Guardian Moving Storage

This was not only the worst experience with a moving company, but also the worst experience with a company EVER. Just a note — this company is NOT out of LA, but rather Indiana. Interestingly, all of their customer service is in Florida. Not sure how that works, but I digress. Seven days before our move, we realized that we would not be able to complete the move ourselves with my husband’s bad back. They seemed nice enough on the phone, and Jeff Gore, the salesman was personable and helpful. He gave us the quote, we digitally signed the contract, and we exhaled a sigh of relief. This was the beginning of our nightmare. After realizing that they have changed/​altered the name of their company numerous times due to the negative reviews that resulted from their exceptionally awful service, we discovered that the moving company we hired, then going by Guardian Moving Systems, was accused of stealing people’s valuables, breaking furniture, raising prices that were far beyond what the company quoted, and then holding people’s belongings hostage. I had a panic attack as I scrolled through horrifying story after horrifying story, so the following morning (24 hours after we had booked them) my husband called to see if we could cancel and get our deposit back. Jeff assured us that since we had cancelled within 24 hours, we didn’t need to worry about losing our deposit (they say that if you cancel within seven days, they do not return the deposit – it was now six days before the move). Despite what Jeff told us, we received a charge on our credit card from «Moving Ops» in the amount of our deposit. My husband called the company, where he was treated quite rudely, told that the sales rep had «lied» to us and we wouldn’t be getting our deposit back, and hung up on him. This was the beginning of a months long back and forth. We called the credit card company and disputed the charge. After we moved (using another company), I called Guardian Moving Whatever They Call Themselves Now and was promptly forwarded to their team in Florida (what happened to LA/​Indiana?) to try to deal with the situation. They told us that couldn’t do anything because we had disputed the charge. So began a month of back and forth with them. They refused to provide us with the «proof» of our cancellation (which Jeff had never sent) and said they no longer had access to his records because he, conveniently, didn’t work there anymore. They kept telling me they would call me back; however, as of right now, I am still waiting. Every time I call, the person in charge is never available, out to lunch, etc. Long story short, we ended up having to eat the $ 650 deposit. DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE. SAVE YOUR MONEY AND YOUR BELONGINGS.

DO NOT USE THEM!!! It will be less money and aggravation to carry your stuff on your back and WALK to your destination. My friend was stuck in an unfortunate situation and needed to get he belongings from Virginia to New York. She researched several options including UHaul and Pods. She found this company that promised low rates and excellent service. She called the company and spoke to a very helpful representative. She told him all the things she had and they gave her an estimate of $ 1200.00. She agreed to the service because it was considerably less then the alternatives. She expected that it might be a little more due to it only being an estimate. They gave her a tentative date of the following Saturday or Sunday for pick up and said that the drivers would contact her with the exact day and time of pick up. They told her that she needed to pay 70% down with check, cash or money order. She purchased a money gram money order at the local Walmart. Easy enough…
The Friday before, the driver called to say they would be there on Saturday between 3 and 6pm. They would call an hour before arrival. Still seemed good…
On Saturday at 5pm she had still not received a call so she called them. They told her that they were still 2 hours away and would contact her when closer. Ok, a little annoyed…
At 7pm, there was still no calls from them. At 7:30pm they called and said 20 minutes but at 830 they still were not there. They texted that they were still 20 minutes out… Ok, very annoyed and concerned.
They did not arrive until 945pm.
When they got there, they put 90% of her stuff on the truck and said that they needed the payment. She handed them the money order and they refused to accept it. They told her they only accepted postal money orders. The driver gave her 15 minutes to drive to the Walmart, cash the money order and return with the money. (Walmart was 10 minutes away). They said if she wasn’t back in 15 minutes, they would leave. Frazzled, she was just going to write a personal check… SUPER ANNOYED.
As she was getting ready to write the check, the driver told her that her belongings were taking up MORE than the estimated space of 3.1 cubic feet and he needed to adjust the estimate. Now her space was 6.9 cubic feet and the new amount due was $ 3,800.00. (yeah, do the math on that) bring on the hysterics! After fighting and screaming for an hour with the driver, they dropped the price to $ 1,900. (some deal) The driver FORCED her to do a video of how they helped her by dropping the price. So red faced and blurry eyed she did it. They told her they would be in New York the next day and would call an hour before they got to the destination. Super angry at this point…
On Sunday, she called to get a rough estimate of the time they would be there. She heard 3 different stories. They were still in Virginia. They were in New Jersey. They would have to wait 2 – 4 days to wait for the check to clear. They would not be there til Friday. Beyond mad now…
On Friday, they called to say that they were in the area and would be there shortly. But that they called the storage unit place and their truck would not fit. They would need to move her stuff to a smaller truck for delivery. When they arrived, they charged her a 500.00 additional fee for a «shuttle fee». They told her that they would not release her stuff unless she had the 30% and the shuttle fee. After an hour of screaming and crying, she got a small discount, realized she was fighting a losing battle and paid them. Now she is completely broke and not able to afford the new apartment she was in the process of getting. This company turned an unfortunate situation into a NIGHTMARE! They held her belongings hostage and financially raped her. They were sweet as pie to gain her business and then price gouged her when she had no other choice. If you value your sanity, steer clear of this company. ANY positive reviews are LIES! Unilocal will not allow me to post without a star but I would give negative stars if I could!

