Atlas Transfer & Storage

We are senior citizens who moved from San Diego to Iowa in late April. Ashley Dunlap represented Atlas Transfer and Storage, and he did an excellent job of explaining the paper work and the «nuts and bolts» of packing. He also provided a generous supply of moving cartons and would promptly respond to our e-​mail messages, helping us through any challenges we encountered.
The Atlas movers (Michael and John) showed up on time and worked diligently and carefully. The Allied cross-​country driver, Uriel (I loved it that his name is the same as an angel!) carefully transported all of our belongings across country, supervising the unloading and moving-​in process. It was all accomplished professionally with consideration and attention to our needs, with the help of Cedar Rapids movers Skylar and Britten. We were grateful that no boxes were lost and that our furniture had been wrapped and protected from damage.
We would strongly recommended Atlas/​Allied Transfer based on the competency and professionalism of the Atlas employees in San Diego, the van driver, and the employees from the Cedar Rapids affiliate.

I had a longer review that was removed for privacy concerns, because I included my coordinator’s and driver’s first and last names, which is against Unilocal’s privacy standards. I completely understand that and apologize for inadvertently disclosing their full names. I hope Atlas consistently applies this rule and doesn’t just use it as a pre-​text to remove a one-​star review. For instance, you should also remove Roxanne W’s and Aaron F’s five-​star reviews, which both contain first and last names of your employees.
Regarding the actual move, I’ll cut to the point this time: they broke my TV and have consistently refused to pay the claim on the damage, despite the fact that I elected to purchase full protection coverage. Allied keeps claiming that they couldn’t possibly be held responsible for «internal circuitry» damage, and they rely some highly technical legalese to get out of paying a rightful claim. So long story short, use them if you want to, but be advised that you’ll need to figure out a way to move your 65-​inch TV in your car by yourself, because when that item gets damaged, the full protection plan isn’t going to help you one bit. The company puts customers in a completely untenable position of collecting extra money for full protection coverage while simultaneously disclaiming liability for the very events that are most likely to occur.
To be fair, the driver and his team worked very hard during the move, but this post-​move hassle has completely ruined their efforts. People buy the extra insurance for the peace of mind that comes with it. When an accident happens, do the right thing and pay the claim. I’ve complained up the chain dozens of times and all I hear is: it’s not possible, it’s not possible. Anything is possible, it’s just a question of whether a business wants to do right by the customer or stubbornly stand its ground.

Atlas moved my family from Enterprise Alabama to Lake Arrowhead California. I have moved many times but I was so impressed with our experience, I am writing a review. Our Driver — Loader was Matt Devlin from the Poway CA office. He was amazing. Very helpful and gave me his cell phone so I could call him if I needed to know where he was and when he would deliver our furniture. He was a true professional and I cannot say enough good things about Atlas. The actual weight was less than the bid and I paid LESS than the quote.
In the end, because I was moving into a mountain area with narrow roads, Matt had to rent a smaller truck, offload our furniture onto it, drive up to Lake Arrowhead from San Bernardino and unload our furniture for the second time. After all that, there were only 3 things broken: I packed all three items.
Thank you Matt for your excellent care and service!

I do not usually write reviews, but I felt compelled to share my experience. I have used there services in the past and have had items stored at their Poway location for a while while I bounced around until getting settled. I worked with my coordinator Ashley Dunlap to set up a time for me to come and look at everything I had stored and determine when I wanted to stay in storage and what I wanted to have delivered. He was responsive and helpful with coordinating and setting the proper expectations on cost and time. The guys at the warehouse were super quick, efficient and very helpful. I have a bad back and they assured me I wouldn’t have to lift a finger. That process took maybe 20 minutes. They had the vaults pulled for me and opened and moved things around and organized super quickly. When they delivered the items a week later it was even easier! They brought everything up, set up the big furniture and removed packing materials and put everything exactly where I asked. I continue to be pleased and happy with my experiences with this company and couldn’t recommend them more. Thank you!

