Scammers seek to manipulate the review system to trick even the most educated consumers
Kari thought she knew firsthand how difficult a cross-country move could be. An East Coast native, she’d packed up her life and moved to San Francisco for work in 2018. But while that relocation was stressful, it wasn’t until she decided to move back east during the Covid-19 pandemic that she realized just how intense — and expensive and frustrating and heartbreaking — moving cross-country could be.
Kari considers herself an educated consumer, so she did her due diligence in her search for a moving company. She checked reviews across sites, got quotes from multiple companies, and spent hours talking to sales representatives. She finally settled on a company called Alltrust Movers, which she says “had great reviews, a sales guy who was so helpful and very responsive, and the most reasonable quote.” She made a detailed list of her items in order to get an estimate of the cost; put down $1,000 to secure the move; and gave a leaving date for when her lease was up.
(Amount spent so far: $1,000.)
“I had an especially tight timeline because of the pandemic and concerns about safety,” Kari tells Avast. “The plan was to fly back out to San Francisco, get everything packed in a week, and fly back [east] the night of the move.”
Like many moving companies, Alltrust told her they would call about 24 hours beforehand with a firm arrival time the following day. But the day before the scheduled move, there was no call. Kari reached out to that “helpful” and “responsive” sales guy. No answer. She called the main line for Alltrust Movers. No answer ..
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