Recently, we moved a customer from Lawton, Oklahoma to Mountaindale, New York and it was an incredible experience. The customer worked with us to plan and implement phases of the trip broken down into 3 days for the 1,578 mile trip. Having each day broken down into 10 hour drives allowed both parties to arrive safely and not be devastated by the enormous length of the trip.
The first phase was from Lawton to St. Louis, where we spent our first night after driving approximately 12 hours through Oklahoma and Missouri.
The second phase from St. Louis to Cleveland took us across the beautiful mountains of Ohio. After spending the second night there, we forged on to arrive at our destination in Upstate New York.
The entire trip was a huge success because it was our first big out of state move and the customer was very happy that we took on the challenge and made the move happen for them.
I hope anyone reading this has had a better experience dealing with Crypto. The first red flag that I experienced was how none of my banks would connect to the Plaid processing system so that I could send crypto transactions through them. When I finally found a bank that would do it, they made it very difficult as if they took it personal because I stepped out of the original box and tried another way to obtain financial success. One online banking account made it quite clear that doing any type of crypto transaction would cause them to cancel my account.
I spoke to a bank representative one time about crypto and he shocked me by saying that he knew nothing about crypto and how it worked. This guy was a manager but I soon figured out that he most likely played dumb to not have to discuss it over a recorded line. It seemed like the banks probably warned their employees not to promote or discuss crypto because they saw it as a direct threat to their livelihood and the traditional way of allowing them to continue to dominate and completely control the monetary system.
This entire feeling that I was entering a system without boundaries was quite apparent. The first company I dealt with was Coinbase, but after downloading the app, I could not get my bank connected and verified through Plaid, so I went to Crypto.com. This was another mistake because when I first signed up for the crypto.com app, they were giving phone support.
But after a few months and several changes to the crypto game following the huge crypto scam with Sam Bankman-Fried, crypto.com no longer offers phone support. Several companies have gone to AI instead of phone support and in my opinion, we were all doomed from that point on. So now I am on my own and struggling to get support for the crypto that I have left stored on a personal wallet.
I chose to put my crypto on a personal wallet instead of keep it online with Cyrypto.com because they put it all in a big pot and passed along the earnings and losses as the crypto coins go up and down on a daily basis, but keeping it on a personal wallet allows the value to stay the same and is the reason why I chose it. The personal wallet I chose was a Ledger Nano S. For anyone reading this, I do not recommend Ledger the company, or their Nano S or X products because they don’t give you the support you need in order to be successful using crypto. They do not offer phone support, instead, using a bot system that inevitably sends everyone to their web site in order to research the issue and ends up wasting lots of time.
So now I’m super frustrated because Ledger Live, the online pc based software system required to used with the Nano S, forced me to update the software, but now it erased all of my previous transaction and shows a zero balance on my account. At first I panicked, thinking that my crypto had been stolen, but after doing lots of research on my own, I realized that my crypto is still there on my Nano S, but I am having problems on how to access it. Anyway, there are lots of issues related to Crypto.com the company that I did successful transactions with because they were in control of my crypto all along, and I didn’t even know it.
For anyone thinking about getting into the crypto game, understand that it is a dirty and corrupted game because most of it is done online and in other parts of the world. Most of the companies you will be dealing with are in foreign countries, so true technical support will be non-existent.
I recently had a very frustrating experience with Riverstone Logistics, Lowe’s, State Farm Insurance and the Department of Transportation. It all started when I applied to subcontract appliance deliveries for Lowe’s through their new outsourcing firm – Riverstone Logistics. The process started out reasonable and realistic, but soon changed drastically to an unfair list of policies and procedures forcing me to bail out of the process entirely and lose several thousand dollars.
Major problems occurred when Riverstone Logistics required me to obtain several filings with the DOT which included a DOT number and a MCS-150. Another form had to be filed was in the middle of the fiscal year and I still had to pay the full price even though half the year had already expired. I was also charged $325 for some other DOT fee that is non-refundable like all of the other fees for licenses and permits before a company is even granted permission to do the deliveries. But undoubtedly, the worst scenario of all was the fact that the DOT requires any business going through this process to give out their phone number and contact information. Once my number was given out, I received and still continue to receive hundreds of calls from outside agencies related to the DOT trying to sell me everything under the sun which included 99% of stuff that I really don’t need.
