Nancy Irvine, CAM President
If you could say something directly to the police …
Thank you to those of you who have had the chance to answer the three questions we put out two weeks ago asking about your feelings of business health and the economy. We’ve had a great response, and the opinions provided will be helpful for information being put together for us by leading economist Faisal Karmali, who is laying out what we can expect in the future as Canada, and the world, continue to wade through the roller coaster of our semi post-COVID business life.
Those who have answered the survey noticed that we snuck in a bonus question asking, “Do you think that the household goods moving industry is adequately regulated?”
The responses that have come in so far from that very simple question have been both complex and telling, revealing the frustration our members have had with the legal response over the decades and that we movers clearly have been affected by fraudulent moving practices.
And we would love to hear more.
I had a very long conversation with Constable Chris Long of Toronto Police Service 41 Division, over the Thanksgiving weekend. Chris is the lead investigator on the warehouse raid of notorious scammers Move Me Again (and their dozen other identities), and as well acts as the hub in the wheel of justice whose spokes are now reaching out to other jurisdictions where individual police are taking moving fraud seriously.
In that conversation, Chris and I talked about the failure of the police over the years. He is forthcoming about the failure of law enforcement across the country, and indeed, himself. We talked about some ways in which law-enforcement and regulators could come up with some adjustments to current regulations (or lack of regulations) which would protect consumers, of course, but also legitimate moving companies like yours. Some of you have spoken to Chris already and he is not afraid of the difficult conversations we must have. He actually is encouraging them.
If you think that your voice doesn’t matter, then think about all the times you’ve lost business over the years due to ridiculously low quotes and promises of scammers. While Chris doesn’t have specific historical numbers, he certainly is aware of just how much business was already booked by June 24th for a summer of scamming by this one operation. The amount is staggering … and basically stolen not only from the customers, but also from your bottom-line as you, in the end, could have provided a legitimate, well-meaning, service for less.
We will have several police representatives at the conference in Edmonton who look forward to having group and individual discussions with those in attendance. They want to hear your stories and how you are affected. They want to learn and understand, so they can go back and press for resolution to this growing problem.
And it is growing. Technology has made it so much easier to get unsuspecting consumers to buy into their low-quote scheming. Customers aren’t stupid, as many of us have said over the years. Most are being brainwashed by these companies that we’re the bad guys in all of this and we’re the ones scamming with our high estimates. Our members are being discredited by these criminals and it must stop.
I encourage those of you who can make it to Edmonton to come and join us for the entire conference, but especially, for the regulations discussions on Tuesday, November 15th. I am especially looking forward to the open forum conversation (which will not be recorded) where you can give a straight-shooting answer or comment. I certainly have things I could say, and I hope you will too.
But if you can’t make it, the police are interested in hearing feedback from CAM members on the moving industry climate in a follow-up mini survey, given your hundreds of years of combined experience. We will keep the survey anonymous, so you don’t feel like they’re fishing for info on your company. Almost all questions are yes/no, and explanations/comments are completely voluntary.
In my opinion, this is too important an issue that affects the future of our industry to not be involved in some way. Please come out to our conference, answer the survey questions, or speak directly to Chris and his cohorts (we can connect you).
We certainly hear what you are saying, and I can promise you that those police in attendance will be listening.