A friend recently moved to a new apartment. She called a couple of ads on Craigslist and hired a couple of guys with a truck. I previously told her how to use the number from which the mover called her back, to make sure it’s a legitimate, trustworthy business. I explained how she could find out if these people are involved in lawsuits, are having financial troubles or have a criminal past. Now I asked her if she’d done a reverse cell phone lookup to check these guys out. What do you think she told me? She didn’t feel it was necessary; she could tell the guys she hired were honest and nice. Figures. I called her the day after she moved to see how it went. When she heard my voice, she began to cry. She was so sorry she didn’t listen to me! The movers came in the morning, started to load her stuff on the truck, then rudely told her they didn’t have time to move everything that day because they had another appointment, unloaded her furniture on the pavement, and left. Horrified, my friend called the other guy she’d previously talked to, hoping he was still free. He said he’ll be free after 5 pm; until then, her furniture sat on the pavement of a busy street, and the manager yelled at her because her couch was blocking the entrance. The new movers finally came at 6; around 10, they were finally unloading at the new place. My friend paid one guy while the other was getting the stuff out of the truck; paid way more than she’d hoped, but she no longer cared. She was inside the apartment, waiting for them to start bringing it all in, but it seemed to be taking too long. She looked outside. The truck was gone. For the second time that night, her furniture was lining the pavement and blocking the lobby. She carried in as many small pieces as she could; the rest spent the night under the rain. Exhausted, she finally fell asleep after 2 am on the carpeted floor. Thankfully, in the morning some good Samaritans helped her bring everything inside. Several pieces of furniture were damaged, other things were missing, and she ended up having to spend a lot more on new furniture. I am not one to rub it in with “I told-you-so”s, although inside I was screaming that she should have used reverse cell phone lookup to make sure she hired an honest, responsible company, like I told her to! She must have known what I was thinking, because she told me she regrets not listening to me. My friend seems to have finally learned the hard way: get all the available information before making a decision; to do that, reverse-cell-lookup the hell outta them!