The short version: 25,120+ moves since 2008, a 4.8-star Google average across 289 reviews, a BBB A+ rating, and a 97.9% repeat-and-referral rate. The reasons behind those numbers are structural, uniformed employee crews instead of day labor, written quotes within one business hour, hourly rates with fuel itemized up front, and same-week availability most of the year.
It started with a truck and a strange name
Gorilla Movers has been a San Diego company since 2008, working out of our warehouse at 7077 Consolidated Way in the Sorrento Valley–Miramar area. The name gets a smile, but the business model behind it was serious from day one: hire employees instead of day labor, train them, put them in uniform, and price every job in writing before the truck rolls.
Eighteen years later that model has carried us through 25,120+ moves, beach cottages, downtown high-rises, lab benches, and everything in between. Along the way the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce named us a finalist for Excellence in Customer Service, chosen from a field of more than 245,000 Southern California businesses. We're prouder of a quieter number, though: 97.9% of our work comes from repeat customers and referrals.
The record, in numbers you can check
Every mover says they're careful and professional. Here's what our customers say, in aggregate, on platforms we don't control:
| Measure | Where it stands |
|---|---|
| Google reviews | 4.8 stars across 289 reviews |
| Trustindex | 4.3 stars across 443 reviews |
| Combined reviews | 730+ across platforms |
| BBB rating | A+ |
| Moves completed since 2008 | 25,120+ |
| Repeat and referral rate | 97.9% |
| Licensing | CAL T-192729 / USDOT 3801918 |
No day labor. Ever.
The biggest quality lever in this industry is invisible on a website: who actually shows up. Plenty of companies fill crews from a labor pool the morning of your move. Ours are uniformed Gorilla Movers employees, trained on our trucks, our wrapping standards, and our customers' homes, and accountable tomorrow for what they load today.
It's why the review pattern reads the way it does. Careful crews aren't a happy accident; they're a hiring policy that costs more and pays for itself in unbroken furniture.
Trucks that arrive ready for your specific move
Every Gorilla truck rolls out of Miramar stocked for the whole job, not just the lifting: dollies and hand trucks, moving blankets, shrink wrap, straps, and the tools to break down beds and reassemble them at the destination. Padding and wrapping of your large and breakable furniture is standard on every move, not an upsell.
That preparation is a time policy as much as a care policy. On an hourly move, a crew that never drives back for equipment is money in your pocket, and a wrapped dresser that arrives unmarked is the review we're actually working for.
What a move with us looks like, start to finish
The process is deliberately boring. You call or submit the online form; the written quote arrives within one business hour. We confirm your date, same-week works most of the year, and flag anything your buildings need, like certificates of insurance or elevator reservations. On move day you get a live-tracking text, so the crew's arrival is information, not suspense.
The crew lead walks both locations with you: what's fragile, what's disassembling, what rides in your car. Then the truck loads, drives, and unloads, furniture reassembled and placed where you point. The final walkthrough happens before we leave, not after you find something. Eighteen years in, we've learned that predictability is the luxury customers actually remember.
Pricing you can read before you commit
Ask for a quote and you'll have it in writing within one business hour. Local moves price on an hourly rate stated up front, with fuel itemized as its own line, not folded into the rate, not appearing as a surprise on the invoice. The quote covers the truck, equipment, padding and wrapping of large and breakable furniture, and free wardrobe-box use on local moves.
On move day, you get a live-tracking text so you know where your crew is instead of staring out the window. Small thing. People mention it in reviews constantly.
A crew that can handle whatever your move is
Depth matters because moves rarely stay simple. Under one roof we run local and long-distance residential moves, commercial and office relocations, lab moves for the Sorrento Valley and Torrey Pines science corridor, senior transitions, military moves, packing crews, and storage. When your move grows a complication, a piano, a storage gap, a second stop, you don't need a second company.
And because the name deserves more than a logo: $5 from every move goes to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. It's a small line item that has added up, move by move, for years.