"The Movers Left Half My Stuff Behind": People Are Sharing Their Worst Moving Story, And It's Giving Me A Tummyache
The thing about moving is that even if everything goes according to plan, it's still a stressful and epic chore. And sometimes, it feels like everything on move day that can go wrong will go wrong. Recently, I asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share their moving horror stories, and oh boy, did they ever have some doozies. Here's what people had to say:
1."I finally got the keys to my new house and excitedly opened the front door (with the moving truck full of all my stuff parked outside, ready to go). The previous owners had 'forgotten' and had not moved any of their stuff out. It was fully furnished, even down to having tins of food in the cupboards. I nearly had to be resuscitated!"
"They had been renting out the house and not actually living in it and had just forgotten; I honestly couldn't believe it! My movers (who I was paying for) then had to play a kind of Tetris with their stuff and my stuff to move a bit out and move a bit in, which took HOURS longer than it should have, all while me and my friend were emptying the cupboards into boxes (bearing in mind I had already packed up my own house and was DONE with that) and we were not careful at all, sorry not sorry!"
—Frances, 40
2."After paying way too much to move my stuff and having specifically asked for a Covid-safe crew, I caught Covid because one of the movers thought, 'Eh, it's only a cold!' What's worse is that I'm a transplant patient, so I was stuck in the hospital for just over three months."
3."Me and my husband moved with our two kids. The eldest was three at the time, and the youngest was only two weeks old. We’d cleared everything out of our old place by 10 a.m. as agreed and were due to be able to move into the new house from 12 p.m. onwards — again, this was all agreed in the contracts. We weren’t moving far, only about 30 minutes away, but we had recruited family to help us. We arrived at the new house at about 1 p.m. with all our stuff in a van after picking up the keys, and the owners were still very much 'in situ' — they’d barely started moving or packing ANYTHING. They were supposed to be completely out by 10 a.m.!"
"Cue a lot of tense conversations, and I ended up having to take refuge at a friend’s house so I could feed the kids while everyone worked overtime to try and get these people out of our house!
They eventually left at about 8 p.m., and we had to throw mattresses and a travel cot in the bedrooms and try to get the kids sorted. Again, I was only two weeks postpartum—it was the LAST thing I needed! We’re not planning on moving again for a long time; it’s just not worth the hassle!"
—Kessa, 34
4."The movers showed up on moving day, and their truck was too small. They had room for only half of my stuff and left the rest behind. Fortunately, I was able to hire another mover, who did a great job on short notice. Then, I hired a cleaner to do a move-out clean and went off to run some errands. I got a call from the cleaners saying that they thought they saw mold in the bathroom and they weren't going to clean my apartment after all."
"I couldn't get another cleaner on such short notice, so my partner and I did all the cleaning ourselves, staying till midnight the day before the move-out inspection. (Neither of us found any mold.)
Then, the person who conducted the move-out inspection barely looked at the place, saying that because I had lived there such a long time, they were going to completely redo the apartment anyway, so it didn't really matter how well I had cleaned it.
At least I got my full damage deposit back."
5."The movers asked for a bunch of extra money for the 'luxury' of wrapping my fragile furniture in bubble wrap before moving it. I declined and asked them to just be reasonably careful. About thirty seconds later, they dropped my china cabinet down the stairs and broke the door. Pretty sure it was on purpose."
6."The year is 2020, the time is before the world shut down. I have gotten a long-awaited raise that will finally allow me to move into a better place than my current walk-in closet. Since it's also in a different town, I hire movers. Not to pack and such, just to move pre-packed boxes and furniture. They are supposed to be at the old unit to meet my husband at 4 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., he tries to call to find them. The office is closed. My child and I are in a new city with no transportation."
"At 10 p.m., they finally arrive and take over an hour loading a three-room apartment. When they get to the new place at MIDNIGHT, I have to go wake the building manager to get the freight elevator set for large loads (back door). When these absolute geniuses get my sofa up, these rocket scientists can't figure out how to turn it to get it through the door. In the process, they managed to ding the hall wall and two of my interior walls. I had to tell them how to get it in."
7."We had to move for my husband's new job. It was a two-hour drive there and two more back from where we lived. I was off work for medical leave and drove him, so in total, it was four hours of driving a day for me. We had three months left in our lease ($2500/month), and the new place we found was $1900/month. Our landlord let us leave and looked for new renters immediately, saying that we had to pay the rent, but if they found someone sooner than three months, we could break the lease with no problem."
"We were super hard-pressed for money, so my husband took out a $2,000 loan for the security deposit on the new place, and we started moving some boxes in before our move-in date with the new landlord's permission.
