Golden Gate Moving & Storage

I received two job offers that would move me from San Jose to either Ann Arbor, MI or the Philadelphia Main Line. I had someone come out to give me a quote for both locations, and I gave them an expected move date. Once I had settled on a location, and called to finalize the move, I was told that they had to ‘fit me in’ because the day I had tentatively selected was the last day before the ‘prime move time’ started and the prices were jacked up. This was never once explained to me during the booking process.
So, fine, they got me movers to come out on the day anticipated. I was told to expect them between 8 – 8:30am. I received a call at 7am saying that they were running late and would appear around 9am. Fine, all well and good. Well, when they finally arrived, it was NOON. NOON! Seriously?
I ended up needed a few more things packed than anticipated. And, it took them until well after 5pm to pack everything up before leaving. I didn’t get all of the paperwork needed.
The next day, I get a call that my stuff weighed more than expected and the price was over the estimate. That happens, fine. I also had to — once again — remind them that I wanted insurance on my items, on top of the standard insurance rate.
When my stuff finally arrived in Philly, the Allied driver arrived close to 8pm. My stuff had to be transferred to a smaller truck due to road construction which took some extra time. He didn’t leave until well after 11:30pm. As the items were unloaded, several items were missing the packing stickers and other items had 2 stickers on them. This made an inventory pretty difficult. Plus, by the time the last of the items were unloaded, it was super late, meaning it was super dark. And, I only had limited overhead lighting as most of my lamps were (surprise, surprise) in boxes waiting to be unpacked. The driver ASSURED me that all of my items were there.
Over the next few days and weeks, I came to learn that two items were missing and several were damaged. The items missing — holiday decoration. My artificial Christmas tree (valued at ~$ 350) and several handmade blown glass pumpkins valued at over $ 400. Now, mind you, I purchased extra insurance.
However, because the items were not noted as missing on the form, I was out of luck as far as claims go. Okay, the tree was somewhat my fault because I should have noticed a big box missing, but forgive me for being overwhelmed during the unloading and trying to be nice and taking the driver’s word that everything had arrived. But the pumpkins… I’m sorry — no. The only way I could have safely identified them as missing was if I had unpacked each and every box before signing the paperwork that every item had arrived due to their small size (each was approximately 6″ x 4″ x 6″).
And, remember that extra insurance that I purchased… Allied is trying to screw me out of getting reimbursed for those missing item (and only offered to pay half of what I claimed for a damaged item). Moral of the story — make sure you hide anything valuable so it doesn’t go missing. And, unpack everything before signing off on your shipment that everything has arrived.

First, the good part: our stuff arrived at its destination.
Now, everything else: this company was a major disappointment as soon as we’d agreed to engage them. Their quote was the cheapest we got, and I guess we got what we paid for.
First, they were very unresponsive to us trying to get in touch to confirm our moving dates. Then, after they’d finally confirmed after weeks of stalling, they changed the dates that they had definitely confirmed. We told them that this would require us to change travel plans that we had made based on their confirmation of the original dates, and asked them to reimburse us for additional expenses to change our plans. They absolutely refused.
Then they told us that because demand for the rescheduled dates was so high, they would need to charge us more than the original estimate. I told them I didn’t want those dates in the first place, I wanted the earlier ones, so they could damn well charge me the rates for those days. This company has no shortage of gall, so be ready to be firm in your dealings with them.
The packers did not detail the contents of the boxes on the shipping manifest. This could have been a huge problem, as we were shipping internationally, and it almost required us to unload and open every box when we were passing customs. I think only the fact that I looked so exhausted that the customs agent took pity on me saved us from spending a whole day doing that.
The most frustrating part was that they completely misled us about how delivery would be scheduled. They told us that we could schedule delivery on any day within a particular window, and we scheduled a vacation based on that understanding. But then we got a call from the driver saying that he was dropping our stuff off in 24 hours, and that if we were not there it would cost at least $ 5000 for them to store our stuff until later in the delivery window. The window, he explained, was for him to decide when to deliver, not for us to decide when we wanted the delivery. So, we again had to incur additional expense to change travel plans in order to receive the delivery. This was hugely stressful and I felt downright deceived about how they’d explained the «delivery window» to me.
During unloading, there was weird drama with the driver not liking one of the crew members and kicking him off the job (FWIW, a young man I’d found to be very professional and courteous). It was all sort of unprofessional and weird, in addition to making me pay the wages of someone who literally sat on the lawn texting because the driver wouldn’t let him work. I realize that these people didn’t work for Golden Gate, but it all added up to an extremely unpleasant experience.
The funniest part of the whole ordeal was when I got a call from the central Allied Van Lines concierge asking how they could help organize my move. He explained all the logistical help he could offer, and then I explained to him that I had done all of those things myself, because nobody had told me about any concierge service. He seemed genuinely shocked and embarrassed. So maybe other Allied agents are better.
From start to finish, dealing with this company was a huge PitA. In retrospect, I wish we had just declared a breach of contract when they changed the dates on us and found another company, but we didn’t have time with our impending move. I believe they knew that we were stuck with them and therefore didn’t feel any obligation to provide us good service. Learn from our fail; this company is bush league.

