How to Do a Background Check on a Moving Company?

A low level of professionalism or lack of it is a problem you have to deal with if you don’t do a background check on a moving company. Besides rude moving crew or unjustified delays, you could also end up dealing with fraudulent movers, leaving you without your possessions or holding them hostage with a request for a huge amount of cash. While scammers are getting more skilled at tricking people into doing business with them, customers are also learning to get more informed and check on a moving company before hiring movers and letting them into their homes.

That means that you as a customer have various tools to check movers. That includes reviews and the company’s ratings. Non-profitable organizations are also working to protect you and help you identify unreliable service providers. Besides checking the credibility of a mover, you must also speak to their representative. It’ll help you to figure out if their services are up to your standards. For all these reasons, reading a few reviews and checking how the ratings are is simply not enough. This guide about how to do a background check on a moving company will help you identify rogue movers in New York City. It’ll also help you hire a trusted NYC moving company. Carry on reading to find a few simple steps to lead you to credible top-rated NYC movers.

How to check credentials?

There are several online platforms to help you confirm the company’s credibility, and these are some of them:

FMCSA

Visit the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) and enter your mover’s name. Check their profile and find more info about them. See if they have a license and authorization to operate. If they have the authorization to do the business they advertise, you’ll see a number that looks like an ID. It is the USDOT (U/S. Department of Transportation) number and also the MC (Motor Carrier) number. This number should match the one on the mover’s website and any documents they provide. This is important because rogue movers often leave this number out of their documents and use a different number instead. So in order to avoid fraudulent movers, only sign after you confirm that numbers match.

This is also a perfect place to check the mover’s complaint history and its detailed breakdown. You’ll see the number of complaints and read through them. Pay attention to what exactly those complaints are about. For example, some may be about a tiny delay which is not something to worry about. Others may be way more serious and definitely something to beware of.

BBB

After you check licensing credentials, you can also visit the BBB (Better Business Bureau) website. Look for more info and check how a specific company rates. The reason why BBB is a good place to confirm your company’s ratings is that this is a non-profit organization. Its purpose is to improve marketplace trust and help you as a customer get the service you deserve. It can help you avoid doing business with scammers or poor-quality service providers. Once you’re on the BBB page and you enter the company’s name or USDOT number, you should see the ratings. A+ means the service is exceptional. The F rating means that most reviews found this to be the lowest level of service possible.

What’s great about this organization is that they require each company to go through the vetting process in order to be accredited, meaning you’ll get peace of mind knowing you’re dealing with a licensed and reliable mover. Besides the Better Business Bureau, there are other websites you can visit and find similar info, such as ProtectYourMove.gov, MovingScam.com, and so on.

AMSA

Your next way to do a background check on a moving company is to see if they’re accredited by AMSA (American Moving and Storage Association). The AMSA requires all its members to meet the safety standards and they also must comply with the Code of Ethics in order to be a member of this esteemed association. Of course, abiding by these and other laws is a must too. In case you’re looking at movers accredited by AMSA, you can rest assured that you’re looking at reliable businesses.

Online reviews

Although checking credentials is a must and it’s necessary when doing a background check on a mover, it’s also helpful to see what previous customers have to say about a specific company. Yelp is certainly one of the most popular ones, but there are other websites you can check reviews on as well. Don’t be too quick to judge if you find a couple of negative reviews but also don’t trust blindly all-5-star reviews only. That’s because rogue movers sometimes use fake reviews to present themselves as trusted and professional but they also use negative reviews to make their competition seem bad. Hopefully, this will help you learn how to identify fake moving reviews and how to avoid a moving scam.

When reading through reviews, try to find those you can relate to, for example, long-distance movers NYC. Comments are what you should be reading if you’re moving far away. Search for reviews about packing services if you’re about to move some fragile items that require hiring professional movers and packers. This should help you understand how good or bad service is in that specific area you require. Of course, solely basing your opinion on reviews is a mistake you should avoid – this is only an addition to a thorough background check you already did.

While doing background checks and looking for reliable movers, go ahead and add Dumbo Moving and Storage to your list because you may not have to look any further. Our company is based in Brooklyn, NYC and we’ve been performing commercial and residential moves with pride since 2006. Go ahead and contact us to chat about your relocation and receive a free moving quote.