You’re about to move. Now, of course, you need packer and mover to conduct your relocations so you wouldn’t have
Learn how to recognize moving company scams before it’s too late
problems. The exploration for moving company has started. You’re trying to collect all of the information about the relocation. How much money you need; How long does it take; Should you do something by yourself; What are the characteristics of a decent professional mover etc.Nevertheless, we recommend you to first ask yourself the most important question. And that is how to avoid moving company scams.
There are dozens and hundreds of fraudulent movers in each country of the world. And the number is constantly growing. There’s no space for inattention. Concentrate and follow this guide. Trust us, you don’t want to go through the relocation process with the moving company scams.
Guide to avoiding moving company scams
Trying to find the best mover, you need to be careful. Because you can easily forget to pay attention to the most important matter. And that’s how to provide safe relocation. Many people, in fact, almost all of those moving somewhere, mostly pay attention to the money. Some part cares about the moving service quality. And what’s sad, almost nobody thinks of safety. The recommendation for you, as a smart person, is to turn those facts around.
Before everything, take care to hire reliable moving company. Next, take care of the service quality a moving company provides. Following those two, you may take into consideration the matter of cost. The first thing when it comes to hiring a reliable moving company is to check if it has the license to conduct the relocations. This is essential. After that, here are some ways to recognize moving company scams and how to keep away from them:
- False clients’ reviews- Check if the moving company reviews are really from previous clients.
- History of suspicious behavior- Search the news and see if there was some story about fraudulent conduct of a moving professional
- Surprisingly low moving estimate- The moving quote you get is significantly lower than the other you got
- Lack of information about the company- If you can’t find some information and a company representative won’t answer all of your questions, you might be dealing with one of moving company scams
- Large amounts of money required up front- Why would a regular packer and mover ask for a large sum in advance, if it’s not potential moving fraud?
Untrue company reviews
Who would lie with no reason? Well, you know, only someone who hides the truth. And is a relocating service giving you false information reliable moving company? Certainly not. That’s why you should give up on the moving company you have doubts about. And the first sign for an unreliable moving company is false company reviews. That’s one of information you first look for searching for a professional mover.
How to discover false reviews? Well, here are some ways to check if the reviews are true:
- Ask your friends and family if they had the opportunity to deal with that professional mover
- Check several websites with the moving company reviews, and compare them with those on moving company’s website. Exclude the most positive and the most negative comments and see if the result about the satisfaction of previous clients is the same as on their web page. Great differences are the reason for a doubt.
- Try contacting some of the clients that left the review. If you can’t find anyone, ask yourself how’s that possible if all the reviews are true…
Previous accusations of a moving fraud
Check on the news if there were problems with some moving company scams
Regardless of the result of the trial, get suspicious if you find the information about previous accusations of a moving scam. There’s no smoke without a fire. If you can’t prove something, it doesn’t mean that didn’t happen. So, before you hire a professional for your move, check for the signs of moving company scams. Search the local tv news online. Read the newspaper. Search for local moving companies’ forum and ask there about the company you’re checking. The moving professionals you’re investigating might fail to deliver stuff or held the moving items a hostage, or otherwise changed the price for the moving during the relocation… Our recommendation is that if you find anything weird, don’t hire that moving company.
Too cheap moving quote
When searching for home relocating service, one of the things you check is the price. You get the estimates to compare what you would pay if you used each moving professional’s services. And one of the offers is too low comparing to others. How is it possible that some professional mover has so much lower price for the services if it’s not the moving scam, or that company offers awfully low-quality moving services. (being that companies compete with each other lowering the prices the most possible).
No matter how hard you tried, moving company scams hide their information
Either way, that company definitely isn’t good to hire. (you may find here the most important qualities of a professional mover). And you could be happy if the only reason for that low price is a bad moving service. Because you could have so many troubles if it’s one of the fraudulent movers. Another tip here. After you picked the companies for their price, ask them to come to an in-home inspection. And require a binding offer. That’s the signed final offer with the total price (with deviation up to 10%) you’ll be charged after the moving is done! So that way you get the idea of how much shall your moving precisely cost.
You can’t find too much information about home moving service
Here we go back again to the question: why would a moving company hide the data if not for being one of moving company scams? Every decent, honest and reliable professional mover would be proud to give you every information you’d require. So when you can’t find something on the web, it’s weird, but it’s not the obvious sign for a moving fraud. Therefore, call the company and ask for the information. If the company refuses to reveal the real information, do not hire them. It’s that simple.
Asking for a lot of money in advance
This is the most common way of how moving company scams work: They charge you with the great amount of money in advance. You trust them your items. They load the truck. You go to your new home. There’s no trail for your money nor for your stuff! Here’s a certain tip from the experienced moving professionals- Never give large amounts of money up front. It’s ok to give some upfront payment. The reasonable sum is somewhere between 250$-500$, or 20%-30% of the overall moving cost. Everything above that is the early sign of moving company scams!