A

Because of all these wonderful reviews and lack of communication I cancelled their service. Thanks people.

Absolutely the worst experience of my adult life. This move was a disaster, from beginning to end. The following represents the facts about our move from New York to Hawaii using this company, guardian cargo logistics:
1. Chris Brown, who identified himself as the manager, contacted us about our move. Initially he was very nice and told us he would do whatever it took to secure our business.
2. Chris provided a quote for our move, though our actual moving expenses with this company totaled over twice the amount.
3. Our moving time was quoted to be six weeks and it took more than three months. We attempted to contact the company for updates and they advised that they did not know the exact whereabouts of our belongings.
4. When our items arrived, we were missing four boxes containing valuable stereo and electronic equipment. We were also missing the boxes that contained our luxury handbags. Note that these boxes were packed and labeled by the company. Our shipping manifest indicated that these articles were loaded in New York, but not unloaded in Hawaii. When we asked about the travel across the U.S. and the storage facilities they use while our articles were in transit, the company refused to disclose this information. The company refused to return our phone calls and Chris was unreachable. We attempted to file police reports for our missing belongings, but the company would not cooperate with information regarding storage locations (so that we could contact the appropriate local police department).
5. We finally connected with the company and asked to fill out a missing items report. They indicated that they would reimburse us for $.35 per pound, which equated to about $ 60 in their opinion. Note that the value of what we lost exceeded $ 10,000. They then offered to reimburse us for $ 200, but only if we would not leave a bad review.
Please do not use this company. They are dishonest, overcharge and will steal your stuff.

The worst experience we have ever had dealing with any company. We were told that we would have free storage. We were subsequently charged over $ 1,000 extra for storage in Hawaii. We knew exactly when we would be arriving in Honolulu and when we wanted out items to be delivered. We told them over a month in advance. We followed their instructions every time. They tried to deliver it a different day them when we asked, It ended up costing us an extra $ 2,300! They blamed it on us and refused to negotiate. About one day different and they charged us the full extra $ 2,300. They failed to give us clear instructions as to how to pay the extra $ 2,300. It was so stressful.
We had extreme difficulty getting ahold of people at Guardian when we had questions. No one seems to ever answer the phone. Long delays in answering our calls if they answered at all. Maxine in dispatch was extremely rude to us on the telephone.
When we were ready for the movers to come to load our possessions, they called the evening before to say that if we didn’t call back, they wouldn’t come. We tried and tried to call back, but could only leave a message, so we didn’t know if they would come or not. Fortunately, they did come when they said they would.
Once things arrived, Many of our boxes clearly marked fragile were smashed. Many items were broken. It was heartbreaking.
We also delivered our cars with Guardian. They told us to take the cars to Oakland and sent us to the wrong address. There was nothing but locked gates where they sent us. My car almost ran out of gas because they told us to keep the tank close to empty. The paperwork from Guardian had the wrong address on it and did not say the name of the place to take the cars to. My husband vaguely recalled someone mentioning Matson, so we went there and that was where we were supposed to go. You can’t get anyone by phone at Guardian, of course, once you have booked with them. It was an absolute nightmare.
I would never, ever use Guardian again. I feel abused and traumatized from our experience with this company.
Some positives: The movers who came to load our items in California were very polite and seemed to take great care in wrapping our furniture. The movers who unloaded our stuff in Honolulu were friendly and hard working.

Guardian was able to give me a quote and get me moved in on short notice. They were professional and beat the competitors in terms of pricing. They were professional, unpacked and reassembled my furniture. I have never seen a whole van unloaded as quickly as these guys were able to do it! I moved from Los angeles to New york and it only took 8 days and nothing broke!
THANK YOU GUARDIAN!

