Every Year Thousands Of Complaints Are Filed Against Commercial Moving Companies In Georgia…In 1996 Congress deregulated commercial moving by eliminating the need for a license to do an in state office move. This means that any Tom, Dick or Harry with no training, experience, assets or insurance can move your office. One wrong move - lost files, broken equipment, damage to property, valuables stolen - can put you out of business.
Ask these 18 questions to make sure that your moving company’s policies,
procedures and standards will protect you from an unpleasant commercial move experience...
1. Does your mover have premium liability insurance, workman’s comp and general aggregate with at least a $2 million umbrella?
Remember that the one with the insurance (deep pockets) is the one who pays. If your mover tears up the elevator, building walls or backs his truck into your landlords car you could end up paying for the move, fixing the elevator, painting the walls and buying your landlord a new car. Do you have the confidence that your mover will take care of any unfortunate events such as damage or lost property?
2. Is your mover self-insured?
This means they have no insurance or capability to repair or replace and they pay any damage by the pound—usually .25/lb. This means that your stolen 5lb laptop might bring $1.25 “self-insurance” proceeds.
3. Does your mover have a Certificate of Insurance (COI) showing all their coverages including employee bonding?
Temporary workers, which most movers hire when needed, may not be background checked. Don’t you want to know and trust those that have intimate access to your business?
4. Does your mover have any hidden charges?
Your mover may pay “per job insurance” for which they may add on special insurance charges somewhere in the job.
5. Does your mover have a list of references for every job they have ever done with the owner’s or building manager’s name and phone numbers?
If they don’t they may well be hiding something. If they only give you 3 or 4 references they either don’t have much experience or of all the jobs they’ve done they only have 3 or 4 happy customers!
6. Will your mover do a complete preliminary walk through and generate an accurate inventory of items to be moved?
By the way this move inventory list should be able to be updated up to 24 hours before the move. Any changes in inventory could effect your move quote so you will know in advance—No surprises.
7. Will your mover give you a written “not to exceed” price and an “hourly rate” price?
This prevents “add on” charges and allows you to save money and time by doing some of the prep work yourself such as packing, crating, wrapping, boxing and light personal moving.
8. Does your mover disassemble and assemble L shape desks, large steel shelving, and custom cabinets? Do they rehang pictures, bulletin boards
and marker boards? Do they reconnect break room appliances?
Many movers, even legitimate movers, don’t have office equipment experience and take a long time to accomplish these tasks.
9. Does your mover offer Free services such as free letter/legal stackable move crates and mobile book carts to move books and materials in
proper order instead of stuffing in boxes?
You could end up paying big money for professional equipment a good mover can give you for free!
10.. Does your mover do the little things that you may not even be aware of?
Such as: Using proper equipment like padded trucks and dollies, padding the elevators and protecting the floors. Plus, using trucks with lift gates, tie downs and load bars to prevent even the slightest chance of damage to your equipment.
11. Does your mover have the experience and know how to load and unload your office equipment quicker than the other guys by leaving you equipment on 4 wheelers in the truck so they don't have to be handled additional times and know how to handle fully loaded file cabinets so they don't have to be unloaded and reloaded?
Simple question, but only a professional knows the answer to this one. These little “tricks of the trade” can save you hours off your move and possibly thousands of dollars.
12. Does your mover pack and unpack and, if so, do they know how?
After all, when you go to the grocery you don’t want your eggs and tomatoes on the bottom of the bag and you don’t want a steel file cabinet scraping a beautiful wood desk. Will they do it right the first and every time?
13. Does your mover move and reconfigure your office according to plans mutually agreed to by you and your mover?
Office reconfiguration, whether desks, chairs and files or office cubicles works best when done according to agreed plans room by room and cubicle by cubicle. In this way personal possessions, files and equipment get to the proper location efficiently, safely and on time with no down time searching for that lost file, personal chair or family picture.
14. BIG Savings Here!
Does your mover offer to "trade-in" your excess furniture accumulated over the years or from the move reconfiguration?
Does your mover offer to use this “trade-in” credit toward the move investment and save you time, money and storage space? Only use a mover that will allow you to trade-in your underutilized office furniture.
15. Another BIG Savings Opportunity!
Does your mover absolutely repair, fix and rehabilitate furniture that was deficient in some way before the move?
Make sure your mover re-keys or replaces locks, shelf pins, file rails, drawer glides, casters, gas lifts, chair arms, mechanisms and refurbishes wood desks, bookcases, and file cabinets and offers glass tops for all surfaces. Repairing usable but defective office furniture is a whole lot cheaper than buying new and can, again save you thousands.
16. Does your mover use "temps" who are not trained?
(Refer to #12 above) an untrained worker or supervisor will put the eggs and tomatoes in the bottom of the bag and take forever to get the job done.
17. Is your moving company interested in a long term relationship?
Will they under promise and over perform and do the little things that matter a lot to you? Such as: Weekend and late night moves so you don’t lose productive work time? Occasional inner office moves or reconfigurations when you hire someone or need to downsize? Will they load and unload if you use your own trucks? Will they consolidate your office from your house, your storage unit or several offices into one office or vice-versa? Are they really interested in you and your business or do they just want the big move bucks? You have to ask yourself these questions to ensure the safety and reliability of your move….and the seamless continuation of your business.
18. Does your moving company offer a FREE comprehensive "Office Move Planner" guide to assist you in pre-planning and executing your move and a "Moving Company Comparison Checklist" to help compare different moving companies against each other?
Moving without a guide is like putting on your wedding without a wedding planner—don’t do it especially when it’s FREE and a moving company’s checklist is a simple easy “pro’s and con’s”, “yes or no”, “Ben Franklin” way to compare the folks trying to move your livelihood and that of your employees. It has to be done correctly the first time! It helps you judge and choose your moving company before committing to a move or giving them a dime.
Office Pro's excels in the Commercial Moving Business.
Give us a call at 770-287-7767 and ask for Bobby or Richie today to get started.
