Buzz
Moving is one of those tasks that, even when everything goes smoothly, remains an incredibly stressful ordeal. And when things do go wrong, it feels like everything that can go wrong, will. Recently, I asked members of the Mytour Community to share their worst moving nightmares, and let's just say, they delivered. Here are some of the stories they shared:
1. "I finally got the keys to my new place and eagerly opened the front door (with the moving truck loaded with all my things waiting outside). But to my shock, the previous owners had 'forgotten' to move out any of their belongings. The house was still completely furnished, even with food cans still in the kitchen cupboards. I almost had a heart attack!"
"The house had been rented out, but the owners hadn't actually lived there and just forgot to clear it out; I honestly couldn't believe it! My movers (whom I was paying) had to play a frustrating game of Tetris, juggling their stuff with mine. This delayed everything by HOURS, while my friend and I scrambled to empty cupboards into boxes (keep in mind, I had already packed up my entire home and was totally over it) and we didn’t exactly handle things carefully—sorry, not sorry!"
—Frances, 40
2. "After paying an excessive amount to have my belongings moved and specifically requesting a Covid-safe team, I ended up contracting Covid because one of the movers shrugged it off, thinking, 'Eh, it's just a cold!' To make matters worse, I'm a transplant patient, so I ended up stuck in the hospital for over three months."
—retrocrebbon
3. "My husband and I moved with our two young kids. Our oldest was three, and the youngest was only two weeks old. By 10 a.m., we had cleared out everything from our old place as planned and were set to move into our new house starting at noon — all clearly stated in the contracts. The new place wasn’t far, only about 30 minutes away, and we had enlisted family to help. We arrived with everything at around 1 p.m., only to find the current owners still very much in the house, barely packed, and not even close to being moved out. They were supposed to be out by 10 a.m.!"
"Cue several tense conversations, and I had to take shelter at a friend's house just to feed the kids while everyone worked overtime to get these people out of our home!"
They finally left around 8 p.m., and we had to quickly throw mattresses and a travel cot into the bedrooms and try to settle the kids. Again, I was only two weeks postpartum—this was the absolute last thing I needed! We’re not planning on moving again anytime soon; it’s just too much of a nightmare!"
—Kessa, 34
4. "The movers arrived on moving day, but their truck was way too small. They could only fit half of my belongings and left the rest behind. Luckily, I was able to hire another mover who did an excellent job on short notice. Then, I hired a cleaner to do a move-out cleaning and went off to run errands. I got a call from the cleaners saying they thought they saw mold in the bathroom, so they refused to clean my apartment after all."
"I couldn't get another cleaner on such short notice, so my partner and I ended up doing all the cleaning ourselves, staying up until midnight the day before the move-out inspection. (Neither of us found any mold.)
Then, when the person conducting the move-out inspection arrived, they barely glanced at the place and told me that because I had lived there for so long, they were planning to completely renovate the apartment anyway, so it didn’t matter how clean it was.
At least I got my full damage deposit back."
—irisg2
5. "The movers requested extra payment for the 'privilege' of wrapping my delicate furniture in bubble wrap before moving it. I declined and simply asked them to handle it carefully. About thirty seconds later, they dropped my china cabinet down the stairs and shattered the door. Pretty sure it was intentional."
—hailcthulhu
6. "The year is 2020, before the world went into lockdown. I finally got the long-awaited raise that would allow me to move into a better home, away from my tiny walk-in closet. Since the new place is in a different town, I hired movers. Not to pack, just to handle the pre-packed boxes and furniture. They were supposed to meet my husband at the old apartment at 4 p.m. By 5:30 p.m., he tried calling to check on them, but the office was closed. My child and I were stranded in a new city with no way to get around."
"They finally showed up at 10 p.m. and spent over an hour moving a three-room apartment. When we got to the new place at MIDNIGHT, I had to go wake up the building manager to arrange for the freight elevator to be set for large items (back door). Once they managed to get my sofa up, these geniuses couldn't figure out how to turn it to get it through the door. In the process, they ended up scratching the hall wall and two interior walls. I had to show them how to get it inside."
—bloodwynne
7. "We had to relocate for my husband's new job. It was a two-hour drive there and another two back. I was on medical leave from work, so I drove him, which meant I was spending a total of four hours a day on the road. We had three months left on our lease ($2500/month), and the new place we found was $1900/month. Our landlord allowed us to leave early and started looking for new tenants right away. He told us we'd still have to pay rent, but if they found someone before the three months were up, we could break the lease without issue."
"We were under serious financial strain, so my husband took out a $2,000 loan to cover the security deposit for the new place, and we began moving some boxes in before the official move-in date, with the landlord's permission.
