How To Avoid Moving Scams

Like all industries, there are always some players who don’t have the best interests of the customer in mind. Quite frankly, not all moving companies are as upfront as safeboundmoving.com.

Use Research to Avoid Moving Scams

Everything that we can tell you in this post can be summed into the advice of “Use your research skills to avoid moving scams!” Spend as much time as you can reading about moving companies. Call plenty of people. Ask which company they used. Would they recommend them to a friend? Did they have any problems?

Get online and read reviews. You want to devote plenty of time to this kind of research. It could save you lots of money and a massive headache down the line. We go in-depth on how to research a moving company in our comprehensive moving guide. This short article will tell you everything you need to know on how to avoid scams and find the best company to provide your moving service.

Websites to Visit

We encourage you to read through as many websites as possible to learn about the moving companies you’re interested in. It never hurts to absorb as much information as possible. First, however, we think you should know the websites we recommend when you’re surfing the web for customer reviews of moving companies.

The Better Business Bureau is a tried and true website that tons of people visit every day. You can easily search companies, find their contact and company information, read reviews, and read complaints. 

Another great resource to use is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Their online database tracks complaints. And if you can’t find a company on this website, they aren’t registered with the federal trucking authority and should be avoided.

When you’re reading these online reviews, do some extra investigation when companies have a lot of one-star and five-star reviews. This could signal that the company consistently delivers horrible service and pays people to write positive reviews.

Red Flags

You can usually avoid moving scams by finding some quick red flags. If any of the following apply to a company you’re interested in hiring, run!

• The company has no physical address
• The company asks for large deposits before the move
• The company asks to sign blank or unclear documents
• The company has no warehouse
• The company doesn’t offer a written estimate
• The company says it will calculate costs after loading
• The company offers a quote that’s too low to be real
• The company says your belongings are fully insured
• The company’s employees don’t say the company name when answering the phone

How Long In Business

Companies that have been around longer are almost always more reputable than those that haven’t. You absolutely have to find out how long the company has been in business, and if they’ve had any name changes. Name changes usually occur when the company has accrued a bad reputation.

Safebound Moving & Storage is registered with both the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. We’ve been in business since 2016 and haven’t ever changed our name.

Don’t Fall Victim

It isn’t hard to find horror stories of those who fall victim to these scams. If you read enough one-star reviews in which the company doesn’t respond or appear to try to resolve the issue, you’ll certainly find a prime example of a scam.

The storyline doesn’t change much from victim to victim or company to company. The company offers a quote that seems a bit too good to be true. When moving day comes, an unmarked truck shows up. The movers load your stuff and then demand much more than the quoted price because they claim the load is much more than anticipated.

The mistake all of these victims make is that they didn’t do their research. In a lot of the testimonies, you’ll see them admit that they jumped at the unrealistic quote price and didn’t ask enough questions.

To avoid moving scams, it falls on your shoulders to do your research. Spend plenty of time gathering as much information as you can about the companies. If possible, get some references from friends, co-workers, and family. At the end of the day, as long as you do your due diligence, you’ll be alright.