I have used these guys twice before and was super pleased with their work! So when my husband and I needed to pack up and move out of our home for a remodel we called them up. First part of move went well. It was when we moved back in and started to unpack our things that things started to go south. The first clue that something was wrong was when I was unpacking kitchen items. I opened a box and on top was an extra long roll of aluminum foil. The roll was too long to fit in the box so whoever was packing simply bent the roll in half. Who does that? As we continued to unpack household items I found a piece of chrome trim that was in a bundle of bar ware items. Not sure what it was I put it aside. Later when I was unpacking a box that had an antique art deco radio inside I noticed, much to my dismay, that whoever packed up the radio had snapped off one of the pieces of chrome trim. Mystery solved. It was the piece that was packed up with the bar items! Once again who does that? Next box I unpacked was a box that contained a lamp that had a glass shade. It was shoved in the box with VERY little packing paper, glass shade down. This lamp has a very heavy marble base. Do I need to tell you that the glass shade was totally shattered! Once again who does that? I have moved many times in my life and have never encountered such unprofessional actions and total disregard for my belongings! My mistake in this whole thing was since we had had such great outcomes the two previous moves I didn’t purchase the additional insurance. I was reimbursed a total of 92 $ for all that damage. And no I didn’t even claim the roll of foil. It cost me almost $ 600 to fix the damage. I will never use these guys again. NEVER. EVER. If you do decide to use them for some crazy reason, by all means buy the extra insurance!

We used Atlas/​Allied for 2 moves, one year apart. Based on the overall experience from the 2 moves, I would give them 2.5 stars. Both times, we did our own packing so I cannot comment on their packing services. The first move was in ⁶⁄₂₀₁₄ from San Diego to San Francisco. The coordinator from Allied communicated throughout the entire process and we were given a «not to exceed» quote after he came out to assess how much stuff we had. This move went very smoothly. I was really impressed with the driver and movers. All of our belongings arrived undamaged and in a timely manner. The final weight came in quite close to the estimated, 4900 lbs. I also thought the price was very fair.
Because the move form San Diego to San Francisco went so well, I decided to call the same coordinator one year later for our move from San Francisco to Houston in ⁶⁄₂₀₁₅. Since we had a positive experience the first time and felt we were treated fairly, I didn’t feel the need to shop around. We knew we would be moving again so purposely did not acquire any more furniture or large items. In fact, we got rid of 2 temperapedic mattresses and 2 bed frames. I called the same coordinator and asked him to write up a quote for the move from San Francisco to Houston, and that the shipment would be the same minus the mattresses and bed frames. The San Diego coordinator sent a local coordinator to our home in San Francisco to assess the weight of our belongings and estimated 4500 lbs, which I thought was fair given the items we were not taking with us this time. However, because the San Diego coordinator was not the person assessing the weight, he could not give us a «not to exceed» guarantee but said that it should not be more than 4900lbs based on our move exactly one year ago. I reassured him that other than a mountain bike, we didn’t have anything this time around that wasn’t there the previous year.
The driver showed up on time on moving day. For our move from San Diego to SF, the large tractor trailer had no problem parking in front of the house. This time, the driver showed up to the same house with a smaller Uhaul shuttle because he felt that he could not maneuver his tractor trailer in front of the house. I knew this shuttle was going to cost extra but we were 3 days away from having to vacate our house and make our way to Houston so of course I couldn’t turn them away. I was then charged $ 500 for this when it didn’t seem necessary based on the fact that this wasn’t even a concern with the first move. However, I felt the driver and his team did a good job not damaging any items and they did end up having to do the extra work of loading and unloading so I decided to just let it go.
They took off with our shipment and a few days later, I found out that the weight for our shipment came in at 5400lbs. I was never great at the laws of physics but how did I all of a sudden gain almost 1000lbs of stuff when we were moving less stuff this time around? In case it was a mistake, we requested a reweigh when they arrived in Houston. The reweigh came in more at 5600 lbs! I know those trucks are huge so there has to be an error of margin but 1000 lbs is ridiculous. With the unexpected shuttle and weight, we were billed an extra $ 1500. We didn’t move any appliances, mattresses, or large pieces of furniture. The largest piece of furniture we had was a sofa.
I sent our coordinator an email and he continued to be very responsive over the phone and email. I didn’t understand why he had to send a person out to estimate the weight of our belongings in SF when it didn’t mean anything. Our coordinator seemed like a very reasonable guy and was very nice but unfortunately, was unable to do anything to resolve the matter to our satisfaction. We weren’t asking to not pay at all but just to compromise and meet somewhere in the middle but they were adamant that nothing could be done. We ended up having to pay the shuttle fee and the cost for 5400lbs.
Our belongings arrived in Houston undamaged, minus a bookshelf which they lost but reimbursed us for. But based on this experience, I don’t think I would use this company again for our move next year. Until they can explain how our shipment magically weighed 1000lbs more than the estimated (500 lbs more than the previous shipment exactly one year ago), there seems to be something dishonest about the whole process when you can’t get a «not to exceed» guarantee.
It’s a shame they didn’t value our loyalty and meet us somewhere in the middle. Until we finally settle down somewhere, we definitely would’ve been a repeat customer for a few more years. If you have a company or employer paying for your entire move regardless of price, then I would say this is a good company to use because your belongings will likely arrive undamaged. They also take care to protect your home when loading and unloading. However, beware of unexpected expenses if you are paying out of pocket.

