Planning Your Move - Part 1: Budgeting

One of the first steps many people take when planning a move is to make a budget. There are several ways to go with your move. In this economy cost is a huge factor and many people are already facing economic hardships when they move. As someone about to move you may want the cheapest moving service possible. Unfortunately being cheap most likely means that you lose quality.

What you really want is a safe move and peace of mind that you can afford. That is what 4WeHelp Movers want also, to give you a smooth move while providing a service you can afford.

Step 1: Decide up front what you can afford and write out your budget. Keep in mind the expenses of how you will get to your new home and where you might stay along the way. If you are flying to a new city figure in the cost of getting to and from the airport. If you are driving estimate the cost of meals, fuel, tolls roads, and hotels if you have to stop for the night.

Step 2: Decide how you will move. Here is a break down...

$$$$$- Traditional Moves A full service moving company has the highest cost but requires the least amount of work.

$$$$- Moving Containers A moving container is basically mobile storage (like UNITS, PODS or PackRat). Many mobile storage companies are nationwide so you can load in one city and unload in another. This is a great alternative to putting things in storage and then having to move them again. The container comes to your door and you hire a moving labor service to load/unload it. This means you you still don't have to do much of the work.

$$$- Self Moves Renting a moving truck and hiring a moving labor service is just about the least expensive way of moving. This is one of the least expensive ways to move. You rent and drive a moving truck and then the loading/unloading is done by moving labor service you hire separately.

Our point is no matter what your budget you have choices. As a consumer you do not have to resort to cheap services and lose out on the quality you deserve.

In the next part of planning your move we will discuss how to choose your mover.

Sheisty Insurance Salesman

So recently we received a strange voicemail from "Lou". The message was to the effect that he was a fellow mover in New Jersey, saw we were insured and was wondering if we could give him all our info because he needed to find insurance also. He wanted to know if we would help a "fellow mover out."

Just the nature of his questions and that he didn't mention a company name was a bit unusual. We have been getting quite a few telemarketers lately so we googled his phone number (201) 790-1699.  Turns out that is actually the phone number for Lou Hefter of insurance4movers dot net (we don't want him getting the pleasure of our backlink).

Lou is known to us because he provides insurance at an enormously jacked up rate with barely any coverage through UHaul and their subsidaries . Yes, he is in bed with UHaul so you can guess what quallity of service and product Insurance4Movers provide. They are known for charging about $200 a month for insurance just on jobs subcontracted through UHaul. If you want all your moving jobs covered the price they charge may more than double.

Just for the record, we pay a LOT less for $1,000,000 coverage from a very well known REAL insurance company.

More than all of that, we believe it is extremely dishonest for a company to call and pretend to be someone else. If that is the way Lou would treat a potential customer, would you want to buy insurance from him? In Lou's defense, he is learning from UHaul, AKA the big orange devil, and they are known for old trucks and horrible customer service, not integrity. Sorry Lou but you are the company you keep.

In the beginning we were naive and fell for our share of scams because no one warned us. Really this post is just our opinion and we want to warn our fellow moving labor services. Don't give your monay to Lou Hefter, Insurance4Movers or any company that misrepresents themselves like that.

If you are a REAL moving labor service and need help with anything from legal forms to insurance, contact the AMLPA or the AOAML. They are both good organizations that offer real help to real movers.

10 Reasons why the Better Business Bureau is bad for good business.

While we are listed as a Cincinnati mover with a positive rating by the Greater Cincinnati Better Business Bureau, we want to make a case for how harmful the BBB is to businesses.

Here are the 10 reasons why the BBB is bad for good business.

1. The Better Business Bureau is a franchise whose business is to sell memberships. They often use tactics like "suggesting" a business join if they want to maintain a good rating or receive help in dealing with consumer complaints.
2. Even when the they are clearly wrong, if the consumer refuses to accept a solution from a business, the complaint is left as unresolved which makes the business look bad. Basically a consumer can extort a business through the BBB and refuse any replies leaving a negative mark on that business.
3. A consumer can make up complaints and the BBB makes no effort to remove statements the consumer has no proof of. This actually happened with us. Our competition filed a false complaint with the BBB. When we asked the BBB to require proof of the alleged service we performed and the consumer did not, the complaint was left with a negative mark against us.
4. There is no way for the public to read the actual complaints against a company so you have no idea how relative or petty they may be. 
5. The public cannot read how the business replied so there is no idea of what efforts were made to appease the consumer.
   
6. The BBB only reports the complaints. There is no balance to that with all the good ratings and good work a company may do.
7. The BBB does not base its ratings on any logical standard. Google being a great example has a few hundred complaints but only a minute fraction of those are "unresolved". Yet still, the company has a bad rating. Google does MILLIONS of transactions a day and less than .0000004% of those result in a complaint. Still the BBB gives them an "unsatifactory" rating.
8. As a business, if you have a short history with the BBB you are automatically excluded from receiving a positive ranking. That is unless you pay for membership. This is another one of their pressure tactics to sell memberships. A business cannot get an A+ rating unless the business pays for BBB membership.
   
