RELO Roundtable…a gathering place

Tim Walker, the owner of the popular trash-your-mover website, MovingSCAM, came out of hiding recently to question the validity of a statement posted by one of the moving industry professionals who regularly participates in the "consumer oriented" site's four open forums.

In a thread entitled “Statement from AMSA”, the original poster added a quote from an unnamed source,

"Despite the continued tough economy, our membership is growing. We now have more than 3,500 members and expect to add at least 500 more in the coming months. Interest in AMSA by the supplier community remains high. And most importantly, our ProMover program is increasingly recognized. During our Moving Day on Capitol Hill visits on Sept. 13, a top aide to a House member who supports our consumer advocacy efforts told us, without prompting, that ProMover must be working in the marketplace, since this lawmaker's office has seen a noticeable drop in consumer complaints about rogues.This is an achievement we can all be proud of, and one we can all take credit for. ProMover by its very nature is and must be a symbiotic program – we depend on our ProMover members to help us get the message out to the public, and the more that happens, the more successful we are at eliminating rogues."

ProMover is a consumer protection and certification program launched by the American Moving and Storage Association (AMSA) in January, 2009. The AMSA is the national trade association for the professional household goods moving industry.

In Walker's first public post in months, he writes “I'm not sure where this quote came from, but let's just call it what it is… bullshit.”

Later he attributes the quote to Linda Baur Darr, AMSA's President and CEO.

"Out of curiosity, for all of the dues that have been paid to AMSA, what have the professionals in the moving industry gained? Seriously… I'm interested in hearing this.

AMSA has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from professional movers. Have your lives improved? Is business easier since they began represening (sic) you? Is your business making more money per move?

It seems to me that some people might want to take this discussion into private quarters, but it's my opinion that it really needs to be brought out into the public. Let's hear how AMSA has helped YOU!"  - Tim Walker

Both Tim Walker and Kay Edge, one of MovingSCAM's behind-the-scene moderators known as Consumer Advocate, have a long and usually confrontational history with the AMSA.

In 2003, Walker called Joe Harrison, the former AMSA president's testimony before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation testimony “completely insulting to consumers, the state Attorney General's, as well as the US Senate committee members.” Click here to read Mr. Harrison's testimony.

AMSA's Harrison was responding to a hearing on Rep Thomas Petri's legislation introduced as Securing Consumers' Assurance in Moving Act of 2003 (HR-1070).  The bill never became law. 

The reason, according to Walker's post at his consumer oriented website, “The AMSA is at war right now to stop any and all consumer protection laws from being enacted and do not care who they hurt in the process.”

Meanwhile, Edge posted at the Rip Off Report that AMSA “ …failed to clean up this cancer in their own industry, yet the organization uses members' dues money to lobby Congress AGAINST this badly needed regulation.” “AMSA prefers the status quo, that is, consumers getting screwed by movers and having absolutely NO RECOURSE.”

What's especially curious is that since then Walker, Edge and other MovingSCAM moderators have repeatedly referred visitors who've been ripped off by rogue movers to the both the AMSA and MoveRecue, the first industry-endorsed consumer assistance service aimed at stopping disreputable and unscrupulous interstate movers.

MoveResue is operated and financed by United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit, two of the largest, most reputable household goods carriers in the U.S. Many of the moving industry professionals and several of the paid advertisers who participate in the MovingSCAM forums are representatives or agents of either or both van lines.

Meanwhile Angie Chen, one of MovingSCAM's members and an attorney, sued Mayflower for racketeering and extortion under a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) trial in federal court. In 2004, a Chicago jury denied both Ms. Chen's RICO and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress claims.  The MovingSCAM community lamented the court's decision in this post at
http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2838

In 2009, Tim Walker and his brother Jeff, MovingSCAM's President, crawled into the enemy camp and set up a booth at the AMSA's annual industry convention to recruit new advertisers for their for-profit anti-mover website.

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