Did I get bait and switched?
I will keep this short, but I will never call them again.
Alan took my estimate on a cross-​country move with Allied. I told him I was not exactly sure when we would be moving but it would be in the next few weeks. He gave me the estimate right then and there, which I actually appreciated.
I called a few days later to book the move. I told them it was for the end of May, which low and behold Diana in the office said would be a much higher charge. Apparently, we had then gone into higher-​colored pricing on the calendar. Wtf? This was NEVER once explained to me by Alan when he gave me the estimate. Apparently they quoted me the ‘lowest’ tier possible for Allied, and then just two weeks later I was ending up with an estimate $ 600 more.
What was frustrating is that they NEVER told me the price would drastically increase a few days later. Alan never mentioned I was quoted at the lowest possible price. Seems very deceitful to me.
I went another direction, but given the poor customer service I received BEFORE I ever even booked with them, I can only imagine what other headaches would have come down the road.

Golden Gate Moving & Storage moved my 96 year old mother from Alameda to Antioch, CA. I can’t say enough about the positive experience during a challenging time. From the initial visit by Allen to provide the estimate to the moving team Dave, Robert & Phil. Allen explained everything clearly to me and my mother and with the utmost respect to her hearing disabilities. The moving team arrived on time packed and unpacked upon arrival. They were great, efficient and caring of her furniture and treasures.
I would definitely recommend them and use them again. Thank you for a great experience.

Golden Gate moved us out 8 months ago, so that we could rebuild our house In San Francisco. They moved us back in this week. At every level, they did a terrific job. They packed all furniture and small objects well. Stored it in their Concord facility, and moved us back with extraordinary care. The movers were like psychologists; which is nice, because moving can bring a load of stress. Finally, since this was a construction job, the schedule got messy, and was out of our control. Golden Gate worked with us. They moved us at our pace. And they came in under budget. Integrity is a nice thing we don’t take for granted. Simply put: Golden Gate Moving & Storage did what they said they were going to do on OUR schedule. 5 stars!

