6 Tips Before Buying Moving "Leads"

The moving season starts this weekend and along with the business will come all the scams from people who want to help you "find" business.

Many companies get solicitations to buy "Moving Leads". These "leads" are supposedly consumers who have gone through a website or phone number looking for moving quotes. The companies that collect these are often dishonest and misleading to the consumer. Google Local is full of moving companies like the one in the image below.

The address is often a street corner, parking garage or other invalid address. The reviews and ratings are obviously faked. The phone number goes to a call center where they collect the consumer's information with promises to return their call. The website is generic and collects information for dozens of moving companies. It begs the question, how honest is a moving company that uses a service which purposefully and intentionally lies to the consumer?

Here are a few tips to consider before buying leads from any of these services.

1) Never sign a contract. - If you read the contract, 99% of the time all it guarantees is that you have to pay. Even with reputable companies like Angie's List, you will pay whether you get business or not. What it doesn't do is guarantee the quantity or quality of leads.

2) Understand you are paying to compete with other movers. - In a bad economy those few "leads" are going to many other movers just like yourself. Why pay to fight with your competition? A consumer who wants a quote service to do the work for him/her is most likely going to go with whoever is the cheapest. Is that the kind of customer you want to pay for?

3) NEVER give out your credit card information. - A company can continue charging your credit card even after you have tried to cancel the service. Ask your bank and they will tell you often the only way to stop these "billings" is to cancel the card and get a new number. That means having to change your billing information with all the legitimate companies that had the now canceled number.

4) Insist on a physical location of the company and a call back number. Then do your research. - If the sales rep speaks broken English and avoids telling you simple things like a number you can call him back at or an office your can visit, that is a bad sign.

5) Ask for them to send something in writing through snail mail. - Many scammers avoid using the USPS. They will send everything through email because if they send things through the postal service it becomes a federal offense. They also want the deal done as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next sucker and the mail gives you a more time to research them.

Better Business Burea Releases Statistics about 2009 Mover Complaints

The Better Business Bureau stated in an article on their website that 2009 had more than 8,400 complaints against moving companies in the United States.

"Complaints to BBB about movers are primarily about damaged or lost goods and final prices in excess of original estimates. In a common worst-case scenario, the moving company will essentially hold the customer’s belongings hostage and require potentially thousands of dollars to unload the truck"

The article went on to point out quote AMSA President and CEO Linda Bauer Darr. “Virtually anyone with a truck and a Web site can claim to be a mover and they can’t all be trusted to adhere to standards for honesty and ethical conduct...”

That is a stand we support although we aren't so sure that the BBB stands for ethics either. They do charge companies a fee to join and to receive the "A" rating you must pay a fee to be a member. Many in the business world consider that an unethical form of extortion.

The BBB is definitely biased towards the consumer and because it is run by a local company who buys a form of licensing for their city or area, the experiences with the BBB are mixed. Some allow the business to post a public reply to a consumer complaint to show it was fraudulent or ridiculous but many do not.

Regardles, any effort to improve relations between consumers and moving companies are welcome. We did try to reach the BBB for more detailed statistics but at this time have not received a reply.

The Wind's Are A Changing At Hire-A-Helper

Today HireAHelper.com sent out the email below. (UPDATE: You may watch the video mentioned here)

Helpers, 

In order to get paid for jobs, you MUST call the Payment Release Line.
 

ADD THIS PHONE NUMBER TO YOUR CELL PHONE CONTACTS: 

HireAHelper Payment Release Line - 866-648-5206

All jobs placed through HireAHelper will NOT have authorization codes anymore.

To get paid you MUST call the Payment Release Line (PRL):866-648-5206

You will get paid FASTER if the customer calls from their OWN phone number.

Please have the customer call the PRL from their cell phone upon completion of the job for fastest payment. 

You can watch this video by logging into your account to see more about how it works. 

If you have questions or concerns email us: helper-support@hireahelper.com

Thanks, 

Mike & Pete

We believe this stems from the lawsuit launched in 2008 by Emove against Hire-A-Helper for trademark infringement. The founder of Hire-A-Helper, Michael Glanz, was a "moving helper" for a short time on the Emove system. Emove alleges he joined with the intention of copying their system.

