Misadventures of Moving Across America During the Pandemic — Twice

Customer service becomes customer screwage, coast to coast.

The girlfriend and I moved across country twice during the pandemic. Without jobs and an expiring lease, we had few options.

We didn’t anticipate being in this situation: she, a recent Ivy League grad with an advanced degree in public health, and I, a writer with a 33-year career in academia and 25 years teaching college English. Yet, here we were.

On July 31, we packed our belongings into a U-Haul U-Box and left it in New Haven, Connecticut heading for California with a packed Toyota Corolla and our 1 1/2 year old Dachshund named Herman.

We divided the days into 7 to 9 hour drives. We only booked hotels that had social distancing requirements and allowed pets. But as the pandemic surged in the southwest, we had to be flexible with our plans. We stopped in Ashtabula, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; and Memphis, Tennessee, where we saw the Peabody Ducks, our only touristy visit. We wanted to keep our masks on and stay as far away from people as possible to stay healthy. After Memphis, we headed north to Kansas City, Missouri. We made it to Interstate 80 where we could drive across to California. We stayed in Cheyenne, Wyoming; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Reno, Nevada, finally reaching our beloved Pacific Time zone. From Reno, it was a relatively quick 6 hours through beautiful Lake Tahoe to Aptos, California on glittering Monterey Bay, our home for the next 3 1/2 months, a mere 10-minute walk to the beach, where we walked Herman daily and searched for sand dollars.

With less traffic on the roads, driving was delightful. Even semi-tractors obeyed the speed limits, albeit 80 MPH in the vast southern nothingness of Wyoming. Only twice did we run into people not wearing masks, in the south where a “bruh” behind the counter of a gas station chattered with friends while he wore his mask on his chin, and in Wyoming, where the virus had yet to really reach. Lake Tahoe was a packed paradise, where the well-heeled in California had flocked for extended vacations in their Lexuses and Beemers and Escalades and Audis and Mercedes Benzes and Teslas, all crowding the Starbucks parking lots.

We are definitely more fortunate than most. In California, we were near the girlfriend’s family, though we visited infrequently and only outside while masked to minimize health risks to the grandparents. Without jobs and no savings to speak of, we could still afford to pay our bills and had a roof over our head. The girlfriend’s aunt and uncle offered their empty condo to us, a free place to stay for 3 months while she job searched. We took frequent walks on the beach, kept abreast of the horrifying news of mass death and amorality of the madman of the White House, and binged Netflix at night.

The girlfriend filled out application after application, searching for that first elusive job in public health. I, the trailing partner, waited her out, writing and learning to play guitar, until we found a place to land, where I would begin my own job search — to support my writing habit.

We arrived in California on August 8. By mid-November, her perseverance paid off and she was offered her dream job with the CDC — in Atlanta, Georgia. Her unit was working from home, and the girlfriend settled in thinking we’d stay in California a bit longer, holding off that monumental step of moving away from home for good, not for school but for a job.

But we reasoned it out. My unemployment was quickly running out, and if we were going to move at some point, it would be better for me to relocate sooner rather than later in order to look for permanent work. So we made the decision to move to Atlanta over Thanksgiving break. We wouldn’t be gathering with family because of the surging pandemic and our own veganism, so we might as well use the extended weekend to hit the road when it was less crowded.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men …

In moving from Santa Cruz County, California to Atlanta, Georgia, there were many moving parts to consider. With good planning, we could pull off this move with panache and style. But we couldn’t control every facet of the move.

This is where the wheels came off the cart, where the monkeys threw in the wrenches, where Murphy’s law was enacted into legislation. Even the best laid plans of mice and men . . .

We had only 15 days to find an apartment and sign a lease, arrange for utilities and internet (required for her official job start on December 2), arrange for the delivery of our U-Box from New Haven, Connecticut to Atlanta, Georgia, and drive across country, just as the holiday season was starting and the pandemic was surging yet again.

