Colonial Van Lines Reviews

My only issue was the pickup and the delivery times. We were delayed for over a week on our pickup and when movers finally got here to do the pickup, they didn’t get finished after 10 o’ clock at night. The pickup and deliveries, which were coordinated with their vendor, were a little rough but they compensated us for that. That was my only dissatisfaction. Otherwise, they did a good job and they got our furniture there in good condition. Overall I was very satisfied.

I called Colonial when the movers weren't around at 5:00 and told their manager my complaints. Apparently, they stored the truck in St. Louis where my pick-up location was until the last day of my range. During that time, there was a leak in the van and so a couple of my things got wet. I dried them out and things ended up being fine. While, all the administration about which I talked to Colonial with was really good, they should consider a different moving truck.

However, my experience with the coordinating manager was very poor. I was quoted $5,000. The girl called me and she was very rude telling me that there was gonna be an additional $5,000 so it ended up being a $10,000 move. I told her I’d already paid a deposit of over $2,000. I asked her what would happen if I couldn’t pay that 5,000 right away. It was the same experience I had with another trucking company. They're gonna hold my mom’s stuff ransom. So, I asked my mom if she could pay for it and I would pay her back ‘cause that was supposed to be my gift to her which they were fully aware of.

Then the girl wanted me to screenshot my credit card and my ID to finish paying it off which I was very uncomfortable with because there are hackers that can get into your stuff. I told her I couldn't do that. I couldn't afford it anyway. I have a daughter with autism so most of my money goes to her speech, her occupational therapy, and all her other things that she needs. Another over $5,000 would've killed me. Because of the increased money, my mom had to use her money from the sale of her home. Now I’m paying my mom back.

It was a large move. My mom had very little furniture but a lot of boxes, so they charged my mom per box. Though there were a lot of boxes, there were zero appliances so I don’t see how the boxes put that much weight on the truck. Also, the guy said he couldn't put his truck in the driveway. He could’ve if he had backed down all the way to the fence to get the stuff out because her driveway was about a quarter of a mile so he had plenty of room. They charged my mom for a shuttle fee which I thought was absolutely ridiculous. Then they forgot a furniture so my husband and I had to load the furniture in the back of our truck and meet the driver off the freeway so he could include it. And they broke down things that they weren’t supposed to break down so I ended up just throwing them out. It was just awful at the end and I was so pissed.

But there were some frustrations. First of all, were moving during peak moving time which was on the 1st of June. Cara, the person that was coordinating all the pick-up and delivery, told me we were gonna be picked up a day late, which was not a happy thing. We were paying a certain amount of money per day to stay in the house so it was gonna be very late. She asked a few questions about our neighborhood and told me that the truck would not be able to come up. Carlos and his boss and I had already looked at those logistics and they agreed that they will be able to pick us up at the house. But Cara disputed that and said they were going to have a shuttle truck and that would've added expense to it. That upset me.

I called Carlos back and he intervened. It took a little while but he convinced the movers that they can get into the neighborhood. So he helped solve that problem. The company that came out was subbed and they didn't know how long it was gonna take. I was not happy with the money I was gonna be spending to stay in the house and the inconvenience. I asked if they could find another truck. Carlos came to the rescue and subbed out to First Choice. The guys were very professional and they worked like Trojans. They were great to work with and we interacted well and loaded up our stuff.

Then, I had to take our cat to Mississippi and started out. My wife called me in a panic when she found that we had forgotten to pick up two more boxes and she had no room in the vehicle that she was gonna follow me in. I called the driver and he said, "No problem". But I didn't want him to come back into the neighborhood 'cause it was a little tedious getting in. So I turned around and went back, helped my wife load the boxes and she took them down to him. He told us not to worry about it. They were in a weigh station and they explained to us that the amount could change, depending on the weight.

When Carlos estimated, he pulled up my house on Zillow and went room by room and asked questions. I explained everything was going to be loaded. But after that had happened, we realized that we had left off several things that we added on to the load so I expected the bill to go up. Then the guy from First Choice said they were going to end up being two days late instead. Then he said, "But I've got the weight ticket here and it looks like you're gonna be about $600 or $700 less". I thought that was great.

True enough, they delivered two days late but he apologized. They were ultra courteous and got everything here in the house. My wife and I agreed that there was no way we could've done this by ourselves. We had some very fragile stuff but nothing was broken, except for a leg of a chair to the breakfast table which was very minor. With that big van load of ultra fragile equipment, they did an amazing job getting almost every bit of here undamaged and I was just amazed.

Even though the delivery was subbed out to First Choice, it was through Colonial and I didn't hear anything about the late delivery, late pick-up from nor being underweight from them. I called Carlos and he did some investigation. He first came back and said I was due $180. But the driver told me $600 or $700. Carlos said that the driver quoted the poundage. I'm happy with the move but I was aggravated that I had to get up with Colonial to find out about the weight. I also thought I should be reimbursed something for the three days, the day late pick-up and the two-day delivery. I tried getting up with Colonial but they never got back with me.

It was over a week and a half and I kept having to hound people. Finally, someone called me asking me how satisfied I was. I told them I was really happy with the move except for the lateness and the rudeness of the dispatcher, Cara and the weight that I can't seem to get covered. She assured me that she would take care of it and I would hear something the next day. The next day comes and goes, I didn't hear anything. So I called back again and the people were very nice. They said they would have the rep call me back and she finally did. She apologized and said that the total is $180 for the weight and I would receive $30 for each of the days that was late. So it was a total of $90 plus $180 and I would be reimbursed on my credit card. We finally got that done.

At first I was told there was a 2 day pickup window and 10 day drop off window, which while annoying, would allow me to make travel plans. When I officially booked, this became a 4 day window, but I was assured I’d have a customer service agent assigned to me and plenty of notice to get the elevators I needed in my building. This was a lie. They came the last day of the window, and gave less than 24 hours notice. In addition, had they come on the early side of the window and delivered the next day, they wanted $500 to hold my stuff overnight. But of course, they could also take 10 days to deliver and I would get no money back for that inconvenience. I had been assured that they did everything in house and Colonial Van Lines employees would be moving my stuff. This was a lie. A subcontractor, quality relocation, handled the actual move.

