Action We Take

Introduction

My Good Movers is an open platform. Anyone who hired a moving company, booked it or paid it a deposit can review it, and every mover listed on our site is held to the same rules. Those rules are set out in our Guidelines for Reviewers, our Guidelines for Moving Companies and our Terms and Conditions. They apply in the same way to movers that pay us for advertising or customer requests and to movers that don't.

Most reviewers and movers follow the rules. When someone doesn't, we use technology, our moderators and reports from our community to find the problem and act on it. This page explains what counts as misuse, what we do about it, what a warning on a mover's profile means, and how to appeal a decision.

Fake Reviews

What is a fake review?

A fake review is one that doesn't reflect a real experience with the mover. For example:

• A review written by the mover, its staff, or their family or friends.
• A review bought from a review seller, or written in exchange for money, a discount or a gift.
• A review written to hurt a competitor.
• A review written by an AI tool, or by someone who never used the mover.

Fake reviews are also illegal. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews bans writing, buying and selling fake reviews, and companies that break it can face civil penalties.

How do we find fake reviews?

Every review goes through automated checks before it's published. Our moderators look at every review our systems flag, plus a share of other reviews by hand. Anyone can also report a review they think is fake. See How We Keep Reviews Trustworthy for each step a review goes through.

What we do

• Movers: We remove the fake reviews. If we see a pattern, or evidence that the mover was behind them, we take action against the mover. This can go from a notice up to a public warning on its profile or removal of its listing. See How We Respond, Step by Step, below.
• Reviewers: We remove the review and email the reviewer to explain why. If it happens again, we may stop that person from posting new reviews.

Review Invitations

What's allowed?

Movers can invite their customers to review them by email from their My Good Movers dashboard. These reviews show an "Invited" label. We may also invite customers who requested quotes through My Good Movers and hired a mover. Reviews from our invitations, and reviews where the customer shows us proof of the move, show a "Verified" label.

To keep invitations fair, a mover must invite all its customers in the same way, whether the move went well or not. It must use our standard invitation and must never offer anything for a review.

Examples of misuse

• Inviting only customers the mover thinks are happy, or asking first how the move went and then inviting only the happy ones.
• Choosing which customers to invite when the plan's monthly limit means not everyone can be invited, instead of inviting them in the order their moves were completed.
• Offering a discount, refund, gift or prize entry for a review.
• Telling customers what to write or what rating to give.
• Inviting employees, their family or friends, or anyone else connected to the company.
• Asking customers to write a review on the crew's phone or tablet.
• Sending unhappy customers to a private feedback form and only happy customers to My Good Movers.
• Sending invitations to people who never used the mover.
• Using the invitation tool to send marketing or anything other than a review request.

What we do

• Movers: We remove reviews collected through unfair invitations. We may turn off the mover's invitation tool for a set time or for good, and take further action if it happens again.
• Reviewers: If you got an invitation that offered you a reward or told you what to write, please let us know. Your honest review is still welcome.

Pressuring Customers About Reviews

Customers have the right to post honest reviews. Under the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act, a contract term that bans honest reviews or charges a fee for them can't be enforced. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews also bans using threats, intimidation or false accusations to stop a review or get one removed.

Examples of misuse

• A contract clause that limits reviews or charges a fee for them.
• Threatening legal action, or making false accusations, to stop or remove a review.
• Holding back or delaying a customer's belongings because of a review.
• Making a refund, discount or repair depend on changing or removing a review.
• Contacting a reviewer again and again to pressure them about their review.

What we do

We treat pressure on customers as serious misuse. We can skip the early steps and go straight to a public warning on the mover's profile, suspend or remove its listing, and report it to the FTC. Holding a customer's belongings hostage also breaks federal law for interstate movers, and we report it to FMCSA.

A mover is always welcome to fix a customer's problem. If the customer then chooses to update their review, that's their decision.

Reporting Reviews

How do I report a review?

Use the "Report" button on the review and tell us why you think it breaks our guidelines. Movers can also dispute a review from their dashboard. A moderator usually looks at reports within one to three days. While we check, the review may be hidden for a short time.

Reporting is for reviews that really break our guidelines. A review that follows them stays published, however many times it's reported.

Examples of misuse by movers

• Reporting reviews just because they're negative or have a low rating.
• Reporting honest reviews as fake, again and again.
• Reporting the same review again after we've made a decision, without new information.
• Reporting many reviews in a short time without a real reason.

Examples of misuse by reviewers and others

• Reporting reviews that follow our guidelines, again and again.
• Reporting reviews to hurt a mover or to help a competitor.

What we do

We start with a notice that explains the rules. If it continues, we may stop accepting reports from that person or company. For movers, we may also take further action, such as a formal warning.

Review Content and Mover Replies

Reviews and mover replies must follow our guidelines. We remove content that includes threats, hate speech, obscene content, private information such as a phone number or home address, advertising or spam. If only part of a review breaks our rules, we may remove just that part or ask the reviewer to edit it. We check mover replies before they go live.

If someone keeps posting content that breaks our rules, we may stop that person from posting new reviews, or turn off a mover's ability to reply.

We never remove a review just because it's negative or because a mover asked us to.

Mover Profiles and Listings

What must a mover's profile show?

Everything on a mover's profile must be true and up to date. That includes its real business name, address and service areas, the USDOT number (and MC number, if it has one) that matches its FMCSA record, and whether it's a moving company (carrier), a broker or both.

