Did you know that about 38% of people rank moving as one of the most stressful events that take place in their life? It’s right up there with getting a divorce or starting a new job. In fact, it often goes hand in hand with getting a divorce or starting a new job. If you're going to partner up with someone for one of the biggest and most stressful endeavors of your life, why not partner up with someone who has the experience and drive to get the job done?
You need to find great local movers to make this happen - the type of movers that have the right equipment, hundreds of 5 star reviews, and the knowledge base that only comes with experience. But where can you find these local movers and when you find a suitable candidate, what does the vetting process look like to ensure that you will get the best possible people inside your home to perform this move?
Check Reviews and Reputation When Looking for Moving Services in Austin
You’ll always want to make sure to check Google reviews to see if your local movers are doing a great job for other people in town. Nowadays, people want to see the social proof that comes with other folks in their area who either approve or disapprove of any given company. There might be a few fake reviews out there, but if a company has over several hundred reviews that are all overwhelmingly positive or negative, that is usually a good indicator as to whether or not you should trust them with your household goods. Would you hand over your entire lifes’ worth of goods to someone who has a bad reputation?
Would you reach out to someone to help you move if you saw online that they are known to have broken multiple pieces of furniture for multiple other customers? Probably not! Check reviews and online reputations whenever you’re looking for a service to hire in the Austin area; the people are usually right! Our team in Austin has hundreds of 5 star reviews and a rating of 4.9 stars on Google and 5 stars on Yelp. With our strong reputation, we look forward to working hard and continuing to do a great job for the city of Austin for many decades to come.
Find Out if Your Local Movers are Licensed
If you're shopping around for moving quotes in the great state of Texas, you’ll need to make sure they are properly licensed. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles requires all movers in Austin to be licensed in order to legally provide moving services in Austin. Our team of professional local movers is fully licensed to work in the state of Texas and has been for many years. Without the proper licensing, you may fall victim to scams and movers who don’t have a legitimate business.
If you’re moving across state lines, your movers must be licensed with the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and have attained a MC number. This is not a master of ceremony number - MC stands for motor carrier number. It’s the number the USDOT gives you once you are cleared on the local and state level; after that, your movers will need to be cleared on the national level to provide interstate moving services. Sarver Movers also has an MC number and is legally allowed to perform interstate moves. We help customers starting in Texas to move to anywhere lifes’ journey takes them. The USDOT and TXDMV No. for Sarver Movers are seen below: USDOT #: 3255279 and TXDMV NO. 008839538C
Avoid Movers With a Low Hourly Rate
The biggest red flag that you may be about to hire an illegitimate moving company in Austin is when the movers you’re talking to have a low hourly rate for their services. You may think you’re getting a great deal, but many legitimate moving companies simply can’t operate at such low hourly rates. Moving companies have plenty of expenses as it is. For a company to send out a moving truck that costs over $100k that is fully insured, with highly trained employees with workers compensation and thousands of dollars worth of equipment, it will cost much more than $100 dollars per hour.
So, if you find a company that is charging such a low amount that it sounds like it’s too good to be true, it probably is! It’s possible that the team you are looking to hire is licensed, but they give you a quote that seems low. A few things could’ve happened here. It’s possible that they were not given all of the info as to all of the items they were to move for you. Or, maybe they tried to give you a low price in order to get the job. Regardless, we recommend that you get multiple quotes and pick one that is somewhere in the middle of the range of quotes you received to ensure you are getting both value and quality!
Make Sure They Offer the Right Services for Which You’re Looking
You may require packing services on your job, but do your movers even offer packing? You’d be surprised at all the different moving related services that are out there and how tough it can be to find a mover that fits your needs. Make sure that whoever you hire, they actually perform the services that you need. Make sure it is crystal clear that your local movers will need to pad wrap all of your furniture with the correct types of moving blankets if that is a service you are looking for. These are important things to mention as some movers do not provide these types of services.
Imagine if you were looking for a service that isn’t so common in the moving industry, like unpacking things out of boxes and putting them into cupboards and drawers. The vast majority of movers do not go above and beyond like this for their customers; however, we have had conversations with people looking for moving services in Austin who thought this would be automatically included with every move. The bottom line is, it doesn’t hurt to ask!
Have You Compared Moving Estimates With Other Companies?
As you call around for different moving estimates from various different moving companies, you should make sure that you are comparing apples to apples. Don’t just check the hourly rate and compare those two numbers to each other. Look for detailed information that might differ from company to company. Check your estimates to see if one is binding while another might be non-binding. A binding estimate will lock you into a flat rate, while a non-binding estimate is based on the hourly rate.
Beware that some moving companies will lead you to believe you are saving money by going with their low hourly rate, but they may end up charging you for the drive time from their warehouse all the way to your starting address and then back to the warehouse after the job is done without initially disclosing this.
This is a classic moving scam that will be listed in the fine print of the estimate paperwork, but may not have been verbally told to you over the phone. Triple check the estimates that you gather and see how they vary in terms of when they start the clock, how many movers they will send out to your home, and if you are being charged any hidden fees that their sales representative did not discuss with you over the phone.
Take Note of Their Sales Process and Your Phone Conversation
A more subtle way to tell if you’re choosing the right moving company is by paying close attention to how the company conducts their sales process and phone conversations. Though we certainly recognize that everyone starts somewhere, if the person you are speaking to sounds like they’re on the truck doing a move at the time of your call with them, they might be an owner operator who is trying to juggle many jobs at once.
Owner operators are some of the hardest working people in the moving industry, but they often aren’t as organized as some slightly larger companies who have staff that help facilitate things on the back end. Many of them care much more than larger companies who have lost their touch, but many of them can be hit or miss as they may or may not treat their business like a real business versus more of a side hustle.
Moving services in Austin and everywhere have a lower bar to entry, meaning anyone with a driver's license and a dolly can pose as a professional mover using a rented truck. This allows many of the wrong types of people into the industry who simply don’t take moving seriously or don’t care about providing great customer service for their customers.
This goes back to checking reviews. The higher the rating and number of positive reviews will almost certainly correlate to better customer service over the phone on that initial phone call. Some companies just have it figured out, and when they do, it shows on all fronts of their business.
