During the pandemic, Stephanie W. lived in New York City.
When she found out her rent was increasing, she needed to get out of the big city.
Her small business was suffering from the pandemic, and she could no longer afford the rent.
To save money, Stephanie decided to move from New York to Hawaii to live with her parents.
She found a company called Gold Standard Relocation to help her move all her belongings.
The company quoted her a good price and was very professional over the telephone.
But when the scheduled moving day arrived the company didn’t show up.
When Stephanie called the company no one answered.
The worst thing was that she had already paid the moving company over $4,000 to move more than 70 boxes and her furniture.
Later that night, three movers showed up at her apartment. The men said they had been delayed by the snow in the area.
The movers spent hours moving Stephanie’s items into a truck.
But once all her stuff was packed up the movers gave her a bill for $500 in weather-related fees.
The final bill also included other fees that she had no idea about.
“They had everything on the 18-wheeler truck and then they handed me the final contract — and there’s all these extra charges. I mean, there’s a weather charge, they claimed I had more stuff than the video walkthrough,” she said.
“They were like, ‘Well, your stuff’s on the truck. We just won’t move it if you won’t pay this,” Stephanie said.
The next day she called the company to dispute the extra fees, but the company said the fees were legitimate and there was nothing she could do.
“I was like, well, you know, they have my money now,” she said, “at least my stuff is safe.”
Or so she thought…
When Stephanie called the company to check on the location of her items she was ignored.
Eventually, she was able to contact someone who said they were a brokerage firm.
The person on the telephone said they brokered her move to a horrible company and had no records of her items.
At this point, Stephanie hired a lawyer.
The lawyer filed a suit against the brokerage company that Stephanie had been speaking with.
But the company was defunct.
Two years after the ordeal, Stephanie was still living with her parents and hadn’t been able to find her belongings.
“It’s my entire life,” she said. “I have no memories, not a picture, not a yearbook.”
Stephanie said she will continue to fight against moving company scams.
“I already feel like they’ve taken everything from me, so I have nothing else to lose, but I don’t want anybody else to feel this way,” she said.
Now, moving is a stressful experience in the first place, and when you get scammed in the middle of it, it makes things terrible.
Unfortunately, moving scams are more common than you might think.
Considering this, here are a few signs that you might be dealing with a scam and not a legit moving company.
Physical address:
If you are searching online for a moving company, you want to make sure that the company has a physical address listed on their website.
Once you find the address do another online search of the address to make sure that it comes back to the same company.
You want to make sure there is a physical address that you could go to if the company loses your items, or something goes wrong.
DOT number:
Verify that the moving company has a USDOT number.
This number is a unique identifier assigned by the Department of Transportation.
All commercial vehicles have a DOT number, so a moving company would have one as well.
If a company doesn’t have a DOT number, it could be a sign they’re not legitimate.
Telephone estimate:
There are a lot of things to account for when getting a quote on the cost of moving.
A legitimate company will need to ask a lot of questions and get a decent amount of information.
So, if the company gives you a base quote without asking many questions it could be a scam.
A legitimate company will give you a quote in person or they will do a video walk-through of your house.
If you are planning a move I recommend getting at least three different quotes.
Before moving, inventory all your belongings so you know exactly what you should receive at the destination.
You can even add a tracker such as an Apple Air Tag to your belongings so you can know where they’re physically at.
Lastly, make payments with a credit card and keep a paper trail of all documents in case the company doesn’t follow through.
Just make sure to take the time to research the moving company you plan to use because it can save you a headache in the long run.
