disastrous move, lost nearly everything (long)

[ACBlinky]

We moved to a new city on September 1st, and unfortunately things went disastrously wrong. To make a very long story shorter, U-Haul had our reservation (and our credit card number), but wouldn't give us a truck - any truck - when we showed up to pick it up. Our pick up time of 7am on the 31st was first delayed by 12 hours, then another 24 hours. By the time we got our vehicle it was over 36 hours late... and too late for many of my tank inhabitants.

The fish, corals, rock and inverts were moved into bins the night before we were scheduled to move, so we'd be ready bright and early at 7am. When the delays began, a friend drove me, along with all the critters, to the new city so we could set up their bins with airstones and powerheads and have them ready to drop into their tanks as soon as humanly possible. I had three small heaters, which went in with the fish, and I placed their bins around the coral bins and buckets hoping to help warm and insulate them. I didn't know whether to leave the windows open or closed - it's been very hot during the day but quite cold at night for the past while. I opted for half open (so they'd get a breeze in the day), hoping the heaters would compensate if the weather got chilly.

Then we got the bad news that it was going to be another full day before we could even hope to get our truck. We were stuck in one city, calling U-Haul every hour, guarding all our furniture while our building screamed for us to vacate our apartment so the new tenants could move in. All I could do was pray for the fish and inverts to last until we got there, but by the time we finally got a truck I knew we'd have at least a few losses.

We ended up losing our allotted elevator time, which had been re-scheduled three times, and had to move out via regular elevator trips - rather than loading a car to the top, bringing it down and unloading it, we had to carry one or two things at a time from the 14th floor down to the front of the building. It took us (5 people) seven hours to move out and load the truck, what a nightmare. All I could think of was the poor fish, now in their bins for nearly two full days.

We drove to our new apartment with heavy hearts, knowing some of our animals were probably already dead or dying. We moved in as quickly as we could and finished at 2am, and as soon as the tanks were out of the truck I started setting up. It took until well into the morning to get the three tanks (90g w/ sump, 30g nano, 21g QT) going - we had issues with plumbing, the electricity in the apartment, nothing went right. It was awful. I don't recommend trying to re-wire an upside-down outlet and install a GFCI at 3am after being awake fors48+ hours, then trying to correct a stubborn leak in the tank's plumbing... my husband is still recovering from the experience.

Before I even walked into the back room, all I could smell was dead marine life. Bins that had held rocks covered in zoas, mushrooms, leather frags, sponges and worms were now bare of everything but coralline. One bin smelled so awful I started to gag - there were 3 dead Mexican turbos and a pile of hermits on the bottom, along with pods, worms and a really neat hitchhiker crab I'd become quite attached to. The water was a thick brown soup, the result of roughly 50 mushrooms melting into goo.

I've racked my brain trying to think of something else I could have done to save my tanks, and short of hiring movers (which we would have done at the first delay, but it's the busiest moving weekend of the year, and there were none to be had) I can't solve the equation. I will never EVER plan a move without professional movers again - we thought we could easily do this ourselves, with the help of a few friends. I imagined some things might not go smoothly, but I never thought for a minute that it could possibly go so wrong.

What we lost:
Mushrooms
Zoas
Florida rics (the yumas are hanging on by a thread)
Toadstool leather
Lemnalia leather
Acan
Porites
Green open brain
Yellow polyps
Sponges - some were very big, and I thought very pretty
Chitons
Worms
Crabs
Hermits (by the dozen)
Snails (turbos, nassarius, cerith, trochus, nerite, hundreds of collonistas)
Bicolour blenny
Sixline wrasse

What's left (between 2 tanks):
2 baby purple mushrooms
GSP (hasn't opened yet)
Cabbage leather (partly bleached but looks like it'll pull through)
Brown & orange zoas
2 tiny yellow polyps
Halimeda & chaeto
1 zebra turbo snail
1 Xanthid crab
1 Hawaiian zebra hermit
1 blueleg hermit
Coral banded shrimp
Pincushion urchin (which shocks me)
2 maroon clowns (I'm very thankful the pair survived, I'm SO attached)
Midas blenny
Lamarck's angel
Yellow tang (which again astonishes me)
Orange-spot goby & his pistol shrimp
Sixspot sand-sifting goby
Talbot's damsel
South Seas damsel
Ocellaris clown

So we're not entirely starting over, as most of our fish fortunately made it. They were in separate containers from the corals - I think what happened with the rock/coral bins is once one thing died they just crashed. With no one there to smell/see the damage happening and do a water change, the deaths just cascaded one after the other until there was nothing left.

I'm not really asking for sympathy, I just wanted to post and let people know what happened. This was our first move in 10 years, and we underestimated what we'd need. We didn't realize that having a 'guaranteed' pick-up time from a truck rental company isn't worth a thing. What a horrible way to learn a lesson - hopefully anyone thinking of moving with U-Haul or another similar company (rather than using movers) will take our experience into account before making a booking.

[nmywrx]

Sorry about the loss. I used to be a U-Haul dealer, and I can tell you should never use them. My business canceled our contract with them because they were doing the exact same thing to our customers. They are notorious for pulling reservations out from underneath people. They are the cheapest, but their customer service is absolutly terrible.

