California Moving Systems

Move transpired July 5th, 2018 Moving is a tough job and this is why we may hire a company to help. The movers [I am guessing] are under management pressure to maximize profits which could mean, move fast and with minimal staff. The movers that came to my home are contracted and are NOT CMS employees. Also, the lead mover had a broken hand to accomplish the near impossible. The question. How do you handle a disaster that leaves you powerless, emotionally devastated and financially crippled knowing that you are complaining about a crew that left likely exhausted and perhaps a little injured? Where do you find within all of that fair and reasonable balance so you come across sane when you feel like you lost your mind! I am a CMS casualty and I spent over $32k for a move. Moving is personal - intimate. You are letting strangers into your life, your home and trusting them with your memories...with items you have worked a lifetime to afford and acquire. You are letting them touch things that your spouse and family have given over a lifetime. In my case, my mother died last year and many items left to me CMS destroyed. This hurts - broke my heart and I get to relive loss. CMS broke over 120 items. At that point, I just stopped counting and instead, tossed the memories and money into the trash. Some of the damage senseless such as a rock. Takes two to three guys to lift. They broke it. This shows the level of carelessness. Example, they broke one of the chairs that connects to a $17,000 couch. They broke the mechanicals within the chair. One could suggest great force and seemingly little regard. The moving company retained my financial information from a prior authorized charge and without my consent, charged $17k+ to my AMEX card at a later date. I received a text message with an apology and that the owner had retained my credit card information on file. I did not consent. But it is alleged that I had. There is no document that I signed and no verbal recording authorized. Why randomly charge my card without calling knowing it's AMEX and bill is due EOM. Destruction and Financial Hardship. Ouch! I am not saying "don't ever hire CMS" because this may be the very nature of moving companies...so you may be just stuck with the risks. But you can learn from my mistakes and do better than I. I learned from AMEX that you can put a block on a vendor that forbids them passing charges without your authorization. In my case, You can manually permit a one-time charge. Control the payment process because the costs are high! Don't assume and do not blindly trust. Maintain control over your finances - protect yourself from a company just holding on to your credit card information without your knowledge or they didn't make it clear, we will use your card info again. Ask questions, get clarity. GET IT IN WRITING and make sure they sign in ink. You may feel rushed as I did...OPEN EVERY SINGLE BOX before it enters your HOME. Prepare yourself for the frowns...but they also get a break too. Inspect for damage. If damaged, refuse the item. SEND IT BACK! CMS uses bar code labels. They told me, it does not damage wood. But it did. Every single piece of wood furniture was left with a glue residue stain. Some of it came off and some items are forever stained [see photo] I can't stress enough. Document and if possible, set up a security camera to document how rough the movers are handling your items. I know, annoying but if you are a victim, you will wish you had. NestCams are cheap. Just do it. Capture as much evidence as possible. Back to the bar codes. All the items are label with a bar code. Document the item and bar code. In my case, and this is my fault, I trusted the lead that I didn't need to go through the inventory list and verify. Don't do this. Take the time and painstakingly verify each and every item that it is there and not broken. Yes, this will take a lot of time. But you will be miserable after if you do not. They will leave and you are left pretty much helpless. In my case, missing items. Yep...gone with the wind. Oh... and I also learned when filing a claim...you had better have a receipt for every item you claim. OH BOY DO NOT ASSUME YOU ARE COVERED! They are going to ask for evidence of purchase. So that painting or whatever gift your mom gave you. No receipt...bye bye - see ya! Such as my lamps. Missing shade. No receipt... Sorry! You are screwed. And finally...READ READ READ the terms and conditions - front and back. The guys are selling you a service and you may find yourself feeling...oh, I can trust XYZ. Don't do this. Read the fine print. Because the honeymoon phase ends swiftly into a divorce. Don't assume trust. Trust is earned. [Note, this is a moving review and what happened. The second interaction process and will include a detailed review will chronicle the claims process] Note: as of today 2nd of October 2018, CMS repaired one item but delivered the item on my door step without me being home and left the item still in a damaged condition. They said, file a claim. The next review will show copies of text messages and emails omitting email addresses/personal contact info

Overall they got the house moved for a reasonable price fairly quickly - the issue was that we are assured the crew would be careful and take the time to protect the houses from damage. No floor or wall protection was used and in addition to several small dings and scuffs, one of the workers made a pretty significant gouge in our front door that could not be easily repaired. Despite being assured that the damage would be repaired or we would be compensated for the repair and filing a claim with the company exactly as they asked - no follow up or compensation was ever received even after repeated calls to the company to follow up. I am writing this as we are researching movers for another move and I will not be hiring this company again based on my experience.