They were nice enough on pickup except for some gross questions about being a single woman, though one clearly did not know what he was doing. After a very long time on the phone, they increased my estimate by 600 pounds. I questioned this and was told it was because their boss was sleazy and that there was no way my stuff weighed that much so not to worry. They were rough with my things on loading, and they refused to wait for the proper elevator despite reminders, which put me at risk for a big fine with my building. I tried holding the elevator for them, and witnessed one use my wood coffee table to slam open the doors. This table is now ruined. My salesperson, customer service person, and the movers assured me that there would be a time-stamped weight ticket from the closest weigh station before and directly after pickup.

I asked to know as soon as they weighed it because I was concerned about the extra weight and I needed to know how much I owed upon delivery. This was a Saturday, so I spoke to my customer service agent that evening who confirmed I had the right to witness a reweigh, but I never got the phone call. After 8 PM that night, a very sketchy man claiming to be the boss called and told me I owed a lot more money, and when I asked about weight tickets, he said it was 1000 pounds over! I asked for an email of the weight ticket. It never came, and Colonial Van Lines is closed on Sundays. The next day, the weight ticket showed that they had not bothered to get it weighed until that morning in my new state. There is no one working at Colonial Van Lines on Sundays, so we were stuck. They demanded a lot of cash, and were very aggressive and rude to my 64 year old mother.

It was clear they did not protect any of the wood furniture, and my most expensive piece is destroyed. This is particularly upsetting because I paid this much for movers in the first place because I wanted my furniture to be moved safely. If I wanted to destroy it, I would have moved it myself for 1/3 the price. The next day, I received an invoice for EVEN MORE MONEY despite not having a single valid time stamped weight ticket. I was assured that Colonial Van Lines would look into it and would rectify the weight ticket situation. It has been 2 weeks, and there has been no resolution. They told me they would send claims forms and investigate the weight tickets, but they have since been ignoring me, which makes me question whether they are complicit in the subcontractor's schemes.

I spoke to Donna who was able to get a small settlement amount off from the FIRST issue. Now I have this. Spoke to her today and she literally repeated everything she told me the first time. How this is peak season, they are so sorry, and making excuses. Then they declined me going to pick my own items up so my things are being held hostage because of someone else. I took my first review down but I am putting it back up because this is sickening now.

No offense. I could give two you know whats to what type of season it is. This company did not disclose that when they quick to snatch your money quick, fast and in a hurry out of your account. I paid 4k for a service to be rendered not for a bunch of excuses and delays then you offer small amounts of hush money so people won’t see these reviews. It's not right. I have no other words than I regret making this decison with this company. This company has been more stressful than the actual move getting here. I am at a point where I am ready to file all these charges as fraud and buy new items. I am just so disgusted.

Original Review: July 19, 2019

This company was by far the worst experience of my 6 interstate moves. Please don’t get scammed like we did! During the sales/on-boarding process everything seemed great, but when it actually came time to move, we realized that numerous things they told us were lies and days past our "latest" pick-up date, a truck FINALLY showed up to get our things. That was when the real issues began, and the nightmare continued right up until the very end of the move. Major issues with this company included:

—They asked for a huge deposit upfront with no in-person estimate given. This is a huge red flag and was part of their deceptive sales practices. Dave, our sales rep, assured us that our estimate was "binding" even if we had more boxes than expected, but when the movers showed up, they demanded $3200 more than our original estimate. When we tried to update our inventory prior to the movers showing up, Paul was evasive and never responded to multiple calls and emails.

—They sent a driver who had just gotten out of the hospital, making him drive hundreds of miles with our goods while still having health issues.

—Dave assured us that the company would take care of a street parking permit for the truck but never did, so when the truck showed up, it couldn't park near our house and the pick-up alone took all day.

—Shanee misled us about their insurance policies, costing us huge money and lots of extra time spent re-packing our goods.

—“Customer service” was rude, defensive, and evasive through most of the process. Alexis, the rep we spoke with the most, gave us bad or outright false information multiple times and often asked US about the status of our move, where the driver was, etc. Colonial was ultimately just a needless and incompetent middleman that made it FAR more difficult than needed to coordinate with the contracted driver and crew.

—We had to deal with 7 different representatives for each “step” of the process, and nobody could answer all of our questions.

If they seem cheap, it’s for a reason—avoid Colonial Van Lines at all costs!

I asked them where the furniture would go from there and they said to a warehouse in Hackensack, New Jersey, until they could get a larger Allied Van truck, to bring it to Colorado. However, when I got my stuff about two weeks later, things ended up missing or broken. They broke a leg off the couch, and there were some china that was broken. My air compressor was gone, and there were only two flat-screen TVs, whereas I had four. Everything adds up to about $1,000, which doesn't hurt me, but I called Colonial and they said they were gonna look in the warehouse. That was about four weeks ago and I have never heard anything else from them.

I'm satisfied with my experience. I've got enough stuff. I just don't like the method. It wasn't like moving from one house to another house. It's moving from a state to a state, and furniture had to be handled too many times by too many different people. Though the people who loaded and unloaded these stuff were very good, what happened in-between is a travesty.

The rep I dealt with was very good then there was a lady who took over after the initial scheduling and she walked me through all of the moving transactions. But I was concerned about the day before the move. I was told that I would have a 48-hour call but I only had a 12-hour call as to when they were gonna pick up. And it was after hours of the company so I couldn’t call them to verify. When they came the next morning at 8 o’clock my time, I tried to contact the moving company but they were in Florida and nobody was at their desk until 10 o’clock. I could not verify that this person was actually my mover because he didn’t have a truck that said the van line’s name on it.

Finally, I got a hold of somebody who told them his name and they said that was him. I asked him for his driver’s license but it did not match the name he gave them and I was a little bit concerned about this. So, I spoke to an associate at Colonial Van Lines and they said that the name that he gave was his nickname. Still, I was very leery to let him go ahead, so I called another representative to verify his employment because you could have picked up this paper at any truck stop where my stuff was.