Again, I'm sorry about your loss and hopefully others can learn from this.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

That's terrible I'd call someone and rage. But then--I have quite the temper. A bit o' Irish in me.

Again, so sorry.

[SDguy]

Ugh, I'd be an exhausted mess by now!! Really sorry to hear about all the crap you went through. Glad your Lamarck's Angel is alive....I know how much you like her

[revenant]

wow.. that's just terrible.. I am /so/ sorry for your losses.. moving is such hell on it's own, then you add something like this.. sheesh.

[JJ21]

wow, i'd be crying my eyes out and getting nina if that happened. My sympathy.

[AMIFL]

Your story makes me feel uneasy. I would definately be raging at UHAUL. They should be reimbursing you for you loss.

[BucNtears]

I would call and demand a full refund,stating that you had a reservation and were at the store at time of pickup and no truck.
Once again sorry for your losses.

[ACBlinky]

Thank you all for the kind words. It hasn't been the easiest week, that's for sure, but we're thankful to be here and be done with moving. Our cats and dog had a tough time with the move, having lived in one home for more than a decade (our dog is 12 and losing his hearing, it's been VERY tough for him in particular), and today my husband awoke to a phone call telling him there has been a death in the family. It has truly been uphill all the way.

U-Haul really did a number on us, but we don't think we'll get anywhere if we fight them. We did our share of ranting and raving on the second day, and ended up getting the rental for about half of what it would have cost, plus a few comps (dollies, furniture pads, things like that) and cheaper insurance. At that point all we wanted was to get here and salvage what we could, and we made it very clear that we will never again use or recommend U-Haul to anyone.

I was just in the living room, watching the fish and feeling thankful to have them - we could easily have lost them all. They're amazing - you'd never know they just went through such an awful time, they're just swimming around, fat and happy as always. The few corals we've still got seem to be perking up; all is not lost.

The one fantastic upside to this whole thing is we seem to have a pretty nice LFS (well, fish & reptiles) here. I stopped by the other day to grab some epoxy, silicone sealant for the leaky pipe and a new heater (the old one was broken), and was very pleased with their selection of livestock and dry goods - great brands, and really nice quality stuff. They carry things I couldn't even get when I was in Toronto! Their livestock looked healthier than in most stores. I think when things settle I'll be going there to start rebuilding our tanks; there was a gorgeous little cherub angel that was positively screaming 'take me home!', so if it's still there we may just pick it up in a week or two, along with some corals if the 'boss' approves

[JJ21]

sorry to hear about your loss(your husband) and glad the move went well(well, except for some of your fishies). If i had a green thumb with corals i'd send you some frags, but i guess that an eclipse 12 isnt helping much either XD. But anyways, my wishes for the best of luck

[jerf]

ACBlinky, sorry to hear about your losses.

I hate to say this, but I live about halfway between Toronto and Peterborough. I'm in Oshawa (and I used to live in Peterpatch!). It's too late now, but I'd have been happy to help you out. In fact if there's anything you still need, drop me a line and I can give you a hand. It's cool to get to know others who are roughly in your area.

You should get to know Patrick, he runs a reef tank maintenance company up in Peterborough. The store I think you're talking about, Animalia, is pretty nice, though their coral selection is pretty weak.

I run MASD (masd.ca) and you should try and make it down for a meeting.

[HDAlien]

Sorry to hear of your loss, U-haul is now off my list. I see you're in Canada so not sure about the laws there, but here in the U.S. you might consider a small claims damage against them for your losses?

[ACBlinky]

WOW. Just wanted to update the story... my hubby suggested this morning that I check my online CC statement, just to make sure we were charged appropriately by U-Haul. Turns out they've slapped two additional charges on my Mastercard, without even asking or informing us. They're saying we returned the truck less than half full (we were to return it with the same amount of gas it had when we took it), which isn't at all true. To avoid problems we actually filled it well above half, and it was slightly below half when we left. Of course we didn't think at the time of taking pictures of the mileage and gas gauge, now I wish we had. This is ridiculous, in the extreme. We've made four phone calls to different offices, each telling us to call another number, it's just horrible the way this company operates!

The good news is all the fish are eating and behaving normally, the sickly corals are still hanging in there, and I'm sure Mastercard will be willing to reverse the unauthorized charges. If not, at least it's only $40 and not $400. *Sigh*

[Sheol]

That really sucks. This is why when I moved to Dallas last year, everything moved in my car, with me.
So sorry for your loss..

Matthew

[ihopss]

Contact your credit card company, they should be able to give you a refund.

[lotus02]

Wow that bites ,hopefully things will get better. I my self can't stand UHAUL they are such crooks here. Maybe if you make a big fuss they might do something , don't hold your breath though. If I lived a bit closer I'd help you out with a few frags.
Moving is always a pain, when we move few years back it wasn't the rental that was a pain it was the lawyers, in fact the rental was very good to us (not UHAUL tg) ,it was winter and everything loaded in the truck, and car didn't get the keys to the new house until 5pm and was suppose to get them at 9am. Didn't have our reef then but did have freshwater and lovebirds. Had to keep car running with heat until we got our keys.(the lawyer misplaced go figure)