One of the components unique to Emove is their payment code system. Most labor brokers bypass this by getting a signed contract (Moving Staffers) or allowing the service providers to collect cash on site (just about everyone else), Emove gives the customer a unique payment code which they pass on to the mover when the service is complete. The mover then submits the payment code and is paid. Hire-A-Helper is the only broker we know of that used a similar system and EMove claims that is proof of the infringement.

We see a few probable obstacles to the new system.

1) Bad mobile phone reception

2) A customer who doesn't want to sit on hold or is in a hurry.

3) Face it, many of the people on Hire-A-Helper and Emove are not real movers and may not even have a mobile phone or other services a real business would.
4) The customer may not provide correct info to Hire-A-Helper resulting in the mover not being paid correctly or having to go through more hassles to get paid correctly.

We will see if the new system stands.

Dorm Valet Offers New Service Aimed At College Students

Last week a new moving service began in Decatur, GA. Dorm Valet is offering services targeted towards college students moving in and out of dorms and similar, shared housing.

Their website is well organized but one of the striking things is they are hiring people directly. Whether these would be true employees or subcontractors we could not find. Their charge for a "move" is only $60 and we do not see how they could be hiring true employees at that price.

We do find it troublesome that a company trying to do business nationally would hire people over the internet with no idea of their true moving expertise. With no one onsite supervision by real movers, quality work is definitely a concern. They also offer no rating service or marketplace that allows the consumer to give or choose from feedback. In that way, they are actually a worse choice to hire movers from than Emove/MovingHelper

Census Bureau Reports US Is Back On The Move

Last year 12.5% of Americans moved to a new residence according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That is a 0.6% increase from the number of 11.9% in 2008. 2008 had the lowest rate of families moving since the Census Bureau began tracking these particular statistics.

Data from the Census Bureau stated a little over 37 million people changed residences in 2009, up from 35.2 million in 2008. 67% moved inside the same county, the Census Bureau said.

The number of people moving longer distances (more than 50 miles), or out of state stayed flat.

Some analyst believe this may be the first real proof of the real estate market returning rather than people just buying foreclosures.


During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s moves were happening in mass numbers, especially long distance moves. That number fell to 14% just before the housing market crashed

According to the Census Bureau's 2009 data, those renting moved 5 times as often as homeowners, as were people whose income was at or below the poverty line.

Here are the stats by region...

Northeast 8.1% of the population moved in 2009

Midwest 11.6% of the population moved in 2009

South 13.7% of the population moved in 2009

West 14.8%  of the population moved in 2009, which was the highest increase over 2008 (1.6%)

Losers is the moving population were metropolitian areas which lost 2.1 million people overs. Those residents moved to suburbs which gained an estimated 2.4 million people.

According to the Censurs Burea the biggest reason for moving was "to upgrade housing". 17 million people (46%) stated their desire to own their own home they wanted to own a home or live in a better area as their reason for moving. Other reasons for moving included family needs (26%) and employment needs (18% ).

LaborHub's Responds Again

We do appreciate LaborHub's proactive stance towards their industry and their reputation. They emailed us this response to an article posted last week and a comment left on that article.

Mr. Scivolette,

Thank you for your very warm compliment. And I must say that our researches have recently discovered Elite Moving Labor and are quite impressed with your company's thoroughness and professionalism. I would also like to add that I am pleased to witness the creation and subsequent rapid growth of the AMLPA. I believe that our relatively new industry should be held to a set of standards of the kind encouraged by the AMLPA.

Certainly, the exponential growth in revenues and the number of service providers our industry has seen over the past few years has ushered in a propensity on the part of some brokers and providers to fly under the legal radar so to speak. The influx of inexperienced and non-established providers, for example, continues to grow rapidly for a number of reasons including: (a) a lack of significant regulation to prevent “fly-by-night” providers from operating non-legal, low overhead outfits, and (b) large marketplaces like eMove/Moving Help’s continued promotion of these kinds of outfits in an apparent attempt to make its moving labor services a low-priced addition to its moving equipment rentals products package.

