The best of intentions

Recently one of my clients went through a bit of nightmare when some seemingly innocent actions lead to near disaster...

In preparation for her move, we worked through the entire condo sorting what would be packed, what would be stored and what would go to donation.

Donation items where inventoried, boxed and placed in an area of the condo where they could not get mixed up with any other items. In addition, I photo everything that is being given away. We then scheduled a donation pick up directly from her unit.

However, before the pickup date, the client decided that it would be easier for everyone if she moved all the donation items from her unit into the lobby of the condo building, telling the housekeeper to let the donation people in and for them to take the boxes and furniture now in the lobby.

When the donation pickup people buzzed the unit, the housekeeper buzzed them into the lobby and over the intercom told them to take all the boxes and the furniture, which they did.

When the client return home that evening, she found the lobby of her condo building completely empty - not a stick of furniture left...yes, the donation agents had indeed taken all the boxes and ALL the furniture they found there - including the condo's lobby furniture!

It took days of phone calls and begging the donation site for help to finally locate most of the missing furniture. She had to rent a truck and a couple of guys to go dig through mountains of donation items to come up with most of what was taken.

So, while everyone thought they were doing the right thing, the outcome was not what had been anticipated. As we know,
&*$# happens!