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Alex is the founder of 9Kilo Moving, which he started to help people easily find and choose the right moving company to make their move as stress-free and seamless as possible. He has spent over 20 years working in the moving industry, so he knows every aspect of the business and uses his knowledge to write about the industry and give moving advice. More on about us page

Gentle Giant Moving Company logo

If the name piqued your interest, the story behind this moving company is definitely going to keep you hooked. These movers are an interesting bunch, ever ready to try new trends. The challenges they take aren’t limited to their moves, you’ll be convinced of this when you see their team take up the Ice Bucket Challenge. The Gentle Giant Moving Company was even featured in a reality TV series on the Discovery Home Channel.

The company has made steady progress ever since Larry O’Toole started it in 1980. One factor behind the success of this moving company is the thought with which it was founded. Not profits, but making people’s moves less stressful was the core goal behind Gentle Giant Moving Company. This ideology has stayed constant throughout 41 years of its existence, which explains its thousands of happy customers. Let us give you a walkthrough of all small aspects of this giant:

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Overview

Wanting to put their strength and teamwork to use, a couple of college rowers came together and started the Gentle Giant Moving Company. The company maintains its athletic spirit to date, seeing their support for the Gentle Giant Rowing Club. The team of Gentle Giant Moving Company is made up of current and past athletes, which explains their strong work and spirit! You’ll be fascinated to know that all new hires train quite hard, running a full-tour around the Harvard Stadium. Whew! Sounds tough.

But strength is not the only highlight the ‘Giants’ come with. They are professionally trained and always return with happy reviews after every move. Why? Because Gentle Giant Moving Company doesn’t outsource its work. So there is no dilution in their services. The giants coming to execute your move are going to do everything from packing, loading to moving. Even in long distance moves, there is no involvement of a third party, so you don’t need to worry about less-than-ideal agents when hiring this moving company.

Moving is not the only thing on this company’s palette. The Gentle Giant Charitable Foundation believes in giving back to the community. They use their athletic spirit in extending a youth leadership program that revolves around athletics and education. Apart from setting up the homes of thousands of Americans, the Gentle Giant also empowers the homeless. They do this through their housing assistance initiatives and homelessness relief programs.

What Services Does Gentle Giant Moving Company Provide?

Local Moving

The giants believe that even local moves can be stressful, and they aren’t wrong. There are a hundred things on your mind when you move to a new home. You can call for their services if you are moving across the town or even across the street. While you might think that a local move isn’t a big deal, there are many things that can go wrong. The giants have seen all the mistakes and overcame the loopholes over the four decades they spent in the moving industry. These are the service areas for local moves:

All of Eastern Massachusetts Metro Philadelphia area
Nashua to Portsmouth, and Manchester Seattle, Renton, Federal Way
Providence and all of Rhode Island Charlotte, Matthews, Monroe
Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens San Francisco and the Bay area
Washington, DC, Arlington, Bethesda South Florida from Boca Raton to Miami

Long Distance Moving

Everything from the moving crew to the equipment belongs to the Gentle Giant Moving Company. Since they don’t outsource any of the moving processes, the quality is maintained. The entire team is trained personally by the management, which explains their efficiency. You don’t have to lift a finger if you appoint the Gentle Giants for your cross country move.

Apart from packing and moving, they arrange the bed and disassemble furniture. If you want them to shift the heavy furniture around, the kind giants will be happy to help. The Gentle Giant Logistics allows the company to execute its long distance moves more efficiently. If you are moving to another country, Gentle Giants Moving Company will carefully ship your belongings across the globe. They even provide short and long-term warehouse storage for international moves.

See also: Top 10 Affordable Long Distance Movers

Commercial Moving

If you are considering relocation of your office, turn to the trained professionals of the Gentle Giant. The size of your office does not matter, as the company provides services to both start-ups and corporate headquarters. Since they have swum the waters of commercial moving for 40 years, they know how important weekdays are. This is why they are trained to complete your office move over a weekend.

If you don’t want work to be interrupted even on weekends, the giants will come over for an after-hour move. All your important documents, commercial crates, and IT hardware will be handled carefully by highly trained office move professionals. Their high-quality work in the commercial moving field has spread through word-of-mouth publicity.

