Tag Archives: moving scams

Moving Scams – Its Solution

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The Headache of Moving Scams and its Solution.

Moving can be one of the most stressful events anyone can undertake. There’s the process of packing up your belongings, arranging for a moving company to pick up and deliver those items to the new residence and the stress that comes with hoping all of your belongings don’t end up shattered at the bottom of a cardboard box. When one considers the stress of this situation, it seems downright sadistic that there are actually moving companies out there that would scam you during the whole process. If you’re about to move, here are a few tips to make sure that the movers aren’t pulling a fast one on you.

Get An Estimate.

Do your best to figure out how much stuff you’re going to be moving and tell the moving company. One common scam moving companies pull is to low ball an estimate to get your business, then they load up the truck with your belongings and give you a price that is twice as high as the estimate. Thanks to the Household Good Transportation Act of 1980, they are required to give binding estimates.

What Are They Charging You For?

If you get an estimate that is by the cubic foot, the first thing you should do is call the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Thanks to legislation from 2005, it is illegal for movers to quote a price based on cubic feet. Make sure they are quoting you by the weight of the goods being transported.

Do Your Homework.

In the age of the Internet it has become exceptionally easy to do your due diligence on a company before choosing to give them your patronage. Look at review sites and see what other customers had to say.

The best way to move these days and to avoid moving scams is to hire a container company (PODS Container) or rent your own truck and drive it and get a packing company to do the packing and loading for you with a flat rate quote, this way you will know from the beginning who much it will cost with no hidden costs or extra charges, call Packing Service, Inc. to get more information, 1888-722-5774.

Moving Scam – Origin of Word Scam

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Moving Scam – Origin of Word “Scam“.

The origins of the words scam go back into antiquity, through many derivations. The modern form of the word is first noted in a 1963 entry in an American slang dictionary. It is considered a “carnival term of unknown origin. Perhaps it’s related to 19th century. British slang scamp “cheater, swindler” This is the most plausible explanation of the word and provides a clue for further research.

In a dictionary published in 1837, the word scamp is defined as “do in a hasty manor.” From this reference, it is traced back to a Scandinavian source. The origin n Old Norse, from which the word may have derived is the word “skemma” to shorten. And “skemma” is believed to derive from skammr “short.” Thus far, imagistic ally, we can see a definite relation to the word scam. A scam artist, for example, might “short” his customer by not providing him with the full value of the service requested. He might do this by providing service in a hasty manor.

In this line of thought, the origin of the word seems to be the Old Norse word skamt, a form of skammer which dervies from the Proto German skamma related to the old OE scamm, all meaning “short.” The word scant, itself is said to have derived back in 1350 from the Old Norse word skamt, a form of skammr, which derives from the P Germanic skamma. So directly or indirectly, it appears that scam derives from the Germanic skamma, and the OE scamm, Interestingly, all of these terms are related to the old Germanic word. skemmen “to shorten” . Since taking off the top of something will shorten it, the word skemmen is sometimes taken to mean “hornless,” and one must wonder if there is a connection to the word” skim,” since the skimming process takes the top off of a food product. In any case, one might tie the meanings together, when one considers again, that a scam artist, “shorts,” a person.

Yet another possible derivation of the word scam goes through the word scamper, which means to run away. Scamper is related to the “Flem. schampeeren, frequentative of schampen “run away,” from O.N.Fr. escamper (O.Fr. eschamper) “to run away, flee,” from V.L. *excampare “decamp,” lit. “leave the field,” from L. ex campo, from ex “out of” + campo, ablative of campus “field” Both scamp, a likely derivative of scam, and scamper, connote haste. While it might be the result of coincidence more than intent, it’s worth noting that people who do scams, such as people who do moving scams frequently scamper away to avoid being caught.

