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Better Business Bureau St. Louis advises consumers to use caution if doing business with We the Best Movers LLC, a St. Louis-based moving company. We the Best Movers LLC is the latest business operated by an individual currently under scrutiny by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.
We the Best Movers LLC was organized in January 2023, according to Missouri secretary of state records. It was organized by Edis Secic, who is one of several people listed as defendants in a lawsuit filed by the Missouri Attorney General in May 2022 against a group of St. Louis-based moving companies. BBB previously issued consumer warnings about two companies named in the suit – Road to Load Best Movers LLC and United Relocation Movers LLC. The lawsuit is pending.
In the lawsuit, the Attorney General alleges that since at least 2008, the “defendants and various unknown coconspirators have engaged in a systematic course of racketeering activity within the household goods moving industry. Defendants and their litany of shell corporations receive business through third party brokers, many of which do not make clear to the consumers that they are merely brokers and will not be conducting the moves themselves. These brokers obtain business by underbidding the competition, and then refer the contracts to disreputable movers such as Defendants, who rarely if ever honor the brokers’ estimates. Consumers have no meaningful way to investigate the history of the company that will actually be moving their belongings because the consumers typically do not learn the mover’s identity until the moving truck arrives.”
Secic has denied those allegations, and We the Best Movers LLC is not named in the earlier-field lawsuit.
BBB attempts to reach the We the Best Movers LLC for comment failed and it did not respond to a BBB letter regarding how it plans to address its pattern of customer complaints.
Complaints received by BBB about We the Best Movers LLC mirror those filed by consumers against the businesses named in the attorney general’s suit, which is pending. Consumers tell BBB they were overcharged for moves, which were set up by moving brokers. Consumers told BBB they were not compensated for missing or damaged items, they did not receive refunds and had trouble communicating with We the Best Movers LLC.
We the Best Movers LLC has an “F” rating, the lowest on BBB’s scale due to several recent unanswered complaints. The business also has received recent negative customer reviews.
“When consumers schedule moves through brokers, they often lose the ability to research the business that will do their move,” said Michelle L. Corey, BBB St. Louis president and CEO. “This can lead to problems like unprofessional moves where the deliveries are delayed or never completed. It is imperative that consumers do their research when they hire a moving company.”
A woman from Greenwood, Indiana, told BBB that her 81-year-old mother paid more than $38,000 for a move from Arizona to Indiana in June 2023. The woman paid a moving broker from Florida an additional $6,000 for a move that was supposed to cost $12,200. At the time of the move, representatives with We the Best Movers LLC said the woman would have to pay an additional $32,106 upon arrival in Indiana to unload the shipment. She could only pay with cashier’s check.
“She didn’t know anything about We the Best Movers until they called to tell her they would be late to pick her things up,” the woman’s daughter told BBB.
The woman’s items were moved with two rental trucks, her daughter told BBB. The daughter told BBB her mother tried to make a claim with We the Best Movers LLC for lost and damaged items. The woman was offered $900, but never received any money, her daughter said.
“She was charged more than $38,000, and she didn’t even receive all of her stuff,” the woman’s daughter told BBB.
A Jacksonville, Florida, man told BBB that he wound up dealing with We the Best Movers LLC after arranging a move through a Florida-based moving broker in June 2023. The man said he paid the broker $1,100. He said We the Best Movers LLC kept his items for more than a month after picking up his items in Dallas, Texas.
The man said it was difficult to contact the company to find out where his items were. He said he was forced to pay an extra $1,200 for his items to be delivered. The man told BBB some of his items were damaged and that he found several boxes that were filled with paper that he had not packed. He believed the company used those extra boxes to charge him more for the move.
A woman from Joplin, Missouri, told BBB she contracted a move with a Florida-based moving broker in June 2023 and wound up having We the Best Movers LLC handle her move from Dallas. The woman told BBB that a representative from We the Best Movers LLC demanded an additional $3,000 on the day of the move. She gave the company a cashier’s check for that amount.
The woman told BBB she believes that she overpaid We the Best Movers by approximately $1,000. She said she has not been able to recover that money from the business.
BBB offers these tips on how to hire a mover:
- Research any business and its owners before paying any money. Check the company’s BBB Business Profile at BBB.org or by calling 888-996-3887.
- Be wary of movers who don’t make an on-site inspection of your goods and give an estimate over the phone or by email.
- Get at least three written, in-home estimates. Remember that the lowest estimate may be an unrealistic low-ball offer that can cost you in the end.
- Watch out for movers who demand cash or a large deposit before the move.
- Be careful of company websites that have no address and no information about a mover’s registration or insurance.
- Consider taking out insurance to cover any losses; be cautions of movers who claim all items are covered by their insurance.
- Pay by credit card whenever possible in case you need to challenge the payment.
- Search the company through the U.S. Department of Transportation.
- If you feel like you have been wronged, file complaints with BBB and the state’s attorney general’s office.
- To learn more about moving scams, read this BBB study.
