I have been dreaming about moving to New York City for months. After spending my first year in Washington D.C. through the NYU Liberal Studies Core Program, the idea of never having to explain that “yes, I am a real NYU student,” but “no, I’ve never actually lived in New York,” again seemed too good to be true.

This was how I imagined move in day to go: I would arrive at JFK in the wee hours of the morning (check), whiz through a traffic-less Manhattan to be dropped off in front of my dorm (check, seriously). Then I would receive my keys, meet my new roommate —who would be a match made in heaven for me, proceed to go grab some coffee with old friends (check, check, check). And finally come home exactly two hours later to have Dorm2Dorm, a third party delivery service, drop off all my belongings directly in my room. In this entire scenario, I would have never believed that the part that wouldn’t actualize would be Dorm2Dorm’s drop off. How could it be, that I was able to arrive from JFK to 14th Street in 31 minutes flat, exactly like Google Maps predicted, but a delivery that I had arranged a month prior just didn’t show up?

For some context, Dorm2Dorm is a service that promotes a “Hassle Free Summer & Study Abroad Storage” option. The business has partnered with a select number of universities in New York, California, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina to provide college students an efficient way of storing their dorm room essentials in the summer. The process seemed easy enough: students sign up for the service on dorm2dorm.com, student packs all their belongings into boxes, Dorm2Dorm employees pick up said boxes to store for the summer, and finally at the start of the semester, Dorm2Dorm employees deliver items to dorms and apartments. Since their inception thirteen years ago, the model has proven to work. Until this year, Dorm2Dorm’s Yelp ratings have been consistently high, and their name came recommended by students and parents alike.

The day I was flying into New York City, I received a text message from Dorm2Dorm notifying me that due to an “extremely high delivery volume,” expect up to a 4 hour delay in delivery. Not a big deal I said, so what if I had to stay up a few hours later to finish unpacking? If only, after more than four hours past my delivery window, had I been contacted by Dorm2Dorm at all. My bedding, my kitchenware, and the majority of my clothes are in those boxes. I began calling every number available on their website repeatedly, left numerous voicemails, sent out emails to both the customer service team as well as Andy, the owner of Dorm2Dorm.

Radio silence.

I had essentially been ghosted by the company I was paying to store all my possessions.

But I was definitely not alone. Three days after my initial delivery date I received an email from Jonathan Hotchandani, CEO of Dorm2Dorm.

While I appreciate the apology, this does not make up for three days of being completely ignored. While I will not fault you for being sabotaged by a competitor, this email could have been just as easily drafted and sent out three days prior. For a company which claims “customer service is our number one focus in everything we do,” this is too little too late. Dorm2Dorm left 70% of their customers in New York City scrambling to just figure it out — hurting a demographic consisting entirely of broke college students, living away from home, who have no other option than to wait and hope that at some point they get everything they own back.

It has been exactly seven days since I was suppose to receive my belongings.

I was finally able to get someone from Dorm2Dorm on the phone, only to have them realize that all of my boxes are still in Washington D.C. The delivery request I submitted a month ago, was received but never processed. I do not know when I will be receiving my belongings back, nor have I been offered any sort of compensation. If it wasn’t for my amazing roommate, and friends who are still loaning me things, I don’t know what I would be doing right now.

Others affected have been filing reports with the Better Business Bureau, as well as with the police. While I fully support those decisions, I will not be doing the same. First, I believe Dorm2Dorm to never have had malicious intent, and their apology to be genuine. Second, neither of those actions will allow me to get my stuff faster — my main goal here. And lastly, I do wish a destructive take-down scheme concocted by a competitor to be successful. Although Dorm2Dorm’s viability after this delivery season is questionable regardless, the competitor who committed violations of ethical business practices should not benefitting from the current misery of college students.

Obviously I will never be using Dorm2Dorm again. And although I would very much like to at least be partially compensated for the failed fulfillment of terms, I am willing to call it even when I receive my stuff back.

Whenever that is.