Moving from one home to another is a complicated process that requires perfect planning and even more error-free execution in order to be a complete success.
In the best-case scenario, your own house move will go smoothly from start to finish and you won’t have to deal with any problems whatsoever. Unfortunately, you won’t always be able to control every single aspect of the move and some unexpected issues (call them hiccups if you like) may easily appear out of thin air, without a proper invitation at that.
One issue you may encounter when moving house is your movers to be late for pick-up or delivery. It can be a nerve-wracking experience to wait for your movers to arrive without knowing the cause of the delay or if they will make it to your home at all.
When your movers don’t show up, it’s super important that you stay calm and composed. Also, it’s important that you do something about it too, not just stand there keeping your fingers crossed.
What to do when your movers are late? Be proactive and follow the logical steps below.
What to do when your movers are late for pickup
When you find yourself pacing up and down the room on the day of your move, looking rather nervously at your watch every 2 minutes or so, then that’s an unmistakable sign that your movers must be running late for pick-up.
In fact, your moving company should have been in your home hours ago. What’s happening? All you know is that your movers are late, very late, and that will just wreak havoc on the rest of your plans not only for Moving day itself but for the next few days as well.
There’s no trace of your movers. Nothing. And during a nail-biting time like that, you can surely use a checklist that details the steps you need to follow so that you don’t just stand there, doing nothing but getting yourself sick with worry.
Actually, the worst thing you can do when your movers didn’t show up is to do nothing – you definitely need to be doing something, and the steps below will tell you what that something is.
Step 1. Remain calm
Now, staying calm while your moving company is nowhere to be seen does sound like one of those easier-said-than-done things. Nevertheless, keeping your cool is exactly what you should do simply because you don’t yet know the reason for the delay.
Hopefully, soon you’ll know exactly why your professional movers are missing in action, and until you do, you must not let panic take over.
Think about it: what’s the worst-case scenario? Even if your movers never showed up for pickup (unlikely), your valuable possessions would be there with you, safe as they could be. In reality, the worst thing that could happen is you losing the deposit money (again, not very likely).
Yes, you’d surely lose precious time but at least your things would be safe and sound.
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Step 2. Check your moving contract
The second step when your moving company is late is to check the moving contract to see whether the arrival time is an estimated time or not. It can turn out that you may be thinking your movers should arrive at 8 am when, in reality, you’ve already signed a contract saying that the pros will be in your home anywhere between 8 am and 10 am.
Before you move on to Step 3 where you’re supposed to contact the moving company for an explanation, you want to be sure that your movers are really late, not just taking their time within the agreed time frame.
If the contract confirms that your movers are way past the scheduled time of arrival, then it’s time to learn the true reason for their absence.
Step 3. Get in touch with the moving company
Understandably, many people will consider this to be the first logical step if their movers are late for pick-up. And while that’s okay – after all, who wouldn’t want to know right away why something is not as it’s supposed to be, it’s a good idea for you to have followed the previous two steps first simply because 1) you don’t want to be too angry when you make that call, and 2) you may have only thought your movers were late when, in fact, they are not.
So, now you can go ahead and call the mover’s head office to request more information about why there isn’t a moving truck in front of your home. You should have their phone number in the moving contract. If you don’t see it anywhere, visit the company’s web page to get it.
As long as you’ve hired a reputable moving company, you shouldn’t have a problem reaching them for the explanation they owe you.
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Step 4. Request specific information from your mover
WHEN is more important than WHY.
Once you reach their head office, introduce yourself, explain the situation and that you’re still waiting on the moving crew to arrive, and then ask the million-dollar question: WHEN will your movers arrive?
You don’t really need to ask them the WHY question – they can tell you a hundred and one reasons why the movers are not there yet, and there’s no way for you to know if they are telling you the truth or if they are lying to you.
Remember that the WHEN question should be all you care about so that you can regroup and do something useful until the pros do arrive. So, request specific information about the new estimated time of arrival of the moving crew.
Don’t let the person you’re speaking to be evasive – you must find out WHEN the movers are arriving so that you can find a good way to use the time in-between.
Step 5. Improvise based on what you’re told
Arguably, this is the most crucial step when your movers have failed to arrive at the scheduled time. The most important thing here is to make the best decision based on what you’re told from the mover’s head office.
If you’re told the movers are coming any minute now, then you don’t have much to worry about.
If you’re told the moving specialists will arrive in a few hours, then you should use the time to check if you’re really ready for their arrival. Are all boxes packed and labeled? Are all furniture pieces properly disassembled and protected? Have you prepared the essentials boxes? Are all valuables packed safely, apart from the rest of your regular belongings?
If you’re told that the moving team won’t make it to your home until the next day, then, despite the major setback, you can still make it work by rearranging your own schedule.
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Step 6. Consider all your options
If nobody’s answering the phone, try again in 10 minutes or so. If you fail to reach the company in several attempts, look for an alternative phone number on their website. Again, if you’ve done your homework, then the moving company you’ve selected should be legitimate, licensed and trustworthy, meaning that sooner or later you should be able to reach them.
If all your attempts to reach your mover have failed, then you can choose to wait one day to see whether the moving company will try to reach YOU. On the other hand, if you can’t afford to lose an entire day, then you have the option to go with another mover.
Sometimes, certain moving companies will agree to take such last-minute moves, especially if they are not booked for that day. Use our moving cost estimator to get in touch with same-day movers that can save the day for you.
What to do when your movers are late for delivery
It’s usually much more stressful when your moving company is late for delivery for one single reason: they’ve got all your belongings.
