The furniture arrives

I’m surprised neither of us got sick from our experience of that weekend working on a cold and damp night.

Our furniture arrived today. I rang Wridgways in the morning to find out what was happening; I wanted to get a delivery date. They said they’d been trying to contact me all day yesterday. That’s probably true, as I wasn’t at work. Though I was surprised when they said they didn’t know where to deliver our stuff. Almost every box had my address on it. I wonder why they didn’t try me on my mobile.

The truck arrived just before 11.00am and they were gone by 3.00pm, and afterwards the house looked like a warehouse inside and out by the time they had finished. There was stuff everywhere. Boxes had been stacked two or three deep and two high. S fed the men up on pies and beer. This is probably always a good thing to do. It may have led to them leaving lots of large plastic bags to cover our stuff that was left on the front veranda. These people work hard and a little kindness can go a long way. The veranda tends to get wet in the rain and the plastic covers were welcome. The Canberra Wridgways people were excellent (good on you, guys); unlike our Melbourne experience with Wridgways.

A few damages were evident. I have two wooden crates. I spotted one of the crates had been stored on its side. I hope it wasn’t the one I had marked ‘stereo and computer’. Some of the removalist boxes were badly squashed. While they were unloading and before everything had been removed I had a look inside the truck to see how things had been packed. Some boxes were squashed in sideways. I spotted one upside down.

We have an old copper which got damaged, and was squashed out of shape in the shift. I think I spotted the location on the truck where the copper had been packed. I noticed an almost perfectly circular space between several cartons on the truck. It was probably the copper that had been rammed into the gap, deforming the boxes into the shape of a circle, and damaging the copper in the process by squashing its sides. That’s not particularly clever packing.

Anyway, it was darn nice to be able to sit in an actual lounge chair, and turn the telly on. Normality had begun. That is, amidst the chaos of stacks and stacks of removalist boxes.

Stupidity, incompetence, and lies

At settlement I had a couple of cheques issued in my name, the larger of which was in the region of $90,000. The cheque was not drawn at my request and was done due to absent mindedness, error in judgment, or incompetence by the people undertaking settlement on my behalf.

I had rang David, from Virgin Money when I first got wind of it as I was concerned I hadn’t completed all the various forms exactly as required. He telephoned to say I had completed everything correctly. So why did the Virgin agent and my solicitor go making decisions on their own and fowling things up? My solicitor had said she was advised by Virgin to draw the $90,000 cheque. It could have been that the Virgin agent knew little about banking, nor how to conduct a property settlement. It could have been that the solicitor had little regard for my interests. I don’t know what it was, but someone had goofed. No one sought advice from me. If there was any doubt they should have contacted me and asked.

I rang Wridgways to find out when our furniture would be delivered. It would be delivered on the 4th July. Now that’s curious, considering Wridgways in Melbourne said our things would be delivered definitely before July. It sounds as though Mark De Lacy, the Melbourne Wridgways guy, was making things up when he said our furniture would be delivered before the end of the month.

Is that the technique? Whenever there is a problem, just open your mouth and tell the punters a whole heap of crap. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not just smooth the waters to get them out of your hair. Well, it fitted with the whole Wridgways experience.

Wridgways - a hired help company

We were up early again, this time to pick up the rental truck. We had booked a rental tuck from Europcar pretty much like this one. It was almost brand new with less than 10,000 kms on the clock. Very impressive! Driving something this size was quite an experience, but it was automatic which helped markedly. This was a small truck by any real standards, but seemed huge to me. It gave me a whole new level of respect for the skills of truck drivers.

The removalists had arrived after we’d left to pick up the truck, and when we got back I spotted the men hanging about not doing anything. I asked why they hadn’t started work. “There was no one here,” someone said, “and didn’t know what to do.” It would seem that Emily didn’t pass on our message to the men to say we’d be late, picking up our rental truck, and that they should start without us. Emily seems incompetent. I’m beginning to hate Wridgeways.

At least the men were on site and ready to go. They had brought a utility with them, and the lolly-pop men had arrived too. The plan was to drive their ute to the top of the driveway, load it with stuff, and then drive it down the drive and to an adjacent street where the truck was parked, and from there they did a swap from the ute to the truck. And presumably, the lolly-pop men held slow signs when the ute was entering or leaving the driveway. They were slow at first as the ticketing was being completed and while they got used to driving up and down the drive, but the pace quickened.