Our studies indicate that the main player in our industry, Moving Help, has allowed the average price commanded by 1,500 of its providers to drop by an average of $15.00 per hour per 2-man crew over the past 12 months from just above $68.00 to nearly $53.00 per hour. After booking fees, these outfits are earning roughly $45.00 per hour versus nearly $58.00 per hour only one year ago. The end result of this pricing shift has been that established outfits have either packed up and left the moving labor segment altogether, or that they have tightened up their operations by reducing costs to compensate for these reduced revenues. Surviving legitimate providers are leaner and meaner than they’ve ever been – and after weathering the low profit margin storm seem more inclined to put weekly jobs volume ahead of less predictable and less frequent higher paying gigs.

These wiser and better prepared professionals are also diversifying their marketplace risks and increasing jobs volume by signing up with several marketplaces and – essentially – dollar-cost averaging the daily revenues produced thereof. For example, a provider would most certainly prefer to have one of his crews complete, say, three 3 hour jobs through Elite Moving Labor for gross revenues of somewhere around $600.00 as opposed to the same amount of hours through LaborHub for, say, $405.00. But, suppose this same provider can only gather one 3 hour job from Elite on a given day, and two three hour jobs elsewhere: one from Easy Moving Labor paying $160, and one from LaborHub paying $135.00. Certainly, in the case of 9 straight hours through your marketplace, the provider would earn $66.67 per hour gross revenue – the same per hour for 3 hours. In the event that a provider opted to perform just the one Elite job only, he would bring in $200.00. If on the other hand he chose to take on all three marketplace jobs, he would bring in $495.00 gross. That’s an average of $55.00 per hour (quite reasonable) and an increase in revenue of $295.00.

As I had mentioned in an earlier comment, our marketplace is intended for seasoned outfits who are seeking to shore up their total daily gross revenues. Our Providers understand that we are new to the web-based market and understand that our low price approach is a temporary one. Additionally, they understand that most of the estimated minimum hours figures shown in our rate charts are fairly low, meaning a 3 hour minimum can very well turn out to be a four of five hour job instead. Conversely, our Providers will also use the minimum hours figures to their advantage when, for example, a 3 hour job can be completed in an hour and a half. Interestingly, these type scenarios happen most frequently of all such as when a provider completes a 4 hour minimum job in two hours – they earn the $180.00 in two hours and go on their way to the next job to bring in even more revenue.

We at LaborHub understand and acknowledge that our internet market share is tiny compared to other, longer established internet-based marketplaces. This we boldly accept. Yet we do reserve the right to take pride in the fact that we share a market with such a fine marketplace as Elite Moving Labor among others. It is nice to know that we share an industry with professionals like yourself who continue to lend credibility and professionalism to an industry poised to completely revolutionize the moving industry as we now know it.

Best of continued success to you.

Phil R. – LHMS-USA

COO of Two Men and a Truck to Speak at Detroit event

Melanie Bergeron, the chief operating officer of Two Men and a Truck is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at Power of Women in Business dinner on May 13, 2010. Bergeron is the daughter of Two Men and A Truck's founder, Mary Ellen Sheets.

The event is from 4:30-7:30 p.m. at Lakeland Golf & Country Club, 8760 Chilson Road in Brighton.
Sponsored by the Greater Brighton Area Chamber of Commerce's Women's Business Networ. Tickets may be purchased for $30 and include the dinner by calling (810) 227-5086.

LaborHub replies to our article.

We reported about LaborHub here "LaborHub improves Website and Provider Sign Up" and "LaborHub Releases Competitive Survey"

Phil Randolph, co-founder of LaborHub actually left us two very long comments on our article. We have copied and pasted them below, word for word. In the future if anyone would like to share a very long comment or opinion, you may email us by clicking the "Contact The Mover's News" above. If appropriate we will add it to our new "Industry Letters" section.

We do want to thank LaborHub for responding to our articles. This direct response does show that a company can share their side and be proactive about their reputation rather than ignoring it and pretending nothing is wrong. We have a few follow up questions for LaborHub but their website does not have any contact information such as physical address, phone number or email address.


Here is what Mr Randolph wrote, unedited.