It’s really unfortunate that our experience with the actual move was so negative when the experience with Alan and GGM&S was so positive. We decided to go with a moving company because of time constraints, 2 little kids and I’m only able to do so much, day to day I never know what that means with my MS.
Alan came out to the house and even in it’s thrashed/​mid-​packed state was able to go room by room, with his tablet and catalog what we were taking with us, the approximate weight and the approximate time it would take their contracted movers to get the job done. It also helped determine the size of the crew and the truck they’d need to bring. He even printed out my estimate right there, very professional, very efficient.
When I couldn’t be reached on my phone the day before our intended move date, Alan came to the house to make sure we’d be ready to go the next day at 9am. I told him we would, gave him the new number and then I had to cancel when the previous home owners decided to play games that delayed closing.
They were very kind about moving the date back another day, we felt really bad but they said it happens and just to let them know and she gave me the number to call the crew directly if we got set back again. We didn’t.
The movers arrived at 8, not 9. They got started while we got the wardrobe boxes they brought packed. We were supposed to have 8 wardrobe boxes and they brought 15, which ended up taking up space in the truck provided.
Because we had a hot tub to move we had to provide a trailer to put it on or a truck to put it in, so we rented a Budget truck with a lift gate and they moved the spa from our garage the garage in our new house while we wait for the wiring to be run.
Towards the end of loading they said they had run out of room in their truck, they needed to load things into our rental truck and they said when they were done loading up.
This should have been a 6 hour move, granted we weren’t fully prepared but when we went back to finish packing and loading the following day (they won’t move totes without lids or anything not in boxes… Even a floor jack was left and that isn’t something you should have to box up), they’d left half of our garage, boxed and all.
One guy was in charge of how the truck was loaded, another worked his butt off and the other had a stomach ache and needed to be in the toilet for a while. I understand that people get sick but you stay home, you don’t bring it with you to work. We have kids.
When they arrived at the new house I was told that they were going to be running over their time. Well, when you only have 1 – 2 guys out of a crew of 3 working, that’ll happen. The last straw for me was the damage done to our brand new, $ 2k fridge. After the handles were taken off the fridge (by me) so it would fit through our door, the nub on the freezer drawer was repeatedly slammed into our door frame. I can’t attach the drawer handle, so it’s sitting in our garage. A 2 thousand dollar paperweight.
Then they tried to charge us overtime and we have to file a claim to have the fridge fixed. It’s disheartening that in addition to the thousand dollars we paid them, we also had to pay for two other truck rentals and more unpaid time off to get the work done, or our rental continues costing us money. We ran a day over when we were supposed to be moved out, the work and rentals cost us another $ 510.
What’s the point of hiring movers when you have to supply another truck and bodies? I had to leave before they finished and my husband had given up and just told them to bring the boxes in and drop them.
We had moved a lot on our own the day before, we didn’t even move everything that was cataloged and they ran out of room and mentioned we may have exceeded the weigh they were told?
I’d work with GGM&S but I’d ask for another crew. The work of 3 shouldn’t fall on 1 and the home owners.

We moved from Walnut Creek to Boise on June 20. Sadly, our experience was similar to that of another reviewer here (Martin Z.). Specifically, we contracted Golden Gate about a month out from our move, and were told that our furnishings would arrive in 3 – 11 days, which we took to mean NO LATER than June 30. Much to our dismay, on June 28, I received the following message from Diana at Golden Gate Moving when I asked about the whereabouts of our stuff:
«We’ve been working on this for you and Allied still does not have a hauler going to Idaho. We’ve done everything we can to get you a driver, and because it is now out of our hands, we suggest you call customer service at 800−470−2851.»
In other words, you’re on your own, call a big corporation, and hopefully they can figure it out for you.
We didn’t get our stuff until Saturday, July 19, a full month after it was moved.
Turns out that the state of California is dealing with an extreme driver shortage due to smog regulations and other transitions in the industry. Our delivery driver informed us of this — but it would have been nice for Golden Gate to give us a heads up on this dynamic, especially given the fact that they knew we were traveling with a baby and dog. Additionally, it would have been nice for them to demonstrate some semblance of customer service, rather than passing us off to their corporate partner.
Given this, I strongly urge anyone undertaking an interstate move to get as much information about delay compensation as possible. We received $ 750 in reimbursements for aerobeds and other incidental expenses (incurred AFTER the June 30 guaranteed delivery date), though that amount was capped. Coincidentally, we met another Bay Area couple who similarly had a multi-​week delay, and were told they received $ 150 for every day past their guaranteed delivery date. Given that these sorts of delays are only likely to increase going forward, it would behoove anyone engaging in an interstate move to pay particular attention to this important backstop. And much more importantly, be sure to ask about driver availability!

