Golan's Moving & Storage Inc

IF YOU VALUE YOUR POSSESSIONS OR YOUR PEACE OF MIND, DO NOT USE GOLAN?S. They moved our sizeable household from IL to CA in the summer of 2012. Virtually all of our wood and glass furniture was severely damaged en route, including antiques and family heirlooms. The Golan guys who unloaded the van said it was too crowded with other families? belongings. Filing a claim required getting repair estimates, locating receipts, taking photos of the damages, etc. We were referred to a third party claims processor who ignored us for months. After many calls to them, we received an offer that was pathetically insufficient (per the estimates that Golan?s insisted we obtain) to fix the 17 items harmed. In fact, the amount offered was surprisingly close to the amount that we had paid for extra ?insurance? on our belongings, which turned out to be just another fee. We then had no choice but to take the matter to arbitration, which took countless more hours of effort and many more months. In early December, 2013, we finally received an arbitration award in the maximum amount that could be given under the circumstances. It took Golan?s 3 more months to pay us ? a total of more than 20 months since the day we moved. At every step along the way, Golan?s and its claim processor delayed (sometimes past the time frames allowed by federal regulations) and came up with specious, preposterous reasons for failing to accept our claims. We have never dealt with any service provider that had so little regard for its customers. Their price was not bad, but we would have paid a great deal more to avoid seeing our beautiful things ruined and having to spend close to two years fighting to assert our rights.

I have used Golan for previous moves and they were great and this time was as good as previous experiences. The 4 man crew showed up at the time scheduled and did a great job. The wrapped all my stuff great and helped me set everything up at the new home. I will definitely use them again

I ran into a little bit of a bind with the closings of my homes. However, the Golan's crew made both the move out and move-in as painless as possible. They were able to put my belongings into storage and hold them for a few days so I didn't need to rent a storage locker. Everything was handled with care and prompt attention. Since I had to use the storage it was almost if I had to move twice (old home>storage, storage>new home), thus the slightly elevated price.

I would never use Golan again nor would I recommend them to anyone. They may be fine for a local Chicago move but if you are moving out of state look for a company that has teams all over the country so they can provide all the local support you need. This was a horrible experience.

Excellent. Showed up early. Everything done without an incident within 4 hours, went out of their way to provide documentation to Sr.. complex prior to move date.

I'll just start off by saying that our experience working with Golan's was absolutely dismal and we would never use them again for any service. We, of course, did some research prior to hiring them (not on Angie's list, our mistake), and the impression that I've gotten is that when there are no problems, Golan's does an OK job, however, other reviews I've seen (and our own experience) says this: if anything goes wrong (even if it is 100% Golan's fault), if any changes are needed, if there are any hiccups at all, they are unwilling and/or unable to make the situation right. On to the details: We initially contacted Golan's around July 18 for our move at the end of August. They provided a quote (which was roughly accurate), a multi-day window for pickup of our items and a specific drop off date in Chicago. Initially, the window they provided began on Saturday the 18th, and ended on the 26th with a guaranteed delivery date of the 28th. After seeing this in the quote, we contacted them immediately and explained that we had an out-of-state wedding for some very close friends on the 18th, so the 18th and 19th would NOT work for a pickup window. They said, verbatim (and I had this in writing) that they'd "shave the 18th and 19th off the pick up window of dates" and keep the 28th as the delivery day. The week before the pickup window was supposed to begin, I called Golan's to see if they had a better idea of when they might be picking up. I did this solely to make things easier for them; I was going to pay out-of-pocket to have street parking blocked off for their truck to make the move easier. In the course of this conversation, they said that the pickup date would be the 18th or the 19th. I explained that these were unacceptable and they said they'd look in to it. In the end, they offered two options -- come early (when we'd be at the wedding) or late (when we would have already flown out of the city). NO DATES IN THE ORIGINAL WINDOW. Long story short, they were totally unwilling to make changes to their schedule to rectify the mistake that they had made. They brought up on more than one occasion that the problem was that it would cost them more to "double back" to Massachusetts to make the pickup date we needed work; they were totally unconcerned with the problems this created for us, and blatantly only concerned with their bottom line. However, the worst part in this entire process is the customer service. Over the course of several days trying to work out this problem, Golan would almost never return my calls. I had to make 30+ calls to them, chasing around a rotating cast of individuals who would bounce me back-and-forth to each other and dodge my calls. On more than one occasion, I'd call someone's extension directly, and they would not pick up. I'd call back immediately to the "general" help number, ask if they were available, and their colleagues would clearly indicate "oh yeah, they're right here, let me transfer you." In then end, we did all the accommodating; the night before we had to leave for the aforementioned wedding, we stayed up late in to the night, packing our entire house, and calling all of our friends in to help. We had to leave our friends' wedding early in order to get back home, finish the job, and wait for Golan's arrival. On top of all of this, Golan's refused to even discount the cost of the move, even after I provided the email that clearly indicated they provided one set of dates, and then completely reneged on it. On top of all of that, many, many items were broken in the course of the move, including framed artwork that Golan's had packed. Adding insult to injury, there box containing said artwork had, scrawled on the side, "careful, bad pack." The bottom line is this; you could go with Golan and have a fine experience. Many others have. But DON'T discount the negative reviews (like we did). If things go wrong, you will be SO SORRY. The amount of stress added to an already difficult process isn't worth it.

