Most moving sites you see online are run by what is professionally known as moving brokers.
Moving brokers act as the middleman between a customer and a moving company. They are not the actual moving companies, they do not own moving trucks and equipment or have the professional moving staff.
How do moving brokers work?
Moving brokers are mainly salespeople. In an ideal world, they will help you find a good moving company at a low price and ask for a fee in return.
Here is how it works:
A moving broker will give you an estimate mostly over the phone or online. When you accept the estimate, you will be charged a fee. The brokers will then bid the job to moving companies based on the estimate that they have. This is how they are able to get you the cheapest move possible. So, what could go wrong you ask?
The risks of using a moving broker are much higher than the benefits. Since they use the lowest estimates to lure customers, moving companies might not accept the job at all; and this could leave you without a moving company on moving day.
An uninsured or unlicensed moving company may be hired to do the job since no one else is doing it. This is not a company that you want to trust with all your belongings.
Moving Day Blues
When working with a broker and something goes wrong, instead of taking responsibility, they will blame it on the moving company. Consider this, the moving company that is hired to do your moving job has only the information that the broker has provided to them.
Upon seeing the totality of the job, they might charge you more for the job. Moving brokers do not take responsibility for any negligence or discrepancies between the estimate and actual load once the moving company is hired.
We recommend that you always get a quote from the same entity that will be moving you. The logos on the website, the truck, and the employees should all match, and if they don’t, this should be a red flag.
Call Garrett’s Moving and Storage today for a free estimate, or use our online contact form to get started.