In the end, the guy did the move and he was really good. I packed everything and he wrapped the furniture that I brought. I had some furniture that was handcrafted by my grandfather and I requested it to be double-wrapped and made sure that it maintained the integrity in which it left the facility. They were fine when they arrived and there were no scratch marks whatsoever. I also gave the guy a large tip when he got to Arizona. I told him I would if everything came in right and everything came in on time, and they did.

Original Review: July 15, 2019

I rarely write reviews. But it would be a disservice to other prospective Colonial Van Lines customers not to share a review in as many forums as possible. I’m a senior professional. One dedicated to helping companies shape their brands, their offering and ultimately succeed in fulfilling their mission and vision, grounded in what’s ultimately most important: quality products and service that deliver on what they promise, grounded in exceptional customer service. Our initial experience with Colonial Van Lines, with Thorna **, when exploring our shipping options, receiving a cost estimate and executing the contract seemed to have gone smoothly.

From the moment the truck and drivers arrived it went down-hill. From careless handling of our boxes and treasured furniture pieces to suspicious weighing of the trucks, missing weight tickets, additional $574 in charges that could not be confirmed as accurate, holding our shipment hostage until we paid the additional charges. Upon delivery, smashed boxes, broken designer dresser, ruined, scratched and cracked designer chair, stereo equipment that doesn't even turn on anymore, broken glass… The list goes on. We couldn’t have been any more careful in packing our items. Everything was bubble wrapped, reinforced with foam and all delicate pieces additionally wrapped in padding. The boxes looked like they were driven cross-country under the truck not inside. It was clear that the handling of the boxes was done with absolutely no regard for people’s property.

It’s sad to trust a company and other people with your property only to witness that they really don’t care at all. Once you hand over your deposit, they really don’t care. Lastly, I’ve been dealing with a manager by the name of Monica who has been diligent about reading me and writing me scripted talking points in response to our concerns. But it’s evident she also doesn’t care. It’s now been two weeks since our boxes and furniture were delivered and the weight ticket is still “being located.” Two weeks for a driver to email or text a weight ticket. It’s absurd and unacceptable across the board. We trusted Colonial Van Lines with our property and we deeply regret it. I advise that you look at other options if you would like your property in the hands of drivers that care.

Fortunately, a local company, was able to move my household at the last minute and put everything into storage. I had to pay additional money for the extra move, and I am incurring daily storage charges. Colonial did say they would reimburse me for the additional moving cost but nothing in writing nor nothing about the storage fees or any other reimbursement. Colonial wants me to agree to a pick-up date and they will recalculate cost at END of the move when they have my household items and furniture, or I can submit a claim - unacceptable. I want everything in writing. Have spoken with a person in the resolution department regarding the reimbursement and compensation, daily calls but no updates - main excuse - it's our busy season, supervisor in meetings all day, etc.

I feel it is very reasonable for me to expect a new contract with recalculations in writing prior to my authorization for the move. During this fiasco I left several voice messages and emails for my broker/agent at Colonial Van Lines and not once has he contacted me. But he was nonstop calling and emailing when he wanted the contract signed and deposit made. He was not truthful and misled me when he told me Colonial Van Lines owned the trucks and the drivers were employees - they hire third parties and hope for the best.

Here it is three weeks later, I'm in California with nothing and my household items are still stored in Connecticut. Additionally, my car was shipped, organized by the same broker/agent and when I got into my car it stunk of cigarettes. I do not smoke. Obviously Colonial Van Lines does not give a damn about their customers, total disregard for my inconvenience, and no concern for an older person who put her trust in their company.

We didn't get our vacuum cleaner and a few pairs of shoes so I had put a claim in for that. I really would’ve liked to try to get the vacuum back. Another thing is I noticed that they charged us about $863 for the boxes and packing. That's a lot of money so that’s what I wasn’t thrilled about. They did bring the boxes and they packed some things, but my husband and I packed most of the things. I guess they still charge you for bringing the boxes.

I just moved my mom back and her move was really bad. They gave me a 3-day window as usual, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I wanted them to make it Wednesday or Thursday but if they came Friday, I would have made it work. They called me Wednesday and told me they couldn't make it that week. It was just a big fiasco. Finally, after begging, crying, screaming and speaking to a million people, I got them to do it Saturday morning. One of the managers called and I said, “Okay, listen to me carefully. When the driver shows up, he cannot say anything like, ‘You have too much stuff. I don’t like your stuff. Your stuff is heavy and it costs more money, and here’s a piece of paper.’”

A guy that can barely speak English came in there and said, “Oh, more boxes. You have too many boxes.” He had a big accent and you can’t really understand him. And he was telling my mom, “It’s gonna cost you more money for all this stuff, and you gotta sign this paper.” It has nothing on it. It’s blank so my mom couldn't sign it. They tried getting ahold of me, but here in Colorado, it was 6:00 in the morning. The driver said he was gonna go to his next stop and then they'd come back. He went to his next job and they had too much stuff. He kept calling that he'd be there in an hour. An hour went by so I said, “If you’re not there by 3:00, she’s not gonna be there to sign your papers because she’s on a plane.” He said they'd be there by 2:00 but he didn’t get there. She was in the car and he pulled up in his truck at 3 o’clock. We were like talking to each other on the phone. She signed the obligatory forms and missed her plane.

They stayed there and packed. There were a lot of people that work there, so they helped watch out for her and her stuff. Most have been packed and they got to the truck and closed it. It wasn’t full. There was still room for some of her stuff and they left. They said they'd be back in the morning. The next morning, we called and they were not there. I called in the afternoon but they were not there. When I called Colonial on Monday, it took several times to get ahold of Donna, the account manager. I asked her when were they gonna take the rest of her stuff. She goes, “What are you talking about?” So, no one even knew that they did this.

I said, “First of all, her stuff is now sitting in a $5,000 a month assisted living apartment. It’s not a storage shed. It can’t be there today. That’s not okay. Who’s gonna pay this $5,000 rent and what are you gonna tell the next people that are waiting for that apartment?” She said, “Oh, I don’t know. The truck is full. You didn’t do the right estimate.” I had changed the estimate early on and they didn’t change that the way I specified that’s why it had the original. It said like 20 boxes, and my mom had like 100.

