We’re all well aware that hiring a local removals company is the best way to take care of relocation stress. Assigning the entire task to a team of professionals is undoubtedly the most effective way of getting everything done without having to worry yourself about it. However, hiring a moving company is not a task you should pursue blindly: hiring the wrong team can have disastrous consequences too. An unprofessional team might lose or damage your things, and we’ve all heard of those scams where the moving team robs its clients of all their possessions! These might sound like extreme scenarios when you’re contemplating them in the comfort of your own home, surrounded by all your things, but as a paying customer it is your duty to make sure you don’t get cheated. Here is some useful advice on checking a moving company’s credentials and making sure that you’re making a sound decision by hiring them. The first step is to make sure that the moving company you’re considering has a proper website. In this day and age, any business that hasn’t invested time, effort and money into setting up an attractive website is a business you don’t want to be involved with. It is a mark of laziness or worse, and you’re better off just steering clear of such firms. Check the website out first, see if you like the look of things and then make a note of all the details (such as contact details, pricing details etc.) mentioned on the website so that you can crosscheck them further. The next step is to make sure that the company offers communication channels other than e-mail and the website. You must be given a proper address and a telephone number that you can use. Don’t work with teams that use only mobile phones: a registered landline number is an established marker of a legitimate, verified business. Ask the company for their credentials so that you can crosscheck the same with a local authority governing businesses in the region or in the specific industry. You can always directly contact the authority too and ask them for their opinions and advice regarding the company you’re considering. This is one of the most direct ways of making sure that the companies you’re considering are truly professional, legitimate enterprises and you can look forward to getting good service. Verifying a company’s credentials with the issuing authority is also another reliable way of checking their veracity. Any services industry requires that the businesses operating within it are given certificates of approval and other legitimising licenses and the suchlike that recognise them as authorised businesses in the field. Instead of simply reviewing a company’s different certificates and licenses, we recommend that you actually verify the details of the same from the authority/ board/ institution that issues the certificates. This move is especially recommended if you are hiring a moving company for a long-distance home relocation and/ or you have a lot of luggage and/or if you have a lot of valuable and expensive things to be moved. The greater these parameters are, the more you stand to lose should something go wrong, which is why going that extra mile and being cautious is most certainly recommended. When you’re verifying details with different authorities, one thing you must keep an eye out for is the kind of rating the company has received in different inspections, with a specific focus on accidents/ crashes/ safety tests. A company’s record for ensuring their clients’ safety and the safety of the belongings entrusted to them is a very significant measure for judging a company’s reliability by.