Beware Of Moving Company Surcharges: Watchdog

The Consumer Council has urged people relocating overseas to watch out for moving companies’ surcharges as it records a surge in complaints this year.

The watchdog said it received 20 complaints about overseas moving services from January to July, compared to just one during the same period last year.

A total of 11 complaints were received in 2019.

The council's chief executive, Gilly Wong, said eight of them are related to overcharging or hidden charges, while six complainants said their belongings either arrived late or were lost.

One complainant who sent her belongings to New Zealand paid a HK$13,000 surcharge.

"Last year people could not move overseas. So once the pandemic got slightly more settled, people started moving out for many reasons... Because of Covid-19, the shipment schedule is not as predictable as before. That also brought us cases about very late delivery," Wong explained.

The council's secret shopper survey on 15 moving companies found that they might charge extra fees for warehouse storage due to port congestion and "elevator fees" for the delivery.

The watchdog urged consumers to pay attention to details like the shipping schedule, estimated delivery time, possible additional storage fees and the reputation of movers, instead of just looking at the quotations they were provided.