It was a frantic day.

S cleared out the attic, and passed furniture and boxes down the stairs to me. Funny how I’d forgotten how things got up there in the first place, when trying to get things down. Were they assembled or disassembled prior to putting them up there? I was washing out compost bins, coiling up garden hoses, and collecting garden tools. A lot of this stuff should have been done before, but there didn’t seem to be time.

We have an antique wardrobe. A brilliantly conceived piece where the top, bottom, back, mirror, and doors all separate for transport, and everything is held together with specially made wooden wedges and brackets. The wardrobe fell apart as one of the men tried to disassemble it. He said he knew what to do, but obviously he didn't have a clue. Then someone carrying part of the disassembled wardrobe on his shoulder scraped the polished wooden surface of the linen press while walking through the hallway. Hired help.

I was following this guy and saw him scratching the woodwork. He was unaware of what he’d done. I quickly grabbed the trailing end of it to steady it as he went. “Have you been working for Wridways long?” I asked. “No, it’s my first time,” and added, “and it’ll probably be my last.” This was probably a rather good plan if people’s houses and property is to be protected from this guy's destructive approach. Wridgways were dumb for hiring such sloppy, inexperienced people.

I asked one of the men who looked like a foreman not to pack my wheel barrow and hand truck, as I’d be using them to shift the pot plants into our rental truck. And then I saw the wheel barrow and hand truck being packed. “Oh, you want to keep them do you,” the same guy questioned. Thick as a brick.

Then later they made lots of use of our hand truck, as well as their own? Okay, whatever helps. I asked them not to pack the table tennis table. It was going to be used in our rental truck, opened up as a large shelf to store items on top as well as underneath it. And then later I found it missing and already loaded. It was unloaded. I don’t think they were happy, but they didn’t seem to be listening. They had packed a dresser but had left its mirror behind.

I was up and down the driveway checking that they were taking the correct things. Every time I did this I'd see our rental truck parked across the road, doing nothing. And every time I saw it I thought: I'm paying for that and getting no use from it. That's because of Wridgways.

S had organised some morning tea and beer for men to snack on as they went, but few seem interested. I offered a cuppa to the lolly-pop men. They had a lonely job, afer all. One of them took up my offer, but I was dissappointed at the end of the day to discover that either the mug had been 'pocketed' or thrown away.

At the end of the day, Wridgways wanted to charge $40 for the rent of the witches’ hats that the lolly-pop men had put on the road. I refused to pay it. I don’t think S paid it. What was that about: let’s see if we can fleece these bunnies for more money. Oh, I really hate Wridgways.

As the removalist had finished early, I asked the lolly-pop men if they’d stay while I loaded my truck. No, they couldn’t help; they had been hired by Wridgways, and they all left together, but added that their contract started at 7.00am, and at 3.00pm they’d soon be on overtime. I wheel barrowed the pants across the street on my own.

I should say, in fairness, that I was carrying a particularly heavy pot plant down the drive on the hand truck. Perhaps it looked as though the weight was beyond me, and I got some help from this one guy. It was appreciated. He was a pleasant guy, but by and large the rest didn’t give a damn, and departed as soon as they could. Anyway, while both of us were pushing the hand truck across the street, I asked this guy what it was like working for Wridgways. “I don’t work for Wridgways. I’m a contractor,” he replied.

We finished packing our own truck just as nightfall hit. After a day like that, the last thing you want to do is a couple of hours of loading heavy pot plants. It was a great saving to have shifted the pots part way down the block on the day before.

So, with S in the MR2 and packed to the brim, and me in the truck we set off for Canberra. We were both tired and despite wanting to rest up we had to hit the road.

Wridgways - a stuff up

It was a late night yesterday. With the removalists due we didn’t get to bed until about 2.00am, but the garage was almost finished. And so, after a lousy sleep, worrying about everything we had an early rise, and up at 6.00am. The removalists were scheduled to arrive at 8.00am, so we had to make an early start.