However, just a week before our move, someone broke into the apartment and stole nearly everything. My stepson’s school laptop, his new winter jacket, his backpack... But what really stung was that they took my entire video game collection. I’ve got so many cherished memories with those games, and some of them were quite rare, worth hundreds of dollars each, with dozens in my collection.
There was a huge footprint on the front door, a large rock in the kitchen, and a knife left in the open garage. The police came, filed a report (though they never gave us a copy, despite multiple requests for our renter’s insurance), asked if we wanted an investigation (we did, but they did nothing and ignored our calls), and that was the end of it.
The landlords accused us of staging the break-in to get out of the lease due to undisclosed issues with the apartment, and demanded we pay the full year's rent, despite the fact we hadn't lived there a single day and I didn't feel safe staying. When we raised the issue of multiple health and safety violations, they dropped the lease but refused to return our deposit. We found another place, took out another loan for the deposit, and ended up paying for both apartments ($1,750 and $2,500). We accumulated so much debt because I had to put all gas and food expenses on credit cards for nearly a full year (thankfully, my wonderful mom helped whenever she could; we owe her so much, and she never asks for anything in return except for us to find some peace).
A year after this nightmare, we filed for bankruptcy and got an amazing lawyer who’s been kind and understanding. Honestly, thank you, Mom, you’ve saved us so many times."
—Kei, 32
8. "In 2017, my husband, our two kids (six and eight at the time), plus our dog and cat, moved across the country from Georgia to Montana. We had both secured jobs at a resort in Big Sky—our start date was guaranteed, paperwork was in order, and everything was set. Before leaving Georgia, we were also promised housing. A lady employed by the resort had a place to rent, and we were told it was for us. Sounded perfect, right?"
"The first problem we encountered was our vehicle blowing the radiator and water pump. By some insane stroke of luck, we broke down in Missouri at an exit that had both a campground and a gas station/mechanic shop. It was scorching hot, right in the middle of the summer heat. No wonder they call it Misery, for sure. The people there were absolutely amazing, though, and that ended up being the highlight of the trip."
Our second major issue: after finally getting back on the road three days later, we made it to Montana. Throughout the entire trip, we kept trying to reach this woman. We also spoke with our contact at the resort, and she kept reassuring us, ‘No problem, you’re good, just keep coming.’
After over a week on the road, we finally arrived. But surprise, the lady had secretly decided not to rent to us because we have kids! Like, seriously? You couldn’t just be upfront about that? Instead, we had to camp in the woods for the next three months, all the way until September 22!
We didn’t even find out who she was until the end of the season. And wow, when we did, it was insane. Karma caught up with her, though! The people she rented to instead stayed for eight months, never paid rent, and trashed the place. We’re still in Montana, but far from Big Sky now. Thankfully, we’ve had few problems since then. I don’t know what happened to her, but I’m sure she went through a rough time. Serves her right.
—Amanda, 39
9. "When I last moved, I was appalled by the unprofessional behavior of the moving crew. They got way too personal, constantly flirted with me (while going on about their wives and kids), and one even slipped me his number for 'other services.' But the best part was when I'd ordered a lot of new furniture — including a bed, a large TV cabinet, and a massive wardrobe — and took two days off work for the move. The furniture company knew this, and they were supposed to deliver and set everything up within that time, plus remove my old bed and mattress. It was all in the contract."
"So, on the first day of the move, the truck shows up around dusk. The movers immediately tell me, 'Did the company tell you we're only delivering today? We’ll do the setup next week.' Since they were supposed to be taking my old bed that day, I asked if I was supposed to sleep on the box of my new mattress and whether I could get additional days off to make up for the company screwing up the schedule."
They gave me the contact info for the person in charge of scheduling, and let’s just say I may or may not have gone off on him. But, in the end, I was able to get the move completed just as originally planned.
—witchycentipede62
10. "When I was relocating for work, I packed a box of sensitive computer hard drives tightly into an empty cabinet drawer, wrapped in bubble wrap for protection. I pointed this out to the movers when they arrived, and they all agreed they would handle the drawer as is."
"Three weeks later, I’m at my new place receiving all of my belongings, and to my absolute horror, I discovered that behind my back, they had unwrapped all the hard drives and—no joke—dumped them into a larger box along with other computer components, which they had treated in the same careless way. Two 2TB drives were ruined—filled with my stuff. And, to top it off, they scratched my TV screen pretty badly too."
—poeticsundae93
11. "I relocated from Southern California to Lake Tahoe in a big U-Haul box truck that broke down in the dead of night, in the middle of nowhere. After managing to call for help, I couldn't help but sarcastically comment on how ridiculous their logo, 'Adventure in Moving,' was. Shortly after that, the logo vanished and never resurfaced."
