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What People Most Often Say About Moving Companies

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Before you hire a moving service, read our list of common customer complaints about moving companies. This will give you a good idea of what to expect. When you’re done, you’ll know about possible problems and have the tools to lower your risk.

Moving across a long distance with a late delivery

If you’re only moving a few blocks down the street, a late delivery job might not bother you as much. With long-distance moving, there is much less room for error, so being late could be bad for your job or budget.

The services that your moving company is legally required to do are listed on your Bill of Lading. Estimated delivery dates are part of these services. If your movers take days longer than they said they would, you have a good reason to ask for compensation. After all, if you’re late for a few days, you might have to stay in a hotel, buy extra food, and miss work.

One of the most unpredictable things about moving is late delivery, which is a shame. Your move can be held up by everything from bad weather to bad traffic, so be prepared. If you need to be at your new home by a certain time, you might want to move earlier so you can be more flexible if something goes wrong. Use a moving cost calculator to figure out how much your move will cost and give yourself some peace of mind.
Getting to work late is bad.

Like the first point, being late for the job is another thing that bothers many people who are moving. When you already have a lot on your plate, missing just one day can add a lot of stress.

If a mover is even just an hour or two late, customers might worry that they’ve been scammed or that they gave the wrong information. How do you react when someone shows up late? Keep the contact information for your movers on hand, and don’t be afraid to call them to find out what’s going on.

Moving Long Distance
Damaging or losing items

After spending money and working hard to move, it’s disheartening to see your things broken. Even worse are lost things, especially if they remind you of good times.

Not every mover is perfect. Their work is often hard and complicated, so it’s easy for your things to get bumped or scratched. Sometimes, you may get movers who just don’t care and don’t want to bother. No matter why your furniture is broken or missing, don’t lose your temper.

Before you hire a moving service, take clear pictures of all your belongings in case something gets broken or lost. You’ll need this proof to fill out a form for a possible consumer complaint and get money back.
Not enough work is being done by the movers.

If you hire a moving service to pack and move your things, the workers may be slow or not pay attention to you. Customers who pay by the hour might wonder if they’re getting ripped off when they see this.

If you’re worried about how fast they’re going, ask them when they think they’ll be done. Most of the time, the people you hire from the best interstate moving companies of today aren’t bad. They’re just exhausted and doing the best they can.

Charges on top of that

Moving companies give you a number of steps to help you figure out how much the whole move will cost and stay within your budget. Most of the time, extra fees can be avoided with careful research and communication.

Let’s get something straight: extra fees aren’t always sneaky. Sometimes an extra charge or overcharging is just a stated fee that you missed because you were in a hurry to move. In the same way, the movers have every right to raise the price if you didn’t pack your things well, forgot to include furniture in your estimate, or added extra services.

Sometimes, you fall for a moving scam that charges you extra money for things like not having a big enough street for easy parking.
How should you look for a good moving company?

With a little research, it’s easy to find good interstate moving companies or companies that move containers. Even if you’re in a hurry, you shouldn’t ignore the value of customer reviews or licensing.

 

Visit the Better Business Bureau (BBB)

The Better Business Bureau is a good place to find out if a business in your area is legitimate. This site checks out ratings from real customers and puts them all in one place to give you the most accurate picture of the company you want to hire.

They also have useful tools, like their Scam Tracker, which is a database that is updated often and tells you about scams that are popular in your area.

Check with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

When looking for a good moving company, you should also check out the U.S. Department of Transportation. This group checks to see if movers are reliable in areas like licensing and safety.

You can look up your moving company on the USDOT website to see if they have a registered USDOT number. Remember that just because a company doesn’t have a number doesn’t mean it’s a scam. Some local moving services are instead registered with their state’s department of licensing.

 

family moving to new home

Look up the history of customer complaints

For common moving scams to work, people have to not know about them. The history of customer complaints will tell you what a business is up to.
When a customer hires a moving company, what are they responsible for?

Even though you can’t completely get rid of risk when you move, you can cut it down by a lot. The Internet makes it easier than ever to find information and make a detailed plan for your move.

Here are some things you should do as a smart, well-prepared mover.
…it’s probably not true.

Does your estimate for moving seem really low? Does your moving company offer great insurance without saying much about it?

Usually, if something seems too good to be true, it is. It’s up to you to follow a well-researched moving process in which you look up the company on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and USDOT websites, read online reviews, and ask questions.

(Just so you know, estimates that are too low are usually a red flag, and moving insurance should always be explained in detail.)
Never work without a written agreement. Never work with a mover that demands cash only.

Make sure your move goes smoothly by always using a contract (preferably a paper copy and a digital copy). Without this legal document, it is very hard to do things like file a formal complaint or stop moving fraud.
Think about what you might need to store.

If your original plan for moving doesn’t work out, you might have to store your things before you can move them all into your new home. Have a backup plan in case you need to store things, like writing down the number of a moving container company that can work around your schedule.

There is no perfect moving company.

Give the business the benefit of the doubt when a small piece of furniture gets broken or you get a surprise bill. There’s a good chance that your movers just forgot something important, and they’ll be happy to make things right. Even though you should always pay attention to complaints about a moving company, you shouldn’t ignore the good reviews, either.

With the right paperwork and planning, your move will go (relatively) smoothly and go off without a hitch.