What was mindboggling was the fact that as soon as I hit the submit button, the calls started coming as if these agencies have a direct tie-in to the DOT’s customer database for any company trying to get established in the trucking industry. This happened so often, that these calls started interfering with my regular customer calls and I lost a ton of business as a result. But undoubtedly the worst part of the entire experience came from State Farm Insurance. My agent from State Farm dropped the ball and couldn’t submit the necessary insurance requirement. This particular agent promised me the world to get all of my insurance, but when it was time to submit the insurance requirement to process the MCS-150 on the FMCSA website to obtain this delivery contract from Riverstone, she failed miserably and didn’t tell me in enough time for me to get a quote from another agent who was more familiar with this process.
Here’s a photo of late model delivery truck in the $100,000 price range.
Once I finally figured out that this first agent couldn’t adhere to the strict submittal guidelines required by FMSCA and DOT, it was too late for me to acquire the insurance because I had already spent a ton of money securing a 26-foot box truck from Enterprise Rental. In fact, this is what made the process so unfair. Riverstone Logistics has a very difficult subcontractor process that potential subcontractors have to go through. They required me to go through the ICM Portal and upload up to 10 different forms just to be able to get approved to do the deliveries. They also required me to change and submit all my paperwork under my LLC instead of my sole proprietorship. This caused us to lose about a month of time during the process. I eventually secured the truck while State Farm and Enterprise required the insurance on that truck to be based on a 26-foot box truck priced around $100K.
I actually made it happen. I secured the truck from Enterprise, got binder coverage on the truck from State Farm, and showed up at Riverstone Logistics with my crew ready to delivery appliances. But, the delivery manager said that the guy in compliance told him that my agent from State Farm didn’t upload the necessary paperwork and insurance coverage to the FMSCA website and that I would not be able to start delivering appliances that day. So, I took the truck back flabbergasted as to why the insurance that I had was good enough to drive it off the lot from Enterprise, but that particular coverage was not enough to start delivering for Riverstone.
When I did the numbers, I saw that renting, refueling, acquiring and paying insurance for a 26-foot box truck priced at $100,000, was unrealistic, so this forced me to look at other alternatives. I saw some of the former contractors delivering appliances in older trucks form Lowe’s original fleet that I confirmed the pricing to be in the $40K-$60K range. I thought it would be in my best interests to secure and finance a 26-foot box truck and I found one priced at $50,000. So obviously, the insurance charges would go down some and I could purchase that truck instead of renting a $100,000 truck from Enterprise.
So when I asked the delivery manager if I could just purchase a truck instead if they would allow me to deliver the appliances in an older truck that I financed and owned instead of one that I had to lease through Enterprise, all communication broke down from that point. In fact, he recommended that I lease the truck instead of purchasing one just in case I decided that I didn’t like delivering appliances for this company. I assured the delivery manager, that if I purchased a truck, I could find some use for it in other capacities since I am already in the moving business.
But after working with the Delivery Manager at Riverstone and getting nowhere after working for at least two months to get through their process and start delivering appliances, he stopped communicating with me to the point where the only person talking to me was a guy in their Compliance Department. Riverstone Logistics recently took over this contract from another company that had being doing it for years ever since they started outsourcing their deliveries. I even saw a lot of the old trucks with the Lowe’s logo on them still being used by guys who had made the very first transition to outsourcing, from when Lowe’s was doing their own deliveries. These trucks, some of them looked to be around 12-15 years old, were worth nowhere near the $100,000 box truck that Riverstone required me to come in with.
Here’s a 2018 International with low miles and a better liftgate priced at $50K.
And the guys driving these trucks used to work directly for Lowe’s delivering appliance, so I know these trucks are adequate. I can also assure you that anyone working for them previously, didn’t have to go through the same process as I did, so this makes it totally unfair. The said part about this whole ordeal, is that small companies like mine often get lost in this big collection of paperwork and DOT requirement shuffle, only to have our companies financially destroyed trying to qualify to do deliveries for companies like Riverstone Logistics. It’s pitiful, but I know of absolutely no one to talk to that could look into this situation and find out if I have been treated unfairly or unethically during this process. Meanwhile I continue to get calls from DOT related agencies telling me that I have to have this and that for this and that when I didn’t even get the delivery contract from Riverstone Logistics after my company contact information was given to these agencies.