Finding an Apartment Online

The internet makes finding an apartment from across the country easy. We asked a couple of people we knew about Atlanta, checked out the girlfriend’s work location, and researched traffic patterns and neighborhoods. We chose a dozen apartment complexes. Within a couple of days, we found an apartment in a large complex still under construction but renting now that was reasonable on rent, centrally located, and had every amenity possible, from a gym with rock climbing wall to a sauna, steam room, spa, and pool, to an onsite dog park and grooming salon, and much more. We took a virtual tour over FaceTime with a rental agent, paid a deposit and filled out an application all online.

We checked out the surrounding neighborhood too. It was next to a Sprouts Farmer’s Market, a place I had worked before and a potential employer for me, a Whole Foods, a Walmart Supercenter, many vegan restaurants, and beautiful parks nearby. The commute to the girlfriend’s work would be an easy 20 minutes, piece of cake for a Californian.

We were approved and filled out an online lease, electronically providing initials here and signatures there. The final forms had to indicate we had set up a Georgia power account, acquired renter’s insurance, acknowledged the trash addendum and the ongoing construction agreement, and forms for the office to inquire about our past rental history and future income, including employment offer letter. That paperwork was in process by the government for the girlfriend’s job.

Making Arrangements for Internet Installation

The girlfriend’s new job would require her to start on December 2, so we arranged with Xfinity to have installation of our internet done on December 1.

That dictated our arrival date of November 30. Looking at the calendar, we could make it to Decatur, Georgia by November 30 if we left California on Thanksgiving day, a day people normally are sitting down to a big dinner rather than driving on the roads. Traffic would be light!

U-Haul and the Demise of Customer Service

The last piece to consider was getting our U-Box shipped from Connecticut to be delivered to us in Georgia by December 1.

We left the majority of our belongings in Connecticut at the end of July, awaiting our final destination. Now that we had an address, we could ship the U-Box to Georgia, a simple process, or so we thought.

We looked online at the fees and timing. On a Monday in the middle of November, it would take 2 weeks for the shipment of our box at just over $1,500.00. We made the arrangements through the U-Haul Reservation number. The woman said she’d contact the U-Haul location where our box was stored, and that store would contact us to finalize the arrangements.

By Friday, November 20, we had not heard from U-Haul, so we called back. It took 6 calls to get through to the counter clerk, a combination of indefinite holds and a phone system that suffered a nationwide problem. When we finally did reach Zach, he was a trainee who was also the longest serving worker available. He had no record of our reservation, so he booked it over the phone.

To get our U-Box delivered to Georgia by December 1st would incur a “priority shipping fee” of $1,900.00, for a total of $3,400.00. The priority shipping fee EXCEEDED the regular shipping fee by over 100%, because it was now Friday instead of earlier in the week on Monday when we had made the arrangements in the first place. This was not our fault. This was a mistake on U-Haul’s part, and I was not going to pay almost $2,000 for their mistake.

Who could I talk to about this? I’d like to speak to a manager …

Zach could not put me into contact with a manager (out sick and not due in for several days, awaiting test results) nor an assistant manager. He said there was no one in authority who could change or waive that priority shipping fee. After the trouble I had even getting through to them on the phone, I wasn’t about to hang up. By this time, I was pacing the apartment and yelling. The girlfriend was horrified but also saw I was determined not to get screwed. She huddled on the couch and stayed out of the way. I got this.

Finally, Zach said I could call the nationwide reservations desk and talk to the traffic department that scheduled the trucks. So that’s what I did. I was put into contact with Leah in the Traffic Department, who sounded frazzled, the only worker in a department ravaged by sickness, handling call after call of unhappy customers. Leah explained that our U-Box was scheduled to leave New Haven on November 23 and arrive in Decatur, Georgia on December 7. She was calm on the phone and reassuring and wanted to know where the reservation went wrong, telling us she was doing everything she could to help us. We were being blocked by black-out dates — Thanksgiving holiday. She would try to get the U-Box on an early shipment, and it was possible it could arrive earlier. She was so calm and reassuring that I was beginning to believe her. At the end of the call, she said that our box was due to leave New Haven on November 23 and arrive in Decatur on December 7 — EXACTLY THE SAME AS WHEN THE CALL STARTED! She had done nothing for us!

