Working out who you are hiring
How do I read a moving company's reviews?
The short answer
Read the distribution rather than the average, then read the one and two-star reviews for repeated descriptions of the same failure. In this trade the phrases that matter are price changes after loading, delivery windows missed, and a different company arriving than the one booked.
What to look for in the text
- "The price went up" after loading or after the weigh. Repeated across reviews, this is the most predictive complaint in moving.
- A different company or truck than expected, which points at undisclosed brokering.
- Delivery windows missed with no communication, which is a capacity and dispatch problem rather than a one-off.
- Damage handled badly, as distinct from damage occurring. Some damage happens on many moves; how a claim was handled is the signal.
- Reviews that name a specific crew favourably. Moving quality is crew-dependent, and a company whose reviews name people is one where the same people keep working there.
The replies matter as much
A company that answers a complaint with the specifics, without arguing, is showing you how a complaint from you would go. Blanket denials, accusations against the customer, or silence across every negative review is also an answer.
This site shows Google's own rating counts and the full distribution rather than the average, and reads the review text. That is one part of the research. The registration check and the contract are the other two, and no review page substitutes for either.
Also asked
Are moving reviews reliable?
Individually, not very: moves are emotional, and both extremes are over-represented. In aggregate and read for recurring specifics, they are genuinely useful, which is why the distribution and the repeated phrases matter more than the average or any single account.
The long version
How to read moving reviews for the real signal
Look beyond star averages to find useful complaint patterns, revealing owner replies, review-quality clues, and signs of manipulated feedback.
Read the guide →General information about moving and about hiring, not advice about your move. Interstate household-goods moving within the United States is federally regulated; local, intrastate and Canadian moving is regulated by each state or province, and the rules differ. The authority for your move is the one to check.