The best way to evaluate moving companies

There are many moving companies in the industry. Almost every area has several moving companies, all competing for your business. If you are looking to hire best movers Columbus Ohio, you will need to do some evaluating on your own. And the best way to evaluate moving companies is to put in some work in acquiring estimates, looking over reviews, being careful about red flags, and so on. Admittedly, it will take quite a chunk out of your schedule but it is an activity that you must do if you want to get the best price and quality on your relocation. Of course, you can simply skip the entire process and put your fate into luck’s hands. However, if you do not wish to do so, you will need to know:

How to evaluate moving companies?

Here’s a list of things that you need to do in the whole process:

• Get several moving estimates
• Check the internet and mover’s websites for the reviews
• Evaluate moving companies – Always watch out for red flags
• A professional mover is licensed and insured
• Verify the address
• Check with the Better Business Bureau to evaluate moving companies
• Professional accreditation

Get several moving estimates

The first thing that you need to do, which will eliminate several companies all at once, is to get some moving estimates. Try to get as much as you can, as they will be quite valuable in the process. You will spot that companies value their services a bit differently but that most of the estimates are around the same price. This is because there is a standard in the industry on how much everything should cost. You should also take note of all “extra” services, such as self-storage Columbus Ohio. What you can do is simply discard all the offers that are either too high or too low. However, if you want to put in a lot more work, you may want to keep those “too low” offers so you can thoroughly verify their truthfulness.

All in all, there is always negotiating room in such a competitive industry and you will have more bargaining power if you have seen a lot of estimates. Some companies will stick by their price and that is perfectly fine but others will want to negotiate with you if it means that they simply need to lower the price slightly. That is how it works.

Check the internet and mover’s websites for the reviews

After you have a lot of estimates in hand, it is time to hit the internet again. You most likely have a shortlist of moving companies already and it is time to delve a bit deeper. Go visit their websites, see what the customers have to say. Obviously, as it is their website, the reviews there will almost never be negative. That is fine, you will get to know the company’s strengths in those reviews, anyway. Then you might want to head out to places where mover’s gather, such as moving issues forums, and so on. You can ask your questions on those places and read up on other people’s experiences.

All this information is extremely valuable when it comes to mover evaluation. Even if you don’t read anything about your own moving company, you will get a lot of information on what the other people value in a moving company. And more information is always good.

Evaluate moving companies – Always watch out for red flags

Then there are the so-called “red flags”. What that means is that some moving companies will have features that are a big no-no. Such as not having proper licenses for their line of work. Or not having proper insurance. And so on. The biggest one that may affect you, however, is the “lowball” estimate. You have most likely seen a couple of these in your estimates search. These estimates are much lower than the rest. While, admittedly, sometimes these offers are genuine, in 90%+ of the cases they are not. If someone is offering a price that is much lower than the rest of the industry, you can be sure that there is an ulterior motive.

And, most of the time, that motive is to extract money from you later on. Quite often they do it by “holding your belongings hostage”. This simple trick is quite effective, unfortunately, but you do have options, even then. As a matter of fact, you always have options. Selecting the right one is what we are trying to help you accomplish.

A professional mover is licensed and insured

So important that we need to mention it again, proper licensing and insurance is absolutely paramount for a good moving company. These serve as guarantees for at least passable service. Without them, it is like you are going out for a walk blindfolded. Everything can be fine, true, but it also can go very very wrong. If you are preparing for the move and you need proper moving insurance contact your moving company and ask what are your options!

Verify the address

A quick little checkup of the address can save you a lot of trouble. Make sure that the actual address that the moving company goes under is also registered to the said moving company. If it is not, then that is something that hints at ill-intent of some sort. With so many legitimate businesses, you don’t want to be entrusting your belongings to a shady one. Because not being registered at the advertised address is shady however you look at it.

Check with the Better Business Bureau to evaluate moving companies

You can also check in with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) if you want to further check the moving companies. You will be able to find more information there, and if a company is a part of the BBB you can be sure that they are legit. Simple as that. However, there are a lot of perfectly legitimate moving companies that are not a part of BBB, so there’s that as well.

Professional accreditation

Finally, if you really want to go the extra mile, you can check if your moving company has received any awards of excellence in the field. The easiest way to do this is to check their webpage, which will most likely flaunt their awards. After that, you may wish to check what kind of an event it was and if it holds any merit. You can never be too careful if you want to properly evaluate moving companies.