Best California Movers Avis 5

I am extremely disappointed upon arriving at my place and opening my boxes that were in storage this past week.
On 29 March, 2026, I hired this company to do only the packing, and the pre-unpacking review was positive only because the movers were friendly. Now, I know why - a bit akin to servers being overly friendly just before giving the bill.

On 7 April, 2026, I finally was able to take my stuff out of storage and open some of the boxes. I'm absolutely floored at what I've discovered. Long and short of it, one of the boxes was never even fully taped or taped at all, and everything that was in my drawers had been dumped into the box. Nothing was wrapped, including the little lamp that I had - just took the lightbulb out and threw it in there. Took off the shade so it would fit - didn't care if it got crushed or torn. Then, I guess he couldn't or was too lazy (?) to put the shoes all in one box or something, because he dumped a bunch of them in there, too!

No glass or breakable items were wrapped and I had supplied them with plenty of wrapping paper, as there was even some leftover. Bottles of liquid substance were not securely shut and protected from leakage.

It appeared as though drawers of things were dumped out into boxes with no regard.

I haven’t opened all the boxes, but from what I’ve seen so far, I suspect I’ll have to update.

I will also add that without seeing any price list for boxes, no transparency about that whatsoever, I ended up paying $95 just for boxes - they said they would use as many of mine as possible, and even after the 10 small ones they gave gratis, there were several of mine leftover, but I was out $95, and no one showed me the price breakdown of this.

I emailed customer service address, along with a direct reply to Michell, who processed my order, as well as a text to his assistant Megan. As I figured, I would be ghosted once I needed actual "after I've paid" support. I read other reviews that said similar. No one has reached out via phone call or email. The reply Megan wrote in a text seems like the canned responses all businesses use, and rarely, do these hold any water. I am out of pocket over $500 due to this poor service, but that doesn't matter to them, because it's now in their pockets now.

Sorry for the long review; I have a lot to say. I hired Best California Movers to do a move in December 2025, going from a 10 x 10 storage unit in Ventura County to the same size storage unit in Orange County. Unfortunately, the 2-man moving crew was more concerned with doing the job quickly than with doing it safely or well. One of the moving company reps mentioned to me that their moving crews are offered a bonus for finishing under the estimated time for every move. I think that probably encourages the crews to prioritize speed over quality of service. In my case, the biggest problem is that they stored the sofa *on top of everything*, and *above* the fire code line: an orange line that goes around the unit, with signs posted on every wall that say "NO STORAGE PERMITTED ABOVE THIS LINE BY ORDER OF FIRE DEPT". I should add that since everything in the current unit was moved from another 10 x 10 unit, I know it's physically possible for everything to fit without breaking the fire code.

When I brought all of this up, Best California Movers made a $50 settlement offer, which they later upped to $115. This will not cover the cost of hiring help to rearrange the unit (the sofa is at the back of the unit, so everything has to come out in order to get the sofa down below the fire code line). But something is better than nothing, so I was willing to take the settlement, even though it includes a standard "gag order": I cannot post anything negative about the company online, and must remove anything that I posted prior to signing the settlement offer.

However, Best California Movers also had a data breach after I hired them but before my move. The imposter contacted me and offered me a discount to pay in advance, which I did. I became suspicious when I saw how the charge appeared on my credit card and locked that card; when Best California Movers confirmed the data breach, I called my credit card company to dispute the charge. The credit card company advised me to deactivate that card, which I did (I was issued a replacement card with a new number).

Because of the data breach and the actions I took to protect my credit, Best California Movers is unable to charge the refund back to my card. They offered to send the money by Zelle, but I don't use Zelle. The only other option is to send the money by check. They advised me that if I choose that option, they cannot guarantee payment because they will only issue the check once (they will not be responsible if the check goes missing in the mail, and will not reissue it under any circumstances) and they will not send it registered and insured. When I asked why, they would only say their system is set up that way.

I'm very uncomfortable with the entire situation, from a moving crew that prioritizes speed over quality of service, to a casual attitude about their data breach (one rep said the hackers "only" got personal information, not financial—but I would much rather that they get a credit card number I can replace easily than my contact and identification details), to a nominal settlement offer of around $100 to shut up about my experience. I opted to decline the settlement, but I have to wonder how many unhappy customers have signed settlement agreements that prevent them from leaving honest but negative reviews.

This company does have a lot of positive reviews, so if anyone reading this decides to hire them, I hope you have a good experience and not one like mine.

they made my entire move seamless and a lot less stressful than what I've experienced in the past. the workers were pleasant and helpful I will use them again in the future (if I move) thanks again!

My furniture moving job in San Diego County went so smoothly, thanks to their team.

Dmitrii Parii and his crew did a great job moving me in 90degree plus heat! They were polite, efficient and very hard working! They worked in synch with each other and the stressful moving process went very smoothly with no problems. My furniture and belongings arrived undamaged and in good shape! I would hire them again!