Long story short: I spent the day helping a newbie from Wisconsin get her stuff moved. Mind you, in this country helping someone move doesn't really mean lifting boxes. It's rounding up the gang of workers and getting them to the right places.
In this case the woman hired a moving company an administrator recommended. The price $450. Last year I moved 3x as much stuff for less than $75. But she didn't get completely ripped off when you consider the circumstances: These workers came all the way from Abu Dhabi (80 miles away) and did an American mover style job of carefully wrapping each piece of furniture. They even wrapped a mattress in plastic to take it for the short distance trip.
In total nine workers came; three in the truck in the top picture and six rode in this pickup. My new friend said, "Well, I guess my lesson for the day is not to take the advice of administrators who get paid much better." Yup.
Feeling burned by the charge she asked, "Do I have to tip when I'm paying an outrageous price?"
I told her I understood the "I'm getting ripped off feeling" but the guys doing the moving make $200-$300 per month. A $5 tip per man will make their day, if not their week. She agreed.
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