Watch out for hidden ‘extras’ when moving house, watchdog warns
Consumer Council had 22 complaints last year about home moving companies charging as much as 10 times their quote
If the price quoted for your home removal service seems too good to be true, it probably is.
This was the warning from the Consumer Council yesterday after it received complaints of customers being charged up to 10 times what they were initially quoted for the service.
The watchdog said unscrupulous operators sometimes waited until all of their customers' belongings had been loaded into their vans before demanding the inflated price.
Citing 22 related complaints received last year, it said some companies would claim there was more furniture than expected, while others pointed to the "unexpected" presence of staircases or slopes that they said caused extra work.
In one case, a person was quoted HK$600 but was asked for HK$6,000 when all the household goods were already in the removal company's vehicle.
Police were called but the complainant still had to pay HK$1,800 - triple the initial quote.