alt Hacker NewsThe article is a useful piece of advice, "when you can't get money owed from a company, go to their insurer", but _why_ are movers so notoriously bad?
I think the core problem here is a few things. 1) being entirely reliant on other people, 2) people with no incentive to care, and 3) no recourse when things go wrong. When all three combine, it only takes the smallest thing for the shit to hit the fan. This is common with movers, car mechanics, tradespeople, police, interactions with large faceless corporations etc.
The first, being reliant on people, is a more modern phenomenon and something you can mitigate with some proper planning and "lifestyle design." A combination of useful skills, close friends/family, and spare time/money are the answer. The second you can help by being friendly and getting to know people, even better if you have some sort of local connection; if they know they'll see you around town they will be less likely to screw you over. The third is often money: withholding (part of) payment until work is complete, credit card chargebacks, small claims court, etc.
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A big issue is sub-contracting and diffusion of responsibilities. Often the person you're doing business with isn't the person who actually delivers the service to you, who instead is just a lowly paid worker who has no control or freedom to make decisions.
When I got my bathroom remodeled I talked over the design and gave the first payment to a friendly guy who assured me that all of my demands and expectations would be met.
A week later the workers show up and they're subcontractors who barely speak English, don't know anything about what I discussed with the first guy, and have no responsibility to listen to me since they work for the other guy, not for me. Meanwhile the sales guy is suddenly too busy to answer my phone calls.
Part of the issue with movers is that you hire them rarely and so they don’t rely much on repeat business. Car dealers have a similar problem.
One interesting exercise is to identify all the situations in your life that are like this (reliant on other people who have no incentive to care, where you have limited recourse.) The list for your average person is probably fairly long: landlord, bank, CC issuer, Google, Apple, Amazon, power/water/sewer company, mechanic/plumber/HVAC/electrician/any trades you cannot do on your own, physical stores you rely on (Walmart, Target etc), cops/other officials you do not know, the list is infinite.
I think this is a large part of why people feel like they don't have control over their lives anymore: because they don't.