Let me say, first and foremost, I appreciate your company's stance and general approach to this fine industry. It is pioneers like yourself who keep this industry honest and lend credibility to it - where credibility is always in wide demand.

Being an active member of the moving and relocations industry for more than a decade now, I am always one of the first men around to speak out against those who try to undermine or otherwise take advantage of movers and moving companies nationwide. And nothing gets my feathers ruffled more than some obscure moving broker trying to exploit hard-working moving outfits for sake of making a quick buck.

I am Phil Randolph, I am a co-founder of LaborHub. We have been working the non-internet sector for many years. And after much research, we eventually discovered the benefits of having a web presence to compliment our grass roots approach. We are new to the web, surely (at least as far as a website presence goes), but we have deep established roots in the moving community at large.

In our research, we have discovered many brokers/marketplaces (even some of the large ones) who seemed to missing something here or there – either in their approach or in their agenda. And we have learned from many of our Providers of their mistreatment by the biggest player in the market – eMove/Moving Help. In examining eMove, we noticed an attempt on the part of the company to promote non-established outfits to the moving public as well. By this, we vowed never to present non-established companies to our moving customers.

The gist of our recent press release: the recent technological renovations have more to do with our in-house, self-programmed database program that matches moves to movers and also handles multiple, simultaneous load matching functions for our load matching service. Our web site - we admit - is nothing high-tech - in fact it's quite low-budget on the surface. And we like to keep it that way – as most of our money goes into finding jobs for our Providers. Our innovative, behind-the-scenes program, along with our reach in existing, non-internet-based markets and access to the valuable data thereof is what makes our new venture an exciting one for us.

Prior to our taking a quantum and much-belated leap into hyperspace, our business had functioned primarily as a ground-level, phone/fax-based clearinghouse, relying heavily upon our established relationships with inside members of the advertising and real estate industries. We had also employed the expertise of list companies and nationwide load brokers as well – and still rely heavily on these experts on a daily basis to seek out moving jobs on the verge of contract closure. 


As far as our current pricing approach goes, our main marketing impetus is to offer moving labor services to our internet customers at a rate that meets lean economic times. It is also intended to directly compete with the volume-weighted average prices commanded by a nationwide sample of 1,500 eMove/Moving Help Service Providers. Additionally, our pricing strategy is tied to current economic indices and will be adjusted upward as national economic conditions improve (reflected in the GNP, Housing Starts, etc.). We all understand here that our payouts are markedly low in comparison to other marketplaces as well as for some geographic areas where moving volumes have not been greatly affected by the recent national economic downturn. Our axiom? Bring in customers by offering a rate that helps them better cope with these down economic times and simultaneously introduce them to quality moving labor outfits whom they will be most likely to use again when the economy improves and rates are more in line with perceived standards.

Our Listed Providers: our stable of solid, established providers are well-researched and held to a litmus test of 12 standards of acceptability before being considered for inclusion into our database list. Listed providers must be established with a verifiable record of successful, quality customer service. Compared to our current list of more than 2,000 qualified providers, our list of researched, NON-listed providers is nearly five times larger. LaborHub has spent countless man hours researching prospective provider list candidates. Over the short-term, yes, our Providers know they are not making a killing – but it is the long-term profitability that we, management and Provider alike, are focused on – and rates and revenues alike will increase along side an improved economy!

Certainly, a $40 to $45 per two-man crew rate might be scoffed at by some in markets where commanding rates can easily double these. But, our main focus is on those companies who use our jobs as a income/volume supplement. Additionally, because our jobs pay cash, most of our providers find our service to be a nice, quick means of shoring up revenues without the hassles of rankings, reviews, payment codes and the like. Additionally, these cash payments can be handled however the Provider sees fit as far as their own company’s tax filing systems is concerned.

Definitely, LaborHub has yet to step into the footprints of such a giant internet-based labor services marketplace as eMove/Moving Help - but with our company's industry connections, along with our technology and business know-how - we won't be long behind them.

