Gentle Giant Moving Company, Inc.
Yukon, Hawthorne, CA

Gentle Giant Moving Company, Inc. Reviews

4.2 stars based on 24 reviews

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  mari vitale

  1.0

  We move often. So I have a number of comparisons. The pick up was well done. Unfortunately the delivery “guarantee window” was a joke. 3-14 days have now become a month. Still waiting… and no sign of a delivery. Most frustrating and unprofessional is the lack of communication. I have no idea when a driver will be assigned. And no word from the Giants regarding their actions. We are stuck. Don’t make the same mistake.

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  Peter Steves

  1.0

  This review is for both Gentle Giants (Los Angeles-Hawthorne CA) and also Atlas moving company as they are the ones who ultimately moved our household items (Gentle Giants packed our house up, then it was transferred to an Atlas truck, and Atlas unpacked our stuff into our new home. This was anticipated and expected. Well many people have far worse experiences, but ours was bad enough. The Gentle Giants packing crew did an ok job….. but in a couple cases where I specifically said "this is very fragile and expensive and you please need to pad and pack it very well" to the person who was about to pack that very item ... I discovered later that they only put cardboard around it, with ZERO padding. Yes some of these items were damaged. Also a few things were packed in a way that they were guaranteed to be broken (and they were) On the unpacking day, the Atlas driver (and person in charge.. this is normal) hired a local Atlas crew of about 4 young men. This is normal. First thing - the driver/crew chief/person in charge taped cardboard on the hardwood stairs to protect them from the dollies used for moving boxes, and that was good... however his local crew was removing tons of boxes from the truck very fast as he was doing this……and soon after I heard the driver/crew chief/person yelling loudly outside by the truck "You guys are way ahead of me and I have no idea what has come off the truck so the inventory is useless!" So basically the paper inventory of all the boxes #'s with nice check marks as to the box arrived safely, was useless. We had (and have) zero assurance that nothing went missing. So the Atlas driver/crew chief/person-in-charge didn't manage this important part of the job at all. So there were about 13 items (some valuable) that were damaged. I pointed out what we knew was damaged at the end of the move, and the driver/crew chief/person took photos with his cell phone and told us "these photos have now been submitted to Atlas" but during the long and frustrating "repair or replacement value" coverage these photos never surfaced. ( I didn't expect them to, realistically) The frustrating "repair or replacement value" claim with Atlas was ridiculous. I submitted the form, with photos, and Atlas kept coming back (many, many times) with what they called "fair and reasonable offers" that were a tiny fraction of replacement cost. All this was clearly documented and photographed by both me, and also they sent a local Atlas contracted claims person to look at and photograph the damaged items. Atlas claims literally just kept offering tiny fractions (or nothing) for damaged items. I'm a polite, professional reasonable person, and their conduct was outrageous. On one phone call I simply and politely said to the claims person "all i expect Atlas to do is to honor the terms of our contract" and the claims person seemed quietly shocked... as if I was one of the first people ever to state this so clearly. I strongly suspect that Atlas claims is simply playing the game of hoping the claimant will simply give up, and settle for far less than they are entitled to, by the terms of the "repair or replace" contract. (yes I read it carefully) After many months of this game Atlas was playing they finally just said ok we will pay you for the full amount of your claim... and they mailed a check. So - is moving a unpleasant experience? Yes. Could it have been far worse? yes. Could have the Atlas driver/crew chief/person-in-charge of unloading the truck into our house ..... actually managed the local crew, delegated the cardboard taping to protect the wood stairs in our house, and actually DONE the box and item inventory as he was supposed to do? YES. Could the Atlas claims process have been a lot more reasonable, and not played stupid games with me for months? YES.

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  Patty Hughes

  1.0

  My husband and I have used Gentle Giant for local moving and storage for ten years. In October 2018 we went to the warehouse in Hawthorne and selected items that had been in storage for several years to be shipped to our new home in the state of Washington. The furniture to be shipped included numerous items purchased from Baker Furniture as well as Persian rugs. Gentle Giant is an affiliate of Atlas Van Lines and Michael Ferrari of Gentle Giant arranged the interstate move with Atlas an sold us insurance provided by Atlas for replacement value in case of damage. Because we were shipping high end goods we thought it prudent to have insurance. When the goods arrived at their destination, a round mahogany pedestal table by Baker had been severely damaged. The delivery person gave no explanation as to what had happened and gave us a number to call the insurance company. They said they would send a claims agent which they did. This man did a cursory look and said the damage could be repaired for less than the deductible and we were told it was our problem to find someone to repair it. He also said we had attempted to repair it before which is blatantly untrue. Brackets were put on the broken legs and pedestal after we left the warehouse and prior to delivery. Michael Ferrari gave us the name of someone local to do the repairs who never responded to our calls and emails. We finally found someone who after looking at the pictures said he could repair it. He has a shop that repairs fine furniture and antiques. When he came today and picked it up he said it could not be repaired. It is now six months since we received the damaged goods. Michael Ferrari says its not his problem even though he, as Atlas Van Lines representative sold us the insurance. We have the original purchase invoice for the table, and since it is no longer being made, the closest replacement we could find is $3200. Michael has refused to do anything for us. After all these years I can't say how sorry I am that we ever did business with Gentle Giant and Atlas Van Lines, and I am writing this as a warning to anyone who is considering them for moving and storage. I would give them no stars but that is not possible on this web site.

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