They were professional, punctual, and efficient from start to finish. I requested a quote on-line and received a call the same day. I needed a storage unit and a few items from a relative's home moved into a condo. They showed up on time and loaded the van quickly at both locations. Unload went smoothly as well. I appreciated that they were truly careful with my fragile items. The final price ended up being less than the original quote and that's never a bad thing. I would not hesitate to use Golan's again in the future.

Smooth, efficient, and professional in all respects. Arrived on time and finished ahead of schedule. Would recommend to others for in-city move.

Everything went very well. The crew was very professional and broke 2 things, but they told me about them before I saw them.

I needed to look into moving some items from Rogers Park and storing these items in their warehouse for Pesach and a remodel . They were honest and helpful. We did not use them because it was just as easy to throw things out, but will keep them in mind.

The start of my experience with Golan's was excellent. We had originally scheduled a different company to move us, and they cancelled on us with only two weeks? notice. Golan's was able to squeeze us in to their move schedule when almost no other company could. (We moved in June, which is an especially busy month for moving.) They were even able to accommodate my request to add some packing services when I unexpectedly had medical issues arise that prevented me from being able to finish the packing myself. The customer service person who I worked with to schedule the packing and moving was very informative, responsive and pleasant. If only the rest of my experience could have been as smooth as my initial dealings with Jon things would have been so much better. They sent out a crew to do the packing the night before our scheduled move. The five men arrived on time, and started to work. They were pleasant and all seemed fine. Several hours into the packing, they decided they wanted to go home for the night and left. Unfortunately when they left, there was still quite a bit of packing to be completed. When questioned about it, they stated that they would finish it the next day before they moved everything. That's great in theory, but the rate difference between packing hours and moving hours is fairly significant, and now I was stuck paying the moving rate for services that really should have been performed the day before at the lower packing rate. Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled. The day of the move arrives, and the movers arrived an hour before the scheduled time, which was great. We originally had been scheduled for an afternoon move (start time between noon and 2), and they were able to start at 11am, which we really appreciated. (We had discussed it the night before when they were packing, so it wasn't like they surprised us with the early time.) They quickly got to work packing up some of the remaining items from the night before and loading the truck. We have a lot of stuff, which I thought I made clear when I scheduled the move, and was definitely clear to the movers the night before when they were packing. I even asked the movers when they were packing if everything was going to fit in the truck, and they said they thought so. As they started to fill the truck it became clear that not everything was going to fit, and ultimately the movers ended up just leaving things behind (with no offer to go back later and get them). Now, I understand that they cannot control the amount of belongings that we have or the maybe even the size of the truck they are provided, but what bothers me about them leaving things behind is the way in which it was done. There were just random items that we strewn about our condo not even packed in boxes (which we hired them to do and perhaps would have been packed if they had stayed the night before until the job was done). It ended up being about two car loads of stuff, so we took care of it ourselves, but when I hire you to pack and move my stuff, make sure you pack and move everything; not just the things you feel like. As the day went on, it was becoming apparent that the movers were getting very tired of moving our stuff. In their defense, the move took seven hours, but we fed them, gave them water, and quite frankly, it's their job to move so it doesn't matter how long it takes. When I scheduled the move, I had advised them that not only did we need to move things out of our condo, but we also had a storage unit that needed to be moved. Because the condo filled