truck... lets just say that stereotypes are there for a reason, stay @ hotel- sneak in 2 angry cats, and one hyper dog, 3 days later make it to new desitination.
moving truck company charges for the truck that was reserved, but not held, they also charge for additional days & mileage while other truck is being repaired, fridge stolen out of old apartment after I left, management company tried to sue me for it.
Anyhoo, a trip that should have taken 6-8 hours & cost about $500, took 4.5 days & cost almost $2k. took about a year to resolve it all.
I'm not moving again til I go to a rest home!

I was moving from NY to LA and was sending my stuff via truck - it was supposed to arrive the week after I arrived. I called 2 days before it was supposed to arrive and asked for an update. The woman said she would check and get back to me. I never heard from her. Over the next 6 weeks subsequent phone calls only resulted in voicemails and no returned phone calls.

In the meantime, I started a new, high-pressured job and had no clothes or household items. I had one Ikea Poang chair and footstool and a sleeping bag. I had to suck it up and buy a couple of suits/shoes for work.

One day, my stuff showed up. (I guess that is the bright spot in all this.)

Since they never returned my phone calls I never paid them. Fast forward 3 months, I get a collection notice from an unknown trucking company for a different amount than I was quoted from company #1.

Turns out the trucking company #1 outsourced the job to another company. Never did get an answer as to what the issue was with the trucking company #1. The 2nd company was totally on the ball and a pleasure to work with! Go figure.

I was poor, and I chose my cross-town mover based on price. My things were in storage for a day or two, because there was no overlap between the end of the previous lease and the beginning of the next. I waited all day in my apartment the day my things were scheduled to arrive (a big deal, as my employer gave me about 5 days off per year), but the movers didn't show up. After many phone calls to headquarters, I found out that they had loaded my stuff into the truck and then driven up and down the street all day, unable to find my building. The next day, when they finally did show up, I found out why: They were very sweet, very strong, big, burly guys, but they had barely half a brain among the three of them.

When we moved to Chicago the first time, we waited for the delivery of our stuff, but the truck was overdue by 24 hours, and then 48 hours. The third day, the dispatcher told us that there would be one further delay -- the truck driver didn't want to make the delivery because he was too ashamed, so they needed to find a different crew.

On the morning of the actual delivery, the dispatcher told us to brace ourselves; some things were missing. When they finally made the delivery, all of the electronics were gone, as was some of the furniture. And there was broken stuff all over the floor of the truck, including an antique bowl that was a gift from my husband's grandmother.

It seems that the truck broke down at a truck stop in Gary, Indiana late one night. The truck driver got drunk and passed out in his room. His assistant, who needed to get back home, broke onto the truck and sold much of our stuff and just tossed the boxes that got in his way. We lost 29 boxes of stuff and a bunch of furniture.

We had replacement value insurance, so there was that. (And we've gotten it ever since.) But the assistant never got prosecuted. We heard later -- while we were working on the claims forms -- that the truck driver died from eating bad shellfish in Florida. Which we never believed.

Horrible just like kimmiekh's story...my grandparents were moving out of the home they raised my father and uncle in and into an over-50 community. They were following the movers/moving truck in their own car and watched as it caught fire. They lost a lot, but the worst would be all their family photographs. My father's baby photos, my grandmother's & grandfather's family (who were immigrants) pictures...gone.
Makes me greatful that my horror stories are a landlord who didn't check to make sure the prior tenants vacated & moving during the Manayunk Bike Race in Philly.

Abridged version: Called Two Men and a Truck. Truck arrived at 9AM with one man; repeated calls to get 2nd guy while we helped 1st guy load truck. 2nd guy arrived at 1PM...and hurt himself. 1st guy took 2nd guy AND our half-filled truck to hospital. Repeated calls to get help from Two Men and a Truck....2nd truck arrives at 5:30PM with 1 man and 1 woman...we continue to help load 2nd truck; no sign of 1st truck and our furniture. 3rd truck arrives at 7:45PM with 2 men who help US load the 2nd truck. 1st truck returns at 9PM with 1 man (the original one) and we finish loading truck(s) at 10:30PM...as new owners and their 4 kids are walking in the house, getting in the way...etc. Took the 2 trucks to storage facility because, OH, I FAILED TO MENTION....OUR NEW HOUSE, which had been promised to be completed 6 weeks prior, STILL WASN'T FINISHED - which is why we stayed in the 'old' house until the last day.

Final total: 5 guys (one only there for about an hour), 1 gal, 3 trucks. I only paid them half of the bill and told them to sue me, and I didn't clean the house because the new owners were all over the place.

I moved within my neighborhood (2br apartment) a few years ago and hired a company through craigslist. They were super fast in loading the truck up, but then wouldn't unload anything unless I went to the ATM and gave them $250 each cash on top of the agreed price.
They said it would be in my best interest not to call the NYPD.

how about the uhaul truck breaking down in the middle lane of one of the busiest highways in Austin? ohhh... during Friday rush hour to boot. nothing like seeing yourself on the 10pm news...

We hired the more expensive moving company in town because we have a 100 year old piano. They promised us 3 guys and all the best equipment to move the piano up stairs and through grass. We called the day of to confirm our afternoon time slot, and they said that they would be there anytime between 3 and 10pm. The electricity company shut our power off a day early so we told them they had to get there before the sun went down. They use this as an excuse to show up at 6:00 with two guys and NO piano dolly. They planned to carry the piano up a flight of stairs with two guys. They spent 45 minutes trying to get the piano out the front door, and then gave that up and tried to go through the back door. They decided to roll the piano across the living room floor with the rusty 100-year old wheels. This horribly scratched and dented the floor making us lose our deposit. We finally get to our new apartment across town 3 1/2 hours later (we only moved 6 boxes, a bed, a TV and the piano) and they decide to back the truck up to the front porch. They left the loading ramp down and ended up backing into the front column and cracking it all the way to the top. We also found new scratches on the piano and splinters all over our mattress. We decided to hire movers to make our move less stressful, but we would have been better off buying a 24 pack and inviting our friends to help us.

please keep in mind, this is all the combination of 1 cross-country move.

1. current residence (at the time) was a 4th floor walk-up.

2. carrying all belongings down 4 floors to a waiting ABF truck that could be parked no closer than a block away.