Craning Services And Custom Crating

Carrying that huge armoire three floors down to the moving truck demands both blood and tears. Not kidding, however well that large furniture is wrapped, it is going to hit some corners on that narrow staircase. Though the giants are capable of carrying heavy bulky items, you don’t want to risk your belongings. Their crane services are going to smoothen moving your bulkier belongings like gym equipment, bed, pool tables, etc.

When it comes to disassembling and assembling some items, they send over a team of movers led by a master carpenter so you don’t have to scratch your head thinking about how to disassemble that complicated cabinetry. Not all items are safe in moving boxes, some things like LED television sets, artwork, sleeper sofas, and recliners need crating. The giants will come over to your place to take measurements and then make custom crates in their in-house workshop. Such a breeze to have tailor-made dressing for your fragile belongings.

Piano Moving

Back in 2010, Gentle Giant acquired the Allston Piano Moving Company. Allston Piano specializes only in moving pianos. Without a doubt, Gentle Giant has all the expertise it needs to move your piano like a pro. It could be a basic upright piano or an antique grand piano, the giants have it sorted. We know musicians are particular about the tuning of their instrument, and the company leaves no stone unturned to move pianos. In addition to that, they even offer you climate-controlled piano storage. The Gentle Giants have a network of piano tuners, technicians, and appraisers at your disposal.

Storage Services

If you are not moving and just want storage space, you can trust the Gentle Giant Moving Company’s warehouse. The convenience of keeping your belongings there is worth every penny. They make sure your belongings are protected against theft, fire, and even bedbugs. They provide an e-inventory service so that you can remotely monitor your storage. Details of inventory, item condition, and photos are maintained by the well-trained staff. If you are in doubt over the privacy or security of your belongings, let out a sigh because only the Gentle Giant staff has access to the storage.

See also: Best Self-Storage Companies in the US

Packing Services

The best part about their packing service is that they have included it in their full moving package. The movers come to your home and pack up the whole house for you—right from the attic to the basement. They’ll pack, label, and organize everything, so you don’t have to stress over packing all that load.

It is human to be tired after a long move and not feel like unpacking all those boxes. But remember, the movers you have hired are athletes, they’ll happily unpack the whole lot at the end of a long move. In case you need urgent packing service, call them the night before and they’ll find a way to accommodate you.

See also: List of Best Packers and Movers in America

Moving Boxes And Supplies

Weeks leading up to the move are filled with loads of activity. In all the chaos, you might not have the time to collect all the packing supplies. This is why Gentle Giant Moving Company has come up with the ‘Top Box’ service. They provide home delivery of moving boxes and packing supplies, irrespective of whether you are moving with them or not. Moreover, they refund you for the boxes that you didn’t use.

You don’t have to make a trip to the departmental store as they will provide you with all supplies like shipping tape, bubble wrap, packing paper, etc. To make your work easier, they have basic packs. You just have to look up the size of your home and they have pre-set selections of how much moving supplies you need.

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Key Takeaway

Gentle Giant Moving Company is quite precise about the training of their employees. The services they offer coupled with their ever-willing team make moving simpler. Their negotiable pricing is another factor that makes the giants appealing. Since they offer standalone services, you can consider them for smaller tasks like carrying your bed from one floor to another. The fact that they don’t outsource work to agents wins them a place in the reliability quotient.

How To Contact Gentle Giant Moving Company?

Option 01

You can click on the button that says ‘Request an estimate’ it will take you to a form. Once you submit the form, an executive will call you up with a quote.

Option 02

You can directly call Gentle Giants up from the number provided on the top right-hand corner of their website.

Option 03

If you live in the state of Massachusetts, you can drop in at their headquarters. An in-person discussion of your move is going to give them better clarity and give you a chance at negotiating.

Gentle Giant Moving Company Headquarters Address:

29 Harding Street, Somerville, Massachusetts 02143, United States

Do remember that their office timings are from 8 am-5 pm from Monday to Friday. On Saturdays, the timings are from 8 am to 12 pm. They don’t work on Sundays.

