Have you ever hired workers to do your move for you? I have, let me share the experience with you. To start of I saved about $700, not bad ,right? Well I was lucky they didn’t break anything, but they did steal a digital camera of mine. You also have to get the right hand truck or appliance truck if you do it yourself. So before you decide how you want to move take everything into consideration. Insured movers are just that, they also have the right hand truck you need, if you do it yourself and something breaks , where does that leave you?
Sometimes the phone book can be better than the web,betcha you didn’t know that when?
If you are looking for a mover or a hand truck and you just go look on the web you really don’t know that the company your talking to is legitimate. When you find a company in the phone book at least you know there is some level of legitimacy there. Now of course even if you find a business in the phone book of course you still have to check them out! If a website takes the time to make a safety blog or any other informational products for free check that out to see the level of their knowledge and professionalism.
You could also see if they have google checkout which will also serve as a verification of their authenticy.
There is almost nothing like a mover not showing up on time! Besides checking if the movers you hired are honest and reliable, make sure to check that they are punctual too! There is nothing like sitting there waiting after you have all your plans made up and the movers are a no show. Think ahead you will appreciate it.
Did you know that more than 50% of advertised moving companies are actually just referral agencies? According to a new study that number is almost as close to injury law referral companies that also advertise as if they are lawyers while in actuality they are really only referral agencies. While the lawyer scam is in the 75% area, the moving scam is closing in real quick as a tie. So remember do your research and don’t forget to come back to our Moving tip blogs and check out our hand truck safety blog as well. Check out the best hand trucks for all you moving needs here!
Arming yourself with all the right questions to ask moving companies should make your decisions a lot easier and more certain. Disgruntled customers have not done the necessary research before their move. Maybe they focused too much on obtaining the lowest price and neglected to consider that there are other factors involved.
For example, is the business with the best quote appropriately licensed in the moving business? What kind of a hand truck do they use? Reputable moving companies should have no problem with producing a copy of their licenses and the appropriate insurance without becoming defensive. Make sure that you have an idea what to look for in these papers because some clever scammers will try to forge documentation. While we understand the need for privacy for example when you surf the internet because whenever you surf the internet you can be identified by your ip address which is being logged by every site that you visit. An easy check of the logs will show your ip address and these logs can be kept for years which can be traced back to you! It isn’t just an issue of of covering your tracks, it is an issue of privacy! Your right to privacy is compromised when you browse without a proxy.
This does not hold true when you are hiring a moving company! You are entitled to know who you are talking to.Keep in mind that movers are strangers that will be invited into your home who will also be in charge of packing and moving your personal items. They will be using all kinds of equipment such as a convertible lightweight hand truck that can damage your items or worse yet hurt you!Therefore it would be prudent to find out more about the company and its employees. How long have the employees worked for the company? Do they hire individuals with criminal records? Does the company perform background checks as a part of their hiring process? Do they only use a steel hand truck of high quality?
Look the company up in the Better Business Bureau website to check for customer complaints and ratings. Read carefully through specific complaints and make a judgment yourself, if the hand trucks they use are up to par. The company you are looking at may not have a perfect record but that does not necessary mean they have awful service. There will always be disgruntled customers for any kind of service. It is more important to find out how the company responded to the customer’s dissatisfaction. Were they dismissive and rude or did they offer a solution to the problem?
If you have neglected to do the preliminary research on the moving company and have decided to forge ahead, there are questions you should be asking yourself as you go to avoid being scammed. For example, when you received your estimate, was it done in person or over the phone? Estimates that are given without viewing what needs to be done should automatically feel suspicious. How can a mover estimate how much work needs to be done over a telephone call? That is like buying a lightweight aluminum hand truck without even seeing a picture of it!
When you make telephone calls to the company, does the person answering the phone say the name of the company or do they say something general like “Moving” or “Moving Company”? This can be a sign that the company is sharing a secretary with a bunch of similar businesses. The company does not hire its own secretary because they do not have an office space to work out of and therefore are not legitimate movers.
The rule of thumb here is to ask the right questions and do your research. Even if you neglect to do the research, there are signs to show that the business you have hired is not legitimate. If it does not feel right, it probably is not. A mover showing up at your doorstep asking to borrow your industrial hand truck for a move is not the person you want to entrust your items with. Take that old hand truck out and haul those boxes out yourself rather than hire someone you cannot trust!