3. loading all belongings into a 17sf square within the ABF truck (think packed to the ceiling and praying you don't get smashed when you take down the load-bearing wall on the other side of the country)

4. driving 20 hrs straight from Des Moines to Baltimore with 3 cats

5. receiving ABF truck 3 days later, unloading into extended family's basement for what is to be a quick stay until we locate a place of our own

6. hating living with the extended family

7. hating living with the extended family so much after 30 days, and losing a job offer on a job I had interviewed for (and was promised BEFORE MOVING!) that we were forced to move back

8. re-loading all belongings into a 15ft uhaul (leaving already 'chosen' belongings in maryland, never to be seen again)

9. husband losing his wallet so I am the only one that can drive said u-haul to move all belongings back across the country

10. driving straight through 20+ hours with 2 of the 3 cats

11. getting pulled over in moline, il for driving in the fast lane in an unexpected rush hour (he didn't understand that there was no rear-view mirror and I was shaking everytime I had to switch lanes for fear I was going to run some cute old lady off the road in this massive u-haul)

12. getting home and moving back in with mom for 3 months until we can get back on our feet again.

WORST MOVE EVER!

Then-boyfriend, now husband had movers pick up his stuff in Portland, OR to deliver to DC. A month later, they show up....with the wrong stuff. Owner was a complete jerk about the whole situation on the phone. Eventually, another month later, the right boxes show up. Beaten, battered, mattress looks like it was dragged through mud. By some miracle, everything was there (or nearly everything, maybe 1-2 boxes missing). Despite heated phone conversations, refused to even discount price. From the time he hired them to the time his belongings were delivered, the company rating on BBB went from A- to C-. Was extra frustrating because he had actually checked & researched company!

We're moving in 30 days and after reading the comments I'm starting to freak out!!

Moving about 800 miles, we couldn't get our move dates lined up neatly and had to store everything while we took a 3-month sublet to finish the summer in location #1. We paid the moving company to bring our truck worth of stuff to a "climate controlled warehouse" near the final destination. Turned out that the "warehouse" was actually that they left it in the truck for 3 months over the summer, and the truck was full of leaks. EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING, got completely drenched, then completely baked, then again, again, and again...everything was moldy through and through. Lost all the furniture, clothes, papers, photos...everything except some plastic items. We then lived in a new place with no furniture or belongings for a month while we were waiting for reimbursement checks, which turned into 6 months in a hotel (on them) before we got a dime.
Lesson learned - doing it yourself is tough but worth it.

My most memorable experience moving happened when I moved in with my husband, who was still my boyfriend back then. At the time, I was living in a community that was snowbound during the winter (meaning you either had to snowmobile, snowshoe or ski in & out of your home). We had to hire a snowcat with a flatbed on the back to shuttle all of my belongings out! My husband likes to tell the story of how he was following behind the snowcat with a snowmobile and trailer and saw my nightstand sitting in a pile of snow, after it had fallen off the snowcat!

my bf had an independent trucker move his stuff cross country from LA to Maine...they "lost" several valuable pieces of furniture and boxes along the way while picking up other stuff. a lot of the stuff was broken also. when i moved, i used ABF-UPackIt and had no problems at all (plus they were inexpensive).

Moving from our first apartment to our second, we were able to haul everything in a couple trips using my boyfriend's Dodge pickup truck and my old Pontiac 2-door. Moving from our second to our third apartment entailed using the second biggest UHaul truck available and over four trips. It was then I realized we were packrats. Since then I've been able to let go of a lot of stuff!

Old: I remember as a kid being around for my aunt & uncle’s move from an apartment. The last piece of my aunt’s furniture, an upright piano, was loaded by my dad and uncle into the back of the pick-up. Grandma and I were in the following car and watched, horrified (mesmerized?), as the truck climbed a steep hill and the piano came rolling out the back and smashed on the street in front of us. My aunt loved that piano. She cried for days. I was about 8 and admit to laughing when it happened- it was one of the funniest things I had ever seen actually happen right in front of me (I blame it on watching too much TV).
Recent: When I moved from the Midwest to the West I experience the tread coming off of one of tires while driving down the interstate highway. I pulled the big yellow truck over at the nearest exist and waited for about 3 hours for their nearest guy to come and fix it. Once it was fixed, he went back east, I headed west again and about 30 minutes down the road another tread blew – as it turned out, all of the tires were retreads. It was a shorter wait that time, but at that point I wasn’t waiting for another tire to go. I stopped for the night at the next town that was big enough to have a tire shop, had the tires replaced and fought with the big yellow truck company until they agreed to pay for safe tires.

Never had a problem with a moving company, and I lived in several places in Manhattan and Brooklyn. But, I DID have a landlord problem.

Moving less than a mile from one flat to another, I thought it would all be so quick and easy. Never saw the unit I was moving into until the day I actually moved in; saw the "identical" upstairs unit and was assured that the downstairs unit was virtually identical but under construction. Rented a truck and had a bunch of friends come to help load it up; when I was picking up the truck, I got a call from the new landlord. The apartment was not ready yet and he needed one more day. We were unhappy, but loaded the truck and decided it would be ok to unload it the next day. We left the bed out to sleep the night in the old place - where we had disconnected utilities for that day, so no lights or heat at night. Next day, friends came back (thankfully) and landlord would not return phone calls about move-in time. I went to the house, and knocked on the door. Could hear people in there but nobody answered the door! I threw a fit on the porch and he opened the door, where it looked like a Home Depot threw up inside. Every square inch of floor space covered in tools, etc. He told me it was still not ready. I told him, dude, you need to clear out a room and give us a place to unload, because we have no place to go and our old apartment has new tenants moving in tomorrow! He tried to tell me he would reimburse for a hotel but we demanded to unload - so we put everything we owned in one room, piled on top of itself, and the landlord proceeded to spend the next month in the apartment doing construction while we lived there, everything covered in dropcloths, unable to effectively use our furniture or set up house. In retrospect, we should have just walked away and found a new place to live, because when we broke the lease a few months later, we got threatening letters from the landlord demanding large sums of back rent and damages (there were none that we were aware of) and he proceeded to spend the next year and a half harassing us, culminating in a small claims court appearance which we are currently awaiting the ruling on. The kicker? The landlord went to law school, and was representing himself in court (very poorly, I might add.)

The moral of the story is:

Get everything in writing. EVERYTHING. Landlord is not a friend, even if they ARE a friend, relative, or in this case, next door neighbor to our new apartment. It is a business transaction. End of story.

Always know what you are getting into. Make sure not to move into an apartment sight unseen unless you can risk being disappointed or losing time and/or money.

Never break a lease. Ever.
Also - make sure to go over the lease with the landlord before moving in - line by line, and get a signed copy with yours AND the landlord's signatures on it.

That landlord was such a Napoleonic jerk; facing him in court and watching him crumple & lose his cool in the courtroom was super satisfying. I'm dreading receiving the verdict in the mail this week and am hoping it's in our favor - especially because we made him no less than FIVE offers to go away and he refused each time.

