Saturday, September 24, 2011

Finding a Mover: Some Tips Before You Hire

Whether moving across town or to another state entirely, you may need to hire the professional services of a mover. Here are some tips to help you find a good one.


If you have a house full of belongings, it may be impractical to move it yourself, even if you have the help of friends. Whether moving across town or to another state entirely, you may need to hire the professional services of a mover. Unfortunately, the moving business is rife with incompetence and even outright scam artists, so you need to be careful before you decide who to go with. Reputation and longevity are everything in this business, so make sure you do some research before you put your belongings in the hands of strangers.

Your first stop will be your local Yellow Pages or the online equivalent. There, you’ll be able to find the names of every mover in your town, giving you a list of potential businesses to work with. As silly as it sounds, you might consider giving higher priority to those that have put large ads in the phone book, as this is an obvious sign of prosperity and badcompanies rarely prosper for very long. At the same time, this sort of display should be far from the only factor in your decision making process.

Once you have a list to start with, go online and start doing further research. Look for those companies that have a nice, professional website with additional information. The internet is too ubiquitous a tool that any worthwhile company should be without a web presence by now. It might be a bit premature to cross off names just because they don’t have a website, but it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world. Look for websites that lay out rates so you don’t have to jump through hoops to find out what the companies charge for basic services. You’ll have to reiterate this on the phone with the final contenders obviously, but the site should give you a basic idea before you settle on a mover.

With your final contenders, do some basic Google searches to see what people are saying about them. Check with the Better Business Bureau and see if there have been any major complaints filed against the company. Check other online review sites that provide a similar service. Keep in mind that you may not be able to judge the local branch of a national company by something a branch halfway across the country did. Once you’ve narrowed the list down to only a couple of contenders
, call the companies themselves and see what they quote you for the move.


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