The commercial auto liability insurance and cargo insurance for the $100K box truck that they required was $4,000.00 down, and $1,900.00 per month. I finally found an agent who was familiar with the FMSCA process and could get the necessary insurance requirement and file the necessary forms on the FMSCA website, but it was too late at this point because the Delivery Manager and Compliance Manager was not communicating with me to the level that I could finally get through this process and start delivering appliances. I had also gone through my budget to the point where I had to stop losing money wishing for a contract that these agencies weren’t allowing me to have.
It’s really sad now how big companies like Lowe’s are outsourcing their deliveries to companies like Riverstone that create these nearly impossible requirements for the subcontractor. If anyone reads this and knows and agency that I could have look into this situation, please don’t hesitate to refer them to me.
The unmitigated answer to that question is “hell yeah!” Moving is a service just like when a person is served food at a restaurant. It amazes me how people can watch two guys move the heaviest furniture up two, three or four flights of steps, sweating profusely, and don’t even offer to tip. I can understand if the person has spent their last dime moving, but a mover would appreciate a $5 tip as opposed to absolutely nothing.
Coming from a guy that has worked in the service industry for quite some time, tipping absolutely nothing is a proverbial slap in the face and is down right disrespectful. So what should you tip? Well, just put yourself in the position of that mover and tip with your heart. According to Forbes Magazine, here’s when to tip, more or less and when not to tip based on the overall service you have just received.
When to tip more:
When your movers have to handle oversized or particularly fragile items
When your movers are personable and kind
When your movers work quickly
When movers go above and beyond to help you set up and assemble certain items
When to tip less:
When your movers show up late or bring the wrong sized vehicle
When your movers seem to work deliberately slow, like overwrapping materials or moving inefficiently
When you have to do the brunt of the work yourself
When your movers mistreat or break your items
They also took the time to give some examples of how much the average tip should be.
2-person crew
3-person crew
4-person crew
5-person crew
2 hours
$12 – $24
$36 – $72
$48 – $96
$60 – $120
4 hours
$24 – $48
$72 – $144
$96 – $192
$120 – $240
8 hours
$96 – $192
$144 – $288
$192 – $384
$240 – $480
12 hours
$144 – $288
$216 – $432
$288 – $576
$360 – $720
Anyone reading this should do so being open-minded and always thinking about how you would like to be treated if you were the person doing the heavy lifting. We have a tipping policy clearly stated on the Home page of our website. The bottom line is, we’re working in a service industry and if the service is performed satisfactorily, a tip is the equalizer and common denominator that keeps everyone on the same page.
Recently, I had a conversation with a successful businessman discussing the best marketing strategies for my business and the first thing he asked was whether or not I was signed up to use Facebook? Since I quit Facebook and LinkedIn several years ago, I am amazed that I’ve been able to stay in business when this has been almost everyone’s go-to vehicle that’s used exclusively to promote and market their brand. When I tell everyone that I have actually achieved a decent amount of success without the help of Facebook or LinkedIn, they seem to be shocked and in disbelief.
Given the fact that there are so many other social media platforms out there, I was surprised to find out that even though Facebook is in the process of changing its entire brand over to Meta, people still call it Facebook and look at it as the same innovative social media platform that they most likely joined many many years ago. I was proud of myself that I could do it without Facebook and now view it as an extreme waste of time. I look back at how many hours I spent logged on to it and being caught in a trance. I soon learned that being connected to the Internet all the time is not all it was cracked up to be.
It got creepier when ads were being sent right to my browser because of the what I had searched for or pages I had recently viewed on Facebook. It felt weird to be driving and listening to the radio and constantly getting ads targeted at me because of the pages I had visited on Facebook or LinkedIn. This was the last straw. I value my privacy to the point where I like to make my own decisions when it comes to the things that I want to buy and be able to do it without being tracked or targeted.