Gentle Giant Moving Company Fee Structure

Prices for Gentle Giant Moving Company’s services may be on the higher end of the spectrum. But to be fair, it’s just something you pay for exemplary service. While finding an exact price is difficult as there’s no instant online quote system (you need to enter your details to get a direct quote), we have compiled an approximate pricing structure based on reviews:

To give you a perspective in terms of costs, we’ve gathered a few examples of how much you can expect to pay:

Factor Price
Hiring 3 Professionals By The Hour $130 - $140 ph
Local Move $1,750 - $2,500
Long Distance Move $4,827 - $7,542
Cross Country Move $ 7,500 - $ 11,500

Remember that these prices just scratch the surface of average moves. There will be changes to prices according to time of the year, size of your home, the distance of your move, and so on. That’s why go to the website of Gentle Giant Moving Company and ask for a price estimate. Only that step will give you a clearer idea.

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Why Choose Gentle Giant Moving Company For Your Move?

They have an A+ ranking on the Better Business Bureau website and just 3 complaints in the past 3 years. One look at their Google reviews and you will be convinced of their excellence. They have a 4.9-star rating and 382 Google reviews against their headquarters in Massachusetts. Their social media pages are quite active, with frequent posts from the behind-the-scenes of moves. They have linked their website to their Facebook page, making it easy to book via the page.

They know their way around interstate routes, the 40 years of experience makes both local and long distance moves easier. Customer reviews praise the movers for making them feel at home and going beyond their call of duty. People who have hired the movers appreciate the moving crew’s attention to detail. The giants undertake challenging moves and execute them with ease and care.

Few of the things you’d probably find appealing about Gentle Giant Moving Company are:

  • You can trust the movers with tricky moves because of their professional training.
  • Moving crew comes with a can-do attitude and are willing to fulfill last-minute requests.
  • A recent review says that they took all precautions during the pandemic like wearing masks at all times and sanitizing frequently.
  • They don’t outsource anything to a third party.
  • There is a 100% crew guarantee on performance. Also, there’s a money-back guarantee if the crew messes up the move!
  • They keep their services transparent and keep communications open, even after the move.
  • Since the new hires train so hard, all moving employees are strong enough to execute tough moves.
  • Word-of-mouth has helped the company grow over the years, which we think is the best kind of testament to a company’s efficiency.
  • Their website navigation is clean and simple, with frequent blog pieces on moving DIYs.

Things To Keep In Mind About Gentle Giants Moving Company

Now let’s also look at the other side and some of the drawbacks of hiring Gentle Giant Moving Company for your move.

One issue with the company is that they aren’t present everywhere. You can get lucky if you live along the East Coast as they have bases in Boston, Charlotte, Fort Lauderdale, New Hampshire, New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, and Washington, D.C. But local moves cannot be availed for states in the middle of the US. It covers only two locations on the West Coast (San Francisco and Seattle) , which seems like a drawback.

Overall, the few not-so-attractive aspects are:

  • The cost estimates are expensive, though there is room for negotiation.
  • You have to book them a month in advance during the off-season, and 6 weeks in advance in peak moving season.
  • You cannot move with them on a Sunday, creating a major inconvenience.
  • You cannot find an instant online quote.
  • Since they provide service at flexible times, like after-hour moving services for commercial moves, it takes a toll on employees. Glassdoor reviews of employees complain of long tiring hours and shorter breaks.
  • There can be issues with the billing on rare occasions, but it is better to keep an eye out and cross verify the bills with your moving crew.

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Our Take

Though on the higher side when it comes to fees, Gentle Giant Moving Company provides premium service. There is little chance of erring on their side, rightfully so as they spend considerable time and effort on training their teams. If you want to move with fragile items, artwork, or vintage, then this is a moving company you should think of. Their custom crating, craning, and disassembling services are worth the moving fees. If their flexibility of service and moving estimates fit your relocation plan, hiring them for your move will be a valuable step.

FAQs about Gentle Giant Moving Company

Should I Tip The Moving Crew?

It’s not mandatory, nor will your movers ask for a tip. But if you think they did a good job, you can tip them as a gesture of gratitude. Ideally, $4-6 per mover per hour is an optimum amount, but you can be more generous if they did an exceptional job. This is going to make their day because it is not about the money but the thought behind it that matters.

What Is The Cost Of Storage At The Gentle Giant Moving Company?

The charges are calculated on a per vault basis. The prices of storage differ from one state to another. In their Massachusetts location, the initial vault will cost you $90, getting multiple vaults is cheaper as it earns you discounts. It is recommended that you check with the move consultant of your state for the cost of storage in your state.

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Also See: Cross Country Moving Group Review