Here’s what to do if your movers are late with delivering your household items to the new address.
Step 1. Don’t hit the PANIC button
Again, the most important thing you should do is try to remain calm. After all, there are even more reasons now for the mover to be running late: fighting bad traffic, having a flat tire, having technical issues with the truck, or even going to the wrong address.
Anything can happen on the road and besides, you shouldn’t exclude the human factor too – family emergencies for any of the team members, or one of the movers getting sick, thus creating scheduling difficulties for the moving company.
Whatever the reason for the mover’s delay in delivering your items, you won’t improve the situation by hitting the panic button. On the contrary, you’ll only make it worse for yourself.
Step 2. Check the paperwork, again
Mix-ups on both ends can happen so you need to make sure you’ve got it right at your end. Check carefully the contract with the moving company. The majority of cross country movers give a 2-day window for delivery, thus insuring themselves against unforeseen delays on the road.
If the contract says that they should have arrived by that time, then it’s time to move to Step 3 where, again, you’ll try to get an explanation about the obvious delivery delay.
Step 3. Contact the movers
Call the head office of the moving company to seek an explanation about why your household items have not been delivered yet and more importantly, WHEN they will be delivered. Almost always it’ll turn out to be a delay, but the real question here is whether that delay will be a few hours or a few days.
If you’re informed that your items are expected to be delivered in a few hours, then you can surely use that time to do some useful stuff around the new home. Without any furniture in your way, that should be a good time to give the new place a thorough clean.
If you’re informed that your items won’t be delivered for at least another day, or maybe more, then you’ll really need to come up with a survival plan until you get reunited with your things. You may need to stay at a local hotel for a few days or ask a friend to stay with them during that emergency situation.
It’s always a good idea to have a backup plan and plan in advance for the eventuality of your items not being delivered on time by your mover.
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Step 4. Let the mover know you’re not happy
A promise is a promise.
Do your best to stay calm because getting angry won’t change a thing, and it won’t speed up the delivery in any way. In most cases, you will be given a new estimated time of delivery and, more importantly – some peace of mind that your valuable possessions are safe.
That is the perfect opportunity to let your moving company know that you’re very unhappy with the way things are going and that you expect to be reimbursed for the extra charges you’ve incurred due to that delay.
In fact, getting a delivery compensation when your movers are late for delivery won’t be easy, and it will partly depend on whether the contract guarantees a delivery date or not.
Step 5. Take action
If for some odd reason, you can’t get in touch with the moving company that was supposed to deliver your items long ago, then it’s reasonable to wait one full day for an answer from them. In the meantime, keep trying to reach them, both by phone and via e-mail.
If you are unable to get in touch with your mover for a few days (very unlikely), then that could be a bad sign. If you fear the worst, then it’s time to alert the authorities about a possible moving scam.
Contact the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) at 1-888-DOT-SAFT (1-888- 368-7238) Monday – Friday 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time to seek advice on what you are expected to do next.
Important: If you do hear from your mover and they demand more money to deliver your items, then that’s a sure sign that you’ve become a victim of moving fraud. If that happened, then you should call the police first, then contact the FMCSA as instructed above.
Must-read: Protect your move: Smart ways to avoid moving scams
BONUS STEP: Leave a moving review
Regardless of whether your moving company was late for pick-up or for delivery (or maybe both!), it’s your duty to leave a moving review about what happened, especially if the mover has refused to compensate you in any way for the inconvenience.
If you’re unhappy with the services of your moving company, then you should warn others about their lack of professionalism. As an added bonus, you may use that negative review as leverage to get the compensation you deserve.
Visit reputable moving company reviews websites such as MyMovingReviews and Yelp to rate your mover and, hopefully, help other people choose more reliable moving companies in the future.
There are all kinds of reasons you can’t rearrange your schedule when movers don’t show up until the next day: you are scheduled to close on your new house across the country and have to leave the next day to get there; you have to show up for work at a new job by a certain date; the cleaners are coming the next day; you don’t own the house anymore the next day and the new owners are moving in; you have travel reservations; your lease ends the day the movers are supposed to come, etc. Movers who can’t figure out how long it takes to do their jobs are incompetent.
my night mare is I called priority movers first,, 10 days after they were supposed to be there I fired them and went with trinity who subs out to black bear moving. trinity quoted me $3600 for 750 sq feet even after I spent 20 minutes on the phone telling him EVERYTHING I had.. Black Bear movers arrived and after all my stuff was on the truck told me I had 1500 sq feet so I figured it would be $7700. I about died when he said it was $9766. I was $1500 CASH to cancel and take my stuff off the truck but it was the end of the month and I would have to pay another months rent.. I almost lost my house because I wasn’t there for escrow…
My stuff was due several days ago and when I finally got in touch with someone I was told my stuff was STILL in calif (I moved to Tenn) and they had 30 days to deliver my stuff (they have 10 days left) … SO,,, what do I do when the 30 days are over and my stuff is not here ???
It’s now 3 weeks outside the last day of our delivery window. First delivery call was apparently an error. Second call and the delivery never showed. Third call never showed and we were informed today it wasn’t loaded and they don’t know when it will be. We have been without 95% of our belongings since 3/12. Company is evasive and rarely returns calls and almost never answers. What type of action can we take – if our belongs ever DO arrive?
I am in the same situation. Last time I heard from the movers was 12/05/2021. Don’t know what to do. I need some suggestions. They don’t answer their phone. Don’t return calls.