I wasn’t about to pay $2,000.00 for holding our belongings ransom. And during the phone call with Leah, now into my 2nd hour on the phone with U-Haul, I had privately decided that we would sleep on an air mattress until our belongings arrived. We had been without our stuff for 3 1/2 months. We could wait a week more. But all of our winter clothes were in that box, and it was getting cold.

The girlfriend also spoke with Leah, much calmer than I was, and we established a good cop/bad cop routine. Leah said she’d call the next day to confirm our U-Box arrangments. Leah never called, which disappointed the girlfriend greatly.

Here’s the kicker, and where I think U-Haul is completely wrong: If we had paid an extra $1,900.00, they could get our belongings to Georgia by December 1. That meant, that U-Haul could physically get our U-Box there in the stated time. It’s just that they wouldn’t, not without an exorbitant extra fee. Somebody could have made the decision to waive that fee — but they wouldn’t. In essence, they held our goods for ransom.

We had planned accordingly, gave ourselves enough time, budgeted, and were being cock-blocked by a corporate bully.

Turns out, the U-Box arrived in Decatur on November 28, but they would not release it to us until December 9! Wtf?! More on that below.

Driving Across the Country During a Pandemic — Part 2

We packed our car and left California on Thanksgiving morning. Our trip was uneventful, with stays in Needles, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dallas, Texas; Jackson, Mississippi; and Decatur, Georgia. We got vegetarian Frontier burritos in Albuquerque and visited with Yale friends in the UNM parking lot, appropriately socially distanced. These friends gave us a bag of fresh roasted green chiles, so good! We stopped in Dallas and stayed one night at the girlfriend’s aunt and uncle’s place on the SMU campus, the same aunt and uncle whose condo we had stayed at for 3 1/2 months. We took a walking tour of part of the SMU campus at night in the rain. It rained and was foggy all the way through Texas, so we got no sense of the vastness of the land. In all it was an uneventful drive. We noticed the change in accents when we saw a sign for a club in Alabama called “Big Deddy’s.”

We Arrive: Keys Please — Wait Just a Minute

On November 30, we arrived at our new apartment home by 3:00 pm. That gave us enough time to sign final paperwork, pay our final deposit, get keys and be shown around.

When we arrived, the lobby was packed. We waited a while, and then spoke with the rental agent. Stefon had walked us through the whole process, took us on our virtual tour, and even sent an email saying “Welcome to your new home. You are scheduled for move in on November 30.” Attached to that email was also the additional paperwork, which we filled out and emailed to him immediately. Crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s. We were still waiting for the girlfriend’s official offer letter for her job. The paperwork had been kicked back at some point for some reason and was still in process.

Stefon said we would not be able to get into the apartment without the offer letter. It was our proof of income. Nothing in the lease signing or in the welcome letter had said that getting our keys was contingent upon that letter.

This was another unforeseen road block, and my voice tensed up and I got angry again at the unfairness. We had just driven 5 days, we had an appointment the next morning at 8:00 am to have internet installed, it was cold and we were without our winter clothes for at least a week, and it was raining.

Again, we had crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s and had done everything we could. We made some frantic calls to the girlfriend’s supervisor to find out who could produce an offer letter at such short notice, but no one was answering the phone. By this time, it was close to the end of the business day, about 4:00 pm.

We tracked down who might have the offer letter and how we could get that information. But the office would be closing soon and we were quickly running out of time. We gave Stefon the information to try to contact the office where he could get proof of income from her employer.

It was our last hope, and we went to Walmart to buy a blowup mattress while he tried to get the girlfriend’s proof of income. After shopping at Walmart, we drove the half a block back to the apartment complex and parked outside.