I dread moving SO much that I would rather live in my zero-yard, no parking, heat included, 2nd floor pre-war walkup rental in the New York State Finger Lakes region than ever move again.

Last year I downsized from 3500 sq. ft. to 1400 sq ft. Recently widowed, I had a great deal of furniture to get rid of and wanted to donate it to Goodwill. I wasn't keeping much at all, I wanted a fresh start. I chose College Hunks Hauling Junk since I was told they had moving services as well as the ability to cart my unwanted furniture to Goodwill. I thought one agency would be getter than a mover and a hauler. Was I wrong.
The two young men they sent were neither hunks nor college students. They were dropouts. One man was shorter than I at 5"5".
They started out by arriving late around 9:30 and seemed shocked at the amount of things to be hauled away. I was told by the scheduler that they should finish around 1 pm. At 10pm, with several more loads to move, I sent them on their way. I ended up paying over 3 times what I should have. They damaged a number of pieces of furniture, did not re-assemble the beds. Part of the reason they were so slow is that they moved one box at a time. Most moving companies send big strapping guys who use a dolly to move 3-4 boxes at a time. I even bought the movers their lunch!
It was an absolute nightmare. When I tried to complain in writing and by phone I found the only phone no. for the local office was an 1-800 no. with a recording. The address on the invoice was incorrect and I couldn't get their new one, even from their headquarters. Finally 2 months later I tried again and the only reply I got from them was that it was too late.
A true bunch of jerks.

Here's my moving disaster, courtesy of my myspace blog from ages ago...

"I borrowed my sister's new golden minivan to pack up a batch of clothes, books, and family memorabilia as a part of my temporary move from DC to my dad's house in Alexandria. After I parked in front of my apartment I thought I heard the distinct "psssssssssst" sound of a tire deflating. I checked the tire - not soft, not shrinking. Must have been something else?

So I packed a few more boxes, took my dinner at Tryst, and went back to my apartment. Checking the tire I noted that it did not look flat - maybe it was just too dark to tell?

So in the morning around 4:30 I woke up, unable to sleep - I had a list of things to do that day: return my sister's car by 8:15, unpack a load of stuff, return to my apartment to meet the movers at 7 am, go to a wedding at 3:30. You can see where this is going...

So I go outside at about 5:00 am to get in the car and get on with the day. I hop in, forgetting entirely the possibility of having a flat tire... I did. The car was wonky. I had to return home.

AAA towed me to Alexandria.

As I rode along with this rather short and stout man who grunted and groaned all the way down 14th St like he had to take a shit, I recounted to him another tale of me and a flat tire whilst driving on the Long Island Expressway to go to my cousin's wedding about 3 years ago. I wondered - why do I keep getting flat tires on wedding days?

I wonder what it all means?

"Don't get murried - " is the advice he gave, jumping out of his truck to use a port-a-potty near the Washington Monument. He was glad to be going to tha ALX because up here we gots Krispy Kreme donoughts.

At the wedding my sister rapped while I beat boxed. I danced with all kinds of Frenchies. I spoke horrible French. That night, the bunny (a friend) crashed at my dad's house and we listened to a scuffler on the phone and wore our voices out telling each other stories that neither one remembered in the morning."

Don't get murried. Classic advice.

Moved out of state 4 times in 4 years. I did all the packing and hired guys off of movinghelp.com to load the PODS. The last time the guys remarked how organized things were packed. I was pretty proud of myself....until i unpacked the air mattress late on my last night after cleaning all day...only to find out i couldn't inflate it because it needed 4 D batteries.

Bought a house down hill from my parents house. Couldn't afford a moving truck so i had to move every piece of furniture etc. by hand down a hill, then upstairs and back again. It took me two weeks or so and i got a bad case of tendentious :(

I hurt my back dragging a big air conditioner up 3 flights a few years back. And I can't find my bathing suit from my most recent move. Where the heck is it?
After I hurt my back, I got smart and and hired pros. Really, there comes a time in one's life when you shouldn't be asking your friends to help you move for pizza and beer. Shea moving in nyc has been awesome. They've moved me twice. The last time, they came in under the estimate and helped me find someone to help me unpack some stuff. I can't say enough good stuff about them. Honest and hard working.

Oh boy, where do I start. I had the bright idea to save money and not rent a U-haul...not my best moment. We leave town around 10 am with the first load of stuff in our little car. We were moving from San Francisco to Sacramento, about a 2 hour drive, normally. The trip takes us 6 hours because it is the 4th of July and everyone is on the road. Did I mention, no air conditioning and it was 106 degrees.

It gets better. We unload, turn around to go back to SF because my pets are still at our old apartment (along with most of our stuff). About 40 miles outside of Sac our car stops working, literally. I was in the fast lane and all the sudden it has no power. I maneuver off the freeway into a little cafe's parking lot. The car is dead. I call around for a mechanic but no one is open since it is the 4th of July. I then try to rent a car to get us home to our pets (one who was very sick) with no luck because, you guessed it, it was the 4th of July and everyone was closed.

I ended up calling my Dad, who lives 3 hours away. He had just gotten home from visiting his mom 2 hours away, but like a boss got back on the road and spent 3 hours in traffic to come and get us.

We get to SF around midnight. My Dad is too tired to drive back home so spends the night. The kicker is we have no blankets, no sheets, no pillows, nothing for him or us to use to sleep on (because we had already moved them). He slept on the floor in the living room with a kitchen towel for a blanket. My Dad is awesome!

The move didn't get any better. We ended up making 5 trips in a borrowed truck. I hate moving!

On a move to Portland, OR years ago, friends helpfully loaded all my crap on to the largest size Uhaul truck. I pulled out of my driveway and the hood spontaneously unlatched and couldn't be locked down. I called Uhaul and they told me to bring the truck in. They couldn't fix it, so we had to unload everything and reload it into another truck. Which of course, since we loaded all the heavy stuff in first we had to take everything out and start over. After many hours delay, I drove the 2nd large truck by myself all the way to Portland. It wasn't until I was backing into my new place that my friends who were helping me unload on that end informed me that I had no working tail/brake/signal lights. Ugh Uhaul.

In the Fall of 2008 I moved from Chicago to New York for a dream job at a major auction house. My mom found this moving company online that was a "great deal" so I just went with her suggestion. They were called Executive Relocation Movers. They came into my Wrigleyville apartment, packed up my entire world, high-fiving me when they were done and ensuring me that they'd see me soon on the other end....