Eventually the removalists came and they started to mark off various boxes and items in the garage. Then not so far into the morning there came a time when there was a lot of standing around happening by the workers. For some reason the activity of everyone had ground to a very slow pace. I asked one of the men, “How’s it going?” It was just a causal question with no particular deep and meaningful intent behind it. Though I guess I was surprised to see the guy leaning against the wall and not really doing anything. But the guy’s response caught me off guard, “I don’t know. It’s not up to me.”

Wow. Something was up. How come I didn’t know?

Then along came Mark De Lacy from Wridgways and made himself known to us. He said the uplift had been called off until some traffic control people could be organised, that is, called off until the next day. He spent a long time talking with us. He apologised, and explained the dangers and difficulties of this particular job.

The issue of concern was access to the block. Because the removalist truck couldn’t be driven into our driveway (we had a steep block) or parked at the side of the road next to the drive (there is no footpath, just an earthen gutter), and because the block was situated on a main road (which was almost true) that a different approach to the upload would have to be adopted.

Mark then went on to explain how our furniture would be transported. Perhaps he was trying to deflect our thoughts from a lost day. He said our container load of furniture would be shipped by train, and he could guarantee a freight booking and said our stuff would probably be in Canberra next week. He couldn’t say exactly when it would arrive, but definitely this month.

Emily rang. She was the grumpy Wridgways person who, the other day, said I shouldn’t call into the office without telephoning first. She said the local Council would provide a service that included some lolly-pop men for a fee of $900, which she wanted us to pay for. These would be the traffic control people.

I dug my heels in. We had a quote. I told Emily that the person who had provided the quote had seen the property. He had walked up the driveway and knew how steep it was, and had driven on our street to get to the property and knew how much traffic it carried. Surely if something was difficult it would have been included in the quotation. Emily said she would check the quotation, and rang off. I was annoyed the uplift had been cancelled. I was doubly annoyed that Emily was asking for more money, out of the blue. I hope my anger showed on that phone call. I was seeing red. I’d had enough of Wridgways.

I rang my workplace who had forced me to use Wridgways. Apparently, at least one other person was having trouble with Wridgways, and I was asked to provide a report of my experience with them when I got back. Apart from that request, I didn’t get much help other than sympathy from this person, as pleasant and understanding as she was. I asked if I could dump Wridgways right there and then and go with another company. We had had a quote from Dawkins Removals, but that was before I knew we had to go with my company’s preferred removalist. She said I could change removalists if I wished given the circumstances.

I rang Scott at Dawkins Removals to see if he could do the shift, but in the mean time Emily rang back and offered to split the cost. She said the Council would put on three men at $47.90 per hour, and half works out to be $453.70. That amount needed to be paid in cash on the day of uplift. If we didn’t pay the amount immediately the uplift wouldn’t take place. Does this sound like blackmail? Dawkins was willing to do the shift. They were more expensive, but had built in the various hazards they had recognised on our block, and would shift our pot plants too, but unfortunately could not come as soon as we needed them. Wridgways had us over a barrel. I told Emily that I’d pay the fee.

I also said to Emily that we would be leaving the house early on the next day to pick up a rental truck, and to pass on this information to the men doing the uplift. I emphasized the fact that the house would be empty but unlocked tomorrow and that the men should start work in our absence. We didn’t want further delays.

Our original plan, had things gone to plan, was to have the removalists to do the uplift today. We had banked on that, because we had booked a rental truck for the next day, and would be loading our rental truck throughout the next day, and had planned to drive off to Canberra when loaded, hopefully sometime in the afternoon. This was going to be a nuisance with the Wridgways people and us trying to load both trucks at the same time.

The removalist people departed.

S and I spent the rest of the day lunching at a restaurant in Eltham, trying to take our minds of this shemozzle. A little bit of pleasantness amongst the chaos. On the way back I called into a steel merchant and bought some steel bar to help in fixing some anchor points to the ute so that the camper van could be secured. I’m not looking forward to this job.

We also spent the afternoon shifting some plant pots in readiness for loading into our truck on the next day. Some of those pots felt like they were glued to the ground. I could barley budge some of them. To say nothing of trying to get them down the steps through the garage and down the driveway. The hand truck was invaluable. I'm glad I bought a heavy duty unit.

