Moving Scam Victim Discusses His Experience Hiring an Unreputable Moving Company

[Music] hello and thanks so much for joining us on BBB reports I'm your host Olivia Mancino and today we are talking about interstate moving scams now this is part of the BB B's ongoing fight to track and find these bad moving companies who are holding thousands of people's stuff and money hostage every year now we're going to speak to Eloi Lema ster he's a Chicago resident who fell victim to one of these bad moving companies but first we're going to talk to the BBBS international investigations specialist Steve Baker welcome Steve great to be with you great so we're here to talk about moving scams there are 13,000 complaints on average to our system each year can you talk about that seems like a really high number talk to me about that number there's a whole set of companies that are just skins you think of regular movers just like the the moving vans you used to seen around your neighborhoods but they're not they're really crooks and they really take people and they produce thousands of complaints and the federal government gets thousands of complaints about them as well so that's why we focused the study on moving scams because they really are different than rural movers real movers can make mistakes of course and BBB helps with that but there are a whole distinct set of moving scams that you really got to watch out for Wow and you know the scam really starts with this first point of contact when the consumer calls that company they get this free estimate that ends up being completely bogus what happens there well basically the model for these folks is they offer a really low estimate and they sound very believable and they of course got to be able to under bit anybody else because it isn't for real by law if they give you an estimate they cannot charge more than a hundred and more than ten percent more of that estimate before unloading your goods even if you've got more stuff than you say you do so that means get an in-person estimate because the crooks are almost never going to be able to appear a person they go through on the telephone and get ask people what they want and then what happens is they show up at the house they load all the staff say oh gosh this was really a whole lot more stuff than you told us it was the price is going to be triple or quadruple and here's a new contract you either sign this or we're just gonna unload your goods on the curb and drive away so tips for people at home what how do you spot one of these bad guys estimates over the phone is certainly a red flag anybody the charges more than one hundred ten percent of the initial estimate before they deliver is a scam that's illegal because of scam movers also all offer their estimates based on weight or in volume instead of weight you want it's illegal to do an estimate based on volume so they tell you how many cubic feet your goods will take up and then they claim that you had more cubic feet and you know you originally told him even though you didn't Wow so the best way really is to make sure you're dealing with legit I wouldn't go to the Better Business Bureau during an American movie myth storage Association or the Canadian Association of movers and they will recommend or several movers to get in person estimates and really do some careful checking what about for people who think at this moment they may have been scammed or they hired someone who was a bad mover if someone signed a contract already are they pretty much out of luck what what is is there any recourse for them what people should do at that point is all move rescue call a Better Business Bureau I'm talking to consumers who after complaining to the Better Business Bureau and telling the mover that they complained to the Better Business Bureau they were able to work out a fair ordeal so they can help you move rescue is a good thing if somebody really gets to the delivery point and drives out with your staff and you have no idea where it even is which happens all too frequently they can also call the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that's great plenty of resources for people it's a definitely a scary situation when someone has all of your possessions hostage so great resources well thank you so much for all of this fantastic information and we look forward to putting the full study out there so you know ahead of this summer people can be prepared thank you thanks Steve next up we have Eli Lema stirrer you were actually scammed by one of these moving companies thanks so much for joining us today thanks for having me you were looking for a mover obviously an interstate mover can you talk to me about what your process was like what you looked up online you know the main thing was I wanted something else pretty easy so I actually went online and found a website where he can you can get some different quotes so I thought that would be pretty simple and you know one of the first companies that called me was this particular mover yeah and so they sounded great they gave you an estimate do you remember what they said on the phone what that estimate was well first off in order to give a quote they wanted to see you know why what items I had like what what material so I basically went room by room and said you know at a couch at a TV whatever whatever it was and so basically just big checklists and went over all of those items over the phone and then they they gave me a quotas about I think it was like sixteen hundred and fifteen dollars fifty dollars okay fair and they seemed nice on the phone right like perfectly lovely people very professional I had zero concern you know and I'm a guy that likes to shop I really there was nothing that came is talked to me about that conversation you had with the mover once they got there they were supposed to be there sometime during the day well they end up showing up at eight o'clock at night so it was it was a little bit inconvenient so anyway they show up they show up in this well on their website they have you know purple trucks and so they show up in this unmarked well it actually wasn't the more it was a renter rent a lot like one you could get yourself yeah so I was a little concerned with that and they said no there's nothing be concerned with this is we call this a shuttle no concerns they were very nice guys packing everything up there you know doing and actually did a good job and then right about I would say 11 o'clock 11:30 there most of stuffs packed up and they they say hey you know the truck is much more full than what what we initially put I said how's that even possible I gave you guys a very specific list here's the list here are the items and they said no it's taking up much more cubic square footage so they take me to the kitchen he's writing this quote and all the Sun instead of $1600 being with all my stuff on the truck now I have a balance to total about fifty nine hundred dollars and I was like in total shock I mean who has six thousand dollars in cash practically at 11:30 at night like just ready to hand over to somebody that's that's insane stuff I talked to the manager and she drops you know the cost to wear out of total out-of-pocket seventeen six thousand was maybe looks like 45 or 46 hundred deal too much still and pretty much double or triple I I guess the point being I didn't have a choice and I needed this stuff and I had no idea who had my stuff I was totally confused [Music] what's something you pointed out there was something like a tip that people should look out for the first thing I would recommend is any mover that it giving you a quote based on cubic square footage I do not use them I just whenever and I thought a company was was completely reputable and due to like I just completely made a horrible mistake you know unfortunately after out the complaint I realized we had other complaints as well with this company and very recently so I would actually tell people that are watching Better Business Bureaus a great resource thank you so much for joining us Eli and sharing your story helping warn others this is definitely hopefully gonna save someone in the future from making you know the same unfortunate mistake absolutely thank you for more information on interstate moving scams visit the link in our description for our full extensive study thanks so much for joining us and we'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Better Business Bureau

Views: 742

Keywords: Moving, Scam, Movers, Unreputable moving company, research, scam, scam alert, breaking news, how to, find a moving company, victim, victim's story

Id: DXHyif4SgWc

Length: 9min 25sec (565 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 02 2020