the truck, the plan was to unpack the truck after the condo and then go to the storage and get the remaining items. However, by the end of unpacking the truck from the condo load, I could already tell the movers didn't want to be moving anymore. They were just trying to get things in our home as fast as possible, and as a result were just putting boxes where ever. There were boxes that were clearly labeled in the wrong rooms. No big deal right? Except that I had recently had surgery and had lifting restrictions which prohibited me from being able to relocate the boxes to the correct rooms, so my husband ended up having to do all of that work by himself. When the truck was finally unloaded and the movers remembered that they still had a storage unit to move, I could tell they weren't thrilled. They did move the storage unit, but it seemed much more forced, and when they delivered the furniture to our house, they asked if we could put the bed together because they wanted to go home. We said yes, because it wasn't worth having upset movers around, and just ended up dealing with that part ourselves. They also damaged several pieces of furniture and broke other smaller things in boxes. I noticed one damaged piece while they were still doing the moving and the only response I got was that they wrapped it in blankets. While it was great that they wrapped it in blankets, it was still damaged by the move, and the movers really seemed to be indifferent to it. I am in the process of filing a claim for the damaged items (we'll see about how responsive they are now), and ultimately, if I get anything at all, it will be $.30 per pound for damaged items that cost me thousands of dollars to purchase. I guess some of that fault is on me for not buying additional insurance from Golan's, but I have moved many times before and never had damage like this. All in all, was there any one earth shattering terrible thing that happened that is going to ruin our life or home? No, but there were plenty of things along the way that when you add them up equal me never using Golan's again. If you are a professional moving company, then move people and act like professionals while you are doing it. Don't do the parts of the job that you want until you get tired and then quit. And don't do the job so halfheartedly that so many things are damaged. They did accommodate me last minute when no one else could, but when it's all said and done, I kind of wish they hadn't.

Pick up: The moving company kept changing when they were going to pick up my stuff on the day of pick up. Initially they said they were going to come in the morning, even though I had told them I could only have the elevator from 1-5pm. Eventually they turned up at 4:30pm. Even through it was a studio, the movers were unable to finish packing up everything until the next day. They left at 11:00 that night and said that they could not finish that night and they had to come back the next day. They were nice enough not to collect the money though and said I could pay everything in Chicago. Move in: The rudest crew I have ever encountered. I had told my parents that they needed cash or a certified check for the movers. My father, who just flew in from abroad, misunderstood and thought a personnal check was alright. The movers refused to bring the stuff upstairs until cash was handed to them. My father said he had cash available, but the head mover refused to believe him. Then he proceeded to call me saying that I had tricked them, that I knew about the cash/ certified check thing, but I had lied to my parents. They arrive at around 10:30am during a 9am-12pm, but they said that they would have to charge me extra for wasting time with delay payment. I called their manager and stated how rude they were, but he said that I had to pay the money up front. In the past I was able to wait till everything was done right before I paid them. In the end, they left with all the money, and left me with a shattered full length mirror, shattered doctor diploma frame, broken lamp and no instructions on how to file a claim. 3 years ago this company was great when they helped me move from Chicago to Boston. Now, especially after how disrespectful they were to my parents who lacked English skills, I will never use them again. And I am determined to tell all my doctor friends who are moving in Chicago to NEVER use this company.

They did a good job. A couple things were broken, but they were personable and on time. They were better than other movers we have had in the past.

The movers were punctual, responsive, thorough, professional and courteous.