Wridgways - an unexpected experience

I took a drive to the Melbourne office of Wridgways to pick up some removalist boxes. I’d been building up a few boxes from people who had finished using them and had given them to me. I also had a lot stored in the attic from when we moved into the house about 15 or so years ago. Those old boxes were still good, but the tape had perished. I guess that’s not surprising after all that time. Anyway, although I had a lot I needed some more.

Ted, one of the Wridgways reps had told S that the cost of removalist boxes would be included in the quote. And so there I was at Wridgways office looking to pick up a few boxes. I was asked to pay for them. I’m not particularly impressed with that.

Emily came out to the front desk to speak to me. She was visibly annoyed with me, saying I shouldn’t have just fronted at the office without having telephoned first. What the hell?

This is a business, surely. A shop front. When has anyone telephoned before calling at a shop front for anything? When was the last time you wanted something from a business; a chemist or shoe shop perhaps, and have had to make an appointment first? With a doctor or dentist you need to make an appointment, but if you walk in from the street they are not going to refuse to sell you a toothbrush or something, and say to you in an annoyed manner that you should have rung first. What a load of rubbish. What sort of company is Wridgways?

Anyway, Emily, this overly aggressive office tyke said the cost of removalist boxes was only covered if the company did the packing for us, and as we were doing our own packing we’d have to pay for them. This must have been in the small print somewhere. I don’t recall anything like that, and I thought I was quite good at reading the documentation. I couldn’t help wondering if she made it up on the fly. I paid for my boxes.

Tiffany rang while I was at Wridgways. She’s the person I was in the process of buying the ute from. She said the cheque had been cleared and she’d be bringing the key around. She congratulated me on the purchase. After Emily’s little tantrum I didn’t feel in a particularly congratulatory mood, being more in an it’s-about-bloody-time mood. Emily had definitely soured my frame of mind. Which was a pitty because unfortunatley Tiffany copped some coldness from me.

A leased vehicle

Wridgways, our removalists, got back to me with a quotation for undertkaing the job without doing the packing: $5592. They think that only one day will be required for pickup.

I drove into Melbourne to take some documents into Lou at DSP, and while there picked up a cheque for Tiffany to help pay for the car. DSP had already sent a cheque to Tiffany's car finance company the day before. So, that will pay out the balance, and that’s it. The car has been paid for. But Tiffany is still suspicious.

I suppose it’s only fair. Cheques do bounce. Although, its unlikely that a cheque from an organisation that’s owned by the RACV will have any trouble being cleared. Still, she doesn’t want to hand over the car until the money is in her account. I'll just have to wait.

Novated lease

I seemed to have spent most of the day driving back and forward between Eltham and Warrandyte faxing stuff to the leasing company and to my workplace in Canberra to get the ute purchase organised. Lou at Direct Salary Packaging was good to deal with, but things are still moving at a slower pace than I’d have liked. With a house to pack the last thing I want to be bothered with is sending faxes to all and sundry. I was curious to discover that DSP is owned by RACV, and of course, I get RACV roadside coverage under the package. Not the top offering of full service that regular members get with all the bells and whistles. I just get the emergency call service, but I’m not complaining. That’s great.

I called into the DSP office to finalise the arrangement. I think it’s good to meet people face to face. It gives you a chance to see who you are dealing with and gives them a change to size you up. The leasing arrangement covers vehicle insurance, registration, vehicle servicing, maintenance, and fuel costs. I just drive it and they pay for everything, which will be nice with increasing petrol costs. And somewhere along the line there is a tax break. The arrangement insists that you cover a certain minimum number of kilometres to be driven each year. I’ll just have to go for a few weekend drives if I'm not covering the distance, and not worry about petrol costs while I'm doing it. Oh, that’ll be so tough.

Wridgways rang: Following up on an earlier enquiry, if they don’t take our boxes it’ll save us $2134. There was no mention of the estimated cost reduction of doing our own packing, as they said the calculate that.

Don't trust the removalist

I rang to check how things were going with the removalist companies. I wasn’t aware of it when I started this, but it turned out that there was a contract between the company I worked and a particular removalist firm. I had no choice but to use them. I needn’t have got quotes from other companies. Wridgways was the preferred company.