We just had Allied/​Atlas (Poway) move our household goods from Austin TX to San Diego and it was a horrible experience in the packing of our goods.
As examples, the packers in Austin put kitchen utensils and plates in our garbage can, put 2 sticks of butter in one of the boxes, put knives and other blades in boxes with no packing, loose papers were just thrown in the boxes, lampshades were put in boxes and crushed, loose pens thrown in with prints that were not covered, television set was placed in box with no packing covers, took parts such as the racks from inside the stove and packed them, clothes were thrown in the wardrobe box on hangers under clothes hung on the wardrobe hangers, boxes are not marked from what room the items came from, moved items that were not supposed to be moved but it was impossible to communicate with the packers because we could only speak English and the packers did not speak English, and on and on…
The response from the company was: «…The packing that he (the driver) did, the extra weight, the delivery and he felt you were happy with his service. Yes in the area where you moved from it was difficult for him to arrange for assistance, the crew did not speak English…» Austin TX is a major city and not sure why they consider it an area difficult to arrange assistance. And we expected a National mover to have national reach. The company has not responded further and has stopped communicating, other than to say we can make a damage claim to their damage department for any damaged items.
The people that unpacked the goods in San Diego were good but they were limited because of the horrendous and sloppy packing in Austin. The company is unprofessional and charged extra for the packing work that is so outrageous that it is hard to believe.

Allied/​Atlas/​Colonial Van and Storage packed my household goods from Fresno, CA and transported them to West Orange, NJ in September 2014. My choice for moving companies was between United Van Lines and Allied, but I found the staff at this company much more honest and experienced at what they were doing.
The first thing I want to mention is that Eileen, the sales manager from the Fresno branch, was amazing. One of the main things I love about her is that she kept constant phone and email communication with me during the entire process. She’s friendly and pleasant to talk to. More importantly, she’s knowledgeable about the industry and about the services Allied offers. She came by my home in August to do a quick estimate of my household goods and immediately sent me a copy of the initial estimate a couple of days later. She was accurate in her personal estimate and was more than happy to answer all of my questions, including the added protection packages.
Stephen from United Van Lines also came to my home (a few days before she did) and told me that my household goods would be no less than $ 6,300 to as much as $ 8,500. Really, from a 10 minute walk around estimate?
When it came to the actual packing of my household furniture in Fresno, the truck driver, James from San Diego Allied/​Atlas location, and his two teams were there: The guys packing my furniture and the guys loading it on the truck the next day. Five guys wrapped up my furniture and they did an overall great job. They started at around 0830 and finished a little after 1700. I asked them to handle certain furniture with extra care, such as vases and lamps, and they were nice enough to provide extra wrapping. Keep in mind that unless you tell the guys not to wrap certain things, they will wrap everything – literally. They ended up wrapping my used kitchen sponges among other things, which I forgot to tell them not to do.
The guys that came to load my furniture on James’ truck were great as well. They were at my home from about 0800 to 1600 the following day and loaded my furniture with no problems. Note that Allied will not wrap or pack or transport flammable items, anything that might turn into an explosive, or opened perishable goods.
Delivery of my goods took a little over three weeks to arrive, which was astonishing considering that James’ makes multiple pickups/​stops along the way. James’ hired Nick from Long Island, NY to help him unload my furniture into my new house in New Jersey. Nick did an outstanding job of carefully bringing all my furniture into my home and organizing them all [somehow] into my downstairs living room. I’ve been and still am unpacking my things and can say that none of the fragile items — or anything in general — I own are broken, shattered, cracked, or chipped whatsoever. A few of my plastic tote boxes did melt a bit due to the heat in the truck, but James informed me prior to having my things packed that this was likely to happen.
Overall, James and his contacts did an outstanding job – from the packing to the loading to the transport, and finally, to the unloading of my goods. He knows exactly what he’s doing and it clearly shows. Everyone was very friendly during my move, which made the entire process much more manageable. Allied is military friendly and does a lot of PCS moves in the area. After this experience, I definitely recommend Allied’s services. Also, I’d just like to say that I endorse James for Driver of the Year — he deserves it!