In May 2012, Golan moved our furniture out of our condominium into our storage facility. Overall, that move was very smooth. The movers were on time and were quick to wrap all of our couches, tables, dressers, etc. The only issue was that they dropped a dresser chest from from several inches off the ground. It made a large noise, so we were concerned. The problem was that the piece was wrapped and placed in our storage unit prior to being able to inspect the item. We spoke with Golan, and they said that they would pay for any damage when we removed the item from storage provided. That seemed fair, so we dropped the issue for a year. Note, however, that we had purchased bonus insurance beyond the minimum provided with the move ($15 per $1000, I think). Fast forward to March 2013. Our house was finally ready for our furniture and we scheduled a move with Golan. It was perfect. They were on time (a little early actually, but we weren't billed for that) and moved everything out of storage and into our house in about half the time that the original move had taken. And the chest which was dropped appears to be fine. So all in all, it was a positive experience.

Everything went well, on time as planned.

Horrible!! My appointment time was from 1-3pm to have the movers in my home. I had a family friend at the home as I had to move out of the city quickly and could not wait to properly see my belongings packed and moved. The movers came late for the appointment time and left my family friend waiting. They packed things that I needed to keep out, such as my satellite receiver box that needed to be returned. I still don't know how I will get that out of storage to return! They took doors off the hinges for no reason and left them off the hinges when they were done. An example they took the door off my laundry room and never put it back up. There was no need to take that door off and if there was I was not notified, and what is worse they left the door off the hinge. It was still sitting in the hallway when I had someone check on my home! Then once it was time to pay I had to not only give my credit card number over the phone, but then they asked that I texted a picture of the card to a random phone number! I didn't know who was receiving this picture of my card, and there was no security measures taken to ensure my personal information was protected. I called to complain after this horrible and nerve-racking experience, and Golan's had no help for me. I was told to not worry because the person who I texted my card to deleted it, and that this person has worked there for years. I was made to feel that I was overreacting to how they practice business and they did NOTHING to make me at ease that they now have my belongings in storage properly. The manager shut down all communication with me when I did not like being told to just not worry about my personal information. There was no service recovery at all. I HATE that I am stuck now dealing with this company while I am out of state. DO NOT use them if you care at all about your home, personal items, and how your credit information is handled!

Great. The 4 guys were very fast &efficient. It's my 1st move in 10 moves where nothing was broken.

They were fantastic. They arrived 10 minutes early and immediately began working. There were 4 guys on this team. They were extremely quick, very courteous and professional. They took great care in wrapping everything. They dismantled a baby crib, dining room set and bed, and wrapped the items very carefully, and reassembled them at the house. They put items where my wife asked them to. They really did make moving very easy, and for much less than I expected. I would certainly use them again and cannot recommend them highly enough.

Great! Quick, careful movers knew to take boxes first then the furniture and did the reverse upon unloading with no damage.

I hired another company to unload the truck and they did it the next day for $420.

They work quickly. Unfortunately, it was so quick that three things were damaged. The damages weren't fatal but it's difficult to fix wood or other materials that have been banged up or scratched. In each three cases, 1-5 additional minutes of padding or wrapping more carefully could have prevented the damage. We might use them again but I would supervise their work more carefully and make sure they protect furniture, etc.

Golan arrived exactly on time. Supervisor of 4-man crew introduced himself and explained the process. Crew worked quickly and efficiently. Extremely professional and hard-working; very respectful.

