Auckland Moving Safety Tips

How to protect yourself and your property while moving

One of the common discussions that seems to come up with our customers on the job is their recounting of the horrible moving experiences they have had in the past, distressingly to us it seems to be more and more common these days. The Auckland Moving industry has always had more than its fair share of cowboy operators and fly by night moving companies who are here today and gone tomorrow, but for some reason they appear to be on the increase.

We have done our own market research into this apparent phenomenon and it is our opinion that the issue isn’t as big as it looks on the surface, at first glance it would seem that there are quite a few Auckland Moving providers online, but we have found that many are in fact being run by a smaller number of people, people who have multiple companies and are injecting the web (Google especially) with cookie cutter websites, who are essentially operating under multiple front page business names.

This practice although not in itself unlawful is in fact quite deceptive and no doubt is hiding a myriad of unethical behavior, behavior such as intimidation, stand over tactics to dishonestly extract more money and of course the old “we only take cash” when time to settle the (usually highly inflated) invoice rolls around.

We have heard horror stories about people charging per stair and charging to use trolleys, along with invoices blowing out up to 3x the quotation due to all sorts of outlandish hidden charges, unaddressed damage to property and even theft of credit cards and personal items, essentially by bully boy thieves who have no pride or long term stake in the Auckland Moving industry, here today, gone tomorrow. They ruin one business name into the ground and simply move onto the next business front name.

This is not the only issue, there are of course companies that change hands and the level of service goes up and down as maybe expected with staff turnover and company culture changes but that aside, there is a real problem developing with dodgy people moving into the industry.

As someone who has spent years fostering a sense of pride and reputation into an Auckland Moving Company, these kinds of stories boil my blood and make me quite upset at these unethical cowboy operators.

So I have decided to publish a “How to stay safe while moving guide” based on everything I know about the Auckland Moving industry:

1. Do your homework
2. Only deal with a legitimate Moving Company
3. Get everything in writing
4. Create a secure labeling system
5. Only pay cash for pre agreed amounts
6. Do not pay cash without a proper receipt
7. Follow your better judgement

Do Your Homework

This piece of advice starts out with the search and selection stage. Be aware of “sponsored” search results, these are not companies or business websites but rather adverts that anyone can purchase without having to even prove they are who they say they are. This is a massive security flaw in Googles advertising protocol which has lead to an exploitable hole for scammers.

No matter how you arrive at a website put it to the test;

• Does the website fully pertain to Auckland or New Zealand Moving?
• Does it look like a legit Auckland Moving Company website?
• Are the photos on the website actually taken in New Zealand?
• Is the website complete and not half filled with template style language?
• Is the website making generic claims with no substance?
  

Once you have found a website that looks legit and you are considering approaching the company for a quotation or to make an enquiry, do a Google search on the business name and see what comes back.

Is the business name actually associated with a registered Moving Company?How long has the company been in business for? Where are the reviews for the company located?

Reviews

The old adage is that a satisfied customer tells 1 person about their experience and a dissatisfied customer tells 10 people, this is actually a pretty well tried and true statistic that is widely accepted in marketing and statistics but in today’s day and age it’s far worse, we have YouTube, Facebook, Ticktock and Instagram, a dissatisfied customer can tell way more than 10 people about their bad experience….

On the flip side however this observation about human nature is still true enough for us to make an assumption that giving a positive review is inspired only by the most satisfied and genuinely happy customers who actually take the time out of their day to go through the hassle of accessing and typing a review site.

That being said, a company that seems to get multiple glowing reviews on a daily basis or seems to be getting one a day, or who has only been around for a short time and has tons of 5 star reviews, is most likely “gaming the system”.

We have thousands of satisfied customers on our books and I can honestly say that the review rate is nowhere near what some of these dodgy companies are expecting us to believe, its probably around the 1 in 10 or less ratio, meaning that if a company is actively chasing reviews in an honest fashion without bribery they might get 1 in 10 to post a good one, if not chasing reviews, it will be less.

There are review farms out there who will sell reviews to companies, so an unbelievable amount of reviews, reviews that seem repetitious or are like TV commercials = more than likely not genuine.

