The Big Move - 2001

In the summer of 2001, I was working as a consultant for Prudential when I was told that my contract would be ending several months earlier than expected. I had spent the previous month purchasing the townhouse that my wife and I had been living in for three years, and now it was three of us as my first son was coming up on his first birthday.
Prudential had offered me a permanent job, but it required relocation to a new office in Scottsdale, AZ, so I had emphatically turned it down. I was not a big fan of hot weather. I should mention that there is some irony in this, as I was specifically working for Prudential's relocation services business. So, I started looking for a job in vicinity of our home in Danbury, CT. The only suitable positions I could find were in Manhattan, and with a new child in the family, I was not ready to commit to spending 2 hours or more of every week day commuting to NYC. So, roughly 1 week after finally closing on the townhouse in Danbury, I accepted the job with Prudential and started planning the move to Arizona.
In September of 2001, we took a trip to Arizona and spent a week shopping for a new home. We found a place that was absolutely perfect for us, and managed to get a deal in place before we headed home.
Since I had waited until the last minute, I missed out on the relocation benefits that were originally offered with the job, so I had to fund the move myself. Being the cheapskate that I am, I shopped around for a long time to find the least expensive way to get our stuff from Connecticut to Arizona. I settled on a company based in New York City that seemed to be somewhat reputable.
When I set up the transportation for my belongings, they urged me to purchase moving insurance. It was about $500, and it would cover any damage to our property that might occur during the move. I finally agreed to purchase the insurance, and they billed my credit card for it. H0wever, a few days later I spoke to my insurance agent (who happened to work near me at the Prudential office) and he pointed out that I already had coverage through my regular homeowner's policy. I called the moving company back and canceled the insurance, and they agreed to refund the premium that I had paid.
The movers came and packed everything up and took it away at the beginning of October, 2001. Then I flew to Arizona to start my job and receive our furniture and belongings when it all arrived, while Amey and the baby went to her Mom's house. The plan was for them to meet me in Phoenix after all of our furniture was there and appliances were in place.
About 10 days after the movers took our stuff, I call the moving company to find out where it is. It was still sitting New York! I said it was supposed to be delivered within 12 days, and they insisted that it was just an estimate, and that it might be several more weeks before I would get it. I was obviously irritated, and I finally persuaded them to find a way to get my stuff on its way to Phoenix immediately.
The next call I got from the movers was several days later. They said "there was a problem with the truck." The truck had been in an accident. I ask "How bad of an accident? Was my stuff damaged?" They did not have details, but they confirmed that there was "some damage" to my property. They would still deliver it in a few days, and then I would need to assess the damage at home.
Obviously, I was pretty freaked out at this point. I had no idea what to expect. I figured it was a probably a small accident, and most of my stuff would be OK. The moving company did not seem too panicked about it, so I hoped for the best.
A week or so later, the movers finally showed up in Phoenix. At this point, I had been sleeping on a borrowed air mattress in my empty living room for 2 weeks waiting for the rest of our furniture.
The driver of the moving truck explained to me that the it was not just a small accident. He had fallen asleep at the wheel and the truck went off the road and tumbled into a ditch in Tennessee. The had to rent a replacement truck to cart the stuff back to me. And then they opened the truck door to reveal a mess of unrecognizable junk. Shards of plastic and wood, torn boxes, garbage bags full of who-knows-what. Apparently, a lot of stuff escaped the truck in the accident, so they picked up anything that was on the side of the road and returned it to me. We never found any trace of our Christmas tree ornaments, but we did gain some old beer cans and some other colorful rubbish.
As they unloaded it, I stood by in disbelief, sometimes laughing at the absurdity of it, sometimes furious. They unloaded a sofa that looked like someone had hit it with a giant hammer right in the middle. Our washer and dryer, nearly new top-of-the-line models, were squashed into parallelograms. We had a crib that seemed to have completely disappeared other than a few pieces of wood that looked like they might have been part of it at one time. Every single piece of furniture we owned was damaged or completely destroyed (mostly the latter). My new 3-car-garage was now completely filled with junk.
The driver said he had had some dental work one, so he was on painkillers, and the heat in the truck did not work, so he was very cold and just could not stay awake. His partner was sleeping on the floor of the cab at the time of the crash. Somehow both of them were unhurt. The driver seemed to be looking for sympathy from he. I assure you, he got none. I could not even feign it at this point.




This is the unfortunate driver.


This used to be a nice dresser.



The only good to come of all this was that my homeowner's insurance policy had a replacement-value rider, which meant that Prudential would be purchasing furniture to replace all of what we had lost. An adjuster would be coming in the next few days to assess the damages (a full day's work!). Meanwhile, I had not received the refund for the canceled moving insurance policy that I had purchased through the moving company. It was actually kind of fun telling them that if they did not issue the credit within 3 days, that I would make the damages claim against them, and they would be buying me an entire house full of furniture instead. I got my money back shortly after that call.
Phoenix has a bulk trash pickup program, where they will come around with a loader and a bigger truck and take large stuff that will not go in regular trash cans once every three months. Luckily for me, our street was due for such a pick-up a couple of weeks after this debacle occurred. I made a great first impression with my neighbors by completely filling my front yard with junk that week.

Amey and the baby showed up a few days later, and we started shopping for furniture and appliances for our new home. We used our Costco American Express card for all of the purchases, and rang up a very nice rebate at the end of the year. Prudential came through with generous valuations for our stuff and even paid us quickly after we filled out the forms for the claims. Unfortunately, Pru got out of the property insurance business a year or two later.
So that was the inauspicious beginning of our life in Phoenix. Fortunately, things have gone much better since then. I was even able to sell the townhouse in Danbury about 5 months after purchasing it at a profit of about 25%.