Hiring Movers Without Regret: The Research You Need to Do

Anyone can hire movers out of the yellow pages, but that hardly gives you a guarantee as to their competence. And it's more than competence you need to worry about when hiring a service company, particularly one that will be inside your house and moving your belongings. It's not that you should constantly be on guard for nefarious activity or scams, but since it is so easy to do some simple background checking on a company before you lay down your money, why not do it? The internet has made it a cinch to research anything and everything before you move forward. Here is the research you need to do before hiring a moving company.

Visit Their Website

The most professional movers have long since taken advantage of the internet to promote their business. This website should have most of the information you need available for perusal. So, do so. See what kinds of deals they offer, what kind of history they have in the community, and what kind of customer service orientation they have. Now, a company can say anything they want on their own website (within the confines of legal promotion, of course), so take everything with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, this is a good way to get your first impressions of a company.

Ask Around

One of the best ways to find movers who will do you proud is to get recommendations from the people you know. Ask your neighbors, friends, and co-workers who they used and if they would recommend them to you. If this search doesn't turn anything up, put the question to your friends on Facebook. You'll cast a much wider net and be sure to get plenty of different responses. Look for names that appear more than once or names that get a lot of "Likes". You may also want to ask local real estate agents. They have a lot of experience dealing with businesses in the field and should be able to give you some good names.

Check the Better Business Bureau

Consumer advocates will warn you that being a member of the BBB proves nothing -- it's merely a club you pay to belong to. However, that doesn't mean the BBB is any less of a resource when it comes to investigating movers. When people are wronged by a company, the BBB is often the first place they turn to make their complaints heard. The company then has the chance to respond to those complaints in a public forum. If you're close to hiring a company, it won't do any harm to see what others have complained about and how they handled the situation.