The salesperson, Tony, who I used the first time, was so nice. That’s why I went to him for the second time for my mom, and he never called me back, not once for the dozens of time I called him. I told him there was more stuff. I was just hysterical for days and days. They were like, “Well, we don’t have any truck. We can’t pick it up today. We can’t pick it up tomorrow. We can’t pick it up the next day.” It was like a week before they picked the stuff up. Everyday, we were waiting for the phone call. I told them that rent was due a couple of thousands of dollars and Donna said they were not gonna pay that. I told her, “Donna, it’s not your decision of what your company is gonna pay. It’s the lawyers and the court who’s gonna determine who’s gonna pay it.” She said it was not that big of a deal. I told her “Excuse me? It’s not that big of a deal to just leave all your crap in someone’s $5,000 apartment?” That’s a big deal to leave all your stuff in someone else’s place.

So, finally, they picked it up and we were wondering how long was it gonna take to deliver it ‘cause we never even got the first load. We finally got the first load this Saturday and we’ve been unpacking that. Now, the load’s coming today it's really quick. We were happy about that. I hope they had a better driver ‘cause the last one that came, he had this stick. He was measuring the whole way. He said “This is more than 75 feet. It’s gonna take me an extra time.” I asked the place. They said, “As soon as they get there, we’ll come check it, and we’ll give them the door that’s closest to your mom’s apartment,” but it’s not close to the apartment. It’s a pretty long one. I think it was 300 feet all the way from the door to the truck to her living room. But I really could care less about their problems after what they did to my mom.

I don't like the way Colonial Van Lines solves problems and the way they didn’t care. I had to spend hours trying to explain over and over and over for them to finally get it. The driver, obviously, was tired and cranky. He was gonna come back then something happened. But they should just own up to it instead of blaming me. They shouldn't go to someone’s house and leave stuff there and not come back. I don’t care what the reason is. And they’re gonna charge me for a second move. I’m like, “Oh, no. You’re not.” I have to escalate and I have to argue. I don’t like to do that, but I have to. I’m not gonna let my mom get screwed either.

So far, everything was fine. I am missing a box but I didn’t call about it because I can't tell what's in the box. I just know what I don’t have in my house. The car delivery was another thing. I gave the driver the instructions and the directions and then the address of the house, but he made me meet him three miles away. I didn't have my car because I had returned my rental, so I had to Uber. So, I had to spend money to go get my car from the drop-off too. I had to go meet the guy, pay the Uber, and then I also got a $1,000 pay cut that one day for the day I took off work. If the company really wanted to reimburse me and make it right, I'm not gonna ask. It's not my job. That’s their job. If they offer it, they offer it. If not, make the mistake twice, shame on me. So, I just won't use them again. I do have someone else who’s moving cross-country and I told them they might as well just go to someone else. I don't want them to lose money too.

The quote was pretty straightforward. They had us go room through room and the number of boxes that we estimated we would need. They were pretty good to follow up about a week in advance to make sure that was still on par with what it looked like we needed to move. We made a few adjustments to accurately maintain our quote. It changed once it was closer to the day of transport, but at least we knew it was going to change based on what we were moving. Everything went pretty well even though we worked with different people throughout the different stages of moving. When it came closer to having the movers arrive, someone else coordinated and just let us know what day they’d be arriving. When we put in claims at the very end, there was someone else. They said it would take up to 3 months to resolve.

The jury is still out on what’s gonna happen with our claim. We had 1 thing missing, a couple of things damaged, and 1 item not put together. We don’t have the pieces for it either. We had to go out and buy new hardware for it. But I would expect all those things with any mover. Everyone was quick to follow up and everyone we dealt with was really friendly. Our account manager was great. She followed up whenever she said she was going to follow up. When I left her a couple of voicemails, she always had someone call me back or she would call me back. She was very helpful and prompt in responding.

And yet again, by the 6th, STILL no driver/truck available to facilitate this move. Still waiting for my refund. Flew back to GA without getting moved. Incredible waste of time, money, and energy. I don't understand how an interstate moving company can completely drop the ball on a simple move?? I'm a military veteran with several moves across the US over my career. This has been my worst experience with movers, and an incredible disappointment. If you're looking into Colonial Van Lines, keep looking, they won't show up when it matters...

The only thing that I didn't like is when they drop things off, they give you a sheet. You’re supposed to be marking things off as they're unloading everything. They unload so fast that you don’t really have time to look over everything. A lot of boxes looked like it may have fallen out of the back of the truck. We’re still missing a couple things, but we haven't actually gone though the rest and I think we got everything. They should kinda give you a couple of days at least to kinda go over things. You’re supposed to go over everything before they leave and check off if you have anything damaged but you don’t even have time to unwrap your things that are completely packaged up before they unpack and leave. We really didn't have enough time to check everything out. It was kind of a rushed process.

I have a digital piano and the guys had to take one of the pedal unit apart to get it on the truck. They held up a baggie and they showed it to me. They said, “Here’s the hardware for your pedal to be assembled.” But I haven’t been able to find that and I really need it. If they could tell me where they put the baggie, that’d be tremendous. It’s a little thing, but I can’t put the piano together without it.

I made an effort to make it as easy as it was possible which means It began to elevate due to my frustration of having to repeatedly tell you the same thing over and over again, frustrating phone system and your people refusing to allow me to speak to a supervisor or even tell me the name of any supervisor and finally having to tell the same story several times being repeatedly transferred to a phone that no one was answering. The most aggravating thing was when Jessica told me she did not ask about the wires and that I did not explain the road the driver should take to avoid those wires, she was lying. Originally it sounded like a standard question.

Today she could only repeat the question several times "Did I receive a call from the driver 30 minutes to 1 hour prior to arrival". When he heard me getting more and more upset he began to yell at me which can be witnessed by the phone call with Jessica on 7/5/19. He said "You are not the only person in America who is moving". He said "More **" when I said "I forgot to tell you about the dresser in the walk-in closet". He said "You've never worked in this heat, moving." I cannot remember everything he said, but he kept sticking up for the driver, I said I did not believe it was the driver's fault. My brother said "She is not blaming the driver". Most importantly, I never received a call back from the supervisor or the promised call from Jessica regarding how the move was going. I asked for the name of a manager people did not know who that would be, But I am paying, what is to me, a great deal of money.

