Moving Company Estimate Decoder Skill

The moving industry has a specialty: quotes that grow between signing and delivery, enforced by the fact that they have your stuff. The whole game is in three distinctions most customers never learn — binding vs. non-binding estimates, mover vs. broker, and "valuation" vs. insurance. This skill decodes the estimate against those three, prices the realistic worst case, and flags the patterns (lowball-then-reweigh, cubic-feet pricing, big deposits) that show up in every hostage-load story.

What This Skill Produces

• The estimate-type decode: binding / binding-not-to-exceed / non-binding — and what each means for the final bill
• The realistic-total scenarios: quoted vs. likely vs. worst-case, with the mechanisms that move the number
• Ranked red flags against the known-scam patterns
• The valuation decode (that "$0.60 per pound" line, explained on their actual goods) and the verification checklist

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:

• The estimate/contract text — including the fine print pages; the type of estimate is sometimes only in the fine print.
• The move shape — local vs. long-distance/interstate (very different regulatory pictures — flag interstate specifics as verify-with-regulator), inventory scale, dates.
• How the estimate was made — in-home/video survey vs. phone/online guess: a non-surveyed estimate is structurally a lowball.
• What's known about the company — name as quoted; the mover-vs-broker question gets a verification step regardless.