Bekins Van Lines: Bekins Moving Company Review
February 21, 2010 by admin
Filed under Moving Company Reviews
Company: Bekins Van Lines
Grade: F
City: Nationwide
More often than not the perpetrators of moving scams are licensed and insured moving companies, and the majority of those come from the national vanliners. It is unfortunate but true.
I did an informal study a while back where I investigated the complaints of moving scams that were on the internet. I took these reports and looked into the moving companies that were said to have committed these scams, what I found shocked me! I found that almost 80% of the moving scam complaints were not committed by unlicensed and uninsured moving companies but licensed and insured ones…scary huh? Of those, I found that 75% were committed by nationwide vanliners…And Bekins Van Lines was at the top of the list.
Bekins Van Lines or Bekins Moving Company is a national van liners with offices (or hubs) in every state. What these specialize in is moving people across the country. They have set up their operations similar to a franchise. A local moving company becomes and authorized agent for Bekins and they sell Bekins moving services in their state and/or region. Bekins can factually go all over the world to move you. This not a bad business model.
However, Bekins is the worst company out there and should be avoided.
IN going online and googling Bekins I found that not one of the consumer rating websites rate Bekins very high. While Bekins do have their fans and fair share of positive ratings they have far more negative ratings.
J.D. Powers and Associates, a leading consumer rating agency, rated Bekins as one of the worst companies several years in a row.
Many of Bekin’s authorized moving company agents have horrible ratings themselves, including bad BBB reports. The authorized agent for my state of Michigan that operates out of Fraser is a prime example. I personally know that they are being sued by one company for name infringement and yet sued another company for the very same thing. Talk about “talking out of both sides of your mouth.” And I personally know that they spend THOUSANDS to make sure that they have a good BBB report. Yet the BBB freely admits that they have the highest amount of complaints of any moving company in Michigan and far above the normal for a company of their volume…so what does that say?
So in my opinion I would never use Bekins Moving Company…instead I would maybe Mayflower or Movex.
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Unlicensed Moving Companies Not So Bad?
April 17, 2009 by jburnham
Filed under Moving Tips and Advice
Few days ago I shared with some interesting findings about the moving industry that most moving companies don’t want you to know. And that was that 82% of all moving scams are committed by licensed and insured moving companies…
I tried to get the word out on this via Craigslist and other sites, but my posts were flagged. It just seems that The moving industry as a whole just does not want you to find this out…
If you did discover this little known fact then all their railing about the unlicensed moving companies would be shown to useless chatter designed to cover up the moving companies desire to monopolize the moving industry.
I had even played a part int his when I owned a full service moving company. I didn’t know the truth and I tried to play by the rules and get licensed and insured. It cost a lot of money and I couldn’t charge the low cost fees that the unlicensed movers charged. So I lashed out at them as much as I could.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some very bad movers out there that are not licensed and insured, and the it does allow for abuse by these companies to not be licensed and insured, but on the opposite side of the coin , there are a lot of great movers that are not licensed and insured. But to be fair, if they are good moving companies then there should not be any reason not to be licensed and insured…expect for the costs involved.
So, whether you are looking at licensed or unlicensed mover you still need to do your homework. You still need to research the company to make your decision.
If are looking at an unlicensed mover you need to put this on the checklist of things to consider:
- Do They have a website?
- Do they have testimonials? How many? How recent?
- Do they have a physical address?
- Do you have to provide the moving truck or will they? Legally they cannot provide a moving truck unless they have a DOT number. They can’t have a DOT number unless they are licensed.
- How professional do they represent themselves?
- Will they come out to your home or office for a moving quote?
These are just some of the items you need to check out on these unlicensed companies. Whether they are licensed or not does not determine if they are a good moving company or not, what determines if they are a good company is how professional they are.
I have a great article on this website that will help you determine how professional your movers are. If they can not hold up to those standards that I have in that article, then it does not matter if they are licensed or unlicensed, you should not use them at all.
If you find that article was helpful then please make sure you give this article the “thumbs up” by clicking the button at the top right of this website, also subscribe to my RSS feed to get future updates and news about the moving industry.
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The Frightening Truth About Moving Scams
April 11, 2009 by jburnham
Filed under Moving Tips and Advice, Moving scams
Okay…I got some very bad news.
What we have all thought about moving scams and those that commit them have been wrong, and I am afraid that the licensed and insured moving companies will not want this information to come to light…But it has to be told.
I written so much about moving company scams and how to spot them and to avoid them. Many of you have written into me asking me to research this company or that one. And in my research I have found a frightening truth about moving scammers.
First let me tell you about the sources that I use when looking at a moving company to see they are good, bad or scammers:
Those four sources are my primary sources I use when I do research about moving companies. Of course I use other sources, but those four will make or break it for me when I recommend a moving company or not.
It is from these sources that I was able to piece together my informal findings about moving scams.
Over the last month I have looked at 127 different moving companies. They range from the small companies to the large long distance moving companies, it also includes moving laborers. And I discovered this startling truth: 82% of all the moving scams committed; they were done by licensed and insured moving companies.
Hard, bitter fact.
I hear all the time how the licensed and insured companies want to destroy the unlicensed and uninsured moving companies because are responsible for all the moving scams, when in fact it is the licensed and insured companies that committing the moving scams.
Sure, the unlicensed moving companies do commit moving scams and are seemingly more likely to, but statistics show that they account for the minority of the moving company scammers.
So remember that when you are looking at this large moving company that claims to licensed and insured, don’t just hire them because they are legitimate; make sure you research them just as hard as you would an unlicensed mover.
Sorry to have to spring this info on you, and I know that the moving companies that are reading this blog will quit, but it is only because they can’t stand the light of truth.
If you found this article to useful then subscribe to my RSS feed so that you can get up to date information on the moving business. And make sure you share this with others.
