Gold Standard Moving and Storage

Gold Standard Moving was a complete disaster, beginning to end. They are NOT an actual moving company, they are a BROKER that contracts with independent carriers. I used Gold Standard to move from California to Illinois in 2021. I arranged my move with Gold Standard months in advance and was told my possessions would be delivered to my new home in 3-21 days. My buyers were taking possession of my condo 8/31, so Gold Standard gave me a pickup date of Friday, 8/27. Plenty of time. The afternoon before my pickup, my phone rang, and it was the trucking company Gold Standard had contracted with. The guy told me he wasn’t coming: that Gold Standard had revised my move and he wouldn’t do it, so I had to call and tell them to find another truck because he wasn’t coming. Um, what? I immediately called Gold Standard customer service. They apologized and told me they would find another carrier that would be there Saturday, and if they didn’t show up Saturday they would definitely come Sunday. Okay. Sunday would still be plenty of time, since I didn’t HAVE to be out until Tuesday at 5PM. Saturday and half of Sunday went by with NO truck and ZERO communication. I tried calling a few times Saturday and was told there was no customer service on weekends. By Sunday afternoon I was fuming. I called their afterhours service and finally spoke with a rep, who told me they had NEVER arranged another carrier! A truck FINALLY showed up at 11AM on Tuesday, 8/31. Upon arrival, the moving team demanded $2,000 more than Gold Standard had quoted me for my move! At that point I absolutely HAD to get out, so I just effing paid it. After they finished, I cleaned and walked out incredibly stressed 15 minutes before my buyers took possession. Ridiculous. I had planned MONTHS in advance to avoid exactly this scenario and here I was, a basket case. One of the movers told me my things were going to LA to be unloaded and palletized, then reloaded onto a bigger truck for transport. It looked like they’d done a decent job packing, so I was not overly concerned. Four days later, I was in Illinois and ready for delivery. Several days later I called Gold Standard for an update. It had been about 7 days since pickup. I was told, “Oh no! It’s 3-21 BUSINESS DAYS, not 3-21 calendar days. And the 3-21 business days didn’t start when your things were picked up. They started on the first day you told us you were in Illinois!” Fantastic. They had no info beyond this and said I’d get a call the day before my delivery, click. I waited a few more days and called again, hoping for some shred of information. I was told it was Day 7, and they had no news. I waited another week. By my calculation, we were on Day 13, but the customer service rep told me that nope, it was only Day 9. How was it possible, I asked, that I had called the previous week and was told it was Day 7, and now, a whole week later, it was only Day 9? Again, I was brushed off. Many days went by, with continued brushoffs and absolutely no information. I FINALLY received a call on 9/27 (28 days after pickup) saying my delivery would be the next day. Now for the delivery nightmare. During “palletizing and re-loading,” my possessions had been completely manhandled. Carefully packed, brand new boxes were WRECKED, many crushed and/or torn open. Antiques were damaged, some irreparably. Hardware was missing from beds. Furniture had massive amounts of packing tape applied directly to them, and I still can’t get the adhesive off. A dining table is warped by 3-4”. Many items look like they sat in the sun for an extended time, which made me wonder if everything sat in an LA parking lot for weeks, baking and fading in the August heat. Several items were lost completely, including a brand new $120 hand truck that I’m sure the movers took, despite it being labeled very clearly as my property. I feel like I was put through an incredibly stressful experience, had my possessions destroyed, damaged or stolen, AND paid over $12K for the privilege. Gold Standard has a process for reporting damaged and lost items, but they make it as hard as they possibly can: massive forms, extremely specific instructions regarding the types of pictures you need to submit, AND they require that you have the original bill of lading (which they do NOT give you unless you knew to ask for a copy of it). I began the process, but honestly I just want to be done with this atrocious company and its BS. Please, please learn from my experience and avoid Gold Standard like the plague!!!

DO NOT USE - YOU WILL BE RIPPED OFF - GUARANTEED!! I am a member of the military, I was contacted by Gold Standard when I had requested information on a moving site for moving carriers to contact me. THEY ARE NOT A MOVING CARRIER - THEY ARE A BROKER!! THEY SUB CONTRACT YOU OUT TO THE LOWEST BIDDING CARRIER TO PICK UP YOUR STUFF... IF YOUR STUFF EVER EVEN GETS PICKED UP. I was contracted to have all my belongings picked up from the base housing I was living in back in October 2021. The movers never showed up and the representative at Gold Standard told us that they "would get back to us with a resolution"... They never did, and despite many many calls and emails they had never coordinated our move. I ended up needing to find a local mover on my own to get me and my family out of our base housing and put all our stuff in a storage unit we could figure out what to do because we were moving out of state, all without the service from Gold Standard that we paid $2500 for! Gold Standard agreed to refund our money, but to this day, we have yet to see a single penny of our refund.

They would not take a credit card, took the money, then could not fulfill the contract. They authorized a refund which would take 30 days, however 6 months later, I still haven't recieved it and I have been told it will take another 30-60 days. I don't think I will ever get my money. I had to use UHaul to move. So the move cost me close to $7000 thanks to this scam. STAY AWAY. They sound promising and caring, but are not.

I paid over 1,000 and cancelled my contracted within the timeframe. It has been 3 months and I am still waiting on my refund. I’m not sure how I am waiting so long when I didn’t use their services.

DO NOT USE THIS MOVING COMPANY! It is a scam. We asked for an estimate and paid an up front cost of $3,543. After we received the estimate, we found another moving company that would be able to do it sooner for the same price, so we cancelled our contract with Gold standard moving and storage. We were well within the 10 day refund period and should have had that deposit refunded. We received an email that said "refund approved" and we should be receiving that refund within 12-14 days. That was in July of 2021. It is now December 29th and we have not received a refund. We have called multiple times over the last few months only to have an angry customer service person tell us "it's coming!" unfortunately we read the negative reviews after giving them money. It seems many other customers have experienced this. Do not engage with this company. Do not give them any money.