I arrived in NYC the same day that Lehman Brothers crashed...All of my earthly belongings did not. No bed, no bags, no kitchen, no NOTHING except the small crap I stuffed into my rental car. Here I was, starting this new job at the epicenter of the Art Market at the chic-est Auction House in the world with some of the best dressed socialites in New York; and I had to go to work everyday rotating the same three dorky outfits. It was a complete disaster. Lucky for me, the stock market had crashed so low, that I was able to begin to replace all of my possessions with classics that were deeply discounted. After nothing was resolved for three months, and fall turned into winter and the new boots and coats had already been purchased, I had completely lost all hope. But then, I received a call from my lawyer/sister in Chicago. It turns out she had gotten all Elle Woods on some jerks in Evanston and eventually uncovered my stuff in some random residential garage. Only one box with souvenoirs from Africa was never recovered. By the time this was all worked out and my stuff was unpacked and I was living peacefully in my Upper East Side studio, it was mid-February. I was laid off two and half months later. Exasperated and without the job I moved there for, i threw my hands up in the air and decided to get the ell out of there. I sold absolutely everything to the girl I was subletting to for $200 and moved home to Cleveland.

3 floor walk up. Had to park moving van a block away due to heavy traffic on street. Extremely hot summer day. Had 4 pals help me and my guy but it was a task and a half. Someone dropped a box and some antique Japanese vases my mother had left me were broken. And we couldn't get my newly bought beautiful vintage green velvet couch in the building. Took doors off & tried windows but it just wouldn't fit. I think my pals would have killed me if they could have. Learned my lesson that day and never asked friends to help me move again. Things also almost always mysteriously go missing when I move. But I've moved 10-12 times and all things considered, it's been a pretty painless experience.

Tie between:

1. The uhaul ran out of trucks, and we had to scramble (b/c it was Boston on Sept 1st when the entire city moves) to find a minivan and my father lent us his pick up truck, to move 4 people. We had to be out of the old apartment at 8am and couldn't move into the new apartment until noon, so we had to start taking runs across the city at 6 am, leaving our stuff on the sidewalk with friends to watch over it until we were allowed to move in.

or 2) The time I got a horrible flu the day before moving, and thankfully my brother and friend did all the heavy lifting (in a snow storm!), but after they left I was in a new city, bedridden and snowed in for 2 days, without anything to eat or drink (although I was so sick I didn't care).

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories! I only have good, happy-ending (or full of simple, minor inconveniences) moving stories, but I'll be doing another big move within the next year and this article gives me some good tips on what to watch out for!

I think movers are the lowest life form on earth. Have several terrible stories because I've moved a lot, but the worst one was when I moved from Northern California to Phoenix. The movers, who had packed everything because I didn't have time, broke almost all the glass for framed artwork, stole several items (of course, most of it not realized until much later), and actually farmed out the driving & delivery of my stuff to another company without telling me. The original charge was supposed to be around $7500, but the new company tried to tack on another $2500 and wouldn't unload until I paid. I frantically called my then boyfriend to ask what to do...he's a shark and told me to put it on a credit card and dispute the charge later. Because I had an estimate from the original company that said $7500, the credit card backed me and I didn't have to pay the extra.
Advice for anyone moving soon: pack everything yourself, number the boxes (do NOT put a list of what's in the box ON the box), keep a list of the numbers and what room they should go in, and follow the movers like a hawk. When they arrive, make sure you have every single box or item that went on the truck. I have had several successful moves where I packed everything, had cheap movers come and load the truck, I drove the truck to the new place, and had movers come and unload the truck there. It's *really* easy to drive a truck, so don't be nervous about it. Hospitals have lots of boxes that get thrown out every day, so go to their loading dock to get good boxes. I always put 3 wraps of tape on each box so I know if it's been opened.

This didn't happen to me, it happened to friends of my parents. They were moving from California to Italy, and had all of their worldly goods in a container sitting on the deck of a freighter. There was a storm at sea and their container, and many others, went overboard. Many family treasures, both sentimental and costly, went to the bottom of the Atlantic.

I was moving in with my boyfriend and we were both leaving our own places for a different place together. I told him we should rent the biggest truck offered. He didn't think we needed it. It took two trips to my place with the truck we ended up renting to get all my stuff then we had to go to his place and he wasn't even close to being ready (it took several trips with both our vehicles after the initial move to get the rest of his stuff). We didn't work well together at all and by the end of the day I was really beginning to regret our decision to move in together. We broke up a couple months before the lease was up. Worst move ever.

My husband and I were moving from Beijing to Shanghai, with all of our furniture, and of course our 1 year old beagle. She had been vaccinated for everything the beijing vets would give her.

We get up for our morning flight (should be a 2 hr one) and the service we arranged to ship the dog through comes to pick us all up. It starts snowing. HEAVILY.

We get to the airport, jump through all the necessary hoops, and I stand outside watching the dog be loaded onto the plane. Then after I see her closed in (of course with food and water) we board ourselves.

And then we proceed to have to wait for 10 hours on the runway. They wont let anyone off. It gets so bad that they LITERALLY run out of water. They open up the exit doors and let people smoke off the back (think: where did they get the matches that were meant to have been confiscated??). I'm flipping out, but eventually negotiate (in Chinese) for someone to go down and check on the dog, add some water, etc.

We get to Shanghai 14 hours later. We slept on the floor that night, as our furniture was meant to arrive the following day.

The next day, everything goes to plan. Here are the movers, and all boxes are coming up the stairs. But wait! Now the movers are trying to extort us for an extra RMB3000 to get our chest of drawers upstairs. After much arguing and threatening to call their boss/the police, we avoided the "fee."

But wait! It's not over yet!

Two days later yet, we discover that the dog has contracted kennel cough from that tiny yippy dog that was also flying on that same day we flew down. Queue the frantic searching for a vet in a new town, course of meds and expensive vet trips....

A truly horrific move, all in all!

Never had a problem with movers, but when we moved back to TN from AK the house we had lined up to rent turned out to be an infested, crumbling, inhabitable nightmare. Luckily we got out of the lease after just two nights of trying to make the place decent. The hair that broke the camels' back? coming into the kitchen at night to find at least 20 cockroaches skittering over the cabinets, fridge, and countertops that we'd just slaved away for those two days to get clean). Two Uhaul moves in two days, then another rental two weeks later when our new (clean) townhome was ready...it was seriously the worst move ever ever ever ever.

