Bait & Switch

The bait-and-switch begins with a quote that looks too good to pass up. The mover wins your booking on price, then re-prices the job once they have committed you — claiming you have more items than expected, that the shipment weighs more, or that services you assumed were included cost extra. The root of the scam is an estimate made without a real survey. A legitimate mover inspects your home in person or over video before quoting, because an accurate price depends on seeing what you actually own. A company that quotes a firm-sounding number sight-unseen has every incentive to revise it upward later. Non-binding estimates make this easier to pull off, because the final charge is allowed to differ from the quote. That is not illegal by itself, but scammers exploit it by lowballing the estimate to win the job, knowing the real number will be much higher. Protect yourself by insisting on a binding or binding not-to-exceed estimate in writing, after a proper survey. Document your own inventory with photos. Compare at least three quotes — a bait price usually stands out as unrealistically low against honest competitors. If a mover will only offer a vague non-binding number and resists putting limits in writing, walk away.