Should the word scam derive from the word scamper, it is interesting to note that the Latin word campuse is related to the Proto Indo European word kampos a “corner” or “cove” from the base word kamp – “to bend”

It would be interesting to know if there is a Semitic derivation for the word scam. The common origins of Semetic languages and Indo-European languages go back 60,000 years, so it is impossible to know for sure, however, it is tempting to suggest that the word Kpoph, meaning “to bend” is distantly related to kamp “to bend,” since both words have the K and P sounds.

This report was sponsored by Packing Service, Inc. and is a national chain dedicated to providing excellent packing and loading services. Packing service Inc offer Flat Rate Quotes and are dedicated to protecting consumers from moving scam, and takes time to educate their customers regarding the best way to transport their prized possessions form one location to another.

Moving Scam – Moving Broker

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Moving Scam Moving Broker, Should you use a moving broker on your next moving experience!

Moving scams are so captivating because they provide modern examples of some of the most shocking neglect and abuse of binding contracts you can find. The scam usually begins with a low ball moving estimate, given by an online broker (a company that will book your job and sell it to another company). On moving day, after the subcontracted moving company has the goods loaded on the truck, the driver names an exorbitant price, usually two or three times the original moving cost estimate, and then informs the customer he will not release the belongings unless he is paid in full. You can see an example of what I am describing illustrated in the following excerpts of a story found on a prominent anti-moving scam website.

I booked this move through a broker and paid a $902 deposit on a quote of $3636.00 (by phone). A mistake, I know….Once our things were on the truck, the foreman told me that if I didn’t give him $400, what he called a ‘good tip’, he would price the move at $9600 and if I paid him the “tip”, he would price it at $7500. When I told him I didn’t have half of $9600 up front, he told me my household goods could be auctioned off to fulfill the contract. I paid the extortion in $160 cash and $240 check (which I stopped payment on once I had a binding price). It is my position that once they tried to extort money from us and threatened our property, all contracts signed after that point was signed under duress.” The movers wanted $3750 up front plus $225 for using my credit card. I was supposed to have $3750 in cash only upon delivery. I asked the foreman about my $902 deposit and he said, “the company gets that.”

Not the mere size of the extortion, but the arrogance with which it is carried out, is practically without precedent in the modern business world. The price being suddenly jacked up from $3636.00 to $8627.00, and the threat to hold the belongings hostage or sell them, almost staggers the imagination. Until one looks behind the scenes and discovers that the movers have the force of a legal technicality behind them, which emboldens their actions.

Movers who have received a subcontracted move are not bound by the “binding estimate,” of the moving broker unless they signed an agreement ahead of time to abide by the estimate. But the truth is that many of these moving companies never sign such estimates, and therefore, can make up any price they want on the day of the move. They wait till they have the goods in their truck, and then name the price.

If logically examine the relationship between movers and brokers, you will see why it is likely that movers rarely enter into these written agreements with brokers. And if they do, they find ways to circumvent them. Moving brokers frequently give “low ball estimates,” and after taking their cut, have trouble finding a mover who will make the move for the small amount of cash left over. In order to get the goods to the destination, they are frequently forced to subcontract the move to small peripheral moving companies who never entered into a written agreement with the broker. At the time of the estimate, they were unaware of the move, and they couldn’t afford to make the move for that price.

Bottom line, brokers rely on the movers to make a living. They have to be good to them. Even if they make some type of written agreement, they can fill it with technicalities which give the mover free reign to name his prices. And since the consumer never sees this document, he is totally in the dark about what can occur.

Even moving experts are fooled by this technicality. For example, in this case, one moving scam expert signed into the forum discussion, confidently quoted regulation 375.409 of the moving code which requires a written agreement to be in place before a broker makes the binding estimate. But brokers can easily find ways around this requirement. For example, a broker may have a written agreement with one moving company. He makes the binding agreement with that company in mind. Only that company always cancels at the last minute. Then he has to find a new moving company, which had no written agreement to abide by the estimate.

This report was brought to you by Packing Service, Inc. and is a national packing company offers Flat Rate Quotes and dedicated to protecting the consumer from Moving scam.