If the items were not stolen and shipping with Colonial Van Lines is safe and secure, then I expect my items will be “found” and returned to me. It’s been months since we made this complaint so I can assure you that SHIPPING with them is NOT SAFE and SECURE! Once the items are returned I will update my review. Read other reviews of people who opted to have them pack and also had items go “missing”. We are still awaiting a resolution... it’s been months!! And nothing. I also find it peculiar how the “relevant” reviews on Google are all four and five star reviews. I wonder how that happens? Scam scam scam. If you found this review helpful please like it.

Original Review: June 28, 2019

Worst company ever, and even worse customer service. Late picking up, late dropping off, no empathy whatsoever and offer only a 30 dollar amount every day they were late, regardless the amount it cost to survive while you wait for your entire life to show up. Stay away from this company, much better options out there. In fact, I suggest you carry your stuff on your back to where ever you are moving to, because I guarantee you'd make it faster than this complete joke of a business.

On the delivery end they were a full week late after the last day of the delivery window. This caused us an extra 7 night hotel expense at $900 total as well as having to change work schedules at the last minute due to the uncertainty of the delivery date. On delivery they attempted to collect an extra $1,900 due to extra weight! I still have not seen a detailed breakdown of the extra charge. No extra items were added to the inventory list and exact dimensions were given to the sales rep at the time of the quote. Sounds to me that they intentionally quoted low to get the business only to jack the price up 45%! I asked several times for one of the owners (it’s a family owned business) or someone in senior management to call me, never received a call. Finally, five days after delivery was made a “supervisor” called. Please everyone save yourself a ton of hassle, stress and extra expense and do not use this company, you will regret your decision.

Anyway, one day he was extremely rude to me saying I needed to book my move ASAP. As a consumer - I understand that the rate I receive may be higher closer to the move. BUT it is NOT the place of the company rep to force me into anything or talk to me like that. I was extremely angry at this tone and decided to go ahead with a different company just because of his behavior. Their services may be good, but they need to learn to talk to their customers.

Original Review: June 4, 2019

My husband and I have moved across the US at least 5 times the last 15 years due to our jobs. Each time we used either Ally or Mayflower. We were moving from Upstate NY to Philadelphia and We decided to save cost and went with Colonial Van Lines this time and ultimately regretted the decision. I will break it down into bullet points:

1. They do estimates and not quotes like other company, which means they could charge more (usually not less) after the move. They do not have a in person to come to your house to evaluate how many things you have. Everything was done through a phone call. Because of that, we were uncomfortable how accurate that might be, therefore we had another company Corrigan to come evaluate. They quoted us to be within 6000 lbs range. Their quote is final and that's the price you pay. We sent Corrigan's quote to Colonial and asked them to beat the price. They assured us that our items should be less than 5000 lbs and could save us $2000.

2. When the movers came to pick up they mentioned that it has to be within 75 ft of the apt and the truck, and will be charged a fee if more than that distance, this was never disclosed to us.

3. During the delivery the driver panicked and kept calling my husband about parking in Philadelphia and caused a lot of stress when he later told us that we should have gotten a permit. This was ridiculous to us and this is usually taken care by by the movers. We did not have any issues with Mayflower when we moved to Chicago city area.

4. The driver later told us that they have to charge us extra bc we have more than 21 flights of steps to the apt by counting the basement to the top, not from the truck to the apt, which was different from pick up. He had no idea how much to charge us since it was a Sunday. He said the office told him to charge us the maximum of $350 and will call us back to sort out the detail and refund us money. Long story short, they never called us and charged us in full of $350.

5. The movers revealed to us that they are just third party and not professional movers. They were not trained at all. They flipped a lot of our boxes upside down, which was frustrating. They severely bent one of our desk metal legs, and the wielded joint was agap, which I decided to document by taking photos. The driver, which we assume was the boss bent the leg back and took another picture. I told him I'm going to submit a claim, but he told me that the claim will never believe me as he bent it back and took a better picture!!! My husband and I were speechless at that point and what just came out of his mouth.

6. They also charged us an additional $1300 as they claimed it was over 5000 lbs, which was not what they assured us the first place. And the Corrigan's initial quote was accurate and they did not go with it just so that they can tell us they could beat the price. Also as we were unpacking we found boxes of stuff that belong to other clients and not us, which lead us to believe we combined other client's boxes with ours and became overweight. We were extremely baffled by their unprofessionalism.

7. The delivery guy tried to charge us 4 additional boxes and packing materials for $150 which does not exist. We packed every single boxes ourselves and suddenly we got charged for non-existing "packing materials" and labors. We were so furious at this point.

8. When my husband tried to call and dispute, they just kept passing the calls along and we were forced to leave a message.

9. The were suppose to put our beds together since they were the ones who took it apart. When I moved the bed to reposition it, 2 metals fell off the bottom frame because they never tighten the screws. We were horrified by how bad they did their jobs.

Long story short, we will never go with Colonial van lines ever again. We have moved to many places. This is most stressful time working with them. Ultimately they did not beat other company's quote, and left us dissatisfied, angered, and frustration. A lot of our furnitures got scratches and chipped off. We will keep working to dispute the claims.

I hesitate to be critical of the moving crew since they were the people doing the work, but they seemed confused at times and overwhelmed at others. They had no cell signal at our new home, and a landline was not yet functional here, so my cell phone was used for several phone calls to their office and photos taken of documents I signed which needed to be seen by their handlers. Oddly, the movers had no appliance dolly, the type with rear tractor treads used to go up and down stairs, so they wrestled boxes and items up and down by hand. They weren't really dressed for the job either, wearing dainty athletic shoes while I was wearing work boots, which were needed in a rural setting where everything isn't paved. In the end they got the job done on time and with nothing broken.