I used Allied/​Atlas (Poway) for a move from San Diego to Seattle (August 2014). They were recommended by several realtor/​friends. This is only the second time I have done a long-​distance move.
Every step of the process was handled professionally, and I was very pleased with all aspects of the move. I got estimates from two other companies, and all prices were within 10%.
While I packed 90% of the 750+ items myself, the move was complicated in that my hillside home in San Diego, as well as my rural suburban home in the Seattle area, required the use of «shuttles», since the 18-​wheeler could not accommodate the unusual street conditions.
«Bill» the driver, and his assistant, «Tom», as well as four additional local laborers, showed up right on schedule for loading. All had a very high degree of professionalism, and a sense of humor, which instilled confidence throughout the loading process.
My SD home has a steep/​long driveway, and despite the heat, the crew never complained as they busted their butts for almost 10 hours. (They seemed genuinely surprised and pleased by the $ 50 tips at the end of the day; believe me they earned every cent). I was also pleased that the crew carefully tidied-​up before leaving. There was no damage (dings & scratches) to my home, which was closing escrow the next day.
The driver communicated with me daily by cell phone, to indicate his progress and status, and he arrived right on schedule in Seattle the fifth day. Unloading in Seattle, again requiring a shuttle, also went smoothly. I had the easy part, as I simply sat in a chair and noted the condition of every item as unloaded, and reconciled them with the shipping inventory (bill-​of-​lading).
Now, for the highlights of my experience:
There were no hidden charges. Allied «guaranteed» and honored the quoted price, despite the fact that there were about 20% more items than estimated, and final weight (22,000 lbs.) was also about 20% greater than estimated.
There were no missing items, despite the fact that my shipment shared a trailer (partial load) that went from Los Angeles to Bellevue, WA, before arrival at my home (all of this had been explained to me before loading day).
There do not appear to be any damaged items. Again, I did 90% of the packing, and now 4-​days later, with most boxes unpacked, I haven’t found any damaged items. The very expensive and delicate items (big screen TV’s, computer systems, antique furniture), which Allied boxed/​crated, were undamaged.
Long distance moving is one of life’s most stressful events. The people at Allied/​Atlas (Poway) made the process far less stressful. Based on my experience, I would HIGHLY recommend them for a long-​distance, interstate move.
Based on the sticker on the trailer, I can see why Allied named this Poway franchise: «Agent of the Year — 2013.»
Well Done!

I recently moved my family from San Diego to Maryland with Atlas. I was very nervous about using a big shipping company because of all the negative reviews online. Pretty much every big van line has a lot of negative reviews so I found it impossible to get a good sense of which company to go with. I got quotes from 4 companies who had agents in the San Diego area. Jerry Cooper was the sales person who did the survey, and he was friendly and professional, and was pretty close with his estimate. He guessed 8500lbs and the actual was 9100. Given that we got a «not to exceed» quote this slight underbid probably works in both the customer’s advantage and the salesperson, since we save some money and he is more likely to make the sale. Other company’s estimates ranged from 7500lbs to 14 000, which was just absurd for a 3 bedroom home. The total price Jerry quoted was competitive and best of all, he was able to guarantee our days. We needed an extra 4 days of storage-​in-​transit, because our new place wasn’t going to be ready, and he was able to guarantee the dates we needed on both ends without unloading the truck into storage (all the other companies wanted to do this). Everything else with Jerry and the Atlas people went smoothly and he followed up when it was all over to make sure everything went well.
Our driver (and I think this makes all the difference) was Aaron (don’t remember last name). He showed up in a North American Truck, which I thought was odd until he explained that Allied and North American are part of the same company and he drives for Atlas (an agent of Allied) as well as Oakley Relocation (a North American Agent). He brought 4 guys with him to help load. 2 were from Atlas and 2 from Oakley. They were all regulars and acted professionally. They seemed pretty careful with my stuff, though I don’t think it really mattered what was marked fragile and what was not.
One the other end, Aaron called me to communicate his arrival time and was right on time. He brought one guy, Hunter, with him from San Diego and two others, who were clearly just temporary labor. The worked really hard to get my stuff into my 3 story town house and finished pretty quickly. Only one piece of furniture was damaged (an IKEA shelf that was cheap) and a ceiling lamp was broken. Aaron payed me out of pocket for the two items so it was a pretty minor loss except for the fact that the IKEA shelf has been discontinued.
I would recommend Aaron as a driver, and Atlas as an Agent, based on my experience.

