My husband John and I are preparing to move across the country to Colorado. While we would love to hire a moving company to pack all of our stuff in neat little packages, carefully load them onto a truck and meet us at our destination — where I’ll be sitting in a chair, martini in hand, merrily pointing to where I’d like them to place each box — we just don’t have the money for it.

When we found out that John got a job in Denver, and that we had to be there within the next month, I did what any good Angie’s List member would do and dutifully checked the List for highly rated moving companies. My research was fruitless, however, as company after company gave me the bad news that it would cost a few thousand dollars to fulfill my moving dreams. When it comes down to it, I’d rather save that extra money and spend it on shoes or handbags and do the grueling work myself.

So, Plan B, of course, was renting a truck though a do-it-yourself moving company. I decided to go with a major brand-name company, and I stupidly assumed that they would be the most professional and efficient choice. I was wrong.

Long story short, I had to deal with a laundry list of false advertising, misinformation and pot-head employees whose idea of customer service was to agree that the company’s policies are worthless. The store clerk actually said to me:

'Ma’am, I just wear the company shirt; I don’t agree with their business practices or anything.'

I keep telling myself that it’s all going to be worth it when we end up in Denver with a few hundred extra dollars in our pockets, but at the moment the end result is pretty hard to see. At least I can look forward to the rewarding experience of writing my scathing report of the company on Angie’s List  before I go.