How to Identify Rogue Movers

Relocating from one city, state or country to another can be one of the most involving processes that can easily overwhelm you if you are not very careful. In most cases you will need to hire a Cotati moving company so that these professional movers can take the burden off your shoulders. The sad thing is that there are several rotten apples among moving companies but most people are not able to identify the scams before it is too late. A discerning individual will be able to identify the red flags showing the con artist’s scams that are normally referred to as rogue movers; you need to know what signs to look out for.

Free resources: There are many free resources that are available for anyone who wants to weed out rogue movers from their list so that they don’t fall victims. The first place you want to begin with is the Better Business Bureau (BBB); the others are ProtectYourMove.gov as well as MovingScam.com, all of which are sponsored by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The DOT has a special website that is solely dedicated to interstate movers while there are several other websites that are dedicated to local and interstate movers. You just need to be careful to check all the three websites anytime you want to get the correct picture of any potential moving companies. All the complaints ever lodged against the movers are listed here; you want to check the pattern of complaints against a company and see how they were resolved.

Red flags: The DOT website provides a list of red flags or warning signs in relation to interstate movers but the truth is that they can easily be applied to any moving companies:

Inspection: First and foremost you want to be careful about a mover who will not create time to come to the site and physically inspect your household possessions but they will instead opt to give the quote over the internet or on phone. In most cases such movers will give quotes that are too low and non-binding; this means the company will have the liberty to change and charge extra fees based on some variables during the day of moving. There are "binding not-to-exceed" estimate on the other hand that are written and there is no way the mover will attempt to raise them on the material day.

Addresses: Check the company’s website carefully and see whether it lists a street address including whether or not it shows information about licensing and insurance. When you place a call, listen carefully whether the answer is simply a non-specific mover or moving company greeting the person on the other side gives or they actually use the company’s name.

Insurance: Always be careful when a mover claims to be insured but will not produce a written proof of the same.

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