This past June my fiancee and I moved into an apartment that was perfect location wise--we could carpool to work and save lots on gas! Not in the best area, but not horrible, and the apartment itself was pretty cute. We moved everything in and settled in. Meanwhile, my fiancee had accrued quite a few itchy bites... which we didn't pay attention to because we had been to a few bbqs and just figured it was mosquito bites. So we kept buying stuff, stocking stuff, etc. After a week and a half, Will was completely covered in bug bites. I had maybe 4, but given that I have a lot of free time at work I decided to research "bed bugs"--you know, those mythical creatures mommy and daddy always tried to scare you with. Unfortunately as I looked at the billions of website I realized that the marks and patterns of bites were exactly that. When we got home we ripped the bed apart and low and behold there were 5 bedbugs!! We never had that problem before, and found out from the neighbors downstairs that the people who had just moved out had bed bugs. Awful nasty things! We called the landlord and got out of the lease and got our money back and moved in with my mom temporarily while we found another place (after fumigating the hell out of everything of course). A few weeks later we did find one, where we are now, and we've been here for a month and it's perfect. No bugs! But moving 3 times within a month or so was hell.

Wow. I'm tired just reading through this list!! So sorry you had to experience all in these tragic stories. I really feel for you all. But, I thank you so much for sharing them and I am taking notes! I will do my best on my next move because of you xoxo @ Jess (Aug 1) I did smile and chuckle when you said, "He slept on the floor in the living room with a kitchen towel for a blanket. My Dad is awesome!" Your dad IS awesome!! :D Tell him I said so!! :) Wish me luck, All, when it's my turn (soooooon I hope!)

95 degrees & 95% humidity in DC. We did it ourselves, just two of us, and my husband had poison ivy oozing blisters all over his body.

Moving out of the dorms my sophomore year of college I packed everything in my SUV and hit the road....Everything was going great, I was out for the summer and it seemed like a great day to move back home. That is until I was rear ended in the far left lane on the freeway in rush hour traffic. Half my stuff came flying up towards me and even broke a mirror I had put toward my tailgate! AHHH! To make matters worse the guy was from somewhere where they don't have freeways and could barely pull off the road to trade info. It was a nightmare!

There are some serious horror stories here! I'm officially afraid to ever hire movers.

A few years ago I was moving into a third floor walk up in ninety-degree heat. My window air conditioner was too heavy for me to carry up the stairs, so I lugged in into the first floor foyer and left it there for my friend to help me with. When we went back for it less than ten minutes later, it was gone.
I cursed and searched up and down for it, until my new neighbor emerged from his apartment saying "what's wrong honey?" I told him my air condition had disappeared from the hallway and he told me he hadn't seen it, but if I needed one he had an extra he would sell me for $50. How neighborly! He was trying to sell me the AC he just stole from me!
In the end, my (large, male) friend and I had to go into the neighbor's apartment and force him to give it back to us under threat of police involvement. It really set the tone for the vibe of my new neighborhood...

My sister was moving from Detroit to San Jose. The whole family helped pack and was planning to drive with her on a late life family vacation. We packed all day and decided to drive out of the city, even though it was dark. We had a rental truck and a borrowed trailer to haul stuff in. We got to the main interchange in Detroit and the tongue of the borrowed trailer broke under the weight, sent sparks flying and came to rest near the side of a very busy, 70 mph highway.

I don't want to report the scary details, but I was the victim of a violent crime during a move. Remember that you're in an in-between state and many people are aware that you're going to be out of one place and in a new, unfamiliar one, and probably going to and from the two places at very odd hours, often during times when others aren't awake and about.
Please be extra careful!

The movers charged by the hour, with a four hour minimum, which shouldn't have been a problem, since I only had a studio apartment. Four hours woudl have been plenty.

They packed the elevator so full at my new place that the elevator borke. Of course they charged for the time the elevetor wasn't working. I finally ended up telling them to leave, waiting for the elevator repair person, and unloading the elevator myself.

The movers got greasy hand prints on my red egg chair.

House Voyeur, oh my... "dislike".

My long-term boyfriend at the time and I decided to try "living apart" to see if it might help our relationship - fun. Moving out of our apartment in Queens, I'm moving to Brooklyn, he's putting stuff in storage and crashing with me until he can move into his Manhattan apt. Friends help us load moving truck. Take truck to storage place in Queens.

SUCK #1: While we're unloading stuff into storage, someone takes our backpacks from the front seat - both of our wallets, my checkbook, my digital camera, his laptop, and my credit report (hello identity theft). We suspect it was the storage staff, but conveniently the security cameras are blocked by scaffolding for building repairs... Call cops (ha), cancel credit cards, cry (me)... MORALE: Lock yer doors.

Drive to Brooklyn, unload stuff. Park the truck up the block so we can rest a bit before making the journey back to Queens to return the truck. SUCK #2: Receive parking ticket. Which neither of us has ever paid... MORALE: WTF are the truck parking rules in NYC? I still have no idea.

SUCK #3: Over the next couple weeks, struggled to set up new checking account, phone line, etc. without having a driver's license to prove my identity or past utility bills to prove my address. Also have to report identity theft to all the credit agencies. MORALE: Lock yer doors.

A couple weeks later, receive the contents of my wallet in the mail at my work address - someone had found them tossed in a trash can. And one of the people who helped us move those many years ago is now my fiance. MORALE: Whoa!

I'm in the midst of one right now! Today's exasperating phone call to Atlas Van Lines has a guy predicting (but not promising, of course!) that the shipment they picked up in Chicago the 13th *may* be here by the 9th - almost a month later. In between I've heard excuses such as: we couldn't find anyone to drive the truck, we didn't know where to deliver it, and we aren't sure where your car (that's also being shipped) is. Hmm...

I spent a season working in Yosemite. At the end I was moving to Chattanooga. Lost my wallet in the Vegas airport in the way there. Stayed with friends for a few days in TN until I found a place, but since I had no id (other than passport), no atm card or credit cards, the rental company insisted on me paying something like 4 months rent in advance within 2 weeks or I'd loose deposit & 1st month's rent. In the end I couldn't afford it & told them I'd be leaving (they had made a mistake in writing the lease which let me off the hook). Months later, I received a letter from a law firm insisting that I pay about 2 more months rent immediately. In the end, I paid somewhere near 4 months rent for the week I stayed there.

This isn't as bad as some other people, but I don't think I've ever been so stressed in my life.

We had a flight at 9am the next morning to move to Alaska for a few months, so we were moving everything into storage. Movers were supposed to show up at 1pm, got a call at 10am to say they were on their way, so I told them I had a 1pm appt. Big mistake! At 4pm I was told that they were ready for me at 10am and I told them not to show up, so they'll come tomorrow at 10am.

After literally begging them to get to our house (I had also spent most of the day moving our stuff to the driveway to speed things up) they showed up at 7.30pm, the storage unit closed at 8.30pm. Somehow, we managed to get all of our stuff into storage, had a late farewell dinner and made our flight the next morning.

When we moved out of storage, I saw they broke my lamp, cracked the glass on my coffee table and destroyed one of my small bookcases...

