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

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

If you are looking for efficient movers, it doesn't get better than Great American Moving. They seamlessly assisted us in transitioning through one of the most stressful events in our lives--twice. They are quick, efficient, and genuinely hard-working people who take fantastic care of your stuff and property. As you watch them move, you will think how it could look so simple and bask in the humor that you once had the terrifying idea of attempting to do this by yourself with a couple of friends.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4125

The experience I had with Great American Moving System (GAMS) was the worst I have had with any business I have worked with. It caused a tremendous amount of mental and financial stress for not just me but my family. I’m writing this review in hopes that it saves others a similar experience. The following are excerpts of our experience:

1. Excessive overage charges. Their quote was grossly off what we were ultimately charged as we are charged thousands more than our original quote. Almost $3500 over the price we were told was a not to exceed number.

2. Day of moving refusal of contract terms - We were charged in the initial contract for a “full kitchen pack” and were then told on the moving day we’d be charged another ~$1000 for the pack (labor and materials). Worse, the day of movers told us that only two boxes were allocated for our kitchen in the documentation they had. We even clarified this initially on the recorded call confirmation with customer service at the time of booking, which GAMS told us they would send and then refused to do.

3. Didn’t take all of our stuff - At the END of the day of pick up, the movers informed us they weren’t going to take everything that was in our contract. They stated they’d run out of space, despite also telling us that they could extend the moving truck they’d brought but wouldn’t because it wasn’t something they were told to do. We had to book a SECOND moving truck separate from this move for the remainder of our stuff. (A full small truck load)

4. Delivered way late - The date they told us our items would be delivered by “at the latest” was off by a week. We were told the ‘at the latest’ date and had planned significantly around this, including flying out family to help, and had to incur thousands of dollars in change fees, accommodations, etc while we waited for the delivery. Again this had been confirmed on the recorded confirmation call that GAMS subsequently refused to send.

5. Brokered out to a random mover - When we were booking with GAMS we were told they only worked with companies they’d spent significant time validating their training, policies and worked with a handful at most. The movers that showed up said they’d never heard of GAMS before.

6. Actual movers who did the delivery weren’t professional movers. One of them on delivery was being taught how to move that day and didn’t speak English, despite GAMS telling us only professional movers would be doing both pick up and delivery.

7. At confirmation we were guaranteed we would have our own moving truck that would go straight to our destination. The day of moving we were told our stuff was being taken to the other end of the state (California) transferred to another truck with other moves and it would take ‘a while’, which is certainly did.

8. Very responsive until they got our stuff and then silence. Before moving day, they were very responsive and then day of the move arrived and we were simply told “its the movers problem now, not ours.” Worse, we were told we would have a moving coordinator to help us with any issues throughout (Dylan) who every time said he’s have someone superior call back and never did. We ultimately had to just work with the moving company they contracted out to and pay for all of the problems that GAMS’ negligence had caused.

9. Were told we would be compensated for the issues the day of the move and then never heard back from anyone at GAMS despite multiple calls over a month. Worse yet is they told us they would only compensate us $500 if we signed a non-disclosure agreement about our bad experience with GAMS. (reminder we were out $3500 in moving overages alone plus thousands more in costs to house family while we waited beyond the ‘latest’ date we were told and thousands yet more on the second moving truck we had to book)

10. After calling over a dozen times to try to resolve the situation directly with GAMS, decided to post this in hopes that it is seen by others who are considering this company as a warning to the experience that we had.

11. Several expensive items broke in move due to poor packing. I get that things will get broken during a move as we’ve done it over 8 times over 10 years. However, even the mover on delivery stated this was simply due to poor packaging and apologized but said there was nothing he could do. (Few thousand of damage) We knew after all of the above we’d have no luck bothering trying to resolve that with GAMS so dealt with ourselves.

I hope this is helpful to prospective customers. I really do wish I took the time to click through some of the other reviews on the sites where GAMS are listed as they appear to have good reviews but then when I clicked into those reviews, all only had a single review and it is of GAMS so it did make me question how many of their reviews are legitimate.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $17000

Horrible experience! Seriously, BEWARE! Had a great sales person who seemed super knowledgeable and helpful sell me on working with them. Then once the movers came to our house they attempted to charge us an additional $1800!!!! I ended up having to THROW away an entire set of bedroom furniture AND pay an ADDITIONAL $500 to have the movers pack my things in their truck. The sales person completely misled me by saying “you’ll have more than enough room for all that.” I never in a million years would think I would have to throw out furniture that was on my estimate list to avoid being charged $1800 more! Then when my items arrive to my new place, the movers tried to charge me ANOTHER fee for having to bring my things inside my apartment!!! They are super unprofessional. They are scammers! Then a few things were broken AND missing!!!! Then on top of that, my move was back in December and Great American Moving Systems has NOT been responsive, has not been calling me back, and has NOT compensated me in ANYWAY for such a terrible experience. They always promise to call back but it’s been weeks and I’ve had to be the one calling them to get the same run around and no solution! Seriously I wouldn’t wish this experience on ANYONE! Find another moving company!!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4000

I was about to move on a Monday and scheduled a move with another company on Sunday before. This company canceled on me on Sunday, I moved it to Monday, and then reneged on me AGAIN! I was in tears and sad. These guys showed up fast! They were there the following day bright and early! I showed them where to grab the stuff, and they did the work efficiently without needing guidance while on a call. They loaded three rooms from my house and into the storage unit ideally within 1.5 hours. Everything went amazingly well.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $25150

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

Don't hire this company, they squeeze you for more money and so do the movers. The movers showed up in an Enterprise Rental Truck and immediately asked for a $200 tip for each mover to load the truck after we paid a $3,000 deposit. The entire move was going to cost $10,000 (for a one-bedroom home). After the movers tried to extort the additional money, the company itself wanted an additional $700 and was told "NO". The company is refusinging to refund the $3,000 deposit.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $10000

I would advise anyone to not go with Great American Moving System. They try to get you to use their services by being nice but after you sign the documents, they do not keep to whatever agreements were made. They mentioned they could deliver my things within the time frame I had mentioned, even promised they could deliver earlier but I declined as I would not have moved to the new location at the earlier date they had mentioned. When the expected delivery timeframe came, they mentioned they would not be able to deliver till 3 weeks after expected delivery timeframe. The managers were not helpful in providing any type of support in having the issue resolved and hung up on me.

Their customer service is the poorest I have experienced, and this is coming from someone that have moved a good number of times. I would really advise to avoid this company if you want a smooth transition in your move.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4000

It would be 5 stars, but there wassmall deliverytime issue, which is simply a misunderstanding I had, but my items were picked up on time and delivery was just couple days after the date I requested, which is okay, all items arrived perfect, staff of moving was nice. I’m writing this because there is so many reviews so I will share my experience with my booking agent. She gave me a good price for my move from IL to TX. My goods picked up the second to last weekend of April and delivered a couple days after May 1st. The moving company they contracted was well. My items arrived in good condition and the company in itself always answered my questions, my agent is very good and fast with email responses. As well as the various departments. I appreciate this experience and recommend another friend of mine to do his move with my agent.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2600