Great American Moving System

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