Guide
If a mover is holding your goods hostage
Last updated
If a moving company is refusing to unload your belongings until you pay more than you agreed, you are not in a negotiation. You are in a situation federal regulation anticipates specifically, and there is a channel for it.
FMCSA Consumer Complaint Hotline
That’s 1-888-DOT-SAFT, open 8am–8pm Eastern, Monday to Friday. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, dial 7-1-1 for telecommunications relay services. Or file online at the National Consumer Complaint Database — which works at any hour and creates a written record, so use it as well as calling, not instead.
The rule they are probably breaking: 110%
For an interstate move under a non-binding estimate, federal regulation (49 CFR §375.407) requires the mover to release your shipment on delivery if you pay 110% of the non-binding estimate. They cannot demand the full disputed amount as a condition of unloading. Whatever remains in dispute becomes an ordinary billing dispute, to be settled after your belongings are in your home — where you have far more leverage and no hostage situation.
Under a binding estimate, the agreed price is the price for the services and items listed. Additional charges are only legitimate for services you actually requested and that weren’t in the estimate.
A common trap: movers sometimes add charges on loading day for "extra services" — long carries, stairs, shuttle vehicles — and present the revised figure as binding. Additions you didn’t agree to in writing don’t retroactively rewrite your estimate.
What to do, in order
- Say the rule out loud. Tell the driver you are prepared to pay 110% of the non-binding estimate and that you understand they are required to deliver on that payment. A surprising number of situations end here. Stay calm and stay on the paperwork.
- Have the documents in front of you. The estimate, the bill of lading, and the inventory. The bill of lading is the contract; it names the carrier and its USDOT number.
- Call the hotline while the truck is still there. This is the part people skip. A complaint filed during the standoff is far more actionable than one filed the following week.
- Don’t pay cash and don’t hand over cash-equivalent payment. Pay by a method that creates a record and can be disputed.
- Document everything. Photograph the truck, its USDOT number and licence plate, the paperwork, and the condition of your goods. Note names and times. Send yourself an email summarising what happened while it’s fresh — a timestamped contemporaneous account carries weight.
- File the written complaint. Even if the situation resolves. The complaint database is how patterns become visible to investigators, and it’s the same database this site links to on every carrier profile.
If it has already happened
- File the federal complaint anyway. It’s the record that matters for enforcement, and it takes a few minutes.
- Dispute the charge with your card issuer if you paid by card, citing services not rendered as agreed.
- File a claim for loss or damage directly with the carrier. Interstate movers must have a claims process; you generally have nine months from delivery to file.
- Check whether the carrier was even authorised. If they were operating without active authority or without insurance on file, that materially changes the picture — and it’s worth including in your complaint. Look up their USDOT number.
- Consider your state attorney general and small claims court for the money itself. FMCSA enforces regulation; it does not recover your cash for you.
How to make this unlikely next time
Nearly all of these situations start with a company that was checkable in advance — an unauthorised carrier, a broker who never disclosed they were brokering, or a quote given over the phone with no written estimate. The five-minute check catches most of it.
FMCSA also publishes consumer resources at Protect Your Move, including Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move, which your mover is required to give you.