First off, I made the mistake of reading the reviews for guardian AFTER my stuff had been picked up so I was panicking that I was either going to be price gouged upon my stuff arriving or it would all be broken and/​or missing. Now that I have received my stuff I can write a fair review.
I shipped a 2 bedroom house and 2 cars from San Diego to Kona. My sales guy was Brett and I booked over 6 weeks out from when I needed my stuff picked up. I called the day before my scheduled arrival and Brett said everything was on track and that he would confirm our pick up time and call me back. I never got a call back. When moving day came, no one arrived. My husband and I started calling any and everyone at guardian to see where the truck was and at 11am I got a call from Brett that there was a scheduling error and they would arrive in 5 days. 5 days out put us into the next month and we had to be out of our place in 2 days. After 2 hours of screaming at Brett and talking to the dispatch my husband was able to have the movers arrive the next day to pick up our stuff. Dispatch also told us that Brett never scheduled our pick up which is why no one showed up. Everyone we talked to at dispatch was amazing and I really appreciate the effort they put in for us. They did Brett’s job so I hope they get his commission.
When the movers did arrive the next day they could not have been nicer, professional or quick. They were amazing. Fun fact, be prepared to pay either a portion of your balance or your whole balance at that time. Brett never told me that. Something else Brett never told me was that our stuff didn’t get its own container. We shared a container with other people that were coming to Hawaii. So we were really concerned our stuff wouldn’t fit in the amount of space we were quoted and he just kept saying it will be fine but didn’t explain how it will be fine. Also I thought that once our stuff got to the dock it would get loaded on a boat. It sits at the shipping yard until it has other stuff going to the same location so the delivery time is longer than what we expected.
When I called Brett a couple of days after our stuff had been picked up, he didn’t answer my calls or return my calls and when I finally caught him off guard he seemingly had no recollection of our issue with the move date (one would think that the reaming my husband and I gave him would leave an impression).
I paid our balance in full at the time of the pick up and the movers gave me all sorts of info that probably should have been sent to me when I booked my pick up– like client rights for the department of transportation. I had been freaking out because after our stuff got picked up, I read all kinds of awful reviews but then read through the client right pamphlet and it had a little section about binding versus non– binding quotes. Binding quotes make is so that the delivers can’t hand you a bill upon dropping off your stuff or holding it hostage. As long as your quote size is close to what you shipped the price is the price you were quoted *regardless of weight*. Non binding means they can add fees for weight, size, ect so make sure your quote says BINDING
I did call dispatch a couple of times to get an update on our stuff and they were very friendly and helpful!
We just received our stuff this week and the guys who dropped it off where done in 20 mins. They were also awesome! We didn’t get any surprise bills and for the most part everything was in good shape. Stuff that didn’t fair that we’ll was probably more my fault because I should have packed it better (although we did have one box that looked eerily similar to the package ace Ventura kicks down the hall way).
Overall for both sets of movers and dispatch i would give 5 stars but Brett is a ding bat and was truly awful to work with so I would give him no stars.
It’s ok to use guardian just get a binding quote and if Brett is your sales person ASK FOR SOMEONE ELSE.
Also if you are shipping cars, if you can, go directly through Matson. The people at the dock were really nice, we had no wait and they showed us an app to download where I tracked my cars so I knew when they arrived!

I was a bit skeptical on using this moving company due to the low reviews. After looking and searching Guardian was able to offer the most competitive rates so i went ahead and took a chance and i am glad i did! Kim was amazing! She was knowledgeable and informative. I moved from Los Angeles/​Huntington Park area to Maui on August. The day of the pick up the move went great. The gentlemen that helped me were very careful and handled my belongings appropriately. They explained the paper work carefully and answered all my questions. My estimate went up $ 130 because of some packing i wanted to add but besides that everything went smoothly. I received my stuff last week and was very satisfied. A couple of boxes were roughed up, but they actually added extra tape so nothing fell out and everything got there fine. No damage. I was HIGHLY satisfied with Kim and the Gentlemen. Kim answered all my calls (which were plenty). I would definitely use them again if i had to. Overall GREAT experience!

I have to give an amazing review on Kim and her staff for the amazing experience that I went through! She helped me out with getting my quote. I moved from California to the island of Kauai (Hawaii). I was highly concerned about OVER THE PHONE estimates, but Kim helped me out with all the details, I went over a detailed list of items, furniture, etc. that I needed shipped. The day of pick up everything went well. The estimate was very close, I only ended up paying an additional $ 50 for a few extra cubic feet. The crew that moved my belongings was great, they were very friendly and they protected all of my items very well. I am currently waiting on a few of my items but the dispatchers assured that I will be receiving them shortly! Bottom line I highly recommend this company as they made my move easy and painless!