One thing concerned me however. All three crew members stood and watched as my credit card was photographed, both sides, so all could get a good look at the security number on the back. I was glad the pictures were on my phone and not theirs. This card was supposedly certified by Colonial earlier, but with two companies involved, things simply didn't work very smoothly. Save yourself a lot of confusion. Call a local mover, meet them, have them look over your stuff, and you'll save yourself a hassle. Colonial is essentially just an added layer to the moving process, who found a mover and then either ignored me or called 5 days after the move asking if it had happened yet.

When they picked up, it took them about seven hours to pack up. They did a good job from the pick-up. We've already had a house, so I was living at an apartment, doing an away job and then moved back to the house we were in. So, they packed up the apartment, moved everything back to the house. My wife said they delivered things in about five hours, and that was spread out over about 10 days. The only thing is when they delivered, they didn't put stuff back together right. So, they just put it all in. They reimbursed me a small amount, but they did not assemble the furniture back. Other than that, they've done a very adequate job. Overall, I was satisfied with my experience. It was a pretty difficult task. Colonial was well-prepared and the communication was adequate. I got the value for what I paid for the service.

A lot of my furniture was damaged but I'm suing the guy that did my floor. It wasn't because of the moving company as they did what they were supposed to do. It was a very hectic experience, but Colonial Van Lines made it less hectic by being very accommodating and on-time with all their paperwork. I also liked the professionalism of the truck drivers and representatives that were constantly calling me and making sure that everything was on point.

We were able to handle everything on the phone and he really made me comfortable because I was a little leery doing it over the phone. I called him at least four times and he gave me answers, so I was able to go ahead and lock in the moving date, set my flight, and make things work for me. I was also able, just by phone, to plan my flight there as well as the packing, pickup and delivery, and everything was right on schedule. Then, I was able to meet the movers there.

Everyone was telling me that I needed to go there and they would give me a quote. But that wasn’t gonna work for me at the time, so I had a company meet me there. But Anthony was able to, over the phone and by getting a list, give me pretty much the same quote within $100 or $200. And the quote was good. It came in under what they initially told me and Anthony told me to probably expect that. I was ready based on the information Anthony gave me in what I needed to do, so everything was there. I felt really great about their ability to do the quote over the phone and for it be as accurate as it was. It helped me with scheduling and it saved me flight money as well as time off of work.

When the movers came in, they introduced themselves and in a matter of hours, they had me packed and ready. The guys were great and they took very good care of packing my dishes and furniture. I watched them pretty much the entire time, in and out, and I didn’t have any issues with them. They also didn’t track dirt or mud in. I was a little concerned with that.

All in all, my experience was awesome. I hope I don’t have to do it again, but I would refer Colonial Van Lines to someone if they were moving. And people were surprised as they said that my furniture was moved twice and it still looks brand new. I expected something to possibly break but not one single item was broken. As I unpacked my boxes, everything was in place. I also had some scratches on there prior but one of the movers brought out his marker and used it on them. Then, he handed it to me and told me to keep it in case I scratch something. And I did make a couple of scratches trying fix some stuff up.

The entire post move process was horrible with little follow up, follow through and professional customer service. Ironically the carrier service supposedly has been discontinued from what obviously were other issues from other customers. Interesting also is that the only responses on these reviews from Colonial are from positive experiences. This is an indicator of the poor customer service and professional service that is offered when things don’t go well. Please stay away from this company!!!

I still haven’t unpacked everything but it came fast, which was surprising. I thought it would take a little longer. Everything arrived in great shape too. A little tip of the garden angel’s wing cracked but that’s no big deal to me. I fixed it. Nothing major was damaged and they were friendly. They moved some pretty unusual things and we all laughed about it. I bought a tree trunk with me. This thing was such a beautiful piece of art that you could’ve made a table with it. But I just like it in my garden. I had to bring a few from Woodstock here with me. Colonial Van Lines was good and I was very satisfied overall.

One little thing I had an issue with was that they were supposed to deliver between 11:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the afternoon. However, I got a call about 1:30 letting me know they’re gonna be delayed another couple of hours due to a storm. This happened on a Sunday and typically, Colonial is not open during that time. So, I had to wait till the actual movers that were on the road called me and let me know that they were gonna be delayed. Still, they assisted and packed everything very well and I had no damage to my items when I got to my destination. As I moved in, they unpacked the product as well and took very good care of setting up the beds.

When you go and do a quote, it’s hard to find out exactly how much it’s gonna be, especially when your're dealing with weight. The overall amount was $500 more than I had anticipated, but Colonial Van Lines was straight about it. They show you the ticket to where they will weigh the truck before, then weigh it after. It was pretty cut and dry at the end of the day. The moving company itself could've had a little more help though. There were only two people that came to move and I had a lot of heavy stuff. So, the loading took longer than expected. Also, there was a miscommunication, but they didn’t charge me for it. I thought they were bringing TV boxes and when they got there, they didn’t have any. But there were no worries and nothing broke.

It’s like too many people got their own ideas of everything and I couldn’t get a handle. It’s too much coordinator in their business and they don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s a whole bunch of nonsense with them that’s why I just paid them. I don’t want anything to do with them anymore. I am dissatisfied because I still don’t have the weight. I don’t know what they’re charging for.

In the beginning, they came in and were polite. They were doing their job in getting everything. But by the time they were finishing up on the morning to hit the road, they got really sloppy. They started packing on Monday and then finished up the next but they looked extremely tired. They could hardly put one foot in front of the other. Then it was like they didn't care by the time it got to the end. They were putting things in the truck without taking care of how they handled the stuff or what they did. Before we were ready to leave, we were looking through and there were all kinds of things we were finding that they hadn't gotten into some cabinet or whatever.

When we arrived at our location and they unloaded the first section of the truck, we kept finding things that were damaged. We have a small round kitchen table that goes in the kitchenette, for example, and its legs were broken off of it. The top was broken too. It's useless now. When they started to connect our end tables, the stone tiles were also loose. When they had started to pack it, I had told them that other movers had always taken the tiles out and packed them separately because they would break. But this guy came in, threw one of the moving rugs over it, tied that around the legs and went on out. As it turns out, it did break. When they delivered it, I told the head guy that I had told the other one not to pack it that way and he said they should've at least put a piece of cardboard on it to hold it stable under that piece of carpet because that doesn't really hold anything.

