While walking our dogs, a good friend mentioned that she had chosen a moving company for her retired father who lives in the Midwest. I asked about the company and after hearing about them, I told her to cancel the move, immediately.
They pulled a sneaky trick
It all seemed innocent enough. The company had the same name as one of the major van lines. For my friend, this was a good thing. For me, it was a giant red flag, but I didn’t stop there. I pulled out my phone and looked at the company’s website. There were no pictures of their namesake’s very recognizable trucks.
How I figured it out
The first thing I did was look at their Yelp reviews. They had a whopping four. Two were five stars and two were one. The two five star reviews just seemed suspicious, but I didn’t end the research there.
I scrolled to the bottom of the site, where they posted their licensing information. That was good, at least until I looked. The company had been in business for just a few months. That’s bad. In that time, they had racked up a number of complaints with the Department of Transportation. That’s very bad. Most reputable companies have only a couple of complaints in years, if not decades, of service.
I checked their Better Business Bureau listing. While I don’t place a lot of stock in the Better Business Bureau (members can get more leeway), all of this combined was all I needed to know.
Complaints ranged from overcharging to not showing up to holding goods hostage, waiting for more money.
It gets worse
The company my friend had chosen required a hefty down payment with a strict 72 hour cancellation policy. The move is two months away, but any cancellation will result in the loss of her deposit, unless it’s within the first 72 hours.
Fortunately, she called within those 72 hours and if she doesn’t see the refund on her credit card, she has recourse through her credit card.
The lesson here is be wary. Just because a company has a recognizable name, it doesn’t mean they have anything at all to do with that company. Yes, the major van lines (and sometimes respected local companies) they have stolen the name from have recourse, but the dishonest companies are rarely in business long enough for that to matter.
My friend was lucky, simply because I know a lot about the moving industry. Hundreds of people are scammed every day by dishonest moving companies and with tricks like stealing names of legitimate companies, customers are finding it more difficult to figure out who’s good and who’s bad.
Featured image via TheMuuj/Flickr.
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