Great American Moving System Reviews

The moving crew was really pretty good, except that they must have put my mattress down in a puddle and then covered it with plastic because it was moldy when it finally got to me. Also, they managed to get tape on my custom-made leather sofa. So I still have to file that claim because to replace it will cost me at least $6,000. There's also one box that is missing.

My understanding was I was going to pay three quarters now and then pay the remainder of the balance at the pick-up. But one of their employees got robbed and shot so they had to change their guidelines and get the money before my items were delivered. They said I had to write a check, take a picture of it, and send it to them. So, I paid them in full. But then they said they didn't take checks. They gave me so many runaround.

One excuse was one of their trucks broke down. They sent the package directly through FedEx at no extra charge. They kept saying they would send me a shipping number or a tracking number, but I didn't receive that. I looked at their website and it kept saying “Temporarily Closed.” I was concerned if I was ever going to get my product. They told me it would be about three weeks max to receive my item. They were picked up on October 2nd. At one point, they told me my items were on the road. I called them back and they said my items are still in their warehouse in Florida and they're waiting for my payment. I was confused there as I paid in full and I got all the receipts. It was a weird situation.

The package ended up getting delivered by FedEx. By that time, they were over three weeks late. The items showed up at my doorstep and they were in a completely damaged box. One corner looked like it was picked up and dropped off of a 20-foot building. The corner was totally smashed in. I had very expensive bumpers for my car that were worth $4,000. They were creased and damaged. The bumpers were placed in a box that was too small, so they folded the bumpers. You’re not supposed to fold these types of bumpers. I figured Great American was not going to care so I didn't even bother calling them. They gave me so many excuses. Overall, the experience with Great American was quite awful and I will never use them again.

I told them I was not giving them more money. This was estimated by Great American movers and we needed to call their project manager. At that point, the driver called his owner and his owner lost his temper at me, speaking in Romanian. Then Great American had to step in because I told them that they had to talk to their movers.

The second half of my experience, however, was really bad. During the time of delivery, a few things were broken. The wheels of my whiteboard were broken. There were also a few issues with my standing desk which I fixed later on. The other thing was the movers were pretty late. They promised to come one day before on Saturday but they came on Sunday night at 12:00 midnight. They asked me to be available from 9:00 a.m. in the morning on Sunday. I came to my new house at 9:00 a.m. and I was just sitting on the floor until 12:00 because they said they were coming in three hours.

When I contacted them at 9:15 when they were not here as planned, they told me they were running behind schedule and they would be coming around 12:00. At 12:15, I again called them. They again told me the same thing, that they would be coming around 4:00 because they were running behind schedule. At 4:00, they told me the same thing. They ended up coming at night.

Money-wise, that was bad too because the carrier wanted cash. He was not very sure about transacting money through Zelle. Nobody carries $1,000 in today's time and there was also arranging $1,000 in the middle of the night. I asked the carrier if he had some services. After 15 minutes of conversation, he told me, “Okay. Let me try Venmo off my brother's phone.” We also had a discussion about him wanting cash for 15 minutes. Nobody informed us in advance they take cash. All in all, the delivery was not good. Try another service for now.

My stepmom was there for the pickup in New York and I was there during the delivery. The moving crew was very thorough in the way they wrapped and cared for the furniture. The delivery person was very conscientious and personable. He took good care, brought everything in, and set it up. We looked it over before the delivery person left. The items were exactly as would be expected when they were picked up. They had the dining set wrapped in blankets and was secure. It's a 100-year-old set that was my grandparents. They had some dents and dings but that was from all of us kids and even my dad's generation as we grew up using it.

The only problem with this delivery was the amount that I was quoted did not turn out to be correct at pickup and it turned into a nightmare. When the crew picked up the dining set and they got everything packaged up, they said it was a misquote and that the amount had doubled. By the time I spent most of the morning on the phone with Great American, with the dispatcher, with the guy who did the original quote, and with the boots on the ground drivers who were picking up the dining set, the price came back down where it was only maybe half again as much as what I was originally quoted.

They then texted me the Zelle number to send the payment to and they made typos in the Zelle. Once the payment went out, it could not be retrieved for two weeks, so my money was out there floating. That was a pretty big hiccup. That aside and looking over the month-long experience, the dining set was delivered on time, as promised, and was in good condition. The pickup crew and the delivery crew were polite and very thorough and did an excellent job.

Delivery was irritating. The driver called me from the front gate and said, "You're gonna have to come pick me up so I can see if I could get my truck back there." I was like, "Dude, all these houses are over 3,000 square feet. People move in and they had it all the time." He wanted to offload my stuff and go get another truck and charge me $700 to do it. My neighbor stopped and he said, "People move in and out here all the time. This is how they do it." "Oh, I can't get my truck down there." Other than that, he kept in touch with me, which I really appreciated.

The movers who came in were throwing my stuff around. They did not package anything like it was supposed to be packaged. They lost some of my pieces too. All of the furniture that I had were damaged. One of the bookshelves was smashed. They ripped the seats on the chairs. I have a dresser that the front of it, they put something on it and it broke off the very front of it. When they came to initially pick up my stuff, they didn't have enough room in their truck. They were just throwing stuff on top of what was already in the truck that they could. I have a coffee table. They were moving it and sliding it on its top and banging it around. I had to go in and take the feet off of it myself because I saw that they were breaking off the feet.

