Moving Blog

Moving Scams: The Blank Contract

Published September 25, 2012

Many moving companies are great businesses, but some can be mean, slimy, snakes.  Some of them intend simply to rip you off, often for thousands of dollars.  Sure, they’ll move your stuff (no promises about the degree of care), but then they’ll hit you with a bill $3,000 over what you were expecting. And if you don’t pay it?

They’ll keep your stuff.

So how do they do this?  Isn’t the price agreed to before the move?  Well, not always, and the most common scam is to have you sign a blank contract.

If a moving company asks you to sign a contract that is missing material terms or has information yet to be filled in (such as blank spaces for prices), say no.  Simply say no.  If you do sign it, you are putting yourself behind the eight ball when the company fills in a price double the estimate. Might you have some arguments against it? Yes. But do they have a signed document? Yes. And can they keep your stuff while you argue? Yes.

Again, simply put: don’t sign a contract that has blank spaces or is missing terms of your agreement, no matter what.

Filed under:Moving Scams

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