This is a picture of my front lawn with items that never made it onto the moving truck despite being on my "affordable estimate." Despite research into moving companies, my family is now one of the many who have fallen prey to a moving scam. We were given an estimate, led to believe that these items could fit on the truck and in our budget, but as the movers loaded our truck and were crunching made-up numbers (proof of which our bill of lading was more than the biggest moving truck can hold) in front of our faces, we were forced into a corner and had to make tough decisions about our furniture. As expensive as this move was to be, having these pieces would have been able to tide us over until we could afford new furniture. In the wake of our move, we have been conducting research as to our recourse and have discovered that currently, the laws on the books do not give consumers enough rights to protect them from scams, and not enough recourse in the almost-certain eventuality that they will be scammed. Even going with "well-recognized", but franchised names is no guarantee that a moving company will be reliable. Many movers are protected from lawsuits by the Carmack Amendment which protects shipping companies from liability in case a shipment arrives with damages. Unscrupulous companies take it a step further by subjecting wary, tired, emotionally spent consumers to moving-day extortion based on measurements that most consumers have no way to verify leading up to the move, and as movers are often booked well in advance, have no other course of action other than to pay upfront or upon delivery as they sign the contract/bill of lading guaranteeing payment with no way to back out, or even knowing what the final bill will be as if done by weight, the weight is calculated after the truck leaves the pick-up site. As it stands the most a consumer can sue for is actual damage to items; not aggravation, time lost, money lost from items that were not included on the truck, time lost from work due to rescheduled pick-up dates, money lost from changing travel plans due to movers not arriving on time etc. Even though current law and policy make it illegal to charge customers by cubic feet, too many still do and consumers with heavy items such as books, rely on as at least on the day of the move one can theoretically measure the moving truck with a tape-measure. Too many unscrupulous companies can pose as reliable companies and not give on-site estimates or rely on moving calculator apps which has little bearing on a moving-day actual scenario. Moving is a stressful time full of life-altering decisions. Sometimes it happens with months to plan, others in weeks or even days. There is often not enough time to properly research companies and it is too easy to fall victim to a company who contacts you when you input your name into "moving-assist" websites. Currently, despite getting estimates from multiple companies comparing them is literally "apple seeds to orange seeds to grapefruit seeds" as when you are looking at numbers in advance of your move there are too many confusing factors such as when you booked them, day or date you chose for your move, what items you put on your estimate, whether or not storage is necessary and for how long.--its virtually impossible to know how everything will "grow" on moving day and which fruit will have the better yield and currently too many companies can take advantage of vulnerable people because there is too much incentive to cheat, and not enough to protect consumers.