From a business standpoint, I view Facebook exactly the same as LinkedIn because people give them too much credit for their own success. I also deleted my LinkedIn account after being on it for over 12 years and without getting one face-to-face interview as a result. That’s right, I’m literally embarrassed to tell people that I was on LinkedIn for that long and didn’t get one interview from it. It was the same thing year in and year out.
LinkedIn would try to sell me the upgrade package that would allow me to get in direct contact with headhunters and recruiters, but it was all to no avail. LinkedIn told me every year I was on it that my profile was in the top 5 percent and even called it a “Superstar” profile, however, that didn’t get me one face-to-face interview after submitting over 500 applications seeking employment in two states. I believe the whole concept behind LinkenIn made the site impossible to benefit from in the long run for anybody working in a corporate environment. There were even times when an employer that wasn’t even advertising on LinkedIn, would require each applicant to have a current LinkedIn profile in order to apply for that job.
After a while, I woke up and said “Really?” Is this platform worth this much of my time and am I getting anything out of it? And this was even before I learned about how they share most of their user’s information with other agencies like the FBI and CIA. Not to mention all of the divorces and relationship that Facebook and LinkedIn created when they literally turned into dating sites.
I finally looked at the reality of being on these types of platforms, how much time it took, how many relationships it ruined because of likes and dislikes, and how many of my so-call real friends came out of the woodwork to be who they really are, not true friends, just people seeking likes an attention online. I learned that my real friends are not on Facebook. I also learned that all of legitimate employment prospects, business relationships and interviews did not come from LinkedIn. Once these platforms started selling advertisements based on their user’s searches, surfing characteristics and other privacy invasions, I learned how extremely important my data and privacy actually is and the true intent of these platforms.
I have always been the type of person that believes in face-to-face interaction as opposed to hiding under a screen name on a social medial platform, so quite naturally, I am enjoying my time away from these privacy snatchers. And since I don’t crave the likes and thumbs up buttons that people view as vindication that they must be doing something good for all of mankind, or the people who follow me because of content I have posted, I feel much better.
I’m at peace knowing that my life is back to normal and I’m in control of my own emotions when it comes down to things that I do and say on a social media platform. Goodbye Facebook, goodbye LinkedIn, my life has been so much better without you.
Having only been in the moving business for slightly more than one year, I’ve learned that it is extremely competitive and challenging for a brand new moving company to compete locally. I recently had an experience that I’d like to share. I was at a random outdoor event and I ended up parking right next to the owner of a large local moving company.
Of course I didn’t know he was the owner of this large company until we started talking, but I have learned early on that a young company like mine has to always stay in networking mode in order keep our doors open and reach the proverbial 5-year milestone. So as soon as parked beside this gentleman’s vehicle, I could smell success. He was sitting parked in a brand new 2023 GMC truck that still had the paper license plate on it. I have seen the price of these trucks so I knew he paid upwards of $80K to $100K for it.
I immediately walked over to the driver’s side of the vehicle as he got out and walked toward me. We shook hands and we introduced ourselves before getting into a conversation about what we did for living. I guess the stars must have been aligned because he was the type of person that I have been wanting to meet ever since I opened this company back in 2021. He was a obviously a nice guy that was easy to approach and we hit it off right away.
After we both acknowledged being a part of the same exact industry, we began to get into a great conversation. I won’t name his company on this blog because he already has enough good publicity, but let me say that he owns one of the largest moving companies in the state of Oklahoma and he also has branch offices in several other states. He started out talking about some of the pitfalls that the owner of a moving company faces. This led to him offering some very good advice that I have already began practicing and this very same advice was taken to heart and should allow me to weather the storm and keep my business afloat in some very uncertain times that we are now in.
However, what was extremely ironic about the situation was the fact that here I was speaking to the owner of a multi-million dollar company and thinking that he would not see me as competition or a threat to his local sales, when this was the exact opposite of what happened. I was thinking that he would be honored to give “little old me” pointers on how to grow and expand my business, but this was not what transpired in our brief conversation.
He pointed out that even the smallest mover in this area was in fact his competition, and he had to learn the hard way about doing the right things to stay in business in order to keep his doors open. We talked about the difference of being legitimate, licensed and insured, as opposed to a fly by night service organization that changes its name every two or three years to escape some of the financial pitfalls that doom start-up companies like mine on a regular basis. All in all, it was perfect timing and in just 15 minutes, he probably gave me enough important advice to last for several years by side-stepping small-talk innuendo and things that could inevitably put us out of business before we reach coveted year five plateau.
