Okay, So That Didn’t Work…

Annnnnnnnd… I’M NOT MOVED!

What ended up happening is the movers were scheduled to show up for the move at 5. We dutifully packed everything up, said our goodbyes to our home and patiently waited for them. Around 5, they didn’t show up. Around 6, they didn’t show up. Around 7, they still hadn’t shown up.

Calls to the movers brought in comments like “The car broke down.” and “We’re on the way.”

When they finally arrived, the sun was setting. This was a problem because the apartment we’re moving into has no elevator, and the lights in the stairway are currently kaput, meaning the movers would have try and carry all the stuff up three flights of stairs in the dark.

When we explained the situation to them, unsurprisingly, they said, “We can’t do that.”

Which is why, it was explained, they were asked to show up at five pm, so that this could be avoided.

They replied, “But we were caught up at another job. See, you shouldn’t have called us on the day, you should have asked earlier.”

It was pointed out that the appointment had been made a week ago.

The mover seemed unaware of this. Trying to fall back and regain some dignity, he pointed out that the enormous number of things we had went way beyond the capacity of their truck anyway, and that we should have had them come in for an estimate.

It was pointed out to them that when their boss was asked if he would like to come down for an estimate, he gave the standard local response, “No need, no need.”

The mover seemed doubly unaware of this.

So now we are moving on Saturday morning, 8 am, and I still have to try and make a wedding of a friend during the day.

I suspect that somewhere today, some angry movers went to their boss and yelled at him or her for making promises to customers they were wholly incapable of honoring. That seems to be standard practice for a lot enterprises in Singapore; promise the moon first, THEN start worrying about whether you have a rocket once it’s too late. The eagerness to make money here tends to overwhelm common sensical notions like, “Can I actually deliver on what I just promised?”

I hate moving. I really, really do…