I set up my move with Guardian 3 months ago and have been in contact with them several times since. They reassured me that all was in order and ready to go. They showed up on the pick up date without the equipment they said they’d have and were not able to do the pick up and now a week before moving they cancelled completely without giving me the time of day. I would not recommend these movers, they are extremely unreliable. USE SOMEONE ELSE!!! NO MATTER HOW LOW THEIR «BID» IS!!!

Moving is expensive and stressful enough, save yourself the added expense and headache of utilizing this moving service. If you do decide to utilize them, here is some of what you can expect:
1) Unanswered phone calls, voicemails, and emails: You will receive excellent communication when they are trying to lock down your business, then once you have committed to their service, a complete lack of communication will follow.
2) Unexpected charges: That credit card number you gave them to place a deposit, or start payment — expect to see some additional charges that you did not authorize.
3) Being yelled at: If you have never experienced being yelled at by a customer representative, this might be your chance to have a company that claims to be serving you demonstrate anger management issues over the phone.
4) Yet more unexpected charges: Dishonest measurements of the dimensions of your household goods arrived at by «eyeballing» the items as they have been «doing this for years», then the additional charges that come along with these very accurate measurements.
For the sake of brevity, I will stop here, but would be happy to share more with whomever is interested. Best of luck with your move!

Overall, I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY! This review is for Guardian Cargo Logistics, (
). Move was PA to Hawaii, in July 2013. Contents were delivered at end of August 2013. Overview — contents arrived with nothing lost, but boxes looked as though they had been drug behind the truck. Many items broken. Never received phone calls regarding actual price of move cubic feet, as we were told would only be charged for exact size of shipment on the arrival of goods (Make deposit, then balance will be calculated, etc etc). I am sure at this point, that is money we will never see again. Charged for items not used (pallet jacks). Informed company that we lived on country road in PA, that would not accommodate a Semi truck, and they sent one anyway, then charged $ 450 for the truck rental. Had problem with car pick up dates, and requests for extra payment for car hauling. Needed paperwork regarding an item shipped, and it has yet to be received — most likely never will.
The process started out positive, as the individual we spoke with on the phone seemed to have all the right answers, and was quick to return phone calls and emails. The booking process was smooth with her (Lizzie), but once the shipment was booked, the issues started. She became difficult to contact with questions following booking. We were told that if we booked 750 cubic feet for the move, that the shipment would be measured and we would only pay for what we used. This was not so. Also, we were given a quote of $ 1999 per car.
First, our move consisted of 2 car shipments, to be sent separately, so that we had vehicles on either end of the move, and household goods. Problems started with the car shipments, as I was quoted dates for pick up, and told the drivers would contact me about 24 hours prior. 2 days after my scheduled pick up date, I decided to finally call and see what was going on, and it turns out the pick up was never scheduled. My husband started looking for other companies, as we were leaving the mainland. Apparently he clicked the Guardian site for a quote by accident, and then all of a sudden Chris Brown is calling, asking what is wrong, and saying he can fix it.
The car transport company must have found a truck coming through our area, and they had the car picked up a few days later, but that put it in California for the Matson ship a week past when we hoped, which meant a long car rental once we arrived in Hawaii. The second car was picked up at the original time, but then I received a call from Ronnie from Regal Auto — who they used, telling me that I did not pay enough. This was the night before we were getting on the plane for our move. I had paid to Matson $ 905 each car, and the balance of the $ 1999 for each car to the company, and stated that I was not going to pay more, as I had an email with the quote. Thankfully both cars arrived.
The household goods were to include a motorcycle. We were told we either had to pay them to crate the bike, or we could do it ourselves. When I said we would like them to crate it, I was then told that they were unable to do that, so my husband built a crate for the bike on a pallet. Guardian stated to us that they needed to use pallet jacks, and that would be an extra fee. On NEITHER end of the move did anyone have pallet jacks for moving a motorcycle, and as such my husband had to help the movers man-​handle this bike into and out of the truck. We were still charged for the pallet jacks that never appeared. Also, I called several different people at Guardian once the bike arrived asking for paperwork with the motorcycle arrival listed, along with vin number, so we could register the bike. It has been over a month, and I have yet to receive any of the requested paperwork. Return phone calls were limited as well, and overall response to our issue was avoided, with many statements of «It’s out of my hands.»
Once they had our money, they were done with talking to us, and had VERY poor customer service at that point.
More issues than I can remember, honestly, but these are the big ones. Again — do yourself a favor, find another shipping company.

