How To Hire Movers in Vancouver – Redux

Hiring a mover in Vancouver is like going to the dentist, no one enjoys the process. But in the same way that preventative maintenance lessens dental pain, a thorough and pragmatic search can lessen chances of a poor move. All movers in Vancouver advertise their services in various media. Some for example rely on the print medium, internet or both. Within these advertisements are the clues required to begin solving the question; how do you find a good mover?

The first question a consumer should ask themselves is this; do I need a professional mover? If the answer is yes, your search has already cleared one hurdle. The next question: who are the true professionals?  The clues begin within their advertising and use of words like licensed. This is a good start as it shows the company has registered with City Hall, providing a mailing address and an owner’s name.

Second, does the company offer insurance ? This is a bit of a tricky issue in terms of assessment. Many companies will advertise they offer a ‘free basic insurance of .60 cents per pound,’ for your move. If they were to drop your 80 pound flat screen tv you will receive $48.00 compensation (.60 cents x 80 lbs ). The difficulty with this coverage is that it doesn’t cover things of value, and a deductible might be assessed too ( you may have to pay a $200+ deductible). Insurance for you move is best understood by an insurance broker. Your needs combined with their experience can help show if your moving company has the right coverages.

Third, the Better Business Bureau. Many companies draw attention to their membership or rating at the BBB, but what does it mean to the consumer? A positive aspect of being on the BBB`s files relates to transparency. Customers know who owns the company, and where they do business. Additionally the BBB keeps a list of complaints against a company, and there lies a valuable clue. A significant number of complaints (BBB member or not) should serve as a warning that all is not well. Remember too, the BBB has no skills assessment category, for members or non members. When you see a company ’A' rated, it is not their furniture moving skills being exhorted.

Fourth. If you found your prospective mover on the internet, it is likely you will discover more than just advertising, as every company has testimonials too. While we have covered this issue in a previous article there are a couple of points worth mentioning. 3rd party review sites which feature testimonials are businesses. And like all businesses based on the web, they need new content to stay relevant on search engines. This combined with the hyper competitive nature of the moving business has led to testimonials as a growth industry. So how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? My suggestion is to look at testimonials as you look at BBB complaints; scrutinizing the negative ones closely, as they are more likely to contain grains of truth.

The points above, besides earlier posts give you a comprehensive outline to finding a good moving company. Remember, you can learn a terrific amount about a company through attention to their advertising, followed up with the resources of the internet.

Death of the Testimonial | Can HomeStars Be Trusted?

Is the testimonial dead? You know the ones – from sites that urge you to “read reviews and write reviews.” There was a time when a testimonial was a valuable addition to a company profile: a laudatory acknowledgment of a company’s superior performance in their particular field. Today there are many sites dedicated to the seemingly objective review of a company and its services, but has a good idea in principle, gone badly in practice?

I was recently contacted by a representative of one of these sites and informed that our company was in the running for the coveted title of Mover of the Year. Wow methinks! There was however a catch (isn’t there always for this type of thing?), apparently we had only two reviews and as terrific as they were, three more were required to qualify for “voting’”. Naturally I was gutted, seeing my glittering prize drift away. Before I could lapse into a pity party the representative for this site encouraged me to have three additional reviews posted before the deadline. “Right” – I think, “do you have any idea how infrequently an excellent testimonial is offered without prompting or overt solicitation?”

Fast forward a week later and I get a call from Ms. Overly Caffeinated. “So have you found some old testimonials?” What do you mean by old testimonials say I? “You know, ones that you may have received earlier in the year but never got to posting – other companies have.” Now this has become a WTF moment, with a representative of a large “read reviews, write reviews” company urging me to post previously “unseen” reviews to bolster my bid for Mover of the Year. I was so surprised at the disingenuousness of the proposal that I had little to say, other than “you’ll have to go on without me.”

Shortly after this call I visited their site and sure enough a couple of companies had taken the bait. In the space of a few weeks an extra dozen testimonials had appeared in one companies file and similarly in another. Posted on back to back days these anonymous, (e.g., Jim P., Karen… no address, no email, website etc) perfect “10″ postings not only looked irregular, but when combined with the circumstances that elicited them (described above) cast a lengthy shadow over the integrity of the site itself.

I am aware that it is always caveat emptor when shopping on the web, the problem is words carry weight. This weight combined with a lack of transparency on most reviewing sites, besides these aforementioned solicitations, may be the beginning of the end for the “read reviews-write reviews” sites as we know them. With apologies to the Manifesto of the Futurists: “Regard all testimonials as useless and dangerous.”