Then, one week before the official move, someone broke into the new place and stole nearly everything. My stepson's school laptop, his new winter jacket, school backpack... What got me, and I know it's just games, but my entire collection of video games was taken. I have a lot of memories with those games, and some were very pricey as they were no longer produced (upwards of several hundred dollars for a single game, and I had dozens).
There was a huge footprint on the front door, a large rock in the kitchen, and a knife left in the opened garage. Police took a report (never gave us a copy after multiple asks for our renter's insurance), asked if we wanted an investigation (we said yes, they did absolutely nothing and wouldn't return our calls), and that was that.
The landlords accused us of having someone stage the break-in to get out of the lease because the place had so many issues they didn't disclose, and they said we had to pay the entire year's rent because of the lease, even though we hadn't lived there a single day and wouldn't stay there since I didn't feel safe.
When we brought up the multiple health and safety violations, they dropped the lease but refused to give us the deposit back. We ended up finding another place, had to take out ANOTHER loan for the deposit there, and unfortunately had to pay for the new apartment ($1,750) as well as the old one ($2,500). We racked up so much debt because I had to put all gas/food costs on credit cards for almost a full year (my absolutely amazing mother helped us whenever she could; we owe her so much, and she doesn't want anything in return but for us to find some stress relief).
A year after this absolute disaster, we had to file for bankruptcy, and we're working with an awesome lawyer who has been so kind and understanding. But really, thank you, Mom, you've saved us so many times."
—Kei, 32
8."So, in 2017, my hubby, two kids (six and eight then), plus dog and cat, moved across the country from Georgia to Montana. We had both obtained employment at a resort in Big Sky—guaranteed start date, paperwork completed, and all. Before leaving GA, we were told we had housing also. A lady also employed by the resort had a place to rent, and we were told it was for us. Great, right?"
"First snag we hit was our vehicle decided to blow the freaking radiator and water pump. By some ridiculous stroke of luck, we broke down in Missouri at an exit that had a campground and a gas station/mechanic shop. It was hotter than hell, dead middle of the dog days of summer. Definitely know why they call it Misery for sure. The people were absolutely phenomenal, though... That was like the highlight of the trip.
Second snag: after finally getting on the road after three days, we finally make it to MT. During the entire trip, we've been trying to contact this lady constantly. We speak with our contact at the resort, and she's all, 'oh no, it's fine, you're good, keep coming.'
We finally made it, all in all, a little over a week on the road. Welp, come to find out, this bitch has secretly decided NOT to rent to us because we have kids!! Like are you kidding me?!! You couldn't just say that shit?!! So, for the next three months, until September 22, we had to camp in the fucking woods!!
We didn't find out who she was until the end of the season, and maaaaaan omfg. She got her karma, though! Whoever she decided to rent to instead stayed there for like eight months, never paid rent, and completely destroyed her property. We're still in MT now, but way away from Big Sky, and luckily, we haven't had many issues since. Unfortunately, I don't know any more about her or her situation, but I know she went through hell. Serves her right."
—Amanda, 39
9."When I last moved, I was shocked by the unprofessionalism of the moving company. Workers touched me inappropriately, flirted constantly (while telling me about their wives and families), and one left me his number for 'other services.' My favorite part, though, was that I'd ordered a lot of new furniture (including a new bed and mattress, a large TV cabinet, and a huge wardrobe) and had taken two days off work for the move. The furniture company knew this, that I wanted the furniture delivered and set up in that time, and that they were supposed to dispose of my old bed and mattress — it was all in the contract."
"So, on the first day of the move, the truck arrived at dusk, and the workers immediately asked, 'Did the company tell you we're only delivering today? We're doing the set up next week.' Since they were still taking my old bed that day, I asked them if I was supposed to sleep on the carton of my new one and whether I'd get more days off for the company fucking up the agreed schedule.
They gave me the number of the guy in charge of scheduling, and I may or may not have verbally torn him a new one, but the thing is, I was able to finish the move as originally planned."
10."When I was being relocated for work, I had packed a box of some computer hard drives super tight into an emptied cabinet drawer with lots of bubble wrap to keep them safe. When the movers arrived, I pointed this out to them, and they all agreed they would pack said drawer as it was."
"Fast-forward three weeks. I’m at my new place, receiving all my packed belongings, and to my horror, I discovered that behind my back, they had unwrapped all the hard drives and (I cannot make this up) dumped the box of now-free drives into another large box containing other computer components that it turned out they had treated the same way. Two 2TB drives died—full of my stuff. Oh, and they scratched my TV’s screen up pretty good, too."