The worst is a toss up between the time I hired movers from the Uhaul Moving helpers site, and they showed up three hours late, with handicapped plates on their car. I fired them mid-move.

The second worst was the one where my spouse forgot two entire cabinets of kitchen stuff, including my food processor and stand mixer! I actually snuck back into my old apartment (before the new people moved in) in the night with a spare key to liberate them!

A one day move turned into a 3-day move and having to sleep with the mattress on the floor, 9 months pregnant.

I have moved internationally over twenty times in my lifetime with no major events. Last year, I moved literally from one village to another just 5km away (in Switzerland) so did not use international movers, but local movers (mind you, recommended via a forum, etc.).

We were getting our house built and of course construction ran late (one month). We were scheduled to move in 3 days before I was scheduled to give birth to our second child. The movers were supposed to pack, move, and unpack.

The 1 day move turned into a 3-day nightmare. We ended up having to sleep with the mattress on the living room floor the first night as it was midnight and they still hadn't rebuilt the bed.

On the bright side, the stress provoke an early birth. I gave birth exactly on-time, but unfortunately had to come home with a new baby to a disorganized home (I'm a total clean & organization freak) :-)

But Swiss movers are so good! Well, most of them...

The two packers we had a week or so ago were excellent, until they were joined by their back-up packer, who was LOUSY. Hope we don't have too much damaged at the other end!

Swiss movers, the ones we used in any case, were much, much more professional than anything we have experienced back in Canada. (and we've moved many times)

The movers we had on the way over here, the ones back in Canada, were AWFUL... the truck driver asked to use our toilet, and... well, I've never witnessed such a disgusting mess. And they stamped in their muddy boots all over our floors, deliberately walking around the carpets they laid down for moving. Utter pigs, in other words. I only found out later that they are nicknamed "Tip It and Rip It" by people who move frequently (company is called Tippet & Richardson).

Friends of ours used more professional movers, but they went out of business. Now it seems that the company who took over the business cannot find their long term storage (i.e., all their furniture). I'm sure it will all work out okay in the end though... I hope...

i love interiors and moved about 10 times past ten years...worst one i ever got was when james pak was moving part of my dismantled shelf outta my Rent he grazed the wire fly-screen... about erm.. 3cm?? It was my first rental so i was hoping no one takes nuthing out of my bond. turns out no one even noticed.

is it because i always got my friends to help move? ...anyhow, reading these 60++ comments made me feel ive got no horror story to tell.

Interesting topic and worst but interesting stories.
Have anyone consider minimalistic lifestyle? It has lot to do with moving from one place to another.

Please read below article; I really liked it...

http://www.missminimalist.com/2011/05/drifting/

Well, not really a moving story - but close.

I had bought an absolutely BEAUTIFUL set of 3 antique lockers at the local flea market. Steel, tall, heavy, unwieldy. I roamed the flea market (along with the seller) and was able to find a local vendor who had to drive his truck by my house on his way home, and agreed to drop the lockers in my driveway for $40.

Only, the time came and went, and he didn't show up. So, I called him, and he said, "I put them in your driveway already!" Turned out, he had put them at #42, and I'm #72.

Luckily for me, #42 was an empty house at the time (woman in the nursing home). But, I had to go up there with a dolly and my poor-little-lady strength, and haul the lockers home while my neighbors watched. Aiiee.

Still, they're pretty awesome, and perhaps the most pleasing and used item in my house. (Installed shelves, so shoes go in one section, clothes in the middle, and jackets in the third.) Probably well worth the effort and embarrassment.

My moving horror story happened last weekend!

I just got my first job post-college and it was time to move. My mom and I spent 3 long hours in the Texas heat loading up our U-Haul and got my car hitched on in the back. We set out for our 6 hour drive from Fort Worth to NW Arkansas and after only 90 minutes, a tire on the U-Haul blew out!

Some of my boxes and furniture got shifted around (nothing too damaged luckily). We had to wait 3 hours before anyone showed up to change the tire. The nice man replaced it, but informed us that the impact of the tire explosion dented the gas tubes leading to the tank. It was pinched so tight that gas could only pass through drops at a time. It took 45 minutes just to fill up half a tank.

Needless to say, our 6 hour journey turned into 11 hours, but we made it! It's a story we will laugh about forever.

My worst story about moving- is about shipping. I had baked my boyfriend a beautiful kings cake and apparently the post office though my powdered sugar was cocaine or anthrax or something. They destroyed it and it was late! The whole post is here http://thefirstapartment.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-not-ship-something.html
It was quite an adventure, next time I will make him buy his own powdered sugar!
~Blair

My moving day coinsided with the coldest day of the year -10 celcius. There was no warmth in my old appartment because everything had been turned down to save money. When everything was loaded - the moving van would not start at all. It had to be towed away. Which meant I had two complety empty freezing cold appartments, with nothing in it. I had to stay over at my parents for a few days until the van got fixed and I could finally have my own bed and other stuff.

I won't share my worst move because I can't laugh about it yet, but during a later move all of my husband's socks disappeared. He called all the friends who'd helped us move, and none of them knew anything. He bought a bunch of new socks. Many months later, we started packing for a vacation, and they were found in an empty suitcase. My husband had packed them there for the move and then forgotten he'd done so.

HOLY!!! A lot of horror stories.
Mine ended up being almost 20k in moving claims. Make a long story short, it was a HUGE company that was hired by the military (since here in Canada they pack and move us)

1. Packing for a 3 storey 4 bed house takes them under 6 hours?!

2. Loading truck takes them well over 13 hours.

3. Truck too small and at the end of the day when I show up from work, hubby was there, they joke they are going to cut the legs of my antique sewing machine.

4. Gets put in storage across country, Men who come to unload into our new house apologize before even introducing themselves.

5. Solid wood cracked in half, almost all boxes squished. Lawnmower oil all over my red sofas. We make them unpack and all boxes look like arms we pushed from one end of shelves to the other, stuff dropped in boxes then taped shut.

6. We either get stuff repaired or replaced. Then a little over a year later we have to move again. Resulting in a 5K claim.

Next time we have to move, no box is going to be taped shut until I see the inside and make sure stuff is packed properly.

Sad thing is, my first move with them, stuff was packed so well the only thing that broke was glass in a single picture frame. Stuff was so organized unpacking and putting stuff away was easy!!!.

Moral of the stories, people have NO work ethics or dont bother to take care of other people's possessions.

They day I was moving into my first apartment in DC, Tropical Storm Ernesto was passing over the city. My father would pull all my boxes out of the van onto the curb, I would run them inside and up to the three floors to the landing and my mother would take them in my apartment. It would have been a good move without the gale force winds and torrential downpour.