I inquired with Allied Van Lines for a long-​distance move (from San Francisco to Chicago) and was contacted by Golden Gate Moving & Storage as their local agent. Their estimate came in lowest of the three companies I had contacted, and they had a guarantee to pay back so much per lb if they had overestimated the costs. I decided to go with them, and must say I regret this decision. There were a couple of miscommunications with the local office that in my opinion shouldn’t have happened, including the ‘no parking signs’ which I was paying them to organize having been delivered and were put up with the wrong date (I had changed the date of the move well in advance (over 3 weeks) but the signs still had the old date. They also didn’t adjust the delivery window in Chicago accordingly to the new date, which only after I called them did this get updated).
The three movers showed up on time and were quite efficient (I had them pack all the boxes). The only frustrating thing was that none of them spoke very much English, and so we had a few miscommunications regarding what to pack, what to leave. The other thing was that the moving inventory sheet was very haphazardly done, and several numbered items did not correspond with the description (eg., a guitar corresponded to the inventory number description as ‘cooler’, and several items were like this). I had the feeling that at least two of them had never done an inventory sheet before and so this was all new to them.
After the pick-​up, I was informed that the move would be costing a few hundred dollars more than the estimate, since the weight was greater than they had estimated. I had a hard time believing this, given that I had only moved 3 years prior, and then my confirmed shipment weight was ca 2000 lbs. Allied told me the weight was ca 4200 lbs., even though I had less furniture than when I moved three years ago. Well, there wasn’t much I could do about this, but as I said, it’s hard to believe this weight for a 1 bedroom apartment without much furniture being moved.
The delivery in Chicago went pretty well, with the exception that the inventory sheet was so messed up and so it was extremely difficult to check things off since so many items were mislabeled and misnumbered. It seemed like everything I could remember had arrived, so I signed off on all the items that were on the list. A few hours after the movers left, I noticed that a small wicker cabinet with 6 drawers and their contents (mostly toiletries) was missing. I contacted the local Golden Gate office, who contacted the driver. In the meantime, they also sent me a claim form, since I had purchased full insurance. The next weekend, I spent over 2 hours filling out the claim form, and making estimates on the cost of all the toiletries that were in the cabinet (cabinet from Pier One Import plus toiletries including several boxes of contact lenses came to ca $ 700). A few days after sending in the claim form, I got a call from an Allied office in Kentucky that the driver had found my cabinet and they were sending it, and the contents, to me via UPS. It arrived, and everything was accounted for. I was very happy that the driver found it behind some packing materials in the truck and was able to get it to me very quickly.
A few days after the arrival of the cabinet, I received a very short and annoying letter from the Allied Claim dept that they tried to trace my items, and it came up negative. The real annoying part was the sentence «…reviewing the delivery paperwork we note you did not take any written exceptions to the loss claimed. We are in a position where we must be able to verify any loss claimed occurred while the shipment was in our possession and in this instance we have not been able to do so. Based on these factors we cannot accept liability.» So, the bottom line lesson that I learned from this, is NEVER to sign off on the paperwork until you have unpacked ALL your items. In this case, the ITEM WAS NOT EVEN ON THE INVENTORY SHEET, as it hadn’t been numbered at all.
For my next move, I will be much more diligent in the inventory sheet (and even suggest that I fill out the inventory sheet when the movers are packing, so I can write my own description), and I’ll never sign off again on the delivery until AFTER I’ve unpacked everything and know that everything is accounted for. Otherwise, why pay for full insurance when the moving company can still fill a way to get out of paying for a lost item? I also can say I don’t think I’ll be recommending Allied to any friends or coworkers.

Golden Gate moved me across country from Walnut Creek to Iowa. They did a great job at every turn. Every single person was helpful and professional and took the time to handle whatever I needed– the office folks, the estimator, and then the packers and movers with Allied Van Lines. I was impressed and thankful. They made this a very manageable move.

I will be writing a full complaint to both Allied and GG moving. Allied should be reconsidering their affiliation with this company. GG moving deserve a zero.
We moved from CA to WA last year. The truck crew were great, very careful did take a long time though, and dismantled some things that seemed unnecessary (a toy egg chair? that they couldn’t even put back together). However they were on time, our things even arrived early, Allied was careful and professional so that side was fine.
The packers and packing from GG moving was AWFUL. When I opened the boxes I was horrified to find my delicate items, paper flowers, lampshades, picture frames etc just thrown into the bottom of a huge wardrobe box. The packers arrived late and smelling of alcohol. Many boxes had been weighted with tons of paper. They missed packing the bathrooms. To top it off I caught one taking a leak in my toilet without closing the door — let alone asking my permission! Extremely unprofessional. I have moved several times, long distances with professional movers, I know what good packing looks like. NEVER have I come across packing like this. I have pictures of the boxes, to show. We will be making a formal complaint.

