I have lost any faith in MSN and their writing abilities. This is the closest thing I have seen to fear mongering in a long time. It is above and beyond muck raking and just plain ludicrous. Now, I wouldn't have such an issue with this If it hadn't been written as if the whole industry was like this. Or insinuate that every single company did every single item on this list, every single time.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/ConsumerActionGuide/10-things-moving-companies-wont-say.aspx
The writer very obviously looked just for the worst of the bad. Even though the sections have different titles it's mostly the same 'we had to pay more' story. They also only seemed to have chosen stories did not have an in house estimate or they did not read the contract.
I can not say it enough how important it is to have an in house estimate, to ask questions and to read the contract.
Insurance on your items is called a valuation. The standard Free Coverage that most moving companies provide is $0.60 per Item per pound of that item. Which means if you decide not to pay for more coverage then if your 100lb item get's damaged you will only get $60 for the item. So if you want better coverage then you will have to pay to protect it. All moving companies have insurance plans, if they say you can't purchase more then do not go with that company.
In the article almost all of the people who were ripped off were charged buy the cubic foot or charged almost four times what their estimate was. I'm willing to guess that they either only got phone estimates for minimum weight charge for a long distance move.
UPS charges by the cubic foot. Back in the day, if you have a box that was 3lbs and it's size qualified as an OS1 (over sized one) they will charge you for 30lbs. Because that is what they feel the space is worth. They also have the man power to check the boxes as they go by. They also pack the trucks amazingly well, almost like a giant game of Tetris. Moving companies? Not so much. I would not trust a moving company that charged by cubic feet. If there was a space above the boxes chances are I would still get charged for it.
Most large moving companies will have rates set up for their agent companies to follow. At times charges will vary from state to state because of the U.S. Department of Transportation and taxes. The DoT watches moving companies very closely and their fines are very high. No one likes to upset the DoT.
The company I work for has a 2,100lb minimum charge in the summer for a long distance move. Why? One reason is because it can very hard to get enough small moved together and going to the same general area. Mostly it is because if you are looking to have just one item moved the cost for it's weight will not cover the cost for man hours nor for the fuel to get the truck there. Unfortunately it is sometimes not worth the cost to hire someone else to move just one item.
There is just so many things in that article that are wrong or misleading it's frustrating. My boss was flat out discussed with the article. Unfortunately information that get's put on the internet is mostly negative. If you find yourself with questions please feel free to ask me them and I will do my best to answer them.
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