We sat in the car, and I had another tense phone call with Stefon. He had not been able to reach her employer on the phone. I was completely frustrated and angry now, explaining that it wasn’t fair that our apartment, which we paid a deposit on, was being kept from us, when we had signed a lease and had a letter stating our move-in date. He said that wasn’t a lease we had signed but an application (even though the document online said “your lease is signed”). I told Stefon that we had nowhere to go, and that we would have to find a hotel where we could have our dog and incur additional expense, and that we would have to rearrange our Xfinity installation, which would delay how the girlfriend could get started with her work. She wasn’t about to work in a public place with the raging pandemic.

Xfinity Throws a Monkey Wrench Into the Works

During that tense call with Stefon, we were sitting in the car outside the apartment complex. It was cold and it was raining. I instructed the girlfriend to look for hotels in the area where we could bring the dog.

At the same moment, Xfinity texted me asking if my installation date for the next morning was still good. Respond with 1 for Yes and 2 for Reschedule, or 3 for Cancel.

I got angry with Stefon and said I was upset about this entire unfair situation, and that I had to take another call, that we had to find a place to stay for the night, and I hung up.

I turned my attention to the Xfinity text. I pushed 2 to reschedule my appointment. I was angry, my glasses were fogged up, and it was cold. I could see the girlfriend withdrawing further and further into the passenger’s car door as my anger grew.

Xfinity sent another text with a link that I could call to talk with a customer service agent. The link took me to a web page that had an entirely different contrat rate on it than the one I set up and signed in California. The agent in California said my rate would be $60.00 a month with $25.00 for XFi complete equipment and the installation fee and deposit. The link sent me to a new agreement that said my rate would be $106 a month with $100 due today! Wait a minute . . . all I wanted to do was change the date of my installation appointment.

I reached someone on the phone, who giggled throughout the phone call. The website they sent me to was a block. In order to change the installation date, I had to select “yes” to that agreement, something I wasn’t willing to do. My anger flared quickly this time, but I stayed clear and said this was not the agreement I had signed. She insisted it was and that it was only applicable for the first 45 days. That was not true, as I had an email with the details of what I signed up for. And then as I looked more closely while talking with her, I saw the $100 due today, for no apparent reason. I told her that I was unwilling to pay $100 this moment to merely change the appointment date for my installation. Again, she giggled and said she would see if she could do anything and to please hold. She was silent for a minute and then sent me a new link. She had waived the $100 dollars but the new rate was still intact.

I finally lost my cool.

“I WILL NOT SIGN A NEW AGREEMENT MERELY TO CHANGE THE INSTALLATION DATE OF MY SERVICE. ALL I WANT TO DO IS CHANGE THE DATE OF MY INSTALLATION. WHO CAN I TALK TO TO CHANGE THAT DATE?”

She giggled.

In my mind, I was thinking, if they would let us into the apartment as was agreed upon, I wouldn’t be in this position with Xfinity.

It was as if the tennis balls I had been juggling had turned into rough heavy boulders and bowling balls while the surface I stood on turned to ice. Everything was on the verge of crashing to the earth.

I finally told Xfinity that I would not agree to that new rental contract and that I had to take care of some other business, and I hung up on them.

Just at that time, I had received a call back from Stefon, who called to say he had not been able to get a hold of the person about the offer letter. He also said they would have to fax him a letter, even though the form he gave us had check boxes for the office to say they could verify the income over the phone, which is why I had given him the information to try to call the office. Now, I was really hot, because we had exhausted our efforts to get the letter, and Xfinity had set me on edge and we were no closer to having a place to stay.

I gathered all my anger and told Stefon how incredibly unfair this situation was and needed to focus on our immediate need, which was finding a place to stay for the night.

At this point, the girlfriend, seeing me at the height of my restrained anger, started crying, genuinely scared, saying,

“Let’s just go somewhere else. Quit arguing with them, quit yelling, it’s not going to help or change their minds.”

“Now wait a minute, don’t you turn on me too. I’m standing up for ourselves, we have to, it’s the only way.”