I rang the Wridgways Canberra office to check on the quotation. They said they were busy “crunching the numbers.” That could mean they are working on a price, or it could have meant something along the lines of oops we’d better get on with that job.

An important point for me to check with the removalists was when they might want to be paid. This was an issue that was dear to my heart. I had a nasty experience when I was moving from Tasmania to Victoria a few years ago. Something I didn’t want to repeat. We had used Watkins Removals in that shift. I was at work in my new job on the day our furniture arrived, and S rang to say the removalist truck had arrived at our new place. She said the men were refusing to unload our furniture until they were paid. I found this an unexpected event, particularly as it hadn’t been raised with us beforehand. It was a tricky situation, made worse by the fact that there wasn’t much in the way of cash in my bank account at that time. I got out of it by sweet talking my boss, who faxed a note to the company indicating they would be assisting with expenses, and to bill them. I didn’t want to be in that situation again, and put it to Wridgways. They assured me that this situation would not occur, and they said they would probably bill the company. Anyway, it’s as well to commit people to arrangements, and then you can argue with them later from solid ground.

I noticed on the documentation I’d received from my solicitor there was reference to something about Perpetual Limited. It sounded like the name of an insurance company. Apparently it is the organisation that will be funding my home loan, along with a little note I almost missed which said that if this name did not appear on my insurance policy, settlement may be delayed. I’m glad I spotted it. I would have thought such an important issue would have been emphasized by all concerned.

I spoke with David at Virgin Home Loans, and he explained something of the background, much of which I didn’t understand. So, if I get this wrong, I’m sorry. However, it would seem that Virgin Money operates under something called a ‘scrutinized program’. An organisation called Perpetual Limited, which is affiliated with Reserve Bank managed investment bonds of the Macquarie Bank. The consequence of this is that Perpetual Limited is an interested party in our home loan. If the house burns down they want their cut. Hell, I thought I was borrowing Virgin Money funds.

I had promised Fay, our Warrandyte conveyancer, some information regarding the trouble we had been put to in getting the deposit, and emailed this along with a proposal for her to put to Melody, through her solicitor, that we deal directly with Melody, rather than giving her solicitor a $300 set up fee to rent the Warrandyte house. I’m annoyed at the whole thing. I’m not feeling too kindly to paying $650 for about a week’s stay.

Pat the Warrandyte neighbour has been coming down making a nuisance of herself. It’s not our fault that her cat would rather sleep in our place than live in a cage at Pat’s house. No wonder it escapes and seeks out a snugly warm place.

Still no money

B, our Canberra real estate agent, delivered the contract to my solicitor today. S and I are both worried about the whole situation with the deposit. The deposit should have been paid ages ago, but little has been forthcoming.

I had a look for our buyer on the internet, to see if anyone had her listed as a problem person. There was nothing on the net, that I could find. I found her telephone number. Boy, I was tempted to ring, and confront her with a few issues. I resited the urge.

I searched on her address and found a listing of someone else at that address in the State Government Gazette, on a listing of people Telstra owes money. But that was all; which could be a good thing.

I rang our Warrandyte real estate agent about the buyer, but there was no news. And still no money for us. The deposit still hasn’t been paid. Then later in the day she made contact with our agent, apologised again, and according to our agent made positive noises about having been in contact with her solicitor in the UK. She said the deposit will be coming, but there may be a delay. Oh great!

Apparently, it takes some time for the funds to be transferred. You’d think the transfer of funds would be instantaneous. The time delay that exists between the UK and Australia was pointed out to me. I wasn’t quite sure how that fits with the issue. When you pick up the phone and talk to someone, it doesn’t really matter where you are, be that the house next door or UK. Surely, if you transfer funds electronically it’s just as fast.

According to our real estate agent, there is no problem in shifting the settlement date from the 16th to 19th June. Well, that’s good at least. Assuming the deal goes through, assuming the deposit is actually paid. Oh, I don’t like any of this. This is just so wrong. This should just not happen.

S got a quote for removalists – Dawkins (approx $9000). Boy, that’s a lot.

An early rise for me tomorrow – a 7.30am appointment with the bank.