Nightmare move that I will never forget! The results were as bad as it gets. My high end king mattress was ruined, 5 other furniture items were broken, or damaged. They refused to take responsibility, and were cold and uncaring. They are the last company I would ever recommend. My mistake was not paying extra for additional insurance because they did not cover even 10% of the items they ruined due to irresponsible handling of my treasured possessions

Atlas recently moved my office furnishings, and I would never use them again. The estimator, Trevor, told me not to unload my metal file cabinets. I followed his instructions and my file cabinets were severely bent during the move. I submitted a claim for two cabinets with a replacement cost of $ 600 and the company only reimbursed me $ 90, based on the weight of an empty cabinet. Very disappointing since I followed their estimator’s instructions.

I used Atlas Transfer and Storage for my move across the country. My belongings were already packed, so this review won’t comment on their packing services. But in terms of loading, the long haul driver, and unloading at destination, this was one of the smoothest moves I’ve ever had.
The local team in San Diego was very professional and fast. They got everything loaded onto the truck quickly and efficiently. They didn’t take long breaks or disappear. They just got the job done and were on their way.
The long haul driver, James, was really great. He is based out of San Diego, and he brings one other local guy with him. The two of them arrived on the East Coast and unloaded my stuff themselves. They too were no-​nonsense, didn’t take excessive breaks, and were extremely professional.
It seems this company knows how to hire professional, hard working people. My experience took place during off season (January), so I don’t know how their temporary high-​season workers would be. But from what I experienced I would highly recommend them for a local or long distance move.

Recently I relocated my business from one side of Poway down to the other. I have worked as a vendor for this company for a number of years and wanted to use people I knew. Our business is 1000 square feet of merchandise, equipment and furniture. Atlas had us packed, moved and unpacked in 3 hours flat. The price was very reasonable and they moved everything into place for us so we could begin set up. I highly recommend them to any business thinking of relocating.

We used Atlas /​Allied Transfer & Storage from Poway CA for a recent move from Santee CA to Elm Grove WI. We had an excellent experience from beginning to end. To start, Jerry did my in home estimate and was very thorough, professional and a good communicator. His estimate was almost spot on. Our actual weight came in slightly under what Jerry estimated. Awesome! Next our truck driver Shawn was absolutely aweomse at both ends of our move. In Santee he was did a thorough inventory of all our goods, he was very careful and wrapped all of our household goods. The moving team assisting him in Santee was a husband and wife team and they were AWESOME also. Very courtesous. When we reached Elm Grove WI, Shawn and our truck arrived right on time. 8÷29÷2012. Shawn and his helper carefully unloaded, re-​assembled and put away all of our items, exactly where we wanted them. Again, very thorough, very polite, professional and courteous. After the unload was done, not one thing was broken. Not one. And we transported a lot of fragile china, glass table tops and artwork. These guys are AWESOME! I can’t say enough good things about them, especially our truck driver Shawn. I will definately call Atlas Transfer & Storage from Poway CA to coordinate my next move and highly recommend you do the same.

I required a very complicated San Diego to Manhattan move which involved several pieces of delicate, large antique furniture (the type that must be «broken» down and reassembled with dowels). Not only did Atlas give a very competitive estimate, I could tell that the estimator (Jim Willcoxson) really knew what he was doing and he even came out twice when my needs changed and gave great packing advice. I can’t even describe fully what a relief it was to have a company I felt I could count on to get my stuff safely to New York. They were very accommodating and extremely professional. Not a single item missing or broken and the antiques were assembled perfectly! Matt was my driver and he and his crew were incredible! In Manhattan, they managed to find parking on the street and then had to carry my 2,000 hardback books up 4 flights of narrow stairs. Plus a very heavy, extremely awkward armoire that ended up not even fitting through my hobbit-​sized door. (Matt looked into storing it at their local facility for me.) I just can’t thank them enough. They made one of the most stressful events in my life so easy. They really took care of me. I would highly recommend them for any cross-​country move. Such a relief to get all your stuff safe and sound!

Four Stars!
I didn’t give the fifth since we didn’t use them.
We are on a time crunch, and The customer service i recieved is amazing! I will definitly do business with them again!
Karen responded to my emails instantly! Sad to say i was unable to use them, she was still friendly and even wished me a wonderful Weekend.
Thank you once again in responding to my emails, and calling me!