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     This review is rather difficult to write because all the people we dealt with at California Moving Systems were personable, courteous, and flexible; however, we were disappointed with the outcome of the move to our new home.   Several pieces of our expensive furniture were either slightly damaged or scratched deeply.  Having insurance, which we paid for in addition to the cost of moving our possessions, provided a false sense of security because a good number of our pieces were heirloom quality and cannot be replaced.  The furniture was either not padded properly or well enough or mishandled in transit. 
     In addition to furniture damage, we also observed damage to our new home.  Initially when we interviewed this company we were assured that the floors, carpet, and stair rails would all be protected before the movers began moving anything.   Although the movers did a good job doing this at our former residence, they were not that careful in our new home and only padded the bannister once they discovered that they had nicked it in several spots and scraped the walls along our stairway.  Too little too late. For the record, they did do a good job of protecting the floors and carpet. 
     We have some further issues as well. In spite of barcoding every box and piece of furniture, we discovered after unpacking that some of our possessions did not make it to our new location.  In addition, the movers used our personal dolly on move-in day, and we think that they took it with them when they left.  Numerous calls to the company regarding these issues produced no results despite the fact that we were assured that a company representative would get back to us to let us know if any of our missing possessions had been located. 
     Bottom line:  We are seriously disappointed.  We selected this company based on all the positive reviews that they had received on Angie's List and do not feel, in our case, that they lived up to their reputation.   The movers were all nice guys, but we weren't hiring friends.  We thought we were hiring professionals skilled in getting all of our furniture and possessions to our new location without damage or loss. 

They were very good. Gave us a free estimate. Very competitive rate. We had packers come in the night before and pack everything. The next day they were able to get everything packed on the trunk in one day. They packed the truck in such away that as far as I see with unpacking nothing is broken. I am very impressed.

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The pack up crew worked very hard to safely load our belongings into the truck that ultimately transport them to the our new home in Southern California.  They were prompt and careful with all of our belongings.  Everything arrived intact and was unpacked and placed in the house appropriately.  We would recommend California Moving Systems to anyone needing moving services.

