Otherwise, keep your other stuff comin!

Who else has had bad experiences?

Get your own LJ account ya' freaking moron - this is SLOG and here ANYTHING GOES, including "anecdotal stories".

Don't like it, do your whining elsewhere.

And seriously, Erica - report these guys: to the BBB, the State Attorneys General office, and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Otherwise, they'll just keep trying to get away this kind of shit until somebody with some authority decides to rip 'em a new one. And, having a body of documentation definitely helps in that regard.

Whether it's bus service or car sharing or movers, nothing rises to the level of social injustice until ECB is personally affected.

The big news here is that you have a carport.

Ugh. Don't get me started.

@3,

Remind me again how you don't hate women.

Remind us again how you possess a sense of humor?

DON'T hire moving companies unless you absolutely have no other option!

Seriously, it's a racket, and you really don't want to roll the dice and risk getting fucked over - rent a truck and bribe your friends (with food and beer) to help you instead. Or hope that you have awesome neighbors, I guess.

This assumption is based on the question, "Why would anybody move to Columbia City to rent a house?"

Since I've used movers only once, it has me wondering if moving companies are like wireless carriers--you just hope to pick the one that will rip you off and suck the least.

apparently, your movers have a bit of an on-going, uh, quality control issue: Google "All My Sons Moving" +complaint and watch the examples pile up.

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2005/09/19/daily24.html

they seem to be unscrupulous enough to have attracted a $69,000 fine and a state investigation.

there's even a hearing coming up:

http://wutc.wa.gov/webimage.nsf/0/ACDA9EDE35DB4C6B882573240074F286

The commission issued a complaint against All My Sons Moving and Storage of Seattle, Inc. for repeated and continuing violations of numerous commission rules governing household goods carriers.

A hearing will be held at UTC headquarters in Olympia, beginning August 20, 2008, 9:00 a.m. (Docket 071125, see "Documents" link below for more information.)

I sort of wonder how anybody could swallow Erica's version of this tale as entirely fair & balanced. If an objective witness comes along to dispute what went down, will it come as a surprise?

I've got to agree with @18: If you want the job done right, you've got to do it yourself. You can rent piano jacks and ramps for less than $30 a day, and a moving truck (less chance of damage than a pickup) for another $50 or so.

There should be some kind of award for Erica-hating. Perhaps we should call it the Hateys. It works on multiple levels because the winners hate Erica and the rest of hate the winners.

Perhaps if the Stranger hired some reporters from the Times/Pi/Weekly then Erica would have known this ahead of time.

At the very least if Erica would have done a simple google search on the company she'd have found that the first page of results contains a list of websites with reports of All My Sons' shady tactics.

But hey, advocacy is easy. Journalism iz hard!

Moral to the story: don't hire the guys in Erica's story, but tip the ones you do hire. They don't make very good money, and it's really tough work. And maybe dust your things before they get there. It sucks being covered with cat hair when your shift is up.

But ... other than the move coordinator from the UW and our lab personnel, they were all men.

Sometimes, if you can't afford to shell out for chinese food, thai food, and pizza and beer/wine for all your friends, you should hire professionals.

Good ones.

ecb is right about these guys from my one experience with them

Lifting heavy stuff up and down stairs is hard. People who do it should get paid for it.

But that thing with the piano was bullshit, and I hope the actual movers involved get criminal charges out of the deal.

Is your lab associated with UofW?
Is there new lab space in the tower?

or is the Tower leasing out surplus space to othe agencies?

I'm just curious, thanks

Or maybe that's just a waste of energy.

But with just a split second of further research. Linked-In profile:

Current

* QA Engineer at Tableau Software

Past

* Enterprise Support Analyst II at Concur Technologies
* Developer Support Technical Router at Volt Services (Microsoft)
* US Air Force Aerospace Ground Equipment Mechanic (2A652) at Ramstein AB, GE & Fairchaild AFB, WA

see less...
Education

* Gonzaga University
* Community College of the Air Force

Connections
19 connections
Industry
Computer Software

Which would explain, if this is the same person, how he manages to troll slog so voraciously. He gets paid to do it and hates his pathetic corporate IT job. IT guys are the MOST frustrated, insecure and sexually deviant types.

Thank you, Google.

Wow, you found the boring crappy blog that I link to every single time I post. Which has my name right in the URL. You're like some kind of detective, aren't you? If you can Google anything else, post that too. That's what Google is for, my friend.

Now that you live in Columbia City, maybe we will see you at the new Island Soul, where the Wellington used to be. We tried it a week after they opened, and it was fantastic

Jesse Jones, King 5 News.

You should get him.

@60: Still have it, but it doesn't run at the moment. Looking for a good home for it (too heavy for me!)

But yeah, extortion for the piano, that's pretty bad. Get a hungry lawyer. Sue the movers. It will never go to court. They will settle.

You'll still need to rent (and drive) a truck. Set your own pay rate--starting wage is $10/hr. I paid $20/hr for the best moving help I've gotten. All the money goes to the workers.

MC is a nonprofit organization in Belltown. They provide their workers with breakfast and bus fare.

Great org.

http://www.casa-latina.org/

Good on you for standing your ground with those jackasses. Also, while we're mentioning non-shitty movers (they do exist), I've had good experiences with Adam's Moving Service.

And sadly, even though you do put a link to your blog, I see very few comments on your incredibly bland posts. You can't get out of it by admitting that your own blog is boring. This is the saddest thing for a troll - to not get any attention! Even on the anti ECB posts on your blog you delete 4 out of the 10 (a record!) comments.

You should be thanking me for being "the first elenchos troll". I don't understand how you can have so much to bitch about on slog when your own blog is such a flaccid, half-assed attempt to push your "anti-feminism".

Hmmm, in true, trolly action, I will now post a quote from your blog taken out of context about the R.Crumb show at the Frye last year:

"I don't know anybody my age who carries around a vocabulary of jigaboo black stereotypes that they have to get out and show everybody, or who has to spend years worrying over their conflicted progressive gender aspirations versus their embarrassing turn ons."

What the hell does that mean? Gawd, and the pics of you on the motorcycle? Having a motorcycle does not make you more of a man, no matter how big you are. Ok, have fun with this post and you're wellllcome!