Maureen - They did have my permission to move the furniture.  One of them had to be moved the day after they received a contract and I couldn't get my movers on such short notice that particular week.  The other one needed it moved while I was teaching last week.  I could have had my assistant there, but they were just moving everything next door (literally).  I still got paid for updating the look of the home & rehanging artwork, etc.

The comment that I was making was that they thought they staged the unit & had NO CLUE the image they were conveying.  This goes back to the issue many of us have been noticing.  Sellers, agents & the untrained often don't really understand what staging is supposed to be.  We still need to educate.

Maureen - I wasn't available when the furniture needed to be removed from the other homes - they were on short sale & I was busy with other jobs.  I did come in and fix everything on both jobs within days of them moving the furniture.

Julia - Yes!  Vacants are better empty than poorly staged.  I've seen some unskilled stagers around here lately who cheapen very nice properties by not paying attention to many of the cardinal rules.... know your target audience, scale furniture to the size of the property, etc

Gary - at least in my case above they knew enough to call me back to finish the job!  You are right though... many don't realize they don't know what they don't know.  This is where training is very beneficial.  I recently overheard the story of a builder's wife who wanted to stage one of their properties.  The kitchen was small according to feedback.  She thought the best thing to do was to put in a large table & chairs.... you know, to show how large a table it could hold!  Maybe they should have actually paid for a professional to assess the situation.  Their 'do it yourself' attitude will likely cost them more money in the long run.