Moving broker scam

Watch Out!!!

One of the most common selling tactics in the moving industry has to do withDallas movingcompanies taking advantage of and victimizing customers by putting them under high pressure situations. When you contact companies for a quote, you sometimes don’t know who you are speaking to, it may be a moving company or it could be a broker. In this article, I will focus on brokers.

 Moving brokers are the biggest scam in the moving industry, never book with a broker!  A broker is a company that sells a service (in this case a moving service) to a customer and then turns around and sells that job to a moving company to do. Did you ever wonder why a broker’s estimate is so much cheaper than a moving company’s estimate? How can a broker be cheaper and still make a profit? 

I have been in this industry for 13 years now and have never worked with a broker for one reason - brokers give low ball prices to customers to get the business and the only way for a moving company to make a profit is to raise the price! That’s just not my business practice. Brokers put the customer under high pressure to book now, they make them pay a deposit (usually 50% of the estimate upfront)and then they sell your job to any moving company who’s willing to buy it. The customer is left not knowing who the moving company is that will show up, and the broker doesn’t care if the moving company has a lot of complaints with the BBB or lots of horror stories online - their main goal is to sell! Now since the job was sold at such a low price to the customer, and after the broker takes their share of the money, the moving company that services the move has no other option but to raise the price on you. It’s guaranteed that you will pay more than the estimate quoted. And if you’re lucky, the moving company will even show up! I have heard endless stories from customers who booked with a broker and then the moving company either doesn’t show up or cancels the move completely!

Do yourself a favor – if you somehow figured out that you are dealing with a broker, put your sneakers on and run! Think about this scenario:  you submit your information on a website where you will get quotes from 5-7 moving companies. These companies will contact you and compete for your business. You will most likely be overwhelmed from the volume of phone calls. Oftentimes, customers are just looking based on the cheapest price (which is the worst thing to do when looking for a mover by the way). You speak to a sales person that sounds super nice and helpful but they tell you that you need to book now in order to take advantage of the price. You are happy to book because you think you are getting a good deal and then you give a deposit. On move day, the moving truck appears with a different name from the company you booked with. They have you sign a moving service contract and then something called a “revised written estimate”. Then they tell you ‘Ah excuse me sir/ma’am, you have more items here than what’s on the list so it’s going to be another $1400 to complete this move and for us to get started on this move, we will need you to sign here’. At this point you feel sick to your stomach because you did not budget for double the cost, and in a few hours you have a flight to catch, so what do you do? You pay double the estimate knowing you had no other choice.

Yes, this happens every day to good, hardworking people. People that the only thing they wanted to do was to save some cash. There are some ways to save, just not with a broker. If you want to save, use a true, local moving company. Local moving companies are much cheaper, and if you research right you will find a reputable one to move you for a great price. Compare prices of top rated local moving companies and have them compete with each other!  Now that’s a smart shopper. Don’t fall for low ball estimates!

We have a large list of brokers that identify themselves as movers – feel free to email us the name and we might be able to tell you if they are in fact a moving company or a broker. And of course if you decide to us, you will be contracted with a real moving company!


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