“It’s not! Quit fighting. They’re not going to change their minds.”

I hung up on Stefon.

Both the girlfriend and I tried to find hotels on our phones nearby that would allow dogs, but nothing was coming up. We also didn’t know the area well, either.

Stefon called back. I told him I wasn’t happy about this situation at all and that I had to find a place for us to stay for the night. And then he said something amazing…..

“Would you like to speak to the manager?”

I had no idea that was an option.

“Would I? Of course I would!”

So I was put on the phone with Will, the apartment complex manager, who seemed to have no idea at all about the entire situation. He told me to start from the beginning. When I got to the part that we had driven across country for 5 days and that we were sitting outside in the parking lot in the cold trying to get into an apartment for which we had signed a lease and paid a deposit, something clicked for him.

“You are outside right now? In the parking lot?”

“Yes sir.”

“Come inside and let’s talk face to face.” (Mask to mask)

I told the girlfriend to find us a hotel, but that I would go have this conversation. It’s doubtful they’ll let us in, but I have to try.

When In Doubt, Speak to Someone In Charge

I spoke to Will about the entire situation, showed him the emails we had signed, the paperwork we had put together, the “lease” we had signed, the deposit receipt and the “Welcome” email that indicated our move-in date. I also explained that it was true that we didn’t have an offer letter in hand yet, but that you are asking us to try to move the U.S. federal gov’t, and that’s just going to take time.

Will explained that the apartment contract should have been presented to us as contingent upon receiving that work offer letter, our proof of income. They couldn’t just give us an apartment worth more than $20,000 without proof of income. Of course, it wasn’t helping the situation that I was unemployed.

While I’m inside the apartment complex office, still not knowing if they’re going to let us in our not, my girlfriend, who doesn’t see how any amount of yelling is going to change things, has made a non-refundable hotel reservation.

In the space of 15 minutes, everything changed.

I texted the girlfriend.

“I think he’s going to let us in.”

“He is?”

And then, as Will explained that they can’t just let people in without proof of income, I texted:

“I don’t think he’s going to let us in.”

“Oh.”

Finally, Will went out of the room for about 10 minutes and came back and said, “I have good news and bad news. Which would you like first?”

I was distracted, trying to figure out where we would stay for the night and make arrangements with Xfinity.

“It doesn’t matter to me. The good news.”

“The good news is that we’re going to let you in the apartment. The bad news is that we owe you an apology. There were some mistakes made on our part in this whole process and that’s why I’ve been brought in to try to sort out the rental process. But you did everything that was asked of you. Tell your missus to come in with your dog and we’ll get you your keys.”

I texted the girlfriend.

“They’re going to let us in.”

“They are?”

“Yes. Come in with Herman.”

By this time, the apartment complex office was closed and the doors had been locked for some time. It was well after 6:00 pm. We had arrived at 3:00 pm.

As they were taking care of paperwork, I explained to Will about the Xfinity installation and about the U-Box.

When the girlfriend came in, she told me she had booked a non-refundable hotel. I told her to call them back immediately to cancel.

We received our keys and were giving the tour and shown where to park. It wouldn’t take long to unpack what few things we had.

Picking Up the Pieces

After a 5-day drive, and arguing with 5 companies (U-Haul, Xfinity, our apartment complex, and Expedia and the Hotel), we finally got into our apartment.

We unpacked the car and I checked my phone for my initial Xfinity contract. They clearly were trying to pull a fast one on us. Just at that moment, I got a text that asked if we still wanted our installation time for 8:00 the next morning. I replied 1-Yes.

Because I had not completed the transaction in changing the installation appointment, the original appointment was still on the books.

I double-checked with the girlfriend that she had cancelled the hotel reservation. She had, but the hotel wouldn’t waive the non-refundable fee (despite there being less than a 2 hour difference between making the reservation and our getting into the apartment and cancelling the reservation), and that we would have to contact Expedia with a refund request. It was a $150 reservation that we weren’t going to use, and I wasn’t about to pay that for nothing.