—emochicken725
12. "Eight months ago, I decided to leave my apartment at the request of my boyfriend at the time. He promised that his house would be ready for me, our dogs, and him to move in together. The idea of starting fresh in a newly renovated home sounded perfect. Fast forward eight months, and the house was still a construction zone—no walls, no floors, no kitchen, nothing. Meanwhile, my old apartment had already been rented out to someone else, so I had no option but to move back in with my parents."
"Having moved plenty of times before, I thought I had it all figured out. I found what seemed like a reputable moving company, did a virtual tour with them, and got a $3,500 estimate, which seemed reasonable for moving my minimalist two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment into storage. Everything was on track until they called, saying they would show up a day early.
Although I was a bit anxious, my worries grew when the movers arrived in a rental truck with no company logos and dressed casually. Once inside, they started claiming that the move was larger than expected and the price would be nearly triple the original estimate. The new price? A whopping $10,000.
I told them there was no way I’d pay that much, and that's when things started getting aggressive. Four large men in my house, and I was alone—things were tense. Despite being a 5'1" woman, I summoned some serious energy and stood my ground, shouting at them to leave while insisting I wouldn’t pay the inflated cost. Eventually, I threatened to throw everything out and sue them. That did the trick, and they finally left.
Once the adrenaline wore off, I broke down in tears. The whole experience was draining. But I didn’t let it keep me down for long. I gathered myself and found a new moving company. This time, everything went smoothly. The movers were professional, polite, and handled everything with care—basically restoring my faith in humanity. LOL
As for my ex, he can go to hell. Life's too short for broken promises and unreliable people. Moving back with my parents wasn’t part of the plan, but it gave me the time I needed to reflect, recover, and prepare for the next chapter of my life."
—Sakita, 45
13. "I hired a reputable moving company to handle my move. The cost was $13,000 due to the distance and the number of items, plus they packed most of my belongings. After they loaded everything, they claimed they had underestimated the cost and said it would be an additional $6,000. I told them to unload my items, but they refused and drove off with my things. When I called the police, they told me it was a 'civil matter' and refused to intervene."
"After countless calls, I was forced to pay an extra $3,000 just to get my belongings delivered. The movers even had children assist with the delivery, which is illegal under federal law. To make matters worse, I discovered that several of my items were missing. The police wouldn’t get involved, so I had to contact the USDOT. Now, I'm part of a class-action lawsuit against the movers, who have since gone out of business. I know I’ll never get back the money or possessions, but I’m relieved I was able to recover most of my stuff!"
—fayeesnow
14. "I ended a nine-month relationship and was planning to return to my home state. Trying to pack up quickly before my ex came home, I was also on a Zoom call with my therapist. Meanwhile, my mom abandoned me since I didn’t have a car. I was stuck at his place for a week until my flight, and oh my god, what a week it was. One of my cats managed to escape, and it took hours to find him while I sobbed, knowing I couldn’t leave without him. My mom had planned to help me buy boxes and ship my belongings, but now that she was gone, my ex stepped in to help me out."
"When my belongings arrived, they were in terrible condition. Not only did my ex put a bottle of hot pink paint in with them, ruining a pair of white boots (and I spent days scrubbing to get the paint out of my clothes), but he also broke the zipper on my expensive thigh-high boots. To top it off, he took the wheels off my penny board and even included a hateful letter. He kept or threw away a lot of my things, including one of my favorite tops."
Mentally, I was already in a rough place, struggling with moving back to my grandmother’s basement in a small town. Each morning, I woke up to hateful essays from him. I was advised not to block him since I had an open harassment case, and blocking him would be used as evidence. It felt like I was trapped in a never-ending nightmare."
The takeaway here: don't rush into living with someone, don't ignore the awkward age gap, the tarot cards that say everything’s going great might not be telling the truth, and anyone who tries to date you immediately after you've escaped an abusive relationship is probably a predator.
—Jay, 24
15. "We hired a reputable moving company to relocate all of our belongings. When we arrived at the storage facility, they demanded more money than what was agreed upon in the signed contract before they’d unload anything. If we didn’t pay right then, they threatened to take our stuff to a secured facility and hold it hostage until we paid. If we didn’t settle the bill within 30 days, they’d auction everything off. We called the police and showed them the signed contract, the amount we’d already paid, and the remaining balance."
"After reviewing all the paperwork, the police made the movers unload the furniture without any additional charges. The movers admitted this was part of their company’s business strategy and would’ve driven off with our furniture if they hadn’t been in a secured area and lacked the exit code. It was a total nightmare."
—redtable25
