MovingScam introduces "Review Verification System" | RELO Roundtable...a gathering place

MovingScam introduces “Review Verification System”

By Eric Anders • Oct 2nd, 2012 • Category: *RELOCATION NEWS UPDATES*, Advertising, MovingScams

Smelly subject MovingScam introduces Review Verification System How many people purchase, bait, and then deploy skunk traps when they're not being bothered by the stinky predatory scavengers?

That was my first reaction when asked if I'd seen the new “Review Verification System” subscription service that was announced by MovingScam.com on October 1, 2012.

MovingScam is the popular free “consumer oriented” trash-your-mover venue that founder Tim Walker created ten years ago to let others “know what is going on in the moving industry”. I used to be one of the industry professionals who was an active participant in the community before being banned from participating at the site.

Since opening, the well-optimized venue has become the online social media litterbox that upset shippers use to try to publicly (and anonymously!) trash the reputation of the household goods motor carrier or move broker they hired to complete their personal relocation.

According to Jeff Walker, Tim's brother, the Review Verification System (RVS) is a new premium pay-to-participate feature of the MovingScam.com website that tracks and verifies that reviews posted by consumers to authenticate the move was “genuine”.

MovingScam Review Process(1) MovingScam introduces Review Verification System Under MovingScam's new site monetization scheme, consumers wishing to leave a review are asked for certain unique (and very proprietary) customer information that the “mover” they hired can use to verify that they actually did perform the move.

Once the consumer enters their 'invoice number' and completes their positive or negative review, the comments are sent to MovingScam's owners “to scan the message for inappropriate material (such as spam)”.

The process map include in this new MovingScam product offer shows that both pieces of information will then be routed to the “mover” by email, where they can verify the move in their system.

At this point the “mover” can reportedly check a box to verify that they did perform the move. The “mover” then has the “option” to respond to the review submitted by the consumer. Failure to verify the move will not keep the review from being posted on MovingScam. It will eventually show up on in the 'mover' rating site as “unverified”.

There's no explanation about whether "unverified" moves are "genuine" or not.

The Bait

According to the somewhat vague terms of the "Review Verification System" offer posted at MovingScam, RVS provides subscribers a web page “completely dedicated to your business”.

Paying participants determine what information consumers have access to, including your business contact information such as phone numbers, emails, physical address and a link to your web page from your profile page.

The incentive to sign up for the introductory rate of $30 per month, according to Walker, is to use “MovingScam.com's popularity over the web” to link “our site to yours” – ostensibly to provide “an immediate boost to your search engine rankings”.

On December 1, that rate will increase to $50 per month.

The Switch

In response to concerns expressed by the lone remaining lay MovingScam moderator, Walker explained that “The same measures are in place in the review verification system that we have used successfully on the message boards for the past 10 years, and we don't talk publicly about what measures we have in place in either system.” Click here to learn how that 'top secret' system 'works'.

In addition, movers will be screened prior to being allowed into the program for things like hostage moves or a high number of complaints. Before signing up, ask MovingScam for their current definition of a "hostage move".

The Risk

According to Walker, “Studies have shown that an angry customer is 10 times more likely to post a negative review than a happy customer is to post an "atta boy!"

The problem with this well documented behavioral phenomenon is that licensed “moving companies” are expected to pay a monthly subscription fee to have their professional reputations vetted by lay judges in MovingScam's popular court of public opinion.

The same trash-your-mover court, incidentally, that historically has only endorsed unregulated 'do-itself-yourself' motor freight transportation and labor services to their budget conscious forum visitors.

Since neither of these low-cost service service options fall under the same federal or state consumer protection regulations, each subscriber's new MovingScam web page “completely dedicated to your business” is indexed against competitors who don't have to play by the same set of industry rules.

Curiously, Walker never mentions how negative consumer feedback about move brokers and container transportation companies will be handled.

Under a 2008 court agreement, MovingScam's owner is prohibited from allowing any disparaging comments to be published from customers upset with the services they received from any of Aldo DiSorbo's online household goods or motor vehicle transportation "move management" brokerage companies.

The DiSorbo family's online properties, coincidentally , are the same virtual vendors that were the subject of the recent year-long Senate investigation into popular online shopping services are being used by unscrupulous internet brokers and rogue movers to scam unsuspecting customers..

And, even after the monthly reputation management 'protection' money is paid, angry customers, competitors, or former employees looking to trash a companies reputation online from are still attracted to the well optimized site by the MovingScam site name.

"Permissum Permoveo Caveo"

Before being rebuked and banned from the site, I routinely used the phrase “Caveat emptor” to warn inexperienced, uniformed consumer shopping online for moving services at the four MovingScam forums.

It's Latin. It means "Let the buyer beware" Today I would also offer the same advice to moving professionals interested in MovingScam's new Review Verification System.

It you don't want to find your garbage scattered all over the neighborhood by a stinky scavenger when you wake up, put the lid securely on the trash can before you ever set it out for public collection.

It's the best deterrent to avoid attracting skunks!