Examples of misuse

• Using another company's name, logo or reviews, or a business name or USDOT number that doesn't match its FMCSA record.
• Saying it's a moving company when it's a broker, or hiding that it's a broker.
• Making claims it can't back up, such as "fully insured," "#1 rated" or "licensed in all 50 states."
• Changing its website or phone number to send customers to a different business.

Who can't be listed?

• Interstate movers and brokers without active FMCSA registration and authority.
• Businesses that don't offer moving services.
• Companies pretending to be another moving company.
• Companies we have strong evidence are involved in fraud or in holding customers' belongings hostage.

What we do

We correct or remove information that's wrong. We check each interstate mover's USDOT number and FMCSA registration before we list it, and we recheck regularly. If a mover's federal authority becomes inactive or is revoked, we suspend or remove its listing and stop sending it customer requests. If we have strong evidence of fraud, we remove the listing. See Licensing, Brokers and Carriers.

Using Our Name, Ratings and Reviews

Movers are welcome to share their My Good Movers reviews and rating in their own marketing, as long as they do it honestly. Examples of misuse:

• Showing an old rating instead of the current one.
• Editing reviews or quoting them out of context.
• Picking out a few positive reviews in a way that suggests the overall rating is higher than it is.
• Calling a review "Verified" when it doesn't show that label on My Good Movers.
• Using our name or logo in a way that suggests we endorse the mover, rank it higher than we do, or work for it.

We first ask the mover to fix it. If it doesn't, we may send a formal warning, show a warning on its profile, or take legal action.

Using Our Data

Our reviews, ratings and mover information are here to help people plan a move. Using bots, scrapers or other automated tools to copy data from our site without our written permission isn't allowed. That includes copying it to train AI models or for any commercial use. We block this kind of access and may take legal action.

Abuse and Threats

We don't accept threats or abuse toward reviewers, movers or our team, on our site or off it. For example:

• A customer threatening to post a bad review unless the mover gives them something for free.
• A mover threatening or harassing a customer over a review.
• Anyone harassing our moderators or staff about a decision.

We act quickly to protect people. We may remove content, stop someone from using our site, and contact law enforcement if someone's safety is at risk.

How We Respond, Step by Step

For movers

We usually start small and step up if the problem continues. In serious cases, such as fake reviews on a large scale, threats or holding belongings, we can skip steps.

1. Notice. We email the mover, explain what we found and what our rules say.
2. Formal warning. If the problem continues, we send a formal warning and may ask the mover to confirm in writing that it will stop.
3. Limits on tools. We may turn off the mover's invitation tool, limit its reporting, pause its replies or pause customer requests.
4. Lower visibility. We may move the mover's profile lower in our results.
5. Public warning. We show a warning on the mover's profile so customers know what happened.
6. Removal. We may end paid agreements, and suspend or remove the listing.
7. Authorities. We may report serious cases to the FTC, FMCSA or a state attorney general.

Paying us for a subscription, add-ons or leads never stops us from acting, and a warning can't be removed in exchange for payment. If we end a paid agreement because of a serious breach, our Terms and Conditions explain what happens to prepaid fees.

What does a warning on a mover's profile mean?

A warning means we found clear evidence that the mover broke our rules, such as posting fake reviews or pressuring customers. The warning says what we found in plain words, with a "Learn why" link to this page. For example:

A warning stays on the profile for at least 90 days, and until the mover has fixed the problem.

Notices that don't mean a mover did anything wrong

Sometimes we show a short notice on a profile to help customers decide, without saying the mover did anything wrong. For example:

• Registration notice: FMCSA records show the company's registration or authority isn't active right now.
• Review check: We noticed unusual review activity on this profile and we're checking it.

A notice is for information only. We remove it once the issue is resolved.

For reviewers

Reviewers don't need an account to post on My Good Movers, so our steps are simple:

1. We remove the review, or the part that breaks our rules, and email the reviewer to explain why.
2. If it happens again, we send a warning.
3. If it continues, or the misuse is serious, we stop that person from posting new reviews.

Appealing a Decision

If you think we got a decision wrong, you can ask us to look at it again. Movers and reviewers can both appeal.

How do I appeal?

1. Reply to the email we sent you about the decision. Explain why you disagree, and share anything that helps, such as a booking confirmation, contract, invoice, bill of lading or emails.
2. If you didn't get an email, or your reply didn't resolve it, file an appeal at [email protected] (subject “Appeal”) within 30 days of the decision. Include your name, the mover's name or a link to the review, the decision you're appealing and why.

What happens next?

• A member of our team who didn't make the first decision reviews your appeal.
• We reply within 10 business days. If we need more time, we'll tell you why.
• The first decision stays in place while we review your appeal.
• We may keep, change or reverse the decision. We'll tell you the outcome and the reason.
• You can appeal each decision once, unless you have new information.

Appealing doesn't affect any legal rights you have.

Let Us Know

If you see something that breaks our rules, please tell us.

• A review: Use the "Report" button on the review.
• A review invitation that offered a reward or told you what to write: Report it and include a copy of the invitation.
• A mover that pressured or threatened you, or held back your belongings: Report it. You can also file a complaint with FMCSA through Protect Your Move or by calling 1-888-DOT-SAFT (1-888-368-7238), and report fraud to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Changes to This Page

We may update this page from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it last changed.

Related articles

• Guidelines for Reviewers
• Guidelines for Moving Companies
• Report a Concern