Golden Gate did a SUPERB job with our move! They were very careful in the packing, were very helpful with everything we asked, kept us informed if they noticed anything out of the ordinary (e.g. minor damages etc), respected our requests, and ensured that our new home was as pristine as we found it prior to the move. Paul’s team works very hard and they are also very friendly. Moves are very stressful and having a company that makes it easier is a wonderful asset.
The estimator (Jim) was very close and they honored our final pricing. Also, Diana in the office was very helpful and understanding as we had to change our dates a few times for reasons beyond our control.
It always feels good to know that we made a right choice with Golden Gate Moving and would most certainly call them if I need it their services. GREAT JOB!

I just moved with Golden Gate. There were highlights and lowlights.
First off, everyone should get a full pack option when they move. Moving sucks so much less, and it’s not really that expensive.
Back Story: I moved with Allied about two years ago across country. I had them pack my entire house, put it on a truck, and drive it MA to CA. Price was competitve, came in significantly under Estimate (like $ 1000 under), packers were courteous and everything was great.
Hence why I went with Allied for my next move without even bothering to get other quotes.
Estimate Process: Estimator was nice, looked in every cabinet and every closet got an inventory and emailed me a quote. I happened to have the packing list from my previous move, which I handed to him and pointed out the items I had purchased since then. This quote said in BOLD ALL CAPS UNDERLINED «NOT TO EXCEED». Quote was less than I expected. In fact, I would have agreed to 2X what the quote was without question.
Packing process: Packers themselves were awesome. Did a fantastic job boxing everything in a speedy manner. Nothing broke (that I’ve found so far, I’m almost done unpacking everything). I was a little nervous when they walked in, looked around and said «We’re going to need more boxes». But whatever, I have a quote that says «not to exceed», therefore, not my problem.
3 hours later my wife gets a call — «The packing process is more intensive than we thought, and this is going to cost an additional 50%. Do you want us to stop packing now?» To be fair, the estimator did offer to split the 50% difference with us. My wife agreed, as we needed to move, and now we were put in a corner with no options but to agree.
The next day I called the Estimator to ask what happened. To which he said «It was more boxes than I thought. Your wife approved the change.» I then asked, «How did my stuff grow by 50% in the last 2 weeks?». This goes on for a while, but goes nowhere.
After everything was moved into my new house (since I didn’t want to cause them to hold my possessions hostage), I called and asked to speak to the manager. He listened to my story, told me he’d look into it, and that he would give me a call back. I ended up calling him 1 week later, in which he had apparently not given any further thought to the situation. We went back and forth for about half an hour. I made it very clear to him that I didn’t actually care about the money, but that I was put in a position where I had no option other than agree to their terms. In the end he offered to refund the difference via check. I reluctantly agreed to that, as I also just wanted to be done with the situation.
Revised: It looks like my credit card was credited shortly after this call.
I’m appalled that any business would treat a customer in this way. If you are moving, and you are interested in having someone else pack all of your stuff, don’t get your estimate from these guys. Or at least expect they are going to up the cost at the time of the move.

Small (minimum load) move of 2100# of personal items from San Francisco, CA to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Initial staff visit to my house to inventory and quote items was professional and informative. VERY competitive price quote.
I packed everything myself so Allied and GGM assumed no liability there (everything did arrive safely).
My only issue with GGM was that it took 1 month of daily phone calls to secure a driver to go cross-​border. My things were delivered to Canada with only a few days to spare. GGM did not follow up with me — rather, I had to phone them daily. They even suggested that I call Allied — in their words «the customer has more clout than the agent». That was a surprise! That said, GGM were courteous and responsive to my daily barrage.
I would use them again, but just a word of caution if you are crossing the Canadian border — GGM cannot guarantee when your possessions will actually be moved so you have to patient and persistent.

I recently used Golden Gate Moving & Storage for a cross-​country move. As soon as any problems arose with the shipment — including 3 broken pieces of furniture, Golden Gate absolves itself of any responsibility and blames the driver, the subcontracted moving company or Allied Van Lines directly. They did not fully disclose all terms and conditions related to dispute resolution and the estimator told me verbally that the $ 0.60/lb would apply to each item individually. He failed (purposely or accidentally, I don’t know) to disclose that Allied will use the AMSA Table of Weights that severely undervalues the weight of most furniture. I would think twice about using this company. In the move, I had three pieces of furniture destroyed at a value of over $ 2500. My reimbursement was $ 84. Unbelievable.