9. The BBB can add the information of a business without their permission or input and then refuse to update or remove incorrect information about your business to their listings. To be fair, they often do send an automated request but the information a business submits may be ignored unless you pay to become a BBB member.
10. The BBB often uses outside companies and telemarketers to solicit businesses for membership. How fair and reputable can a rating service be if it employs some of the very tactics consumers complain about?
    

As our boss tells us, how the BBB operates is pretty easy to explain.

"The BBB just called and your worst enemy was telling them about how horrible you are. They want to know what your side is but they are only going to publicize that someone filed a complaint against you and no matter what you say your enemy gets to determine how you are rated. By the way, they also want you to pay a couple hundred dollars a year to get accredited."

Unfortunately the Better Business Bureau is one of those institutions that was once wonderful and is now archaic. With ratings services like Google Maps, CitySearch, Angie's List and most ratings services the one common thread is that you see the good as well as the bad.

A perfect ranking system would be one that charges no fees, maintains no interest in either side and allows both the business and the consumers comments to be made public. Very similar to what Google Maps now does for businesses but adding a feature that allows the business to reply to any comments made.

In the end the BBB is no better than a street gang and their membership is merely "protection" money for a service they don't really provide to businesses.

4WeHelp Cincinnati Movers certified by the AMLPA

Today we received our certification badge from The American Moving Labor Professionals Association

We are very proud because we are the first company in Ohio to be certified by the AMLPA. We think our badge looks pretty spiffy, what do you think?

Proud to Support Cincinnati Cycling

4WeHelp Cincinnati Movers and Maids is proud to announce we support Cincinnati Cycling Love.

Cincinnati Cycling Love is a local organization for anyone who loves cycling of any kind. We have talked to the organizers and they plan to have a lot of really cool events so we wanted to be a part of it.

Check them out at www.cincinnaticyclinglove.com

New websites are like new babies

Today our new website had a little hiccup. Whenever one of our potential moving or cleaning customers submitted a request, for some reason it was spitting up most of their info and only sending us their name, email and a short message.

If you are one of our customers, we sincerely apologize.

We have it fixed now. It turns out the program we are using for submission forms had a bug but a software update fixed that.

The redesigned 4WeHelp website is UP and RUNNING!

We are very pleased to announce that our new website is finally up and running. After a ton of glitches we are finally back on the web.

Special thanks to Brian at Creation7, our web designer. He spent hours designing our website and then hours more on the phone trying to fix problems that were caused by someone else (our hosting service). Without Brian we wouldn't be making this announcement.

We have a few more tweaks and things to add so please be patient with us and if you see a typo, feel free to contact us and let us know (Jon needs all the help he can get).

Website Interruption

You have been re-directed from our normal website to our blog.

We are doing some work on our website at www.4wehelp.com. Things like transferring servers, rewriting scripts, adding files and all the techie stuff that makes Brian giggle and Jon cry. During that time our website may work intermittently. Please be patient and we will have it back up ASAP.

If you need to contact us you are always welcome to call us at (513) 575-HELP.

In the meantime here is a cool little song about Cincinnati

When to hire a Moving Labor Service

One of the biggest differences between a moving labor service and traditional movers is our flexibility. We can take the jobs their costs or regulations don't allow them to do.

Here are just a few examples:

Loading/unloading- Our specialty is loading/unloading rental trucks, mobile storage containers or storage spaces

Rental Truck Driving- We have a lot of experience driving these for our customers. Take the fear out of renting a truck and let us do the driving for you

Home Staging Assistance- Getting ready to sell your home? Let us help you move out old furniture and rearrange the furniture in ways that appeal to buyers

Remodeling your home- We can move your furniture out of the way and into a basement, garage or storage container Moving in the same apartment complex- We can move you down the hall or across the parking lot

Haul Away Service- We remove junk and clutter from basements, garages, attics and anywhere else in your home

Proud Member of the AMLPA

Recently we were invited to join the American Moving Labor Professionals Association. As there first certified member in Ohio and currently the only one in our area, we are pretty dang proud.

What is the AMLPA?
"The AMLPA is a non-profit organization designed to oversee and organize the moving labor services industry. The moving labor industry is a fairly new market segment of the moving industry however its exponential growth over the years mandates that an organization must provide structure to the industry.

Similar the the AMSA (American Moving and Storage Association) that oversees the full service moving industry, the AMLPA is designed to provide certifications, guidelines, compliance and a level of consistent quality not yet available in the moving labor services industry. The primary reason for the lack of structure is that the industry itself is new and the dust has yet to settle. As with any large industry, consumers need a certain level of recourse and industry professionals across the nation need a trade association for support and compliance." Quoted from http://www.amlpa.org/about-us

We are very excited about this effort. For years we have said this kind of organization is needed to weed out the companies that claim to have proper insurance and licensing but could not possibly afford because of the "cheap" service they focus on. In the state of Ohio moving labor companies are not yet regulated and it allows companies to pretend they are professionals but not offer any level of real quality. In turn the consumer has no way to check if these "companies" are real and no recourse when problems arrive

So we want to thank the AMLPA for bringing some much needed organization to the moving labor industry.

4WeHelp is climbing to the top of Cincinnati moving companies

 In the very near future 4WeHelp Movers will be climbing to the very top of Cincinnati movers. We are going to be a part of something that no moving company has done before. Check back for future announcements.