Now in our second century of providing quality moving and storage services to New York.
| Frequently Asked Questions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How do I make sure I get a good
mover? How do I know your movers and packers are trustworthy, dependable and qualified? How do I pay for my move? Why must I pay with a bank check? Why don’t you accept credit cards? Why do I have to pay for travel time? Why do I have to pay for overtime? What if the estimate is wrong? Whose problem is that? I have heard that it is customary to tip moving crews. Is this a fact? If so, how much is the appropriate amount? Why do I need to purchase additional valuation (“insurance”) if Despatch is such a high quality moving company? Are you going to break things? Are there items that I shouldn’t move? Are there things I am not allowed to move? Can I use “used boxes”? What are the benefits of climate-controlled storage? Does Despatch offer it? Should I pay extra for a temperature-controlled environment? Are your trucks clean? Do you “disinfect” them? Do your crews wear uniforms? Are they presentable? How do you protect my furniture when it is being moved? What protective measures do you take to keep damage from happening to my residence? I have new hardwood floors; will they get scratched? When you pack for me, how will I know what items are packed in which cartons? While unpacking for myself, how do I make sure I get every item out of a box before it is disposed of? What are your rates? Do I really need someone to come over? Can't you just give me a ballpark? How do I make sure I get a good mover? Without previous experience with a moving company, you will need to do a bit of research. Ask your sales person for a list of recent referrals. Use The Franklin Report and the Better Business Bureau as resources. Compare website information. In the end, make sure you use a company with a history of good service. Many movers come and go, but certain movers have staying power … and there is usually a reason for both! Back to Top How do I know your movers and packers are trustworthy, dependable and qualified? Despatch does a complete background screen on every individual before they are hired. This includes criminal records checks, motor vehicle checks, pre-employment credit checks, and drug screens. After they are hired they are put through a training program to teach them the skills they need to execute your move correctly. Field evaluations that show any need for additional training are addressed immediately. All personnel are routinely, randomly tested for drug use. With the exception of part-time summer helpers (given limited responsibility, under careful supervision) all of our crews are full time employees. Back to Top How do I pay for my move? Most moving companies, including ours, require payment in the form of a bank check – equal to either the original estimated cost of the move or a newer, more accurate estimate of the actual cost of the job. If the final bill comes in higher, you can pay the balance with a personal check. If it comes in lower, you will be issued a prompt refund of any overpayment. We do not accept credit cards for local or international moves. Back to Top Why must I pay with a bank check? It has become customary in the industry to collect funds (cash or bank check) prior to delivery of the goods at the destination in order to avoid moving companies finding themselves in the unenviable position of having completed all of their work and without any compensation for their efforts. Back to Top Why don't you accept credit cards? Because of the size of the average transaction, credit card companies charge a very significant fee to process moving companies’ payments … in the 2-3% range! Our profit margins are not so large that we can afford to give up that kind of fee; and the law says we can’t charge extra if a customer uses a credit card to pay. So, if we were to accept credit cards as a payment option, we would have to increase our prices overall – charging people who do not use a credit card more as well. Rather than artificially increasing our prices to cover the extra expense of accepting credit cards, we have chosen to keep our prices as low as possible and ask people to pay via other methods. The actual cash savings to our customers should outweigh any credit card benefits (i.e. airline miles) since their moving bill will be lower from the start. Back to Top Why do I have to pay for travel time? Very few people actually live near a moving company! Most moving companies warehouses are purposely located in industrial areas far from their customer’s homes. If you need the services of a mover and you do not have one nearby your home, there will necessarily be a cost to get the crew, the materials, and the truck there. We pay our men hourly and they punch in when they arrive at the warehouse. We absorb the cost of getting the trucks and the material ready to go, but the clock starts when they leave the warehouse. They remain “on the clock” until they return to the warehouse at the end of the day. We could increase our hourly rates slightly to cover the travel time cost, and then make it appear as if we do not charge for