WARNING!!! Do not use these movers. It is easy to pad Unilocal with fake reviews «my friend moved» ‚“I helped my family move” etc. But please take note of the people who ACTUALLY moved THEIR OWN furniture with Guardian– lots of promises– damaged furniture, overpriced. See my full review with pictures. I have tried and tried to get a fair settlement, but they simply refuse to honor their contractual agreement of 60 cents per pound. They DRAGGED our antique grand piano up the stairs and scraped the finish off the side of our piano, but will not make good on their contract for damages. Our tables, shelves and dresser were damaged and scratched, One of our vehicles was scratched unbelievably, but because they subcontract to fly by night vendors, we never got a settlement and are forced to pursue legal action. What a terrible way to arrive in Hawaii! It is almost impossible to get a hold of them when there is a problem. And they do NOT really take credit cards– we were forced to write checks because they would not take credit cards for our delivery– our move was over $ 11,000 (think of the miles we could have gotten!)
The movers were ill prepared and cut into our furniture with their knives when unwrapping the furniture.
BEWARE– do yourself a favor and take seriously the negative reviews on the site!

I give them no stars but it made me put 1. Stay away from these people. Chris in the LA office gave us a quote and it was twice the amount. They pick your things up and then its very hard to get in contact with them to find out where it is. We kept trying to contact them to get the invoice for the company to pay them and they finally send it 3 weeks later and then they say you have a storage bill over $ 400. We moved off Maui the last week of May and it’s now August 8 and our things are still in LA. Unaccectable!!! Please Please go somewhere else for your moving needs!!! Looking at the «good» reviews they sound like they were written by employers of the company. One more thing they broke my TV stand and said it was already broke (which it wasn’t). Acted like it didn’t matter.

Moving from the islands to the mainland or vice versa? if so Guardina moving is your choice. Prompt, courteous, and efficient, they have multiple suggestions, plans and ideas to execute whatever your moving needs may be. Chris is a logistical master and made the transition smooth and easy. My military friends have used Guardian as well and felt supported, listened to, and taken care of.
Would not hesitate to use them again, their quote was near perfect and were happy to answer any and all concerns we had.

Very disapointed.
Shipped all of our stuff from Colorado.
They did not color coordinate our boxes as promised.
One, oddly shaped, heavy box, carrying a few precious items mysteriously disapeared.
They are under staffed, and were too busy with processing new movers, to attend to us.
Tried for months to communicate with these people.
Got A Lot of Nice Lip Service, NO Follow Through.
No one helped us find our box, aside from making a few phone calls to each other.
Tried to file a claim and was Completely Denied.
The Rage and Animosity I still hold for the people in this company is a burden of hell fire. If I had a metaphorical axe I would take it to there preverbal door. *F* these people. You can do better.

Completely unprofessional, and their customer service staff flat out LIES to get your business. Moved from California to Australia, and was assured repeatedly by their service reps that transit time would be ~8 weeks, or 10 weeks max. Instead it took over 4 months, and it was nearly impossible to recover any costs. They would never give me any updates or explanations on how late the shipment was, I was always having to contact them even though they had email and phone contacts for me. They also tacked on ~$ 300 in mysterious charges right at the end, stating it was for «overage» of cubic feet, although nothing was mentioned about this when they came to collect the boxes.
In short, do not use these guys they are unprofessional liars and cheats. Go check their BBB record.

NEGATIVE NEGATIVE NEGA-​MOTHER-​F-​ING-​TIVE. Not only did they dropped and damage my boxes, they were nice enough to open one of the boxes, take out 2 of the Pottey Barn bowls (I’m assuming because they were broken) take out the shards of glass from one broken WATERFORD CRYSTAL glass and three Pottery barn goblets BUT OF COURSE LEAVE ENOUGH GOD DAMN GLASS TO CUT ME as I was unpacking the box, and re-f*ing tape the box back (extremely obvious because we taped our boxes all the same way and this box was taped around three times). Thanks for not bothering to tell me, which I would of been understanding about but you didn’t and you hid it and my hand is f*Ed up now. And thanks for the dents, chips and cracks in the following items: wood floor lamp, dining table + extension, dresser, entertainment system.
*if your wondering how I cut myself, well all the items were wrapped in news paper, carefully, meticulously. When the box arrived, all the newspapers etc were just floating around in the box. And when I reached down to take the items out I made the obvious «oowwww» scream and oh lookie lookie, a nice glass piece in my hand plus a few little ones on my fingertips from the little pieces still stuck in them. Awesome Guardian! You guys truly are the best for this one. Typing with bandages on my hands is so much fun.

I have used these guys two different times…
Once TO Hawaii, and once BACK.
All and all they they were very professional. My quote was right on both times.
Just remember, STICK with the quote they give you, and ask LOTS of questions. I would use these guys again.