The Ethics Of Moving Scams
Moving scam involve winning customers by offering them low moving cost estimates and then raising the price of the move once the goods are on the truck. If the homeowner won’t pay the increased price, then the company will threaten to hold his belongings until he does pay. This is the well known model of a classical moving scam. However, when we look at the scam from the perspective of the broker who is proffering the deal, it looks a lot different.
The moving broker probably does not feel he is doing anything wrong. He believes he is a victim of the competition in the moving industry which has pushed down moving prices. If he doesn’t offer a low price, he will lose the job to someone else. And he knows that the other company will also be raising the moving cost prices once the move begins. So what difference does it make if the family moves with him or the other guy. Only he wants the extra work. So the basic ethical principal at work here is the everyone else is doing it mentality. And he therefore feels justified in using the same tactics as the other guy. These tactics involve tactical lies.
First, the moving broker will offer a low ball price, knowing that the final cost of the move is going to be a lot higher. SThe second lie is conencted to the closing of the deal, and the moving broker will lie about the time it will take to deliver the goods. He will say that the move will take “on the average,” 7-10 days. But he knows, secretly, that it may take longer to find a subcontractor to deliver the goods. The third lie takes place during the move itself. In order to cover up the earlier deliberate lies, the moving broker will concoct stories about why the moving cost has gone higher and about why the move is taking longer than expected
Moving companies that participate in this system of lies and scams no doubt have various justifications for participating in the practice. Having once almost been roped into working for a moving broker company, I can testify that the first and basic, “front-line justification,” is the I am just earning a living belief. If the telephone staff in the company doesn’t tell the lies effectively, they will be fired. They may have wives and families to support so they get sucked into the it’s either us or them mentality.
Now consider the ethics of this. There are times when lying is considered ethical. For example, if you lie about something to save someone from hearing about a painful event some people feel that is an ethical act. If you are in business and have a great deal to offer, and you use exaggeration to win customers, that may not be unethical, assuming the customers who are roped into taking your product are really getting a good deal that they will be happy about. But now, consider the homeowner who was expecting to complete his move in 7-10 days. Now, 30 days later he and his children are living in an empty house eating on paper plates and sleeping on an inflatable mattress, there’s no way you can feel that he’s happy that he was tricked into using this moving service.
Finally consider the justification that you are tricking a homeowner in to taking your service, which may end up costing a lot more than estimated, but will still save him money in the end over a move with the big companies. Unfortunately, most of the moves arranged by moving brokers end up costing a lot more than the price agreed upon. Furthermore, many of the moving companies that are subcontracted to make the moves are notoriously sloppy when it comes to protecting the goods being moved. So the final cost of saving a few bucks is broken furniture, and lost and stolen items. When you add in the loss of material goods, the cost of these brokered moves often equals or exceeds a move with a major van line. Plus, there are other cheaper but safer alternatives. A family wishing to save money, but move safely can use a packing service and a container or pod shipping company. The packing service will load everything safely into the shipping containers. The goods are locked away, and the container company will transport everything to the destination. So with alternatives like this available, it becomes impossible to justify the lies told by the moving brokers to win customers.
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