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My experience with California Moving Systems, 3801 Happy Lane, Sacramento, CA 95827 has been a nightmare. This companies actions, practices, and personnel could best be described as negligent, reckless, with the possibility of retaliatory behavior!! I will only highlight a few of the issues with this company. After contacting Angies List and interviewing several movers I elected to employ California Moving Systems. I met with their sales representative Greg Raiper on 2/7/14, I explained to him my concerns regarding moving since I would have to put my belongings in storage for an extended period of time. I also raised concerns of my property being handled with care as I have Items that were expensive and fragile. I spent two hours with Greg who made a lot of promises and assured that my property was in good hands. I explained that communication was key for me and that I don’t do surprises well. He assured me he would be available by phone. On February 18th 2014, the truck and crew arrived which to load my household. Little did I know that this was going to be the start of a very costly nightmare. From the start I noticed that this crew had no clue on what the word “Fragile” meant. In the beginning of the inventory, the lead man or driver, who went by “T” had removed the table cloth from my formal dining table. He proceeded to inventory my property using this table as a work area; placing large heavy boxes on the table (made of soft wood) and sliding them across the surface. A couple of hours into the move there was one mover who stood out from the rest…best described by the phrase “bull in a china closet” his name was Jason. I own a large Mitsubishi wide screen TV that was in pristine condition (that had been through two moves with no scratches or chips). I had expressed to Greg (moving consultant), and the crew the need to be careful not to chip the veneer off the TV. Needless to say my request went on deaf ears. I witnessed Jason and another mover manhandling it through the door resting the edge of the TV on the concrete while pushing it through the door, putting a large chip in the TV. I called Greg to express my concerns on the way my property was being handled but no returned call. In fact Jason went on to damage several other items. When I expressed my concern about his actions, he raised his voice to me and started to argue with me. I asked him to leave the job site and he said he wasn’t going to go. I walked out to the truck and advised “T” the driver that I wanted Jason off my property and for him not to touch anymore of my property, or they would be putting the furniture back in the house and lose the contract. I went back into the house to supervise a large executive desk that had to be moved. An hour or so latter I walked outside to the front yard and to my dismay I found Jason in my garage handling my property after I had informed the supervisor that he was to leave my property….now I had a an issue of trespassing. I couldn’t believe how defiant this crew was. I was the customer and the homeowner and they had continued to ignore my wishes. I once again told the supervisor I did not want this person on my property….all together it took about three or more hours before the company picked him up. I called Greg four times to discuss these issues…..no one returned my call. I asked “T” why no one would return my call and I kept getting the stall tactic….Oh, he is supposed to stop by!!! About 9 hours into the loading no one returned my call, and the movers were all standing around. I asked what was going on. I was informed that they couldn’t get all my stuff on the truck. I believe I was told it was a 55 foot trailer and they couldn’t get everything on it. The driver said he had to call his supervisor and get a second truck to come out. After some time the supervisor drove up to see what was going on. His name was Robert. He walked right pass me and was at my home about an hour or so. Never once did he acknowledge me as the customer….in fact he spent most of the time belittling his crew and indirectly me with no acknowledgement. Oh, did I mention that California Moving Systems won a Superior Service Award on Angies List!! Well, the second truck was loaded up and had left. I pulled my car in the garage and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw my large seven foot aluminum scaffold sitting in my garage which was not loaded. I made my fifth call to Greg and this time he answered….I explained the situation and Robert came out again to pick it up and promised it would get to me. I decided to do another walk through of the house….sure enough I found the hardware to my bed laying scattered around on the floor!! I drove to southern California the next morning February 19th 2014. While driving I called Greg to remind him to make sure that when truck arrived at its destination that all the supplies that were quoted and promised to me in the contract would be on the truck as not to create anymore distress with this move. On the evening of February 20th, 2014, I received a call from Greg the moving consultant who indicated to me that his weight calculation was off by nearly 4 tons and if I was willing to pay $2,200 extra. I said no!! The contract was a guaranteed not to exceed the price quote given. I also confirmed with him that he received my call and that the additional packing materials were on the truck. Greg stated that they had a meeting about the events that occurred and that the supplies would be on the truck. The following morning February 21st, I was surprised to see only one truck arriving at my parents’ house to unload a portion of my property. I asked what happened to the 2nd truck. I was told that California Moving System had unloaded the trucks in their yard and repacked the truck and in addition there was another load added which was going to a customer in Huntington Beach. So initially what took two trucks to load was now consolidated to approximately ¾ of a truck. Common sense would indicate that property being moved on and off trucks is not a good thing, plus I was lead to believe that this would not occur. The delivered Items at my parents’ house went fairly smooth, an inventory was done and most of the things designated to be dropped off at their residence had occurred. The rest of the items were to be delivered to a storage facility which would soon become another chapter in an ongoing nightmare. The crew arrived at the Public Storage facility where I had secured two 10 x 30 units. I explained to the driver “T” that one unit was going to be for furniture only and the other for boxes and miscellaneous items. The contract had indicated that I would inspect my property and that the furniture would be wrapped in paper pads, and the mattress box seams were to be sealed with tape (this did not happen). I asked the crew if they would like me to order pizza for them. They said that would be great. I explained that I had to put mothballs and rat poison down in the units and that I would go to the front office wash my hands and order the pizza. When I returned to the unit the crew had ignored my requests of furniture only and had already ¼ the unit filled with my property. I did not get to inspect the items and no inventory was done. I asked why they were not wrapping my furniture with paper pads as stated in the contract. The driver stated that he did not have any supplies and did not have the contract with the instructions. I immediately called Greg to let him know what was happening. I was informed by Greg that he told them to put the supplies on the truck, however the driver denied it. To make things even worse the crew that was acquired from the Atlas facility in El Monte refused to wrap the furniture and threatened to leave. So now I had a small mutiny on my hands where the workers were going to leave. The driver decided to use blankets to cover my furniture and talked the crew into staying. One of the crew didn’t want to stay because

We were very happy with them.