11."I moved from Southern California to Lake Tahoe via a big U-Haul box truck that broke down in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. When I was finally able to telephone in my problem, I emphasized how ridiculous I found their logo, 'Adventure in Moving,' by being super sarcastic. Shortly thereafter, that logo went away, never to reappear."
12."Eight months ago, I decided to give up my apartment at the urging of my boyfriend at the time who promised that his house would be ready for me, my dogs, and him to move in together. The idea of starting a new chapter in a freshly renovated home sounded perfect. But fast forward eight months, and the house was still a construction zone — no walls, no floors, no kitchen, nothing. Meanwhile, my apartment had already been rented out to someone else, so I had no choice but to move back in with my parents."
"I've moved plenty of times before, so I thought I had it all figured out. I found some seemingly reputable movers, did a virtual tour with them and got an estimate of $3,500, which seemed fair for packing up my minimalist two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment and taking it to storage. Everything seemed on track until they called to say they'd be showing up a day early.I was already a bit anxious, but my worries grew when the movers arrived in a rental truck with no company logos and dressed in regular clothes. Once inside, they started saying how big the move was and that it would cost way more than the original estimate. The new price? A ridiculous $10,000 — nearly three times the initial quote.I told them there was no way I was paying that much at which point they started to get super aggressive with me. I realized I had four huge dudes in my house, I was alone, and things were getting tense. I'm a 5'1" woman, but I summoned some BDE as they got more and more aggressive. I stood my ground and screamed at them to leave, all while still telling them there was no way I was paying that much. Finally, after I threatened to throw every single thing in my house away and sue the living shit out of them, they left.Once the adrenaline wore off, I broke down and cried. The whole ordeal was exhausting. But I didn't stay down for long. I pulled myself together and found another moving company, and this time, everything went smoothly. The new movers were professional, courteous, and handled everything with care — basically restoring my faith in humanity. LOLAs for my ex, he can go to hell. Life is too short to waste on broken promises and unreliable people. Moving back in with my parents wasn't the plan, but it gave me time to reflect, recover, and get ready for the next chapter of my life."—Sakita, 45
13."I hired a well-known moving company to move me — it cost $13,000 because of the distance and amount of items, plus they packed most of my stuff. After they loaded the items, they told me they were wrong about the estimate (which we had both signed). It would cost an extra $6,000. I told them to unload the stuff; they refused & drove off with my possessions. The cops refused to get involved, citing it as a 'civil matter.'"
"I ended up having to pay an extra $3,000 (after numerous calls) to finally have it delivered. They used small children to assist in the delivery, which is against federal law. I discovered the movers had stolen several items. Again, the cops refused to get involved. I ended up calling the USDOT.
I'm now in a class action lawsuit against the movers, who have subsequently gone out of business. I know I will never get any of that money or possessions back. It sucks, but such is life. I’m just glad I got most of my items back!"
14."I broke up with a guy I had been seeing for about nine months and was moving back to my home state. I was trying to quickly pack and leave before he got home while on Zoom with a therapist, and my mom ditched me (I didn't have a car at that point). I was stuck staying there for a week until my flight, and my god, was that a week from hell. One of my cats got out, and it took hours before finding him while I cried because I wouldn't be able to leave without him. My mom was supposed to take me to buy boxes/ship my belongings, and I no longer had anyone to help me, so my ex offered to."
"The boxes arrived SUPER beat up, and he put in an open bottle of hot pink paint (ruining a pair of white boots and only getting out of clothes after scrubbing for several days), broke the zipper on my expensive thigh-high boots, and took the time to take the wheels off of my penny board. He also included a hate letter. On top of that, he kept/tossed a lot, including one of my favorite tops.
I was already in a horrible place mentally and not handling having to move back to my grandma's basement in a small town well at all, and to make matters worse, I'd wake up in the morning to hate essays from him (I was advised not to block him because I had an open harassment case against him and that would be added to evidence).
Moral of the story: don't move in with someone right away, don't downplay the weird age gap, the tarot cards giving positive messages might be lying, and anyone who wants to date you immediately after getting out of an abusive relationship is a predator."
—Jay, 24
15.And finally, "We hired a well-known moving company to move the entire contents of our house. Upon arriving at the storage destination, they demanded more money than the signed contract before they would unload the furniture. If not paid then and there, they would take everything to a secured storage facility and hold it hostage until paid. If not paid within 30 days, they would auction everything off. We called the police, showed them the signed contract, how much we paid and how much remained."
"Based on those documents, the police made the movers unload the furniture for no additional money. The movers actually said this is their company’s business model and would have driven off with our furniture if they were not in a secured storage area and did not have the code to get out. What a nightmare."
Have you ever had a move from hell? Tell us your story in the comments or via this anonymous form.