Finally, we all here have seen what a company's focus on providing low-cost over quality can do to a company's perceived longevity - take Moving Help dot com for an example. Many a current and ex-Moving Help Provider seem to think that this company is putting volume over quality – we tend to agree. LaborHub's focus may be below market prices – at least until the economy rebounds - but it will never be our intent to sacrifice quality for affordability.

Certainly, LaborHub is far from becoming the topic of very many a dinner conversation at this stage in our growth – but, given ample opportunity - it will become the topic of many more fine sites like this one in the near future.

Thank you giving LaborHub a look!

Best of success to you all,

Phil Randolph - LaborHub 

Is Dan Cunningham trying to clean up his reputation?

We recently received another report about Dan Cunningham. We were told that Mr Cunningham asked to join the American Moving Labor Professionals Association and after 2 separate votes by the AMLPA board and its membership, he was overwhelmingly denied. This is where the reports become confusing.

We were told that Dan Cunningham insisted on becoming a member of the AMLPA board and would not consider a standard or trial membership. Fair enough, he is looking to rebuild his reputation and wants public position to show that he has changed. The problem with that theory is that our tipster says after Dan was informed of the votes he became furious and stated he was starting his own Moving Labor organization called the APMLA (a slight difference possibly meant to deceive those seeking the real AMLPA).

We found that hard to believe that at first. Who would follow Dan Cunningham and believe any organization he would start could stand for standards of ethics and honesty? A little investigating and we found that just after Mr Cunningham was denied membership he registered the domain "APMLA.org"

If Mr Cunningham really has turned a new leaf and wishes to prove his integrity, why is he starting the APMLA? Why not start an obviously different organization? Why not work to prove he has been wronged and all the things everyone says about him are wrong? We decided to ask him. We wrote Mr Cunningham with the following 5 questions.

1) Is it true you are starting the APMLA?

2) If so, why?

3) Is it true the you tried to join the AMLPA?

4) We were told that because of your reputation they discussed a possible probationary membership and you required a seat on the board and would not accept anything less. Is that true?

5) If you do join or start a group whose goal is to focus on improving the ethics and standards of the moving labor industry, will you work to improve your own? Will you repay those who have claims against you and state that you owe them money from past ventures and work unpaid?

We offered to post his reply unedited so that he could tell his side of the story. Mr Cunningham refused to comment stating that we were biased against him. He also went on to say that we were not telling his "true story". We again pointed out he could tell his own story and we would share it without alteration, still he refused.

Mike (one of our writers) says that is because Mr Cunningham doesn't know what the truth is. While that seems unlikely we are not sure what the truth is either. He needs the credibility the AMLPA can give his reputation but surely he realizes that anything he controls will be tarnished by that same reputation.

We aren't sure what to think about all of this, why don't you tell us what you think by leaving a comment below?

Allstar Moving & Storage accused of fraud.

The Arizona State Attorney General has filed a complaint of consumer fraud against Allstar Moving & Storage of Chandler, Arizona. The company also goes by the name Allways Moving and Movers and a Truck.

According to the suit, consumers would hire Allstar Moving because they offered cheap prices. The employees would then demand extra payments or refuse to return a home owner's belongings. They also stated that their employees were experienced, licensed and bonded all of which were false. The company also charged additional "taxes" of approximately 21%.

We did some investigating and General Manager Amru Abdalla was convicted of trafficking stolen goods while he was an employee of Allstar Moving & Storage of Chandler, Arizona. The owner has not been seen or heard from in more than a year and a call to their office stated he was out of the country.

We want to point out this is another example of how consumers need to do their research and make their decision based on reputation and service, not price. As movers we all need to do what we can to make sure we are aligned with organizations that will properly promote and represent us.

American Van Lines launches new web site

Just a quick note, American Van Lines has relaunched their web site at www.americanvanlines.com

The new website includes local news and city facts about the city a customer may be moving to.

AMLPA announce FREE Memberships

The American Moving Labor Professionals Association has announced free memberships to all qualified applicants. They have two levels of membership and qualifications differ between the two. There membership application is very thorough as you can see for yourself. http://amlpa.org/join

While the AMLPA has not released the exact number of its members we estimate it to be more than 100 nationwide. The group is small but they are very active and one tipster say they have some major events planned. If we get anymore details we will let you know.