The moral of the story is: Anyone and everyone still working every day, is in competition with every other company out there still working, especially if you’re in the same industry because it’s everyone’s mission to reach that coveted prize at the end. This means making the right decisions early that lead to being successfully retired and healthy enough to enjoy the fruits of our labor with enough income to live the rest of our lives out in peace and harmony.
There has been in influx of scammers on Yelp.com. The way it works is that they’ll show up in my leads box on Yelp, requesting a moving quote. Everything looks normal at first, then the scamming starts. The person requesting the quote will often list everything that they want moved in a detailed list to make me think that it’s a normal Yelp quote. This would make us think that this is a normal request for a Yelp.com user. Then, when I provide the quote, they agree to send a cashier’s check for whatever amount I quote. They do this without negotiation or anything so this is what draws a red flag. Then they agree to send the full amount in a cashier’s check before the move is even done. Once the check is received, they keep contacting me to encourage a fast deposit. Then low and behold, they come up with a sad story like their father or mother is in a military hospital and they need some of the money back to pay for their hospital care. So, they prey on the fact that I will deposit the check and immediately give them some of it back before the bank finds out that it’s fraud. I am hoping that no one else falls for this scam and Yelp doesn’t seem to care because they do nothing to investigate it and the person usually deletes their account when they know I’ve figured out that it was a scam. See what the FTC says on how to avoid these scams below.
How To Spot, Avoid, and Report Fake Check Scams
Fake checks might look like business or personal checks, cashier’s checks, money orders, or a check delivered electronically. Here’s what to know about fake check scams.
Why Do These Scams Work?
These scams work because fake checks generally look just like real checks, even to bank employees. They are often printed with the names and addresses of legitimate financial institutions. They may even be real checks written on bank accounts that belong to someone whose identity has been stolen. It can take weeks for a bank to figure out that the check is a fake.
Fake Checks and Your Bank
By law, banks have to make deposited funds available quickly, usually within two days. When the funds are made available in your account, the bank may say the check has “cleared,” but that doesn’t mean it’s a good check. Fake checks can take weeks to be discovered and untangled. By that time, the scammer has any money you sent, and you’re stuck paying the money back to the bank.
Your best bet: Don’t rely on money from a check unless you know and trust the person you’re dealing with.
How To Avoid a Fake Check Scam
Never use money from a check to send gift cards, money orders, cryptocurrency, or to wire money to anyone who asks you to. Many scammers demand that you buy gift cards and send them the PIN numbers, buy cryptocurrency and transfer it to them, or send money through wire transfer services like Western Union or MoneyGram. Once you do, it’s like you’ve given them cash. It’s almost impossible to get it back.
Toss offers that ask you to pay for a prize. If it’s free, you shouldn’t have to pay to get it. Only scammers will ask you to pay to collect a “free” prize.
Don’t accept a check for more than the selling price. You can bet it’s a scam.
What To Do If You Sent Money to a Scammer
Here are ways to try to get your money back, depending on how you paid a scammer.
Gift card. Gift cards are for gifts, not payments. Anyone who demands payment by gift card is always a scammer. If you paid a scammer with a gift card, tell the company that issued the card right away. When you contact the company, tell them the gift card was used in a scam. Ask them if they can refund your money. If you act quickly enough, the company might be able to get your money back. Also, tell the store where you bought the gift card as soon as possible.
Here is a list of gift cards that scammers often use — with information to help report a scam. If the card you used is not on this list, you might find the gift card company’s contact information on the card itself. Otherwise, do some research online.
Wire transfer. If you wired money to a scammer, call the wire transfer company immediately to report the fraud and file a complaint. Reach the complaint department of MoneyGram at 1-800-MONEYGRAM (1-800-666-3947) or Western Union at 1-800-325-6000. Ask for the money transfer to be reversed. It’s unlikely to happen, but it’s important to ask.
Money order. If you paid a scammer with a money order, contact the company that issued the money order right away to see if you can stop payment. Also, try to stop delivery of the money order: if you sent it by U.S. mail, contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455. Otherwise, contact whatever delivery service you used as soon as possible.