After a great deal of research to find a reputable and customer service focused long-haul moving service, we chose Golans. We weren't looking for the cheapest service, just the best. We were willing to pay more for moving the equivalent of a 3-bedroom home, plus office, 900 miles from Chicago to Western Massachusetts. The promised the best customer service and to expertly deliver our items across the country. So far, this has been one of my most disappointing experiences to date with a service company. In fact, I've moved cross-country a variety of times with most of the major moving companies and Golans has provided the worst service of all of them. To make matters worse, I still don't have my belongings from them, nearly three weeks later. They talked a good game during the 'sales' process, but now we can't get anyone to respond to our calls. They told us to expect our items with 7-10 days (which, of course, they'll never commit to on paper), but at this point it's been 18 days with absolutely no commitment of when we'll receive our belongings. I've received every excuse in the book, but to date nothing has been scheduled and they admit the items have never left Chicago. I understand there are a lot of logistics involved to move belongings across the country. I respect that. But now that we are living in a new home with no belongings, for nearly three weeks with no delivery date in site, this is incredibly infuriating. We also have an 8-month year old baby that is so displaced without his crib, toys, and other items he's now not sleeping. That's not all Golans fault, but not allowing us to settle into our new home impacts more than just me and my wife. It is negatively impacting our infant son and that's the final straw for me. To make matters worse, I also needed to deal with a billing issue from them. I was promised one rate, then received another after they weighed my items. As expected, they chalked this up to confusion on my part despite me having communication with my sales rep to the contrary. It took over a week to get this resolved and get a new invoice. To their credit, they did end up crediting me around $400 and honored the first rate they quoted me, but why do I have to even check that and go through that headache? Many people might not even notice. It wasn't a mistake on their end, they admittedly wanted to use the higher rate per pound despite telling me different. Luckily, I've saved every single email I've exchanged with the company. At the end of the day, I'm nearing three weeks without my items. In fact, they haven't even left Chicago. No major weather events (although they claim different despite Hurricane Sandy ending weeks ago). No unexpected truck breakdowns. No confusion over where to deliver the items. And no explanation of why they are holding our items hostage and refuse to schedule a delivery date. It's very possible this may extend beyond a month given our communication with them and possibly ruin our Thanksgiving travel plans. They have also not offered a single dime back given the length of time it has taken. They are just defensive and don't respond to emails or voicemails. We just need to keep calling until we catch someone and I don't have time for that. I'm at work trying to provide for my family and I have to deal with this? Clearly, their time is more valuable than mine. I highly discourage anyone from using them for any long-distance moves. If you read through the reviews you'll find most are smaller jobs or local, but they've certainly proven to me as a long-haul carrier, they don't have the infrastructure or customer service necessary to handle longer moves. I hope I'm able to update this review with a satisfactory ending and some concession on Golans end, but right now neither of these things appears to be happening anytime soon. They receive an 'F' from me, which I've never given to anyone.

We looked around for movers on Angie's List and asked for recommendations. Golan's seemed to have a good reputation, and we wanted a company that would do the transport from start to finish - not contract it out. Things went well at first. The move out was done by 3 guys who did the job in 3 hours. We packed everything ourselves except for the furniture. We paid an extra $500 for "insurance" for our hardwood furniture (coverage up to $60,000 with a $250 deductible). We thought the extra money would be worth our peace of mind. The unload was disappointing. Communications regarding the timing of the delivery were frustrating and the woman was difficult to understand over the phone. When the truck arrived, there were only two people (a married couple). They were nice enough, but that just wasn't adequate for the job. The unload took 4 hours. The woman was not particularly strong, so her husband did all the heavy lifting. Our front-hall table ($1300) was broken on arrival- two legs had snapped off. After unpacking, we found that two of our wooden stools were damaged, and there were dents and dings on our dresser and coffee table. We weren't too worried, though, since we had purchased insurance specifically for this. Now the bad part: Golan's uses a processing center (Claim Processing Center, 1324 Forest Ave. PMB 445, Staten Island, NY) for their insurance claims. You have to go through them to request a claim form, submit the paperwork, etc. It took two weeks to get someone to just email me a claim form. Something didn't seem right, so we Googled them and found that they are basically a scam. Their job is to make it difficult/impossible for anyone to get paid. After reading all the accounts of paperwork lost, runarounds, and people making daily calls for months to get a payment from them, we are wondering if it's even worth it to pursue our claim. We are trying to complain to Golan's directly, although honestly from what we've read of other people's experiences, we don't expect much from them. We have called them several times, and haven't heard back. At this point, we would be happy to just get the $500 back that we paid for insurance. In the end, we're very disappointed and feel ripped off.