With so many moving companies and moving agents to choose from, how do you know which mover will provide you with the best service tailored to all your specific needs? There are several ways you can narrow down your choices.
- Make sure that the company is legal (licensed and insured)
- The Department of Transportation is the government agency responsible for licensing all interstate movers. The DOT maintains records on each moving company's and moving agent’s liability and cargo insurance, ensuring that they operate safely. A good status with the DOT will ensure that you have chosen a safe, bonded mover to ship your goods. You can view the information on their website directly at: http://www.dot.gov/
- To check the moving company’s and moving agent’s licenses, insurance, safety data, and other related services to the transportation industry, please visit: http://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/, make sure to have companies DOT or MC number to see the requested data.
- Make sure that the company is reputable.
- Check the company’s record in the Better Business Bureau – http://www.bbb.org -overview of when the company was established, check the rating of the company – use only the company with a satisfactory record, how many complaints the company has, and how many of these are resolved.
- Family and Friends
- Who can you trust more to give you the most honest information than your friends and relatives? Ask them for any recommendations and advice based on their previous moves to a different state.
Tips When Choosing a Moving Company
Here are some tried-and-true tips that we have learned from almost 100 years of moving, and they remain applicable today. These apply whether you are moving locally, long distance, or moving your office or medical practice:
- Get more than 1 estimate. If one of those estimates is much lower, proceed with extreme caution. There is a reason the quote is much lower, and 9 times out of 10, it is not good.
- Get a physical estimate, meaning have a professional salesperson come out to view your belongings. Almost every other type of service you get done with your house, someone comes out to your house (electrician, plumber, roofer, HVAC, etc.), to see what is involved to work up a price. So why would you want all your personal belongings moved when the estimate was calculated and provided over the phone? A salesperson coming to your house is far more accurate, as they see everything, including the length of the driveway, number of stairs, stairwell width, entrance and exit access, items that should / need to be packed, special care items, extra heavy items, etc. If they don’t or won’t provide a physical estimate, walk away. The mover should at least offer to perform a virtual/video estimate. If they won’t at least provide a virtual/video estimate, run away!
- Check their reputation. THE best way to do this is word of mouth. Do you know any relatives, friends, or people at work who have used the mover and can vouch for their services? A few years ago, reviews used to be a wonderful way of checking the reputation of a company. However, due to changes with the internet and just shady practices, reviews are no longer completely reliable. No large company has all 5-star reviews. If they do, likely the reviews are fake or even paid for by the company (yes, you can pay an outside company to get 5-star reviews on Google). Reviews that repeatedly contain words or phrases such as “professional, courteous, showed up on time” are usually signs of a fabricated review. Several local companies are part of national chains. Hence, many of these reviews are national, not local, and bad reviews get buried or deleted. Look for trends for companies that have a good bit of bad reviews. In today's day, feel, reputation, and the quality of their website are the best indicators of the quality of the mover. Taking some time and scrolling through their website really helps.
- Office moves, quite simple: The larger the company, the better. They have an adequate number of trained office movers to handle any move, have the capacity to adjust to changes or building issues, have the proper office moving equipment, and have the proper trucks. Ask them for their office moving equipment list, and make sure they show up with that equipment. If they don’t stop the move immediately! Residential movers are NOT office movers.
- Some moving day warning signs.
- The crew is late, and you were not alerted about the delay.
- Crew or crew members not in uniform.
- No home or office protection.
- The crew is taking excessive breaks or disappearing.
- Crew total, or type of truck not what was promised. The truck does not have the company name on it.
- If any of the above should occur, call the office immediately. If you do not get a satisfactory answer or feel uncomfortable, stop the move immediately. It will give you a lot of heartache.
- Make sure they have a PUC license for moves within the state, and a DOT number for moves out of state.
- Do not ever use an internet broker. They are not needed, cause extra costs, and you don’t usually know who the actual mover is.
These are just a few things to consider when hiring a moving company. Feel free to call us to discuss any questions you might have.
