Many individuals or employees moving under lump sum programs with moving allowances are increasingly looking to the Internet to find their mover.

This can be a risky endeavor! The Internet has given access to many companies and individuals who represent themselves as major national moving companies through slick and professional looking websites, even though they are not. Many have names that are similar to or copy those of major moving companies. The reality is that many of these companies are just brokers who book the move and then hand it off to someone with a truck in their network. Quite often these companies are small independent operators who are not usually affiliated with any major moving company. Many of them are not even properly licensed, let alone trained to provide a quality service. The industry refers to these parties as 'rogue movers'.

When doing an Internet search for movers, most results give a list of companies like 123 Movers, Get a Mover, and Moving.com. These companies are Internet marketers who encourage you to fill out a form, and then sell the information as many as 10 times or more. Many of their clients are the 'rogue movers' who depend on these marketers to find their targets. Simply filling out one or two of these forms can cause you to be inundated with calls to the point where you are annoyed and quite confused as to who is who.

Upon receiving a call from one of these companies, you will be encouraged to set up your move over the phone without an in-home estimate to more accurately determine your weight and needs. This happens, as the 'rogue mover' does not have a local representative to do this for them. They would rather have you give them some kind of description of what you are moving over the phone and then interpret the amount on the lower end in order to offer a lower sounding price (low-ball estimate). Some will even claim that they are offering binding estimates even though they have no intention of honoring them. They go on to book the move by requiring a deposit from you in the form of a cash, check, credit card, or bankcard. They essentially keep this deposit as their fee/profit and then hand the move off to someone in their network. A request for a deposit should be viewed as a red flag!

If the mover shows up on the scheduled load day, it usually is in a truck that does not match up with the company that you thought you were doing business with. It may even be a rental truck. Once the household goods are loaded, the shipment can be held hostage to the demands of these parties for some higher amount of money that is not even close to the quoted price. When the shipment is delivered, is left to the whim of these operators. Often the shipment is severely damaged. These parties usually don't have any valuation programs to cover the cost of repair of damages to your goods. At times, these shipments are taken to warehouses where the entire goods are ransacked through for your valuables. Some of these shipments have even been loaded into containers and shipped over seas never to be seen of again.

Take the time to research who you are doing business with. The Better Business Bureau is of little use in qualifying these companies as they do not hear of all of the complaints, and cannot keep updated records as these companies are constantly changing their name. Legitimate long distance moving companies can be found on the American Moving & Storage Association website:

www.amconf.org

More information about 'Rogue Movers' can be found at:

www.protectyourmove.gov
www.movingscam.com