Yeah, we just moved and got the extra-large insurance policy. They moved a lot of very expensive, fragile stuff. The only thing broken, a Le Creuset dutch oven. Utterly smashed. Weird. They were on time, worked hard, and polite. They also packed boxes better and faster than we could. "A Better Way to Move" in Los Angeles.

I guess my story really doesn't shine a light to any of these, but just graduating from my M.A. program after going straight through meant 6 years of moving, EVERY YEAR. If that doesn't stink enough...
There was one year where I had to pack up everything loose in my small Saturn because my roommate left the cardboard boxes outside-in Syracuse-where it rains.pretty much. every.day. Not bad as I only had to move across campus, but I had to move a week early. So I loaded everything into the attic of my new place-which was supposed to be secured with a key only the landlord and I had. I then crashed on a couch for a week waiting to move in only to find that almost everything I owned was pilfered or gone through. Furniture, movies, books, even underpants-nothing was sacred! Of course the landlord didn't know anything about it and the kids living there had already left so I spent a summer/semester with no tv, kitchenware and most of my clothes, amongst countless other things. I am still irritated about that one.

My worst moving story:

After living four months with an abusive boyfriend (an ill-advised move in its own right), I decided enough is enough and was seeking refuge in a new living space to reclaim my happiness.

An old friend offered to rent me the upstairs floor (the loft) of her bungalow home at a reasonable rate. I gratefully accepted. I remodeled the upstairs of her home with her. I purchased and installed wall-to-wall carpeting myself (!) and helped her repaint the walls of the entire second floor. I even went to Lowe's the same day of my grandma's funeral to lug the heavy carpeting up to the second floor of my friend's home, just relieved that I would be getting a new start. I figured taking care of my immediate safety would be worth putting off my grief temporarily.

I moved all of my belongings myself from the upstairs of my abusive ex's house -- where I had just moved into several months earlier and hadn't ever even fully unpacked yet -- without anyone's help, not even my friend's. She would just sit on the couch smoking pot while I moved everything, trip after trip, without offering any assistance. (I didn't want to ask the same friends who had just months earlier moved me into my then-boyfriend's place, since I consider moving to be a huge PITA and a big favor to ask, much less multiple times in one year).

A couple weeks later, right after I had finished remodeling her upstairs and was ready to move in finally, she texts me to tell me that she no longer thinks it's a good idea that I move in, and that I'll have to find somewhere else to rent. No explanation offered, even though I was begging for an explanation of some sort. Stunned and desperate, I start the search for a new apartment all over again, this time with even more additional pressure to find somewhere to live so that I can get my stuff out of her house and the few items still at my ex's.

Well, in the midst of searching for yet another place to call home, I go to her house one day and I discover that she had carelessly left the door to the loft (my would-be apartment there) open and had let her filthy cats onto the second floor, where all of my stuff had been stored in what would have been my bedroom there. The cats had urinated all over all of my belongings -- everything! Being in the middle of a very hot summer, the summer heat had just baked the cat pee smell into everything. My so-called friend had made no attempts to clean up any of their filth, and only paid a small fraction of my dry cleaning bill. Ultimately, I had to throw a lot of my belongings out, and spent months and months doing load after load of disinfecting laundry of what was left. I am still to this day dealing with items I find occasionally that need to be laundered or thrown away because of her cats.

The big irony is that I never even lived there, not for a single day. So much of my time, money, effort, emotions, friendship and possessions were wasted during that move, and I didn't even "get" to live at that place (not that I would have wanted to once I realized her entire house was a cat toilet). Her one filthy cat gave me a very difficult time while I was moving all of my stuff out, too...hissing at me for no reason...nasty thing.

To add insult to injury, I think my then-friend was concerned that I'd set her house on fire in frustration and anger or something, so she had neighbors across the street pretending to have a conversation outside on the sidewalk but actually were watching my every move as I struggled to move everything out by myself.

In hindsight, I probably should have just sued her. The damage was extensive enough that I certainly could have. Needless to say, we are not friends anymore.

The story doesn't stop there, since I had to move everything again in the middle of a sweltering hot July (by myself, of course!) to a place I soon found (a 3rd floor attic efficiency) -- but that's sadly just a minor detail in my worst moving story.

Mine just happened on Sunday! It was one of the most taxing days of my life.

Earlier this year, my long-term boyfriend and I broke up. This would be insignificant, except that for the past several years, I've really organized nothing for any move and am generally incompetent with details. But, I was really proud of myself for organizing my move all by myself - got movers, got a Uhaul, even managed to get into my apartment a day early so I could move out/in on the same day.

I could only move out past 6 pm, since my former building was residential/commercial, and we started moving a little after 6. Fast forward to 9:45 pm and we're still at my teeny, tiny 1-bedroom apartment - when, given all estimates, I should have been unloaded and enjoying a beer at my new place.

I call the manager on my way to my new apartment, because that was really ridiculous. She calls the movers, which basically starts a stand off. I never even see one of the two guys again - only one of them is taking things into my new place.

They lied and told the manager I kept changing my mind about what to take, and that they had to share my elevator with tenants - both of which were untrue (my "um, take everything, why are you asking me this" stance was apparently unclear) (and both elevators were reserved by key just for us, thank you very much).

By 11 pm, they had to be done per my new building's rules, and when I went down to tell them to leave, they were already gone.

I'm crying and don't know what to do - several important items are in the Uhaul, including all my clothes and the dog food, and I have to work the next day. Plus since it was supposed to be a one-day move, my truck was extremely late + I had nowhere to put it + I didn't have a padlock for it. Fortunately, I have amazing friends who helped me sort it all out - which I seriously resisted since I was so excited to be independent but sometimes, you have to let people do great things for you.

Also, they broke several really expensive items - like my Blu Dot Area 51 desk and a R&B light. I didn't sign anything with them, and I'm not going to be able to recover. Fortunately my credit card company happily cancelled the charge.

Moral of the story: Being independent is great and worthwhile, but know when to ask for help. I should have known by 9 pm that I needed to ask for help, but I kept telling myself everything was fine and that it was just going to be a long night.

Also, always get a recommendation for movers. Make phone calls until your ears bleed, and don't just take the easiest option.

1. Movers never showed up, then, when I called, insisted I never booked them. 2. Car rolled off the moving van trailer at an intersection (explaining the honking and pointing). 3. Broke down crying in front of police officer investigating abandoned car at intersection. 4. Cat escaped van at rest stop and climbed a tree. 5. Waited three hours before climbing tree to get cat. 6. Bloodied from cat scratches, I got stuck in tree and had to yell for help from stranger at rest stop (in the middle of New Mexico). 7. Helpful person at toll booth noticed a pre-blowout bubble on the side of the moving van tire.

