Mandy,

I will start from answering your second question first:

In your particular case it is less problematic to review your inventory upon arrival, since your move would be done in one day (hence, technically it is not a long distance, but a local move). What you should do is have one of your family members observe the loading of the truck, while others are watching the movers in the house, and then upon delivery have them unload all the items and boxes, and then thoroughly inspect the truck for any items that could be left behind (I would be more concerned about things like bed frames that are often forgotten under heaps of moving blankets).

That should be enough to make sure nothing is missing.

Just to note, the real problems with missing items and boxes usually occur during long distance moves, since the items are unloaded from the truck into a transitional storage and only then loaded again on an interstate truck, usually together with other shipments. In that case the items can be:

• lost (or stolen...) in the transitional storage (or during the unloading/loading),
• not being loaded with the shipment on the interstate truck,
• delivered by mistake to a previous customer (on the way to you), or
• left behind with next shipments.

Unfortunately, the only way to completely protect yourself from that would be self moving (you pack all your items yourself and lock the container). Other then that, a customer should mark and number all the boxes, and make sure that movers correctly attach all the inventory stickers during the pick-up.

One thing you should not worry about - the movers have to wait until you are completely satisfied with the count of your items upon delivery, and you should only sign when you finished going over your items. If anything is damaged or missing - make sure you specify it on the inventory form to ensure you are compensated accordingly.

To your first question - since July we are only helping people with movers through private communication, so you are welcome to email us to ratemymover@movinganswers.org with specific information about the mover in question (name, city, state, USDOT or MCC license number).