They also charged us for all these special boxes for wardrobe and dishes. It was $400 extra and I was fine. We did have a lot of dishes and clothes. But when their people called me for satisfaction, I told them that as we were unpacking, we kept finding wardrobe boxes that didn't have clothes in them. The movers had just thrown everything in it and they were way too heavy to manage or carry around. My husband's suit was also just thrown down in a box, all wrinkled up. Weren't the boxes gonna have the barb go in them for the hanging clothes? But they didn't do it. They took and threw the clothes in there then threw other junk and left it. It was such a mess.

We found other things too. They had taken ceramic things off of a shelf that we had and threw those in the box. They didn't wrap them at all. When we unpacked it, there were no wrappings in there – no anything. The box was crushed and several of those ceramic things were broken. We're still unpacking and we're still finding things. I talked to Colonial Van Lines and told them every detail. And they are mailing us a check. At least, they said they were.

The check is for $400 because of the difference we paid for the boxes, even though they did use some boxes appropriately. The wardrobe or dish boxes are also thicker than the others so we can definitely tell them apart. I'm also still filling out a claim for them on all the damaged mess. So things turned out really badly. I even had high hopes for Colonial Van Lines. But at least they stuck with their price. The others went double and triple when the movers actually showed up.

Colonial did a great job. They went to the house and were polite. After when they packaged it, I just can't believe how fast they moved. They unloaded very quickly and efficiently when they unloaded down here. The only thing that would have been better was that they came to the house with two trucks and loaded it up then they went to New Jersey and transferred it to an 18-wheeler. I don't know the purpose of that, but when they did that, you have no control over it. There could be some damage and then the damage probably happened then because you have no idea how they treated it when you weren't around. But we made it down here in fine time. In two days, the 8th and 9th of April, we were out of there and we have a lot of stuff.

I had very few broken pieces which I was happy about. I also had bed damage but I had some guys come in and fix it for me. I haven't done a report yet because I wanted to get more boxes unwrapped before I reported the damage, but I have taken pictures of it. My china which I was really concerned with came through perfectly. Overall, I recommend them.

The move was efficient. It was really quick coming in. The way they wrapped everything up real fast and got it together was pretty impressive. I felt like they were taking precautions to take care of my stuff. They did a really good job both on the pick-up and the delivery. It was a good experience and I was very happy with Colonial.

It was my first move and there wasn’t a ton of things that I knew to look out for. It was very expensive and so I was more so upset, overall, at the time mainly because of the cost and the hit to my bank account for all of the different moving fees. Be prepared for extra costs. I suppose 2,000 is a good number for the weight limit, and also be prepared to have that as the minimum if going interstate. They have a default of 2,000 or 200 pounds which means that the tag they have online is a bit of a lie, which says anywhere from $999 to $2,000 cost. But Colonial is not a bad company. They were helpful and fairly professional. They asked me how the trip was, if everything was done to expectations, and how were the moving people. They came to pick up my stuff and actually did the move.

I'm thinking they hired a driver who doesn't speak English and therefore didn't understand where he was supposed to go. So we are now going to get our stuff a full week than we were supposed to, and Colonial only give you $30 off for each day they are late. And we paid $5K to have our driver lost and our stuff a week late. What a ripoff.

The moving coordinator was great. They have a computer program that can look at real estate photos now to help me figure out what all I had and give me an estimate, and get it set up. The services and expectations set were very accurate. We are veterans of many moves so I have very managed expectations. There are certain things that no matter how good the moving company is, but we don’t have control, but I thought Colonial did a good job. The account manager was very knowledgeable, communicative and proactive. “We got this going. We know it's hard. Is there anything we can do?” That kind of stuff.

The quote we got was pretty close to the actual cost and at the end of the day, we had to store things for a long time because we hadn’t bought a house in Texas yet. It ended up being higher but that was not on them. It was just the circumstances. The one thing positive about Colonial across the board was communication. They were always calling and always talking to me. If there were issues, they never had a chance to develop because someone was always calling to check. It was excellent and that helped a ton. I felt like somebody else was worrying about how things were going and I was dealing with a million other things. Overall, I would recommend them.

By the end of the day, once they filled it up, it was about six o’clock and we had to be out of our house because we have a little one. We had to drive a couple of hours because we’re gonna stay in a hotel to continue our trip. The mover told me that he couldn’t fit all of our stuff and he was not sure what to do. He had to go and we waited another day. It was messy. I talked to a person from Colonial and she said that she was gonna look into it to see if there was some sort of reimbursement that could be done because they misquoted in such a large amount and because of some of the issues with the truck.

Although everything arrived in one piece and at the end of the day, it all came together, it was frustrating that the move was misquoted because we were budgeting for a different thing. Also, there was absolutely no follow through with any reimbursement. It was just a lot of lip service and it was disappointing. They were really good in the beginning sales and they were very thorough but once they got our money, it was “Goodbye, see you later.”

The move was from Virginia to California and when they came to deliver the stuff in California, the same two guys showed up to unload everything. They had damaged a lot of my furniture, broke a lot of the stuff and they had a bad attitude about everything. They ended up leaving and they left all of my stuff in the garage without putting it back or unpacking it in the house. I had to hire help locally to come and rearrange the stuff from the garage and put them in the applicable bedrooms. I spent extra money taking care of that.

On the first move from Louisiana, the final cost was good. The second one, we still are disputing because it is almost as expensive as the first move. The second move was only a one-bedroom apartment and the first one was a house of about 2,400 square feet. So, it's way out of line, weight-wise, and we don't understand why because the only heavy item was the sofa. We had a sofa, a recliner and a kitchen set and then just boxes. So, it was ridiculously high. And we met the driver at the weigh station and got a ticket for what it was here. But I still don’t understand what's going on and if anything's being worked on or not.