We grabbed some food from Sprouts Farmer’s Market, literally 400 feet outside our door, and a ModPizza at the other end of the building.

We blew up the air mattress. Two years since we last used one, they now are cheaper and have built-in electric pumps. We only had two light blankets, but the apartment is dry and there is heat.

The next morning, Xfinity was at the door bright and early to install our Wifi.

I asked the girlfriend to follow up on the hotel reservation refund, which she reluctantly did.

The Continuing Adventures of U-Box

We were told the U-Box would arrive on December 7. In looking more closely at the contract, it said it would arrive on December 8. But then we had already been notified that the U-Box was in Decatur on November 28.

We called the local U-Haul office on Monday, December 7. They said that the U-Box was scheduled for delivery at noon on December 9. Okay, what’s another day?

By 12:30 on December 9, we had not heard from U-Haul. We called and were told the U-Box was out for delivery. By 2:00, we still had not heard anything, even though the location is only 12 minutes away. We called again, and it took 3 calls of being put on indefinite hold for 20 minutes a piece again before we got through to someone who would talk to us. The 2nd time I called, the same counter clerk answered, and when I said I was calling about a U-Box delivery, she put me on hold without even saying anything.

Finally, we reached Justin and explained the entire situation to him. He apologized profusely and said our experience is not how U-Haul works (his bubble will burst someday, but not today).

He spoke to us calmly and reasonably, explained that the box was not scheduled for delivery, that it was scheduled for us to come to their location and unpack it. That was not the agreement at all. I had been making arrangements with the apartment manager about where to put the U-Box so it wouldn’t interfere with ongoing construction of the building, and somewhere near where either an elevator was or where it could be near our 2nd floor access.

Justin listened patiently and then said he needed to check on something. After a brief hold, he came back and said that he had arranged to have the U-Box delivered the next day, as the first delivery of the day. So on December 10, 24 days after we first called U-Haul to get our U-Box sent the 1000 miles from Connecticut to Georgia, we finally got our belongings back.

All’s Well That Ends Well

It has now been 18 days since we have been in our apartment. We are mostly unpacked and settling in. The girlfriend is adjusting to her new job, still trying to get access and security clearances from the federal government. Herman is adjusting well and enjoying the dog park and courtyard. And we have finally traded in our inflatable mattress for our own bed.

Our belongings are accounted for and our ordeal with U-Haul is done forever. I have written a letter to U-Haul. I will never use their services again. In researching, they receive a customer rating of 1.1 out of 5 stars and thousands of complaints to the Better Business Bureau. What was once a good company is now plagued by mismanagement and plain incompetence. Obviously they are not customer-focused.

Xfinity will also get a letter from me, and I will explore that situation further. Something is fishy and fraudulent there.

Our Wifi is working beautifully, and we are working, gaming, and excited to watch the end of season 2 of The Mandalorian tonight.

The girlfriend is still wrangling with Expedia, the hotel, and the bank about the hotel transaction, though at one point the hotel said that if someone calls to cancel within 4 hours of making the reservation, they will honor the cancellation even on a non-refundable charge. I’ve told her to stay on that because Expedia says to call the hotel, and the hotel says to call Expedia. That’s why I have insisted that she call the bank and dispute the transaction. The bank says it could take up to 30 days.

The apartment is amazing. It’s brand new and we are the first tenants in this unit. The amenities are first-rate and we are settling in and sleeping well.

This week, I had two job interviews, one at Sprouts Farmers Market, a grocery store company for which I had worked before, and one at Hollywood Feed, a high end pet food and supply company, both companies I would be happy to represent and work for. Two days after my interview, Sprouts offered me a job.

According to Maps on my iPhone, Sprouts is 900 feet away. Love the commute.

Perhaps most importantly, upon arriving in Georgia, we registered to vote. And we did our part yesterday and participated in advanced voting in Georgia’s 2020 special election.

I just hope we don’t have to move next year.