Open Letter to All Movers and Transporters,
I have thought about this and how to express my feelings, and while I have met some of you in our moves over the last 20 years I am sure many of you don’t remember me (specifically) as after a while we all blend together. I would like you to keep the following in mind the next time you go on a job.
I know your job is a demanding one, and one that I imagine has very little reward. It is physically demanding and I am sure takes a toll on your body. Having moved ourselves twice on our own I can truly relate, and I only did it twice. I have a great respect for what you do, and at the same time we as your customers put a great trust in you, which unfortunately more times than not is broken. That is where I am at this point in my move. As I finish my unpacking and look for things, I am more and more disappointed and frustrated.
I do not understand, how someone that I welcomed into my home, and fed and talked with and tried to befriend you, that some of our things are missing. And it’s not like I can just run to the store and replace it. I am not longer in that state, that country or on that continent. Not to mention that some things are no longer made and they came from family that lived many years ago. I feel violated and angry. I watched as our belonging, things that we worked hard for, saved for and made sacrifices for have disappeared. Even as I watched it all get packed, and loaded on a truck, then I watched as they were unloaded and the crates empty-things still managed to disappear.
Keep in mind I understand you work hard and probably don’t get paid enough, and you think that I have enough, or more than enough that I won’t miss the cook book or I won’t miss the blender, or electric knife or the filing cabinet. Maybe we won’t notice the deco box that held some actual stationary is missing. You couldn’t be more wrong! It may take us a while to realize it, hey I need that “thing a ma jig” I saved where is it? (Realizing I haven’t seen it since we unpacked) or hey, that book from my farewell luncheon isn’t here.
At first, I used to just shrug it off and say, “I guess they needed it more than me.” Now after 20 years, I am mad. You do not know what was sacrificed to get some of those things, or how hard we worked to get there. What you see is the end result and the accumulation of years of hard work. If you have not worn the uniform and deployed to who knows where, to do a job that many aren’t grateful for, only to come home and move and then find that things are missing! You don’t know that the tea set is from Great Great Grandma, and she survived the Holocaust, or the cookbook that was given just a month before, that friend just died. Who are you to decide that maybe we have too much, and that you can take just a few things, “they won’t notice” or “they can replace it”, ”they have enough money”. You don’t know what it has taken to get to where we are. The hospital visits, the family separations they had to endure and when that member came home, were they the same? Did what happened over there affect them? Or are there health issues now, are their nightmares, are there other things going on that you don’t see, of course there are, but how could you know. You are only there for three to four days to pack and load all that they hold dear. All that they have worked hard for. Even if they didn’t deploy, there are long days and temporary duties away from home, schools and tests and other separations, things you don’t understand or know.
The Pooh Bear piggy bank, full of pennies and change that were put in there all during the pregnancy to save for that rainy day, that just in case emergency came along and medicine is needed or a doctor visit or hospital stay, it is not right for you to take what is not yours.
Had you bothered to ask, there could have been things that were going to be donated that you might need or a “junk” pile that you might have needed that had been decided had lived out its usefulness for that family. It could have been that one thing you “needed” at the time, but to just take it, I do hope you realize someday that it is wrong, and I don’t know how you would make amends but good luck.
You don’t walk in to any store and just take something without paying for it right? Then why would you think that walking into my home that you could? My home is not a store, it is my home, it’s what I work for every day, and it is what drives me to get up every day, get dressed and go do whatever it is I do. And I don’t do it for glory, I often don’t do it for the money either, and I don’t always do it because I love it, I do it because my family needs me. I do it because I have bills to pay, and I need to provide for my family! MY FAMILY! And then for you to take advantage of your position at the time and help yourself to what I have worked hard for is just unacceptable.
Having moved every three years since 1995, we’ve had this happen more frequently than we would like. I know people shoplift all the time and I know people steal from others all the time-that does not make it right!!!
Having moved so frequently we know the “tricks” or “trade secrets” to stealing from the crates our goods go in. Take off the back or the top as it’s just the front that gets a seal- not rocket science there thought of that the first time it was loaded in a crate and they stole my husband’s brand new Nike tennis shoes and our boxes of hangers. Now the hangers I didn’t care so much, but the shoes and then as we unpack our children’s things the piggy bank, broken and the dollar bills gone. Now yes, duh that was our fault for not thinking about it, but to steal from children…wrong on so many levels!!!! Now it’s been over 20 years and am hopeful this is the last move (aside from moving to a retirement village in 20 years) the more I realize is missing or broken the more upset I get. WHY??? Did you really need my comforter, did you really need the three kitchen towel sets (brand new from Disney-they were for Christmas gifts!!) We showed you the safe, why break into it? IT WAS EMPTY!!!!