They took my contract at the end, saying that they were gonna put the insurance number for all the stuff that they damaged on my contract, but they just left. It was a horrific moving experience with that sub company. When I tried to call Great American Moving at the end on the day of my delivery, I was on a do-not-call list so I have not been able to get ahold of them and I don't have any contact information to get to the company that I worked with

I'm telling all my friends never to use them. What was frustrating was during the move, once the company had come and picked up everything, I kept getting calls from Great American to ask me to sign up to have my stuff moved. I didn't feel they were communicating within their company well so that my number was still showing as a potential customer even though I was already working with them. That's why it was put on the do not call list because I told them I was already working with them. After I had contracted with Great American, I went to ConsumerAffairs' website, found them on it and saw other similar experiences. I wish I had looked it up before I made a contract with them.

We had two other cars that we were driving to Illinois and we tried to adjust in our car and somehow managed to do that. We removed and discarded a lot of stuff to the neighbors. The guy was telling me at the beginning that once he starts filling up, I would understand that this much space is available for me. When he adjusted, there was a lot of space still left off, but he did not even once come and tell me that there was still space left off. Every time, he said again and again to try to adjust. Once they delivered the stuff to our home here in Illinois, another issue came up. Even if they did not ask, I would have given them something as a tip. But when you ask, it gives a bad impression. I moved from Illinois to New York and I had a worse experience at that time, but at least Great American was a little bit better than the one that I had before.

There had to be at least four very competent people that were needed to unload the piano. But they had three people that were not competent at all. They even said, “We're not ready yet. We need to still smoke.” So I had to help again along with my daughter's boyfriend in order to bring the piano back into the house. In addition to that, they did not have the right tools, so they were not fully able to assemble the piano correctly. My daughter's boyfriend was able to go to Home Depot and get the right tools and finish the assembly.

I had full disclosure of what was being moved. I am an analytical and math-oriented person, so I properly counted all the boxes and the sizes of them. The person that arrived said it was one and a half times more the amount of space that would be used because they don't pack everything on top of one another. Although the two square footage of what was being moved was accurate, the fact that it could fill the van differently because they were not packing one on top of another was calculated differently. I felt I was held at blackmail. I had to agree to a price that was about 60% more than what I originally was quoted.

The guy said the amount of space was different, even though I could count the boxes and he could count the boxes, and it was exactly what I said. Then he said that the piano would be considered to be a special item that would entail additional charges, but from the very beginning and documented in my quote, it was a baby grand piano. The original price was $2,500 and I had to pay $4,000.

Great American said they would give me two days’ notice before they would deliver it so that I would be there. But they called me on July 5th to deliver everything. They said, “Well, if you don't accept it today, we don't know when the next date will be.” I said, “I was told that there would be two days’ notice.” But they said, “But yesterday was a holiday.” Because the 4th of July was on a Tuesday, they weren't open on Monday, so they weren't able to get two days’ notice. So I had to cancel plans in order to make sure that I was there for the delivery of the piano and the rest of the stuff. It was six hours’ notice. So I was not happy.

When I called, they were not helpful. The guy started to ignore me, and I got an angry call from a manager saying I was being unreasonable. I paid almost $10,000, that move, and that was the worst. Every other company takes credit card or check. They took my stuff onto the truck then said, "You need to get us cash of $4,000 before we move this truck to your new house." I had to scramble to get a bunch of us to go to a bank and get cash. When they got to my house, they wouldn't unload it until I paid them the rest of the balance in cash.

I packed most of my stuff and wrapped a lot of stuff myself. The moving crew did an average job of carrying the boxes out. They were a little rough with them. I had scratches on stuff, but I didn't have anything broken. I did not realize when I booked with them that because they were a broker and not a mover company, it would be initially shipped from Corpus Christi to somewhere and that it would be unloaded there and put on another truck that was coming my way up toward Kansas City. I didn't know that until the day they were moving me. They never explained any of that.

My initial reaction to them was, “I'm not really sure about going with you guys because I read online a couple of comments about brokers.” I don't wanna go that way, and I got a long lecture on why it's better to go with brokers. The rep gave me an estimate. I told him what date I wanted to move. I didn't know who was moving me until the truck arrived. I got a call the night before and it was about some local mover who would be picking me up. I didn't know who it was until they got there. Then they did the price increase on me. They told me it could stay at the staging location for up to four weeks, which I had no idea.

I thought this thing was going straight to my house. So I got to Kansas City a day and a half later, and I waited 10 days until they brought my stuff. I did all my unpacking. All they did was unload the truck. I was going to go directly to the company and complain, but I was so upset about the whole thing that I just wanted to forget about it. So, it's under the bridge and gone.

As far as the move, it was not that large. I spent around the $3,000. They just asked me to tell them what I have and the size of each item. They didn't ask me to pay more for the estimation. So, that was pretty accurate. But I asked them if the second floor has no additional charge, and in the phone, they said, "Yes." They charged me more, though, because my apartment was on the second floor. So, if they said initially the second floor charges a specific amount of dollars, that would be acceptable but they said no additional cost would be charged for the second floor.