Golden Eagle United Van Lines Upland

The person who came to render the estimate, did a wonderful job of promoting the company, lots of impressive media materials and statistics.  I asked a lot of questions and liked what I heard by way of a well oiled presentation. The quoted price was slightly higher than the rest, but this was the best company, right?  The actual experience was quite different and was frankly the poorest move of my life, consistently poor communication both by telephone and email, haphazard packing as shown in photos presented to management with many broken objects and a shipping quote for my motorcycle that went from "around $80.00" as stated by the company rep before the contract was signed, to $550.00 on the final day of the move and caused me to leave it behind.  Email evidence shows that I had informed company management of my intent to ship the bike several days in advance.  The experience was punctuated  by the theft of my IPOD which was connected to my computer. Fortunately, I spent the first two days of the move in my garage inventorying firearms and other high value goods along with the very ill site lead who proved meticulous but didn't effectively supervise the other workers very well who seemed inexperienced. Except for the IPOD, all small high value goods were locked away in a gun safe, thank god. The other workers were left to their own devices during these two days and proved inefficient and unmotivated, so much so, that on the second day, the owner of the company called the lead mover to verify that I had not included additional items from the original manifest, the lead actually informed the owner that LESS materials were being packed than originally planned.  When one of the movers encountered a large stock of open liqueur bottles, he declared that they could not be packed and instead asked if he could have them and carted them off to the company truck for his own consumption, what does this say about the culture of the company? The estimator whose primary goal was to seal the deal did a very poor job of communicating the complexity of the move which caused delays.  The first two days, staff were slow and carelessly packed delicate items.  During the final two days moving staff tried to make up time wasted by dumping large heavy items in large boxes (photos submitted to management) and they agreed.  During the move, management staff were unresponsive to email and telephone calls.  In response, a key person was said to have been out of the office due to an illness, DON'T THEY HAVE BACKUP?  I have no issue with the drivers and the owner of the company whom I spoke with, but the packers, support staff and the overall experience including the theft of an IPOD was not representative of a quality organization.  .

Service cost: $5000

Our driver and his crew arrived on time and were very professional, caring, and respectful of our belongings. The driver kept in constant communication with us throughout the day and assisted the loaders as needed. He called a few days before he was scheduled to arrive at our new city just to let us know that he was on his way and to expect him on the scheduled day. He arrived early with his crew of unloaders who worked quickly and efficiently to unload our "house." We had a good amount of stuff and nothing arrived broken or missing except for a picture frame that I packed myself. There is not one negative I can add to this review. I would strongly recommend this company and be sure to ask for "Matt," he was an excellent driver.

Service cost: $8425