Understanding the BBB

In the moving industry it is very important to take many factors into consideration when choosing a company. A few factors to look at are how long the company has been in business, how many other names the company has used and if the company is affiliated with any other businesses. Many people rely on the Better Business Bureau to provide some of these answers. It is very important that you understand the service and the rating from the BBB.

Any company can be listed on the BBB but not every one of them is a member of the BBB or an Accredited Business. If a business has been accredited by BBB, it means the BBB has determined that the business meets BBB accreditation standards. Our company has chosen to commit to making a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints rather they are legitimate or not. Every complaint we receive is processed by the BBB and posted for everyone to view. The BBB acts as a mediator to try and resolve the complaints.

Jordan River Moving & Storage is a locally owned company. This is much different from a nationwide van line that has many different companies working for them. Jordan River has been in business since June of 2000. We are not affiliated with any other company. We will handle your move from start to finish. We do not sell your job to any other company. We own all our own trucks, ten small local trucks and five 18-wheelers that go coast-to-coast. We handle over 2,000 customers per year and the number of complaints is based over a 3 year period. Out of 6,000 customers we have had only 21 complaints. That is a very small percentage of complaints. The BBB has given our company a “B” rating which we felt is very unfair and we filed a complaint against this rating. When we spoke with the BBB they indicated that the ratings can change on a daily basis and that our “B” is very good grade for our company. We feel strongly that this grade is very unfair based upon the number of referral letters we receive, the percentage of our repeat customers, and referrals and recommendations by realtors indicate a higher rating for our company.

There are 14 grades that a company can be given and a “B” rating is very good, it is above average. Local agents for larger nationwide companies may appear not to have any complaints listed under on their company name and this is because they use a local branch for selling, estimates and the move. Complaint claims are listed under the nationwide company name; this is a dirty trick that has been used by small companies as well as companies which are operating under more than one name. This can be very confusing for customers searching for a legitimate company. We at Jordan River Moving & Storage are proud of our company and our name and we are still operating under only one name.

Understanding the BBB Rating.
The BBB rating is a grade based on information known to BBB and incorporates BBB experience with the business. The BBB evaluates numerous categories of information, and reflects BBB weightings as to the relative importance of each category. This rating represents BBB’s degree of confidence the business is operating in a trustworthy manner and will make a good faith effort to resolve any customer concerns.
What are the BBB ratings http://www.bbb.org/business-reviews/ratings
The BBB rating system http://www.bbb.org/business-reviews/ratings/overview.html

BBB Rating Scale

There are many companies out there that don’t want to see Jordan River Moving & Storage succeed. Local Agents of United Van Lines, Mayflower, Bekins, and Steven’s Worldwide Van Lines in the state of Washington are five of the companies that slander us and tell lies about our company during their in home estimates. Some of the lies are really out of context, like “Jordan river Is a broker”, like “Jordan River does not have truck and they are going to sale your job”, “Jordan river will load your stuff and hold it without delivery” well they know us better, they know it is a lie and they still do it. We at Jordan River Moving & Storage are against bad mouthing as a sales technique and will never go this direction. Despite other company’s efforts to put us out of business we try to provide our customers with service that speaks for itself. We invite our customers to read all of our letters good and bad. Reference letters are posted on our website and complaints are filed on the BBB. No company is perfect and an average of 7 complaints is an extremely small number when you consider that is 7 complaints out of 2,000 customers.

We encourage our customers to do research. There are many websites to read about each company. The American Moving and Storage Association (AMSA) provides lots of information, http://www.moving.org. They provide tips on how to find a mover, moving resources and what to do before you move. They also have an association website www.promover.org. We are members of the AMSA and you can find out information about our company that the BBB may not provide. Please feel free to contact us anytime with any questions.

Jordan River Moving & Storage is working very closely with the WUTC as well. Customers call and ask us “why did you receive a fine by the WUTC”? This is a very good question that we are gladly to answer. In the last 3 years Jordan River Moving & Storage was audited by the WUTC twice. At first we did not receive any fines, all they asked was for use to fix some technical information that was missing like phone number, complete address, initials and signature by customers on bill of lading and estimate forms. We indicated that we will fix those items immediately so we got audited again a few months later. This was not enough time to implement the technical corrections already requested and this time we got fined $100 for every missing piece of information. In both times of being audited there were no fines for monetary issues of overcharging and bad practice!

Jordan River Moving & Storage lead the battle for flat travel time and charges for plastic mattress cover for the people in Washington and for that we got the big fine. After we received the fine then the WUTC changed the rule in the tariff. Try to understand our position that we cannot charge people for time in traffic, or for cartons or mattress boxes which are very expensive, hard to recycle, and cost a lot of money for the people in the state of Washington. Yes we paid the price for fighting, for being fair for refusal to overcharge people so when people call our office and say “ we don’t use you guys because you got fine by the WUTC” all we can do is smile and think “who said life is fair?”

In recent years the WUTC replaced the tariff twice and Jordan River Moving & Storage was very involved in the changes. Everything we submitted is a matter of public record and we invite customers to look into it and understand how hard we fight for better service and better pricing for the people in Washington.