travel time, but that would spread the extra cost disproportionately. We believe it is fair to ask you to pay us … since we pay our men as well. Back to Top Why do I have to pay for overtime? Our drivers, movers, and packers work really hard – many time for long arduous days. Whereas some employers, looking out for their bottom line more than the welfare of their employees, choose to only pay overtime after 40 hours per week, we think it is right to pay our crews overtime after 8 hours per day. After all, many times the hardest work is at the end of a long day and our crews are still working as hard as the were early in the morning! Our estimators will always try to determine if your move is most efficiently handled with fewer, longer days with overtime or more, shorter days without overtime. You can rest assured that if you are better off without overtime your move will be scheduled that way. If overtime is necessary – either because it is best for you or because of unforeseen issues – we charge time and one-half after 8 hours and double time on weekends and holidays What happens if the estimate is wrong? Whose problem is that? Some movers intentionally underestimate a move to make themselves look cheaper than their competition. Once your goods are on their truck, you have no leverage when they ask for more money. However, an estimate from a reputable mover is just that … their good faith projection of the cost of the job as it was presented. The estimator will try to look at everything that is involved with the move and will do his best to estimate the size of the job, how long it will take and how much it will cost. If you make sure you give the estimator a COMPLETE understanding of the task at hand you can be sure that your estimate will be as “correct” as possible. At the end of the job, you will be asked to pay for the actual cost of the move – whether it is higher or lower than the estimated cost. Even the best moving companies sometimes make mistakes with their estimates. Unforseen events (weather, traffic, elevator problems, etc.) can influence the execution of a job and therefore the price can be affected. Unless you are aware of things under the mover’s control that caused the job to go higher than the estimate, it is only fair that you compensate them for their actual effort to move you. If you are anxious about hiring a mover based on the estimated cost, you might ask them to give you a “fixed price bid” – i.e. one set price regardless of the actual time, size and effort. Be aware that this option can work against you if the actual costs come in lower than estimated. Movers will tend to increase their estimate to “cover themselves” for unanticipated costs when they provide a fixed price bid. Back to Top I have heard that it is customary to tip moving crews. Is this a fact? If so, how much is the appropriate amount? It has, in fact, become customary to tip moving crews if you feel that they deserve something extra, based on the job they have done. Some movers expect it and other even have been known to demand it!! At Despatch a tip is exactly what a tip is supposed to be … never expected and certainly never demanded … a well-appreciated expression of thanks for a job well done. As to how much … the amount is entirely up to you. Our movers will do a fine job for you whether there is a tip or not. One standard that has been put forth is $20.00 per person, per day. You may want to use this as a barometer. Back to Top Why do I need to purchase additional valuation (“insurance”) if Despatch is such a high quality moving company? Are you going to break things? First, we all buy insurance to cover many things that might go amiss in our lives … auto accidents, medical problems, burglaries, etc. We do this even though we might be “perfect drivers”, the “picture of health”, or have our home protected by the “best security system available”. We don’t intend for things to happen, but we recognize they may … and we don’t want to be left in a lurch. The same is true for moving with Despatch. The overwhelming majority of our moves are trouble-free. But even the most careful preparation and highest level of professionalism can be undone by an accident or a human miscalculation. For this reason, we recommend that you make sure you are protected. By law, all moving companies (not just Despatch) are limited to a very small amount of money as their maximum liability for the goods they move. For a local move, the law states that unless the customer purchases additional coverage, the mover’s liability is limited to $0.30 per pound, per item. That translates to $15.00 for a 50 lb. chair or $0.60 for a 2 lb. porcelain figurine!! Without the purchase of additional “Depreciated Value” or “Full Replacement Value” coverage a mishap with either of these could be costly to say the least. As with all insurance policy purchases, you are happiest when you never collect on them. That money was used primarily to buy “peace of mind”. We will very, very likely do a perfect job when we move you. You will have already bought that peace of mind. The extra coverage just completes the package. Back to Top
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