Great American Moving System

Hired Great American Moving System to move my belongings from PA to FL. They assured me that I would be completely satisfied with their service moving out of state. They said I would have a semi-truck pick up my belongings and deliver them within two weeks for a fee of $1672. I had to give them a deposit of $575 for a studio apartment with minimal furniture. They said they would take pictures of everything and I would have to pay the balance after delivery. I signed the contract.

The first apartment didn’t work out and I needed to postpone the date of pick-up. Turns out I was able to find another apartment three months later and called to reschedule. Great American Moving informed me that the price had changed since I added some items. They charged me an additional $275 for a rocking chair, vacuum, a 16x20 picture frame, and small boxes which I wound up putting in my car (except rocking chair). I paid the extra amount anyway because they said if I didn’t use the extra space they would refund me the money.

Next thing I knew a company, G & M Moving and Storage, called me and said they were hired by Great American to move my items without my giving them authorization to do so. It was a rental truck with three people to load the truck. After they were finished, they told me I had to sign their contract at a fee of $3098 minus the $775 I already paid. They told me I was responsible for payment since it was a different company moving me. I’m at a loss at this point and signed the paperwork. Stupid mistake. The insurance they carried for damages was $.60 per pound. They told me it would take two weeks for delivery. Well it turns out I had to wait one month for my things after numerous calls to find it. American Moving System said they weren’t responsible and I had to deal with G&M Moving. They finally arrived a month later at 9 pm. There were only two men to unload which had other people’s belongings in the truck and told me they had to unload it then because they had other stops to make. Some of the items arrived broken and water damaged. When I brought it to their attention they put me in the phone with their boss who proceeded to tell me to pay the full amount they were owed and to contact HelpDesk/ Moving Claims to file a complaint. After two months back and forth with emails, they sent me a settlement letter for $75. It cost me $275 just to replace the mattress that was ruined. Some of the items were antiques my grandmother gave me. The reasoning was the contract said $.60 cents per pound for damages and that’s what they offered. I had 30 days to sign and notarize the letter.

If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have gone with American Moving Company to begin with and definitely wouldn’t have gone through with G&M Moving and Storage at all.

REMEMBER TO READ THE CONTRACT before signing!

Worst experience of my life!

Move size: Studio Service cost: $1672

I am not one to complain but I hope someone reads this before going through what we did. This moving company gave 0 notice and showed up to pick up our stuff. No big deal. We weren’t ready but we made it work.fast forward a month. Again no notice. They called me At work upset because I wasn’t home to receive my stuff. I can’t leave a NEW job with NO notice. I was told I would receive 24 hours. The man who said he was the supervisor cussed me out and hung up. I was so shaken and crying by the whole situation that took place. He screen shot our texts from a month prior and sent them to my husband saying he gave us adequate time. This was by far the worst most unprofessional company I have ever come across. I called American movers directly and when the manager was less than helpful I asked to speak with his boss and he said the boss is indeed the owner and he would not be getting him to speak with someone with my problem. Please don’t make the same mistake I did. I went with this company because of the reviews and it was the biggest mistake I could have made. We are now set to receive our stuff tomorrow and the “supervisor” is telling me I owe a completely different amount” screen shots posted on google review. Please do yourself a favor and go elsewhere. I really can’t believe people like this exist. Shame on you and your company.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10000

Contrary to our request for a 26 foot truck, which the company assured us would hold our belongings and was all our storage facility at our final destination could accommodate, they sent a 52' semi. That made us scramble at our final destination to find another storage facility that could accomodate a semi, causing us to lose the $200.00 we had paid to rent the storage unit. As it turned out, the quantity of belongings we had would not have all fit in a 26' and fortunately we were able to secure an alternative storage facility that would accommodate the semi. The workers assigned to our move, however, were friendly, courteous, jovial and hard-working. Had it not been for the above mentioned aggravation and some irreparable damage, this would have been a 5 star review.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $11542

Let's start at the beginning. I booked the company about 4 months before I was supposed to move. I had a 1 bedroom apartment that was about 797 sq ft. Moving from TX to GA. I told them straight up what I had and they quoted me about $3400.

I accepted that price and paid my deposit. 3 days before the truck is supposed to come, a guy has me measuring my furniture and asking more indebt questions. The same exact furniture now raised the price to about $800 more. And by this point they know it's too late to change the moving company now, so I just had to pay them. On the day the moving company comes to put my things on the truck, he saying it'll be an extra $1000 to take everything that I have. I told that man he was crazy and to just put whatever my 'original' quote was on the truck and I'll throw the rest away. Now mind you that new quote was about $4100 for those of you following along at home. I had to throw a lot of things away, that I told them I had in the very beginning. Now I'm finally about to let them load my stuff to the truck and he giving a different price of about $400 more talking about moving supplies and labor. So you telling me in all of that $4100, you didn't factor in moving supplies and labor. At this point I wanted them out my face and I just signed the stupid contract and sent them in their way. The day of drop off arrives. The man pulls up to the house, I tell him I have two stops. He tells me it'll be an extra $150. I said no, my contract says if I have an extra stop it'll be free if it's less than 50 miles away. My stop was only 3, I thought I was golden. He said he had no idea I had an extra stop, it's not in the paperwork. I told everyone I came into contact with I had two stops and everyone said it was perfectly fine. Until it wasn't. So I called customer service and they didn't help at all, they talking about that only dealed with pickup and not delivery. Which the contract does not specify in any way. I wish I could upload the contract so you could see it. So needless to say, I only did one stop because these bastards wasn't getting another dime out of me. I gave them two stars because they actually delivered my furniture, don't know if they should be congratulated for during their job and the guy who delivered my furniture to me was nice. Other than that, I had a horrible experience and they know they wrong for that.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4500