They were superb.  Showed up right on time at 8:00am and had the whole house loaded by 1:00 pm.  The crew was a lot of fun to work with.  The only glitch was that the loading crew had no idea what time the driver would leave the next day, so they wound up arriving at our new home at 8:30 am while we were still 3 hours away.  After a bunch of phone calls, the crew found an open window and by the time we arrived, everything was unloaded and the furniture set up very nicely.  I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone in the Sacramento area.

The crew was great and they did a really excellent job with the move.  They didn’t break anything.  We had a real time crunch, we had to get the move done in three days because we had commitments that we needed to get back to and they met our time frame.  The price was high.  The cost ended up quite a bit higher than we expected and higher than the estimate they gave us but we never talked to the company about it. 

They went out of their way to correct a bad situation that was due to my mis-communication.

They were excellent!

California Moving Systems were excellent. They were professional and very personable. They were hard working and on time. They're just an excellent companies, with very good prices.

Robert arrived promptly, surveyed the contents of my home, offered suggestions on packing, labeling and insurance and said "the driver I meet at origin will be the driver I meet at the destination" however, this was not the case, the men from the warehouse that picked up the load said "that rarely happens" and that my load would be going to the warehouse to await a driver/truck going to my destination area.  This was disappointing, as one of the reasons I chose Atlas, was to avoid my things moved on/off or in/out prior to delivery.  I received the written estimate several days later only to notice it did not match the information or amounts we had discussed, after a couple phone calls and emails I received a corrected estimate.
CJ and his partner were helpful, professional and very careful during the pickup/loading process, they explained every detail, answered my questions and were diligent in blanket wrapping every piece of furniture. I was told I would hear in a couple days when my load would depart the Sacramento warehouse.  After a week, I contacted Justin the dispatcher and was told it would be another few days before it would be matched up with a load heading East.  This was fine as I was traveling and not in a rush to receive the load on the "other end". 
Each time I called for an update, Justin was courteous and professional and promised to contact me when he knew an estimated delivery date. After a few more days of calls, I was given a delivery date and was told the driver would be in touch with me.  When I didn't hear from the driver I left several messages for him to confirm the nearing delivery date.  He finally called back the day before the appointment given to me by Justin, to say it would be delayed one more day.
At delivery, the driver, Mr. Sallis, and his local assistant was friendly, professional and very flexible and cooperative in unloading my belongings into my storage unit.  They were very careful and respectful of the furniture, stacked boxes according to my wishes and offered suggestions on utilizing the space.  Unfortunately, four rubber-maid plastic totes were cracked or smashed beyond use but upon inspection did not appear to have any internal damage or missing items. 
Realizing many companies in the moving industry are franchises, it is important to research, check references and confirm inter state and intrastate licenses are current, it is also important to note there are many "low ball" scam companies are vying for our business.  It was my experience in the past with other "low ball" priced moving companies that they quote one price then add on a lot of fees and are not as professional as the nationwide companies. Atlas and it's representatives in Sacramento and the driver were very professional and although I had a few glitches, I would definitely recommend and use them in the future.
 

California Moving Systems did an excellent job.
They came to our home and documented all items to be moved and used this to provide an estimate.
They arrived on moving day on-time.  The three-man crew were extremely professional.  They worked quickly, but carefully and successfully moved all items even a large desk that barely fit through the doorway with door removed without damaging the desk or either home.  We couldn't be happier.
Their price was very competitive, but you can certainly find a cut-rate moving company that will do the job a little cheaper if you want to risk it.
If we have the need for a moving company in the future, I wouldn't consider using anyone else.

We are extremely disappointed to find this company listed on Angie's List with an "A" rating, as we were not even provided with a courtesy return call after our initial request for information.  It leaves us to wonder what would happen if we hired this company and had questions or concerns after our move related to our belongings or any damage to items they moved.