Is WOM* advertising destroying reputable movers? – RELO Roundtable

MovingScam trashes another mover’s reputation – RELO Roundtable

AMSA questions MovingSCAM’s motives – RELO Roundtable

MovingSCAM owner calls out AMSA’s ProMover program – RELO Roundtable

Movers lined up at the hanging tree – RELO Roundtable

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Tagged as: "Review Verification System", Jeff Walker, Mover Reviews, movingscam.com, Tim Walker

Eric Anders is
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http://twitter.com/PaigeHolden PaigeHolden

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Especially this part:

“Since neither of these low-cost service service options fall under the same federal or state consumer protection regulations, each subscriber’s new MovingScam web page “completely dedicated to your business” is indexed against competitors who don’t have to play by the same set of industry rules.”

Not sure what we are going to do with this piece of news, but if you hear from any of our peers in the reputable moving industry, I’d love to know what the initial reaction is..
Eric Anders

Most consumers planning a local or long distance relocation are searching for a reputable mover they can trust at a price they can afford.

They relocate so infrequently they don’t know how to differentiate between a household goods carrier or move broker licensed by the FMCSA, a well advertised moving service, a container transportation company, or unregulated labor service.

Any inexperienced, uninformed consumer who peruses the ‘customer’ reviews at the top of the MovingScam’s “Open” forum will automatically find an inordinate number of ‘atta boy’ reviews for a well advertised do-it-yourself (DIY) container transportation and third-party-labor service, a small hybrid contract carrier that offers their HHG drivers and equipment “for-hire” under the table using pricing from their general freight tariff, a small, two-horse carrier with an impeccable DOT record based in Irvine, CA, and a larger independent based out northern California.

Hundreds of mostly positive reviews for these low cost, DIY moving options were specially cultivated, harvested, and edited by a MovingScam moderator who is no longer active in the forums but remains loyally committed to the companies.

Today you’ll find those glowing testimonials indexed at the top of the endorsed carrier list in the right sidebar. I think it’s important to note that a “referral fee” is has been collected by MovingScam and a vendor relationship established with this small group of ‘well appreciated’ core carrier for several years.

Meanwhile, the traditionally more expensive full-service movers-licensed household goods motor carriers required by law to comply the the Federal Consumer Protection and SAFETEA–LU regulations are indexed below.

In the absence of any uniform, measureable industry quality performance metrics, those companies that DO PAY to become enrolled in MovingScam’s premium pay-to-play review verification system are going to have to compete with the service expectations that Tim Walker establishes on the front page of MovingScam at the low-cost benchmark pricing established by the non-regulated carrier indexed at the top of every page on all four forums.

As industry professionals, what do you think will be the initial reaction for most first time MovingScam visitors when they read “Moved recently? We want your reviews” … and we’ll reward you with $100 if it’s the “best”.
Eric Anders

Visit the following link for an example of the management style that RVS subscribers will be paying to the lay MovingScam ‘professionals’ every month to manage their reputation online.
http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=148413#148413
http://www.jkmoving.com/ Brian

Eric,

Here at JK Moving, we are treading carefully with MovingScam’s announcement of their new “Review Verification System.” As with all moving companies, we are at the mercy of the review sites because as mentioned, “an angry customer is 10 times more likely to post a negative review than a happy customer is to post an ‘atta boy!’”

We have a few concerns as well. If the goal is to create a system where customer and company can reach a mutually beneficial agreement, why does the company need to pay to play? Why not encourage all movers on the SuperList to partake for free and work out any possible issues with the system?

What’s to stop an unscrupulous mover from planting fake negative reviews? What course of action does a moving company have when they have not moved a customer and they’ve written a review? It seems as if that review is stuck there forever. (From personal experience, we’ve received a scathing review from someone we did not move and we were helpless to get it removed.)

Or one step further, what’s to stop an unscrupulous mover from planting fake positive reviews of their own services? If the company verifies the move, how can MovingScam say the review is a fake?

Additionally MovingScam, in an attempt to get legitimate reviews, is asking for a great deal of personal information. How is this information being used? Who is going to see this information? And where is the information being stored?
Until these questions are answered, JK Moving will be watching the MovingScam “Review Verification System” from a distance. It’s not that we’re afraid of customer reviews, far from it actually. We welcome customer feedback and respond to every customer review (positive and negative) that we receive.
http://twitter.com/PaigeHolden PaigeHolden

Very well said, Brian. We share the same concerns. I really liked MovingScam – I thought they cultivated valuable information for people who are moving and I have advocated for the site in the past. But this is disappointing.

If MovingScam was really interested in sorting the good guys from the bad guys, it seems counter intuitive to ask the already cash-strapped good guys to engage in yet another pay to play program that doesn’t really deliver any guarantees.

And, why should we have to pay to verify that a review is real in the first place? I would think that a reputable review site would want to cultivate real reviews (for good or for bad). That’s the job, no? We all have to come to work every day to make sure our businesses are run with integrity – it’s a shame they aren’t holding themselves to the same standard.

Instead, they are openly admitting that they will not verify reviews unless paid. Essentially, they are asking the good movers who already donate their time and expertise to the site, who are already struggling to make hay in a down economy, who work hard every day to do the right thing for their customers, to now shoulder the responsibility for MovingScam’s own integrity – and pay MovingScam do so? What a business model!

Further, as Eric posted, it pits us against the low cost freight lines that don’t provide the same level of service, don’t have the same overhead and don’t have to adhere to same regulations that we do.

Finally, I particularly like your point about personal information. I don’t like the idea of asking for proprietary customer information without at least discussing the safe guards they have in place to keep it protected. Perhaps they will ask us to pay for that as well?

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