This was all part of the same move, from NM to NY.

I have 2.

1) PA to Boston. Then BF picked out full-service mover while I was studying for the Bar. 24 hrs before the move, it becomes clear that this mover is not legit; when confronted about legitimacy, mover hangs up on us and tells us to go to hell. All other movers in 100-mi radius are booked, so we hire movers from DE to drive 200 mi to us to load a Uhaul. Uhaul is out of our truck size, and we have to rent a truck with a trailer. We don't sleep for 48 hrs, get delirious, get in a fight that takes a turn for domestic violence. Driving on 3 hrs of sleep in 4 days, we don't notice that no trucks are allowed on Meritt Pkwy in CT, and must terrifyingly calculate how much clearance we have under 5 low overpasses before the roof of the truck gets ripped off. We then get lost trying to find I-95. Our loader on the Boston end cancels and I have to schedule a new one from my iphone while sitting in line at the toll 2 exits from my new apt. Moved in and broke up with insane BF not long after.

2) Boston to DC. Get a new job in DC that requires me to start 10 days after the offer. Initial move is me and an air mattress in the new place. Fly back to Boston every weekend for 3 weeks to pack, which isn't enough time. On the night before the move, current live-in BF has a medical emergency that requires him to be hospitalized for 2 weeks. BF's entire family comes from all over the state and pulls together to pack our entire apt the morning of the move. Get in a screaming match with some guy about a dumpster I was apparently prohibited from using and cried so hard that he ended up helping me move stuff into the prohibited dumpster. Next morning, drove for 10 hrs with 2 cats in my car while quasi-BIL drove the Uhaul through a monsoon. Get to DC and realize that the Uhaul had a giant hole in the ceiling and the inside of the truck is basically cardboard soup. Uhaul later accuses me of never returning the truck when I made an insurance claim (though they later find it). Needless to say, I did not end up paying for the truck.

I clearly have bad moving karma.

We just moved into a newly renovated home where the AC unit had been stolen from outside. The management company claimed they didn't know that but its obvious that they did and let us move in during the hottest days of the year. The windows were nailed and painted shut and there were wasps outside both the doors. No screens and no window treatments so it was 93 inside our apartment. We had a cat. Then we found out the washing machine drained into a broken sump pump thus we have a moldy basement. It's been a week and nothing has changed.

Um. So my crew (friends) was meeting at our apartment and I headed out to get the truck. Only, I didn't realize the company didn't promise they'd have a truck when I reserved it (always read the fine print). In a mad rush, I went down the street to another company. They had one truck left, but insisted that I didn't want it. It had been highjacked weeks before during a chicken run (No I'm not kidding). I had no other option, so I took it. I don't think I've ever smelled anything so horrid in all my life. In 100 degree August heat, the stench went through you. En route to the new abode, I was in a four hour traffic jam in atunnel under the Chesapeake Bay. Heat! Dead chicken! Traffic! On the bright side, the rot of chicken made us move up and in quickly and unpack even more quickly-- the chicken smell was absorbed by the cardboard boxes. We went through bottles of Frabreeze to get the dead chicken out of the fabric of all our furniture. When we moved into our current home (we bought a house), of friends all pitched in and hired movers. All around, I have some awesome friends.

Bowling Green, OH to Austin, TX. It was our first long distance move and we learned a LOT. We had tagged onto an almost full moving truck and once the movers left, realized we couldn't get everything else left in the car. So we had to pack an enormous box and walk it to the greyhound station a half mile away, for shipping. Our last night in town, we stayed at the Holiday Inn (hubster had worked there so we got the room for free). In the shower the next morning I bent over and hit my right eye on the grab bar; the eye lid split open and started pouring blood. After a trip for stitches (and an eye that swelled shut) we got on the road. In Wapokaneta, we stopped for a soda (very hot day, no ac in the car) and the catalytic converter fell off the car. We had to find a shop to make a new pipe (no mean task on a Friday afternoon in late summer) and after a four hour wait (and the nicest mechanics ever!) we finally hit the road again.

The rest of the trip was (thank goodness) uneventful. All of our moves since have gone much better. And after 30 years, I still have a good sized scar over my right eye as a reminder.

My BF and I moved in together about a month ago and it wasn't terrible but still was not the greatest moving experience I've had.

I booked a moving truck online and called the rental place two days before (Thursday morning) and they confirmed that they had my reservation. They said they didn't have the truck yet but it should arrive by Saturday morning for us.

Come Saturday morning we are running a little late so we call the truck rental place to let them know. Instead we are informed that there is no truck for us and they don't have any trucks at all. They couldn't look for another truck for us and said we just had to call around and find a new truck.

Argh. Cue cussing and various other obscenities as we vented. We called corporate customer service and found out that the local rental place had cancelled my reservation AFTER THEY CONFIRMED WITH ME. Argh!

We called around and found another truck after Budget reactivated my reservation and eventually managed to move. Unfortunately I was still charged a no-show fee at the first rental place which I had to resolve. I figured if they cancelled my truck then me no showing up did not deserve a fee.

ok so the lesson from all these posts is to hire movers and a lawyer in the city you currently live in and one in the city you plan to move to. This way, you can be prepared to sue.

We moved 2 weeks ago, and we're still finding broken stuff. But that's not the worst of it: my favourite necklace has been "misplaced" by the removal guys - they got hold of it before I could put it with the rest of my jewellery, which I moved myself - and my wallet vanished from my purse. It had no money in it, but it did have the only picture I had of my son when he was little.

My (ex) boyfriend and I moved from Mobile, Alabama to Sacramento with his dad driving a Ryder moving van that was towing his truck and us in my Mazda with our puppy and my cat. We broke down three times, once in the Mojave desert in 110+ degree heat. My cat was panting as if he was going to die. It was scary and miserable. I think we wasted about 10 hours of our already long journey on the side of roads, however the Mojave desert part was beyond awful.

I'm in the middle of the worst move ever. My lease was up on February 29th, I had to move by Mark 1'st. Found a nice place that was under construction. They assured me the repairs would be done by March 1'st so we paid security, first months, and a pet deposit. A few days before March 1'st they said it would be another two weeks. We overstayed our lease only to hear "April first". April first we had to leave our old place and were told the new place would be ready April 9. Tonight we sleep in our car in hopes that tomorrow we can move in. They give no promises, even though we have a lease that says March 1'st. All our belongings are in the new place, all the utilities in our names, our I.d's and drivers all changed. Yet tonight, once again.. We sleep in our car.

My biggest horror story was trying to move myself and my family from Denver to Kansas City using our own SUV's. We broke two mirror's and totally ruined a King Sized mattress. Ugh. Never again : /