local VA move

guest · Guest

Has anyone had any dealings with Great Scott Moving CO. ? I believe I used them about 6 yerars ago with great results, but I am not sure. When I researched them / DOT nbr 604984 / they have no MIC number. In the box operation classification nothing is checked, but in lower right bottom of that section it states ...X APPLYING F. I don't know what that means. Their office is in DC. Any feed back would be great ..

Michael · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 3246 Location: Charlotte, NC

Correct me if I am wrong here, but I believe it means they have no operating authority as of yet. This means they are not licensed to move you from point A to point B.

Also their DOT number under licensing and insurace comes up as does not exist. Thus they are not probably insured yet.

My suggestion, keep looking. Try Security Moving Systems and I know there are a few bigger name van lines there, just cant think of any others off hand. Try some word of mouth, especially if your moving locally. Can probably find a decent local moving company.

Best of luck,
_________________
Michael
************************************

Forget yourself for others and the others will never forget

twalker · Site Admin Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Posts: 3439

Guest,

This has come up before but I'm not sure that a definite answer was found. I just spoke with the Federal Program Manager for Commercial Enforcement at the FMCSA because I wanted to make sure that I gave you the right answer.

Basically what determines if a moving company needs interstate authority is if they are moving you across state lines between two different "commercial zones". The commercial zones are defined in civil code Title 49 CFR 372. The Washington D.C. specific commercial codes are addressed in Title 49 CFR 372.219. If they are moving you outside of the defined areas in Title 49 CFR 372.219 then yes, they will need their interstate operating authority.

You may also want to contact the Virginia Movers & Warehousemen's Association and ask them what additional requirements movers must adhere to in Virginia (such as types of insurance, licenses, etc). The Executive Secretary is Dale Bennett and you can reach them at 804-358-1448.

Tim Walker
MovingScam.com
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Tyrone · Joined: 17 Mar 2003 Posts: 1595

One thing to be careful of as you are looking for a mover in the DC area: I would strongly recommend that you AVOID any moving company based in Jessup, MD.

Jessup is "the" hotbed of scam movers in your area and I have been unable to identify ANY legitimate mover in Jessup.

Guest · Guest

Thankyou all for your replies. I am going to keep looking. There are soo many ; it is mind boggling.

Diane · Joined: 06 Oct 2003 Posts: 15834 Location: Los Angeles

There's a recent thread discussing many local movers in the D.C. area, most of which turned out to be blacklisted. It might save you some time to find it by searching on "namllih" (the name of the author, probably his real name spelled backward). The last I looked, namllih was still rather forlornly looking for recommendations on movingadvocateteam.com. You are in a real minefield there.

guest · Guest

My broker has recommended Town and Country Movers/ DOT 418499 / He says they did a great job for him, but they seem to have had a lot of accidents. Is this something I need to worry about ? The BBB gave them a satisfactory rating, and what is a DUNS number ? This site I must add is terrific; sooo much good information.

twalker · Site Admin Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Posts: 3439

Guest,

Town and Country has been in business since 1977 which is a good sign. The only accident (if you could call it that) on their DOT Carrier Snapshot is 1 tow. They are a little bit higher than the national average on their Out of Service orders but it doesn't look alarming to me. I would have them come out and do an in-home estimate and see what they give you. Remember to get at least three in-home estimates. Town and Country would be one, so you've just got to find a couple more. Wink

Tim Walker
MovingScam.com
_________________
Click Here to Learn How to Find a Reputable Mover.

guest · Guest

Thankyou, Tim. I have one from JK moving. Thanx again Very Happy

namllih · Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 6

I ended up using Gulliver's Mover http://www.gulliversmovers.com just this past week for a sucessful local move in northern VA. We did as much of the work ourselves as we could manage before our actual move with Gulliver's. We got boxes from work and the supermarkets packed them and brought them over ourselves with friends/ family. We primarily used Gulliver's to move all our furniture and some other boxed stuff. Gulliver's was very thorough in packing everything pretty well. I was especially leary of them moving a china cabinet we purchased just a couple months before we knew we would be moving. It is partially glass on 3 of the four sides and made it without a scratch. Because we were so leary of the moving process and did a lot of the work ourselves there was less for Gulliver's to move and we came a few hundred dollars under budget.
JK Moving was probably our other option if we didn't choose Gulliver's except JK quoted us an hourly rate that was about $20 more. We also seriously considered Quality Service Movers I think out of Sterling, VA

Thank you to everyone on these message boards for your input!

Diane · Joined: 06 Oct 2003 Posts: 15834 Location: Los Angeles

Namllih, thank you so much for getting back to us on how your move went. I recall warning you that Gulliver's was blacklisted on www.movingadvocateteam.com. This is an example of how that doesn't NECESSARILY mean that people will have a bad experience. We'll never know whether Gulliver's was monitoring your posts on this website and decided to try to do well by you, or whether you were protected by its being a local move, or both. The important thing is that it went well. Congratulations and best wishes on your new home!

Guest · Guest

Gulliver's did a great job moving my mom from one neighborhood in DC to another. Unfortunately they recommended a terrible moving company (American National/Admiral Moving and Storage) for me when I moved out of DC. I let Gulliver's know about those folks and hopefully they won't send anymore business their way.

California Bound · Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 6

Guest,

I had a very similar experience. Gulliver's came very highly recommended by a friend in DC - they had just moved her locally and had really done a good job. However, when I went to them for a cross-country move, they hooked me up with Admiral/American National. Most of the nightmare was avoided because Admiral was a month late picking up my things, and I was able to get another carrier.

However, what concerns me is that I talked with Gulliver's about Admiral's reputation, BBB complaints, and other issues. They assured me that they would not refer other customers to Admiral. That discussion took place in August of 2003. Did they recommend Admiral to you after that time?

MusicMom · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 18775 Location: DC Metro

When you say "referred", do you mean they suggested you use them or you hired Gulliver's and Admiral showed up for the move? I'm sorry if this seems dense.

California Bound · Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 6

Given some of the stuff that gets pulled by moving companies, that's not a dense question at all.

I hired Gulliver's, and they were up-front about the fact that Admiral would actually transport the goods across the country and unload them in California. Staff from Gulliver's planned to pickup, package, and store everything until Admiral's truck arrived. They weren't completely straightforward about the fact that once Admiral picked up the load, Admiral (not Gulliver's) was responsible for everything, and that the price quoted could be revised by Admiral if they so desired. However, I didn't ask all of the questions I should have, so this omission is partly my fault as well.

To be fair, Gullivers performed reasonably well on their part of the move. Everything was packed and moved into storage without incident, and while there were some dings and scrapes on a few things that came out of their storage unit, all in all they did a pretty good job. After Admiral was a month late for pickup and really giving me the run-around, Gulliver's was reasonable about refunding most of the money I had paid them. They also did not charge me for storage, which was the right thing to do. However, it was Gulliver's who intially scheduled me to move with Admiral, and they assured me that Admiral was a solid outfit.

I think Gulliver's just may be out of their league when it comes to interstate (outside the DC area) moves. Some Gulliver's employees used to work at Admiral, which is probably why they work with them, but these two companies are sort of a strange match. I'm not sure they should be painted with exactly the same brush. Gulliver's at least worked with me to reach a solution, and let me deal directly with the owner. Admiral just ignored me, passed me off to several different people, and generally gave me a different story each time I called.