My husband and I were moving from Stockton CA to Reno NV.  We called California Moving Systems in Sacramento for an estimate.  The estimate we got from them was lower than the other companies we called.  On top of that, they don't collect their fee until after the delivery is made, not asking for money before the move, unlike many other companies.  CMS is associated with Allied Van Lines.
We hired the company to move our heavy furniture and a 1,000 pound gun safe.  Some of the moving companies wanted nothing to do with such a heavy safe, but CMS didn't have a problem with it. 
Judy Little was the (Senior) Relocation Specialist we worked with from the beginning.  She was very pleasant and very easy to work with, taking a large part of the stress out of moving.  She answered all of my questions and made sure I knew everything I would need to know.  Judy also sent an informative moving packet that I found helpful.
About the actual move: Jess, Steve and Charlie were the men CMS sent.  They arrived on time, were professional, helpful and very nice.  They not only performed their jobs, but helped my husband and I when we were moving various items ourselves.  My husband had had open heart surgery just four months earlier and I was worried he would overexert himself.  Jess, Charlie and Steve jumped right in to help him whenever he needed it, something I appreciated very much.
The men were extremely pleasant to work with and they went above and beyond just moving our furniture.  I recommend them to anyone looking for a moving company.  I would certainly hire them again with no hesitation at all.  Thank you to Judy, Charlie, Steve and Jess!

This is the second time in about two months that we have had occasion to use this company.  (You can see our first review on here, too.)   I'll just say right now, if we ever need moving services again, we'll use them a third time!  We put our house up for sale on 12/26/12.  It sold on 1/3/13 . . . and the buyers wanted a short escrow; 14 days!  We negotiated for some extra time but didn't want to stay longer than absolutely necessary.  We called Robert Gillespie and asked him if he could work us in on short notice.  We discussed a couple of dates he had available and chose one.  He came out and gave us an estimate.  Our situation called for a two-part move; some stuff to a storage facility and some to a townhouse.  No problem for him and the estimate for both phases was more than reasonable.  The morning of the move the men and a truck showed up about fifteen minutes early. Because we had done the packing ourselves as well as having taken apart some of the bed frames, etc., loading went quickly.  The drop at the storage facility went as smoothly as such things were given the need to use an elevator to take items to the third floor.  The remainder of the move went well, too, including getting everything up an exterior flight of stairs and then one bedroom set up an additional interior flight within the townhouse. The men worked efficiently, neatly, politely, and made sure everything was where we wanted it.  In the end the final price was nicely less than the estimate, everything was delivered, there was no damage, and we were very pleased.  This is a great local company that works hard to maintain it's well-earned reputation for excellence.  Keep up the great work, folks!  And THANKS.

They used 2 "bobcat" trucks with 5 men.  They took their short required breaks in the a.m. and p.m.  After they finished loading up, they broke for lunch, telling me  they were going to a McDonald's on the way and to expect them at the destination in an hour.  On my way to the destination, I passed that McDonald's and, indeed, the trucks were parked there.
Although I haven't yet unpacked all my boxes, so far everything has arrived in perfect condition, except for a small nick on the corner of an end table.  Having experienced other less careful movers in the past, I consider this a minor thing. 
They quoted me a "not to exceed" price, estimating 9 hours for the move.  The contract says that I would be charged extra  for any extra services requested, if it went over 9 hours.  Because I did ask them to place felt on the feet of my furniture, the move took 10 hours, so I paid them for one extra hour of labor, which I was happy to do.
The men arrived on time with their trucks, were courteous and good-natured throughout the move, even while pushing heavy things up a steep walkway.  I found California Moving Systems on Angie's List, and agree with those before me who have given them a high rating.  I would definitely hire them again.  

Exceptional!! Robert came out to the house and throughly explained the packing and moving process and most important the estimate. I learned that in CA the estimate is a not to exceed (unless you add items - then a change order is rightfully added). The estimate was great in price and after the packing and moving - the final amount owed was LESS than we expected!! Cannot beat that!! The packers were very polite and really efficent. The movers were all awesome - worked very h****** a day that was over 100 degrees and dealing with a two story house.
We provided cold water -which was very much appricaited by the packers and movers - however that seems like a common thing to provide.  The very professional men thanked us several times and my husband and I could not be happier with their services.
My only regret is that I am unable to gie them a grade higher than a "A"!!! With so much that could go wrong with packing and moving - absolutely nothing did!! I very strongly recommend California Moving Services!!!
A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who made our move very easy!