Rogue movers. They quote you a great price for moving your stuff but once they show up to the destination, all of a sudden the price more than doubles. If you don’t pay up, they won’t let you have your stuff. CBS13 kept getting complaints about one company doing just that, so they set up a juicy hidden camera investigation to catch them in the act, and catch them they did… driving away with all their stuff!
To protect yourself from getting ripped off by unscrupulous movers:
* Get recommendations from friends, don’t just go with the lowest price
* Never get an estimate over the phone, they need to see your stuff first
* Don’t sign a blank form
* Make sure they give you a “not to exceed” price
Call Kurtis Investigation: Rogue Movers [CBS13]
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My wife and I were victims of this very same thing when we moved from South Florida back to NY. They took us for an extra $4000 and yes we could have maybe sued them etc. But, when your wife is 8 months prego and you are in your car just leaving on the long trip to your new home and get a phone call saying we will not give your stuff unless you cough up the extra money. I threatened the guy with calling the cops, calling my lawyer, etc…he called me on it and said fine…I’ll meet you at the court house. Long story short….we went in person….scary part of South Florida…they were all Russian and were carrying side arms.
I would recommend either sell all your crap before you move and only take the family jewels and irreplaceable garb with you or find a very “trustworthy” moving company…if there is one.
Oh yeah, just so you all know….yes I blame our great U.S.A government for this one.
Currently moving companies are overseen by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), part of the Federal Department of Transportation (DOT). At last count the FMCSA had only nine investigators to handle all of the thousands of complaints against moving companies each year. What does that mean for consumers? It means this:
* Most complaints against movers are overlooked and the consumer becomes a statistic while no action is ever taken against the moving company.
* When Congress dissolved the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1995, they also removed the authority from the FMCSA to step in on a consumer’s behalf if they are taken advantage of by a moving company. In other words, they don’t have the authority to help you even if they want to.
* If an investigation does occur, it takes months if not years for the FMCSA to, yes, get this… Fine the moving company.
* The scam moving companies get away with not paying the fines and if they did, the consumers don’t see a dime of their money back. The money from the moving company’s fines go to pay for highway improvements!
taken from: http://www.movingscam.com/
Wow. I have never seen such a massive collection of Internet Tough Guys.
I guess my wife and I were lucky. We went with a locally run mover and they did one hell of a job, packed up the house, moved it and unpacked it in less than four hours. They even set up our furniture for us in the rooms it belonged it. Total bill was about $350. It was a couple days before Christmas, so we gave them a box of cookies and $100 each for a tip.
A few years later I met the owner at a function and told him about our experience. He said… “Yeah… I heard about you two.” Apparently they went back to the shop and shared the cookies and divided the $200 among the rest of the people working that day.
I know that this is not exactly on topic, but I thought I would share a positive story to add to all the bad ones.