The move

At around 11:00 the night before the movers were set to come, I left a message for Alon at Omega, the company we used to ship our stuff, I asked to please call me first thing in the morning, we never heard from the movers, who were supposed to call us 24 hours in advance, and we had no idea what the story was with our lift. By 9:00AM I hadn't heard from the movers or from Omega.

Around 10:00 I called and talked with our customer service rep who said we should have talked with the dispatcher yesterday. Since I hadn't she put me through to him. I told him I had no idea when our lift was coming, he told me that they weren't sending the lift. They were bring a truck, they would load the truck, put it in storage for 30 days and then load it into the lift. I asked him what the cost for this would be and he had no idea, said I had to talk to Alon. I informed him that I wasn't happy with Alon, because he has yet to get back to me. I asked the dispatcher when the movers would get to our house, he wasn't sure said he would get back to me. He called 20 minutes later or so and said they should arrive at 2:30.

I finally got in touch with Alon around 1:00, he said that he was able to get 30 days free shipping, but the double packing would cost $675.00. I told him that was unacceptable, we specifically said we wanted to know a price before he put it in storage. He said that Natalie had told them a few times that we wanted to store our stuff, and once it is in the container they can't store it, so this is what they did. I told him that we also asked what the cost would be, and even as late as yesterday they couldn't tell us.

Then Alon told us that they were doing a survey of a guy in Detroit, who we had discussed earlier the possibility of consolidating our lift and hopefully saving money, and if his stuff would fit with ours then they would combine them. I told Alon that the other guys stuff wouldn't fit in with our 20 foot lift, and we spoke with the other guy a few weeks ago and he said he was going to do his own thing. Or, he still had a 20 foot lift reserved and he could have it sent to our house the following day, the movers would box everything then, and put it on the lift the following day. With this option we would still have the issue of our stuff getting to Israel before we do.

Alon said we should call the other guy and see whats going, if he would split the double packing cost then it wouldn't be too bad, and it would be worth it for us to do. I called the other, he had no idea anyone was coming to his house, I think he was out of town, and he told me that he is using a different company.

So I called Alon back and told him that the other guy isn't using his company so that is a non-issue. So we decided that we would have him send us the lift and we would have to give up on the free 1 month apartment, and find a place before we got to Ariel.

Around 4:00 the movers pulled in, and I was talking to the leader of the group and he said they were taking all the stuff back to Indianapolis with them. I told them what we had heard from Omega and he said he would check with his dispatcher.

Around 6:00 they started loading things in the truck, I called Omega left a message for Alon and then talked to the receptionist and told her I need to talk to Alon ASAP - she said he's working on it, she heard him say my name on the phone. By 7;00 the truck was pretty full, I got in touch with Alon, he said that he didn't want the stuff to leave, and he was leaving a message for their bosses, and he would be in touch with me when he found out what was going on.

At 8:00 the movers were finished packing everything up, and they took off for Indianapolis. They told us that it might get driven back to Detroit, or they may meet the lift in the middle somewhere.

At around 8:45 Alon called and told me that the lift is going to Indianapolis and will be packed there. We won't get charged for the double packing, and it should get to Israel after we do, but he didn't tell me when.

Tomorrow I will call him and find out of they packed the lift and if everything fit, since they didn't measure it. And if it doesn't fit exactly how will they decide what to leave in Indianapolis.