If a company has reviews on its website and they cant be located elsewhere on sites such as Google places/ business or NoCowboys etc, then they are to be taken with a grain of salt, third party review sites, even though they can be manipulated, are more reliable than self hosted reviews.

Only Deal With a Legitimate Moving Company

While New Zealand does not have any formal standards or recognition for moving companies specifically, there are a couple of ways you can sort the wheat from the chaff;

TSL (transport safety license)

Not necessary for smaller operators like1 man and a van or small delivery style truck operators, all transport operators providing services for hire or reward in a vehicle which exceeds 6 ton gross mass, require a transport safety license issued by the Land Transport Authority .

The type of Furniture Trucks required to carry out 3 bedroom and above moves easily exceed 6 tons and anyone operating one or more for the purposes of providing a moving service must have a TSL, in specific the type of transport safety license required will be “Goods Service“.

The transport licensee has been issued with the license after proving competence in the legislation pertaining to the transport of goods, this also includes the Contract and Commercial law Act 2017 which in sub section 5 covers “the carriage of goods“.

Company registration (Companies office)

It is possible to search any given Company name on the companies register located on the companies office website.

All correspondence, invoices, receipts etc from the Moving company should be on a letterhead or from email addresses that correspond with the company name that you believe you are dealing with.

While it is legal for a carrier to sub contract out, they are ultimately responsible as the principle carrier.

Make sure of who you are actually dealing with before you agree to the job.

Do Everything In Writing

Try to do everything with the company in writing.

Because of the previously mentioned legal requirements on transport operators, a legitimate company will have you sign a contract with them for your move. Depending on what types of contract the company offers or uses as standard, this can range from a more complex contract prior to moving day, down to a simple roadside contract signed immediately prior to the job commencing.

The contract is for both you and their protection. It protects them from any excess requirements that you are not wanting to pay for in your job price and it protects you by knowing that you are dealing with a legitimate operator who has to adhere to the minimum standards in the specific contract.

Create A Secure Labeling System

Having thoroughly vetted the company you have settled on, its still not 100% safe to assume that you are completely insulated from skulduggery. Moving companies do struggle with a high turnover of staff for a number of reasons, one of them is the shear physical requirements of the job.

You are inviting the movers into your inner sanctum, your home. Be wise and dont leave anything to chance or temptation.

This may seem fairly obvious but don’t write: “the family diamonds” or “gold bars” on any of your boxes. In fact our advice is don’t write anything other than a box number and the room it goes to on a box. In other words keep your labeling system as generic and vanilla as possible, color coded stickers is also a quick way to get the box to its location, also keep a manifest of the number of boxes you should have in each room, that way you know immediately if everything is exactly in place the minute the job has ended.

Only pay cash for pre agreed amounts

In this day and age there really is no real need to pay people in cash other than for your convenience or for situations where the banking and electronic networks are not accessible or down.

If you agree on a set price and you have everything in writing then you can account for the amount of cash you will need on the day and that’s a fairly straight forward equation. Should however the situation arise where there are complications or unseen strenuous circumstances where significantly over time occurs and it is justifiable that more cost is incurred, pay the difference online.

Just in case any dispute arises and the issue of payment comes up, paying into the company account removes a few possible scenarios that could potentially crop up.

Do not pay cash without a proper receipt

One of the litmus tests I have always applied to any business I deal with when trying to gauge their legitimacy, is the quality of their cash receipts. It goes without saying that a receipt which doesn’t have all the data points required by tax law are more than likely dodgy.

Should a dispute of some sort arise at a later date and you do not have the correct documentation to prove payment then you may end up immediately losing out.

Paying via bank account will give you more security in any situation where proof of payment, to who, for what and for how much is required.

Follow Your Better Judgement

Usually if something is too good to be true, it normally is. Don’t allow yourself to be lead astray by the allure of a cheap save on the moving job. Times are tough but times get even tougher when faced with unethical operators who may corner you into a situation where you really don’t need or want to be.

Read up about others experiences, there are multiple websites that have reviews and bad experiences by other’s when it comes to moving.

Some such as:

https://www.nocowboys.co.nz/
https://nz.trustpilot.com/

Learning from other’s mistakes is always less painful and cheaper than learning first hand.



Happy Moving and all the best in your new place.