Millions of people are moving into new residences every year. From apartments to houses and houses to apartments and everything in between. It’s a huge deal for many people. You’re quite literally packing up your life in order to relocate to a new place, and this is why most people hire movers. But what if something goes wrong with the move? Let’s find out how to handle these situations.
Ways Furniture Delivery Can Go Bad in a Hurry
It happens a whole lot more often than you may realize. Furniture movers, who are typically burly men, aren’t always the most delicate people. A lot of these companies also aren’t as punctual as you need them to be. If you think losing luggage in the airport is common, you should take a look at the complaints of movers who did a bad job.
There are many different ways by which furniture delivery can go sideways in a hurry. Let’s go over a few of the most typical things that happen when moving your furniture from place to place.
Late or Missing Furniture
So, per your new agreement, you have to be in your house by Wednesday, and the movers don’t show up until Friday! This is incredibly common, especially for long-distance moves. Movers get lost, break down, or just take their sweet time. This can hinder you in a lot of ways.
Then there’s the missing furniture bit. Now, unlikely is the case that it was stolen. What’s more likely is that the movers left a piece out or in your old home, and didn’t even bother to pack it in. These problems rear their heads a lot, and likely why there are so many moving companies, because they come and go with high turnover via companies going out of business quick because of these problems.
Damaged Furniture
Damaged furniture is another popular thing with movers, unfortunately. As we mentioned earlier, these men aren’t exactly dexterous and graceful by and large. A broken TV screen, a cracked coffee or end table, small furniture tears, etc. The more fragile something is, the more likely it will be damaged. Even careful movers still have those big, bouncy trucks that rattle things around.
Having your furniture damaged is very common, and it could take a very long time for the company in question to cover your damages, and that’s even if their liability insurance is good enough to do so.
Damaged Property
Furniture isn’t all that can get damaged. It’s also quite common for the movers to lug in that big sofa, tilting it cockeyed to get it through the door, and then knocking a hole in your drywall or accidently poking through a window.
For new homeowners, they cannot afford to let their equity go down the drain so must get things repaired right away; this is especially the case if you’re renting and have a security deposit in, your landlord won’t buy the “movers did it” excuse.
How to Remedy the Situation
So, when something gets damaged, how do you go about getting it fixed? In a perfect world, the foreman of the moving crew or owner of the company would open up their wallet and pay for it on the spot. However, we live in a world of torts and litigation and insurance, so you’ll have to file a claim with their insurance and wait for the payoff.
Many people cannot wait this long, but don’t have the savings to replace or repair the damaged goods. If the damage poses a threat to your family’s health or safety, like a broken window or burst pipe, you may find yourself scouring for the savings to cover it. If you come up short, one alternative option may be to look into line of credit loans for bad credit or good credit, depending on your financial background. These types of short-term loans may help you relieve the financial stress of an unexpected emergency repair.
Covering the Costs Until They Fix It
In this sort of circumstance, using your savings or borrowing money can be a lifesaver. The moving company likely has insurance, so your losses are going to be recouped. Though instead of having to wait months for this to happen, you get the damaged repaired straight away and don’t have to worry about any further losses.
These options aren’t going to help you buy a home, but they can help you fix yours, or replace an important piece of furniture. It’s an ideal stopgap until which point the company makes good on its mistakes.