We moved from San Francisco to Portland, OR and they did a great job. The estimate was honest (we even got a little money back) and there were no demands for more when our things were delivered. They were on time and worked fast. None of our things were broken. Our only complaint was that they gave us a window for delivery and the actual delivery was on the very last day of the window — and no one mentioned that the 8-​day window didn’t include Sundays. So we slept on an air mattress on the floor of our new place much longer than we would have preferred, but except for the thing about Sundays I guess that could happen with anyone. They were very professional and I would use them again.

Wow. What can I say! Golden Gate Moving is a class act. I recently used them to move my family from the bay area down to LA. The owner Jim was able to coordinate my move within a couple of days. I was skeptical at first when the moving crew showed up and there was only 3 people. But Mike, Issac, and Heath were definitely professionals. Ive never seen movers use such care and efficiency. I will definitely be recommending them to my friends and family in the near future.
Thanks again for all of your help!

We recently moved from San Francisco, CA to Madison, WI — we used Golden Gate Moving along with Allied. The movers were wonderful and packed our belongings with care. Nothing went missing or was broken during the move (just a little damage to our couch). I would highly recommend using them.

This is the second time I’ve used Allied Van Lines and their local agent, Golden Gate Moving & Storage. Loved them the first time, hired them again just recently for a short-​distance, local move. Three things are very, very important to me when hiring anyone: promptness, efficiency, cleanliness. Golden Gate met all three criteria the first time (but I neglected to acknowledge them), and again with this move. The estimator, Alan, arrived exactly when he said he would, and spent time expertly explaining the process and what to expect. On moving day, movers also arrived right on time, introduced themselves (Royce, Aaron and Jason), then orchastrated the move exactly as Alan said they would. But what made these three movers so awesome was their work ethic. «Hustle» is a word too few people know the meaning of these days, much less implement, but these guys worked their fannies off on a very hot day, never grumbled, were always smiling, always helpful. I wanted to stuff them in a pocket and take them home with me. They finished the move in under the time allocated, so the move ended up costing us less than expected.
In addition, the condo our daughter was moving from has a stipulation in its CC&Rs that we must give them a check for $ 500, which they hold until the move is complete and they return it only if no walls are scuffed or scratched during the move. Needless to say, I wanted that money back, so the movers had to be careful. Thankfully they were. They moved all the furniture down three stories without a nick or scrape to any walls.
I absolutely love these guys!

Solid from start to finish. Moved from SF to LA recently. Estimate held true to the final cost, and the move was easy. The movers did show up about 1.5 hours late to my apartment in SF, and their slow pace forced them to deal with the mega-​hater landlady, but they got to LA exactly when they said they would, and I was very pleased with their work.

Worst experience ever!
Where to begin? For starters they did not send an Allied moving truck to make the move, they sent an outside contractor who of course showed up about 3 hours late, we were only moving a short distance about 75 miles and really didn’t have a lot of furniture to move but somehow the process seemed to take about 18 hours, (Chris) the outside contractor hired to move us was a smooth talker and always seemed to have a reason as to why it was taking so long.
The reason it was taking so long is they showed up on the other end reeking of alcohol and then guilt tripped my wife into going to the grocery store to provide them dinner, well if they hadn’t gotten drunk in between they would have been done at a reasonable time, drunk and moving heavy furniture do not go together,
A lot of our furniture either ended up broken or the walls of our house got dents and gouges, also one of the movers setting our bed up had gotten too drunk and became frustrated and decided to throw a temper tantrum and start throwing pieces of the bed frame in our bedroom.
On top of all that they didn’t move all of our furniture, the moving truck (Chris) owned was too small to move all of the furniture, so what he could fit got smashed as he tried to move as much as he could. Allen the estimator argued and insisted that he moved exactly what was in our estimate, the estimate was for the entire house, Golden Gate fell about 4 truck loads short of that, don’t ever use these guys unprofessional and at time dangerous!