My original moving company cancel 48 hrs before my lease was up. Great American Moving System called me, amazingly, ~2 hrs after the cancelation. I was desperate and grateful that I wouldn't be evicted and did not investigate the company thoroughly enough at the time. In hindsight, they misrepresented who they were affiliating themselves with United and Mayflower, claiming to have been in business for 20+ years and also claiming to be one of the largest brokers in the country. They sold services at a much lower rate than the moving company charged. They base their "binding" estimates on your inventory and a black box calculator which won't change as long as the inventory does not change. However, that inventory is unusable by the moving company (per the moving company) requiring the creation of a new inventory which must be more detailed which means the inventories can not be the same and therefore must break the initial binding estimate sold by the broker. This was explained to me by a Condor employee. The moving company (Condor) has a large list of issues that I will submit in a separate complaint. GAMS went dark as soon as the movers arrived, failed to look into all concerns about changes to the price, did absolutely nothing to support my move once my belongs left my house. Now, because of GAMS, my belonging were given to an incompetent moving company that uses day laborers to package and handle your things, and mistreats your possessions so completely that not one items that was packed by them is ok literally everything is damaged including powder coated steal gym equipment (stuff that is hard to damage) and I paid an outrageous finders fee for the privilege.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $19500

This company is basically a middleman that put your order with a local moving company. Which would've been fine if the communication between them and their contractors are adequate. THIS WAS NOT THE CASE. Great American Moving System's manager lied to me on our phone call that they have already secured trucks in my location on the specific pick up date. But turns out their contractors arrived 2 FULL DAYS late. The contractors told me they literally got the job on the day they came so the "we secured a truck for you already" during my phone call with Great American's manager was a big fat lie.

I was stuck at my old place until 11pm 2 days after my lease expired. When the contractors finally arrived, they demanded extra charges because "the estimate was incorrect". I TOLD GREAT AMERICAN'S CUSTOMER SERVICE THE EXACT STUFFS I WAS MOVING and turns out their estimate was wrong? When I called Great American's customer service all they did was place me on hold.

Never using this company again. Utterly unethical, dishonest, and irresponsible.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3800

I came across Great American Moving System through a database of moving companies on the Geico website. My initial call was with Stacey who was very pleasant, he gave me a good deal for a transport from San Diego to North Carolina. We had gotten quotes from a few different companies and Great American’s was very competitive but we were still a bit skeptical because they are a broker, so we knew they would outsource to smaller moving companies. We had moved cross country in the past so we knew how these things go. After some back and forth, Sandra in the Operations Department let us know that while they are a broker, they only use trust worthy companies so that helped in our decision to go with Great American Moving System. Things seemed way too good to be true up until this point. A week prior to our scheduled move date, we received a call from Josh in the Quality Assurance department. This was the call to go over all the items (with pictures that were emailed to them) to make sure the inventory was as accurate as possible. My initial inventory of things that I had given Stacy was accurate, with exact measurements, with the only exception that we were suggested to add 34 medium size boxes which then we lowered to 25 because we realized that was too many. After Josh went over the inventory with me, he emailed me a new inventory with an increased price. I told him we were not in agreement with that new price because the inventory had not changed from my initial quote. Josh insisted we needed to pay the difference over the phone, or we would be charged once the movers showed up. I was confident that the inventory had not changed, so I said we would pay the movers IF NEEDED. He became extremely rude after I refused to pay and basically hung up on me. Since my experience with Stacy and Sandra had been completely different and pleasant, I called Sandra to let her know about the phone call with Josh. This time around she was extremely disrespectful and rude, almost like a completely different person when I told her I did not agree with the increased quote. Her words “well, you are getting a long distance move for very cheap with added free things that we normally don’t give away to moves under $4000”. I never asked for the “free” packaging (TV, mirror and mattresses) but to gain our business they added it all. She then proceeded to ask if I know what an estimate is, but this wasn’t an estimate. It was a quote I had already paid a deposit based on the total amount so at this point it was not an estimate, it was an agreement. She kept repeating how “cheap” of a move we were getting and that Josh is a professional who has been doing this for over 20 years and I wouldn’t know about the “right” way of measuring things.

Fast forward a week to the day the movers show up; Star Van Lines. They were the most respectful and HONEST guys who said there was NO CHARGE needed because the inventory was as described. They packed everything up in less than one hour and off they went.

Based on their attitude after I refused to pay more, I would 100% NOT recommend Great American Moving System (read all the reviews, I’m not the only one). Go straight to Star Van Lines, or anywhere else.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $1967

Asked my sales rep if they owned their own trucks, he said they do. They do not.

Did not mind dealing with contractors but no one was on the same page

Was promised my quote would not change based on the inventory level. Charged an extra $300, have been promised 3 callbacks and am giving up, if you live in the city expect an extra $1,000 charge because they repack your things into a semi and can't drive it into a busy area.

Drop off crew refused to unwrap most furniture to not have liability since it wasn't wrapped and just taped together, or do a final inventory I kept asking and the driver just left. Now I'm missing things and have damage that I cannot file a claim for because a final inventory list is required. Nor could they because I payed for the full pack service which apparently doesn't include unpack so they didn't want to wait for me to unpack to do a real inventory.

If you want to give someone a sale that will ignore you the moment you sign work with Scott Gordon.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10000