When choosing a mover it is wise to establish 3 goals....

1. Try to find a mover that has a proven track record of doing moves that are smooth and trouble free for their customers.


2. Pick a mover with a proven track record of completing their jobs in a timely fashion and coming in with fees that are either on or under their estimates, thus keeping their customer's costs down.


3. Pick a moving company that has a low claims ratio and that has a record of settling customer claims satisfactorily and quickly, because it is humanly impossible for any professional mover to never have an occasional damage.

Low Estimates

Most people shop first for a low rate mover which invariably causes them to engage a moving company which gives such poor moving service that it totally fails to achieve even 1 of these 3 goals for them. It is almost axiomatic when searching for the right moving company that the lower the rates they charge, the lower the level of service they provide - no matter what sales people promise. The truth of the matter is that in most cases the low rate movers end up actually costing their customers a lot more than a higher rate, quality moving service would have. This is because of their untrained men's inefficiencies and their damages to furnishings and the company's hidden nickel and dime charges. All of these factors end up escalating the customer's overall moving costs beyond that of the higher rate, quality movers.

When selecting movers a prevalent problem is low-ball move estimates whereby on move day you end up finding the movers actual charges invariably coming in well over what you expected.

The #1 complaint registered with watchdog groups against movers is that on moving day the charges were much higher than the estimator had led the customer to believe they would be.

Unfortunately, the moving industry has developed a notorious reputation for moving company salesmen deliberately underestimating jobs just to get them. They do this because they know that on moving day the customer is stuck with them. So they use low-ball estimates to lock them into a booked move, even if it takes this deception to do so. Some companies have an unwritten policy to all of their salesmen to give low-ball moving estimates in order to get jobs. One moving company owner that we know of told us that he'd never get a job if he didn't give low estimates!

Sometimes they low-ball the bid by suggesting too few men on the job so that by quoting a lower rate they can appear to be less expensive then they really will be. They're also known to deliberately underestimate the time necessary to do the job so that they can bottom line a lower total price to a customer. Or they'll underestimate the weight of the shipment and then on moving day the loaded truck on the scale will show a much higher weight, which will result in a much higher charge.

The State law in Illinois does not require local movers to hold to their estimates because of all of the variables in moving such as bad weather, long gangways and / or extra stairs to traverse, no nearby parking for the truck, poor packing on the customers part resulting in movers time needed to finish packing, etc. Consequently, unscrupulous sales people will take advantage of this legal freedom from restraint and become deceptive in order to try to book your job.

The regulations of the Illinois Commerce Commission (the state governmental agency that regulates the moving industry), require the mover on moving day, to charge for all actual weight or actual time spent doing the job (no matter what the salesman estimated). The customer must be prepared to pay up to 10% over the estimate on moving day and the rest within 30 days or the mover does not have to deliver the shipment! Instead, the mover can take that customer's goods back to their warehouse and unload them and then later reload those same goods for delivery and charge the customer for all of that labor as well as storage charges also! So the poor customer ends up getting really, really burned and all because he is required by law to pay the higher charges for actual weight or time spent, not the low-ball estimated charges he was told when he was picking that mover!

Other major complaints against movers include failure to settle moving claims for damages to household goods or for lost or stolen items and real estate property damage. There are also complaints about movers with bad attitudes, movers in need of better personal hygiene, lousy truck driving, inebriation on the job, bad language in front of children, lost pets, etc., etc., etc.

Proving The Mover's Track Record

There are a number of agencies that keep a complaint record on professional movers and as many of them as possible should be checked in order to discover these unresolved grievances before picking any mover. Remember, the more good references and the fewer bad references a service business has - the safer it is to choose them to do your job.

First, make sure that any mover you are considering has a current license with the Illinois Commerce Commission (their license number should be on their advertising. If not don't use them because they may be pirates!). Never try to save money by choosing a low-rate, fly-by-night mover. They're typically found on the bulletin board at the local supermarket or on internet moving broker's websites or on craigslist.com. These outfits many times are moving pirates or do moving scams. If you don't personally know the mover you are interested in or some of their personnel, make sure that any one that you're interested in has been in business for some extended period of time. Tenure in business can be a good sign but that is only the beginning of reference checking.

Second, ask your friends, neighbors, acquaintances and co-workers for recommendations. Be sure to ask them if any mover they know of had met all 3 above mentioned goals for them or someone they know. Also, ask them for the names of the people on the crew that the mover sent to do their job (if they can recall them). Some mover's men are better than others, so if you can get proven men, do so. Also ask if there were any damages on their job and what was done to take care of the problem.

Third, call the Illinois Commerce Commission and ask if the mover has had any complaints filed against them in the last few years (they keep a 3 year complaint record on every mover in the State of Illinois). Bear in mind that any complaints filed are probably just the tip of the iceberg so to speak because most times dissatisfied customers don't even bother to register a complaint. Those who do are representing only a small percentage of their mover's failures. So a few complaints with watchdog groups can be multiplied by a factor of at least five or ten in order to determine that mover's true record.

Fourth and fifth, do the same with the Illinois Movers and Warehouseman's Association and the Better Business Bureau, in that order. Also, the Department of Transportation has a website called Protect Your Move, where you can search for information on all licensed movers.

Finally check with private groups such as Angie's List or The Franklin Report or the Consumer's Checkbook for Chicago or even some of the references the mover may have provided to you. This may all seem like a lot of bother but there are many, many, many horror stories floating around about nightmare movers and you certainly don't want to hire one of them for your job!

Now, you can check the rates and projected time and the weight from each estimate and compare them. Unusually low or high estimates should be reviewed again with the estimator just to be sure that that particular estimator has not seen something about your job that other estimators missed. You might even call his supervisor just to see if he's doing his job correctly with you.

If you can unexpectedly visit the mover's facility, do so. You'll get a better 'feel' for each moving company when you actually see their facility / equipment and their office personnel.

Having done as much of this as possible you should be fairly safe to pick any one of your final candidates. Of course, in the Chicagoland area, Burrows Moving Company always passes this muster and therefore will always end up as one of your finalists!