3 Long Distance Moving Scams

So, the time has come for you to make the move out of your area. It’s an extremely stressful experience and it can take it’s toll. Among the seemingly unending list of things to do is hiring movers.

This may seem pretty straightforward and you could be tempted to just hire a company quickly, but there is a huge risk if you hire the wrong company, and doing so could cost you a huge amount of time, effort and money you weren’t expecting to spend.

Without further delay, here are the most common surprises people have when hiring a long distance moving company:

1. The actual price of the move is far more than what was estimated.

Unfortunately, this is a reality we hear about all the time and it really is tragic.

How This Scenario Happens

The typical long distance movers will send an estimator to your home. They will look at everything you have to move and guess what the total weight is. Based on their guess of the weight, they will give you a price for your move. Naturally, the higher the weight is the higher the price will be.

That estimator knows you are probably getting multiple companies to give you prices, so they are trying to be competitive with their pricing. Whether intentionally or not, some estimators will underestimate what the weight will be. This will result in a lower estimated price.

For the sake of an example, let’s say your items actually weigh 8,000 lbs. The estimator gives you a price that is based on 5,000 lbs. Let’s say that is a total of $7200.

When the next estimator comes, they estimate your weight at 7500 lbs and the price is $9700.

In comparing these 2 prices, you assume that both companies are basing the prices on the same weight, so it makes sense for you to select the company that will charge $7200 (assuming all the other service factors are the same).

You feel good now because you’ve hired a mover and can check that off your list, and for a while all is well.

Fast forward to moving day. The movers arrive and load your items into the truck. So far so good. Then, they leave your house and go to a weigh scale. At this point they weigh the truck and your shipment and find out exactly what your shipment actually weighs.

Now things are about to get unpleasant.

They inform you that the items you have were actually more than the what the estimator thought. They may makes excuses for this or claim you had more things than you showed to the estimator, but either way, you are in a pickle.

They tell you instead of $7,200 for your move, it will actually now cost you $11,520. You are blown away – how is it so much higher than the original price!!!!

The answer – if they had told you the move would be $11,520 at the start, you would never have hired them. But now, you have no real options because everything you own is in their truck. If you make a big stink and say you won’t pay, they may just hold onto your items and never give it back to you.

So, feeling completely trapped and taken advantage of, you eventually agree to pay the extra $4320. Yikes.

2. The arrival time at the destination is a very broad window

Depending on how far your move is, there may be an arrival window that spans up to 14 days.

Your items could be loaded on the 1st of the months and told they will get to your destination between the 15th-29th of that month. That means you will be without furniture and your other items for basically 2-4 weeks.

Unfortunately, it’s often really hard to plan for this because the movers won’t actually tell you when they will arrive at your new location until the day or two before they get there.

You might be wondering, what causes this?

I’ll tell you.

The reason for the huge window is because your items will be in a 53 foot trailer, the kind that large semi trucks haul. Your items will only fill a portion of that trailer and they are waiting for other shipments to fill the remainder. Once the trailer is full, that’s when the truck will leave.

Using this kind of system does typically mean the price is a bit lower for these long distance moves, but it also means the inconvenience is much higher.

Additionally, if your origin or destination doesn’t have 100 feet of space that the semi and trailer can park in for a day, then they will need to “shuttle” your belongings with a smaller truck to the semi.

Doing this means everything will be loaded and unloaded an extra time, which increases the chances of damage, and will be an additional fee.

3. The actual moving company that shows up to do your move is different than the one that gave you the quote.

Often, the company that books the job is a broker and they do to actually perform the moves themselves. This means that they might not actuallly know who will be doing your move, as it’s a matter of what company in their database is available.

You could do your research and find good reviews for a company and assume they are going to be doing your move and then have a completely unknown, unwanted company as the actual ones doing the move.

How Can You Protect Yourself?

Yes, there are rough things that can happen on your long distance move, but do not lose all hope, there are good companies out there who are happy to provide honest service at straightforward prices.

Find a company that offers flat rate pricing. Yes, it will likely appear to be a higher price than the estimates of other companies, but it will be the actual amount you pay. Even if there are delays in transit, or terrible weather, your quote won’t change. If you find it impossible to get a flat rate quote, try to get in writing the highest cost your move would be.
Try to find a company that will give a short arrival window. Ideally, a company that is only taking your items, so they don’t have to wait for other jobs to be booked.
Make sure that you get in writing the actual company that will be performing your move. Ask the sales person if they subcontract the job to other companies. If they do, proceed with extreme caution.

If you want a company that does long distance moves all over BC who offers all these benefits, you need to check out Fraser Valley Movers and Storage.

We give guarantee pricing and a 4 hour arrival window for destinations in BC, in 12 years we’ve never used a shuttle truck and we only use our own movers, we never subcontract the jobs to others.