Cryptocurrency. If you paid with cryptocurrency, contact the company you used to send the money and tell them it was a fraudulent transaction. Ask to have the transaction reversed, if possible.
Report Fraud
If you think you’ve been targeted by a fake check scam, report it to
Recently, several satisfied customers posted favorable reviews on our portal page with Yelp, but it was brought to my attention that Yelp is not going to post those reviews because they claim we coerced or asked the customer to post them. Nothing could be further from the truth and in my humble opinion, this is one the most unfair review policies in existence today.
I mean, just think about the whole concept of reviews anyway? Most companies are only going to post the good ones and hopefully, there is no hidden agenda from Yelp to use the bad ones as ammunition to control the advertising success of their paying advertisers by controlling which reviews potential customers get a chance to see. I have used other online advertising portals such as Google, YP and Angie’s List , however, none of them harp on the reviewer’s comments more than Yelp.
With Yelp’s review policy, they use a software system that analyzes each review in several areas to find out if the reviewer was asked by the advertiser to say something nice or just post a review. Yelp has decided not to “recommend or show several of my five-star reviews on my advertising page because they are claiming that I actually asked each customer to post a good review about the service they received, when each one of the customers that posted a review on us did so on their own accord. These reviews scenarios and differences seem like simple things that two willing parties can work out amongst themselves if Yelp would allow it, however, this appears to be Yelp’s claim to fame because they are the only company that uses bad or good reviews to control which of their paid advertisers get the new customers.
There was also an instance where a satisfied customer posted a disingenuous review and she just wanted to change her comments or even take them down after I replied to the post, but Yelp would not allow her to do it. Yelp doesn’t appear to care if untrue things are said about one of their advertisers in a review that actually hurts that advertiser’s business. After having several conversations with their “Lack of Customer Service Department,” I just decided not to pay to advertise on Yelp any longer because of their unrealistic policies regarding the reviews that are posted about their advertisers.
Low and behold, I have gotten several calls from Yelp asking me to restart my advertising campaign when no one there is willing to even discuss their outdated review policy. As a paid advertiser, I only wanted a chance to show the reviews that described our company in a good way and I have noticed a decline in the amount of new customers since the bad review was posted. My next move will be to post an unfavorable, but honest review on Google about my experience with Yelp.
Google is actually much better than Yelp because they have a realistic policy regarding reviews. In fact, Google encourages it’s advertisers to ask for reviews from each customer and this is something that is totally different from Yelp. Yelp could treat its advertisers much better by explaining their review policy before the advertiser signs up and takes reviews from a mutual client.
This is a checklist and best practice that customers can benefit from.
Prior to our arrival, you should turn off and unplug all appliances that need to be moved, i.e., refrigerators, stoves, microwave ovens, etc. This includes safely wrapping the cords and then taping them to the appliance.
Flat Screen TVs need to be shrink-wrapped, boxed, and labeled before transport.
Computers are best transported inside of your personal vehicle as with any glass or other fragile items.
Bed Frames and headboards need to be taken apart, with all screws, bolts, and other attachments placed into plastic bags and labeled so that they are not lost or misplaced during transport.
Items that are not shrink-wrapped or covered with a blanket might incur scratches or slight damage during transport, so please discuss this with the mover beforehand.
All boxes and other items that need to be moved should be staged and put into an area where our movers can access them easily.
If these things are completed before we show up to move, the customer will benefit by decreasing the overall cost of labor.
At Smart e-Movers, LLC, we strive to provide the best possible moving experience but it will always take a team effort. That means, management, our crew members, our consultants as well as the client, will all need to work in unison in order to make this happen. Customers can help us by telling us all of the major and minor details regarding their move, so that we can not only provide the best quote and price, but also provide the best overall experience.
Our management, consultants and moving crews need to show integrity and deliver on what we promise. We value our customers and it is our main priority to make them happy so that they come back to us if they have to move again. Our entire staff has pledged to stay trained and up to date on the latest trends and special circumstances occurring in the moving industry on a regular basis. We are providing this forum to discuss any topics, questions or concerns about our company moving forward and would like to encourage everyone that becomes involved with our company to participate.
