Scams and Annoyances

This entire adventure has reached the point of being surreal.  After living in our house for a week with almost no furniture, our stuff finally showed up on Thursday.  The stuff arrived courtesy of the long-distance driver and two local guys to unload the truck.  And, of course, a bank-breaking transaction.

The two local guys? Were amazing.  They hustled boxes, shoved a King-size mattress up a narrow staircase, and moved a double dresser, fully loaded, up the stairs like it was nothing.  They did this fueled only with a steady stream of Mountain Dew soda.

The driver, on the other hand, swept out the truck, which apparently had been sullied by some of my escaped packing peanuts.  He broke a sweat doing this.  He also made the time to come into my house and comment that it wasn't as nice as the house we'd moved out of, and that we had too much furniture now for this little house.

And then I punched him in the throat.  With my mind.

Actually, after a while I said, "I need you to stop making comments like that.  I am fully aware of how much furniture I paid you to move across the country."

The situation got worse when my beloved, one-year-old French door refrigerator wouldn't fit into the house.  I mean, even taking the doors off the fridge and the door of the house, it won't go in.  This rental came with a fridge; all I wanted to do was store my fridge on the enclosed back porch until we finally buy a new home.

Alas, it does not fit.  So now I have a shrink-wrapped refrigerator on my front porch.  My friends have all suggested that I should accentuate it with lots of Christmas lights and a flower pot made from a toilet bowl.  I am sorely tempted to fill it with beer and enjoy the Eagles games out there.  I bet we'll be the hit of the neighborhood.

Anyway, as I say, the damn thing does not fit, and the driver would not stop pointing it out. (Mind punch.)

I'm sure you can figure out who got tips and who didn't that day.  And, yes, I made my thoughts known to the moving company -- about how suckish the driver was and how amazing the two unloaders were.  In fact, I even got their direct supervisor's name and number so I could call and compliment them.
After much soul-searching, and realizing how freaking broke we are anyway, we decided to sell the fridge, so I listed it on Craigslist.  So far the only responses I've gotten have been scamtastic.

If you've never sold anything on Craigslist, let me tell you this: all email you get through Craigslist comes with a giant banner on it warning you about scams.  It specifically tells you to avoid checks, money orders, escrow, shipping, etc.  It goes on to explain that fake money orders will be cashed initially, but then when it gets returned to the bank, you'll be responsible.

Got that?

Here's a sample email I received:

Aaaaand here's another one.

Yeah.  So, there is still a fridge on my porch.  Awesome.