Overall, Colonial Van Lines did very well. With the first move, the owner of the trucking company was very meticulous. He packed my china closet and it was fine. Everything that came out of there did well. However, his helper was a little too ambitious. He moved a little too quick and he was not packing things as daintily or carefully. One of my lampshades for the bedroom, they're Ethan Allen lamps so they're pricey, was in a box with a heavy quilt over it and some other things. It wasn’t packed carefully and that crushed it. The other one, the seams popped up on the back and it got dings around. He stacked heavier things on top of things that should’ve been handled more delicately. Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend Colonial Van Lines. People just need to be cautioned about how things are packed so that they're more knowledgeable about what can happen and maybe pack some of those items themselves.

My account manager was good as well. My move was scheduled on a Sunday and she called me four days before. Then she called me again on Friday to check and give me the confirmation and told me that I could call on Saturday or Sunday to make sure if something was wrong. Nothing went wrong though. Then, she checked up whether the movers had given me a date when they would be coming. She also called on the same day to check whether the things have been delivered and whether everything was proper. My items were handled well and their people reached my home and dropped my stuff at the new location as per the scheduled time.

When Monica was on the phone she acknowledged having received our messages and could not provide a reason for why she hadn't returned our calls. No problem getting our stuff to us on our requested day. Then a week before the good were to be delivered, there was a problem. Could we wait a day. Sure--one day isn't a problem. Less than 48 hours until our goods are to be delivered and we have heard nothing from anyone at Colonial Van Lines. Again--Monica is not returning calls. We're getting the silent treatment AGAIN. I wish we had never signed with Colonial Van Lines. I will never sign with them again. Thanks, Monica.

Getting it reimbursed or refunded never happened and there was a fair amount of back forth with a representative at Colonial Van Lines. She was a little gruff and it felt like a runaround and not a straight answer, so I wasn't gonna get very much back, maybe a 100 or $200. They said that they looked at it. They looked carefully and it has already been adjusted. My own estimations and their review of all the documents didn't add up to me. It just wasn't right. All my things got to me safely, nonetheless, and the movers were on time and communicative. The original estimate, even including the extra, was very fair.

Anyway - I waited for the final amount - not being made of money it's a handy thing to know. Colonial never did get back to me about that as they were waiting for "paperwork" from the driver". Come Monday I get a call from the driver saying he was aiming to deliver at midday - great, I thought - but how much? He said he did not know and would have to make calculations as the weight was 10,000lbs. Now initially I was quoted for two options, moving my stuff alone (~5900lbs) and moving my g/fs also (total just over 10,000lbs). The driver calculates that the money owed is $4774. I was told $2038 for a weight of 5900lbs. However $4774 is over a thousand dollars more than I was quoted for moving my stuff and my girlfriend's combined.

Numerous concerned calls to Colonial proved fruitless. Spoke to a nice person on a couple of occasions and some crotchety uncaring person on a couple of occasions too. Come this past Saturday - I get a call from Colonial. Driver will deliver today - pay him the $2038.05 they said. I missed some hours of work waiting and nothing - eventually called the driver and he said he would only deliver half my stuff for $2038.05. Now I'm having to negotiate with the driver directly who has placed my stuff in storage. If you are on a budget and quite frankly even if you are not - avoid Colonial at all costs and do some research into moving companies directly - as far as I'm concerned Colonial owe me my deposit back purely for the stress involved, let alone coordinating nothing!

There was damaged furniture. Heavier boxes were stacked on top of lighter of boxes, so lighter boxes ended up getting crushed. There are also things that I’m missing. Colonial sat there and said I should have bought the higher insurance. I can understand the insurance if the truck would’ve gotten in an accident but the fact that it was strictly related to the actual movers themselves, I shouldn’t pay any extra insurance for the fact they decided to damage some of my goods.

We went back and forth and they were willing to offer me $500. But that isn’t even gonna take care of the things that I’m missing like the weights for my grandfather clock and the weights from a cuckoo clock that my wife and I just purchased when we went to Germany early last year. I have moved a lot in my life and I have never have I ever had anything broken or damaged. This is the very first time. I even took pictures of the damages. I wouldn’t feel right turning something like that into an insurance company because that is a pack or move issue and not an insurance issue.

Also, there were two guys who showed up and they didn't have Colonial Van Lines shirts on. There was no professionalism. I would never use Colonial Van Lines again. I would never recommend them to anybody as well. Colonial Van Lines themselves were nice in the beginning. They’ve been trying to go ahead and put this whole thing to bed and put it to rest. That’s all I wanna do too. I just wanna get on with it because it’s been now well over a month ago and it’s still not resolved.

The men that moved us were incredible, though. They had mechanical problems and were late because of that. In our condo, we have to book the move and we have windows. So, if you're not there on time, you're not supposed to move. We were given an hour and the men moved everything very quickly. They executed everything perfectly.

With the pick-up, they pushed back so they were late because they couldn't get a contractor to cover the route. It cost me over $200 for them being late and they only credited me $35 for that because I had to pay extra rent and I had to move the medical movers and all the other stuff that had to go with it. The people who picked us up were way overpacked, which Colonial backed up and discounted the stuff that the movers overdid because they were wrapping stuff that I didn't want to be wrapped. But in doing the wrapping, they way overweighed stuff because the couple of things that I unwrapped in plastic wrap was almost five pounds in just plastic wraps that we ended up paying.

The movers themselves were awesome, diligent, very cool, and quick. They did a very good job. The guys who delivered were phenomenal, were more than conscientious on helping us get stuff moved and unpacked and went above and beyond what they had to do, so that aspect of it was really nice. Colonial handled things relatively well, but I don't feel like we were not compensated as we should have been. We never received the final weight that we asked for.

I would never ever go with them again. Had they not been so cheap, I would not have gone with them in the first place just based on their reviews. They had me go online to do a Yelp review and they said that I would get a $25 gift card if I do that. We went in and did our Yelp review to say as such. I sent them the proof that I did it as I thought I deserve the $25 gift card. They had all sorts of people saying that they were offered money for reviews.

Our slot for the arrival of the movers was Sunday the 7th from 12-4 pm. They said they were delayed due to drop off difficulties. At 3:45 pm, two movers show up, not with proper equipment, enough manpower and shuttle and semi as promised, but just two men and two rented 26’ trucks. They say they were subcontracted by Colonial and were not aware of our safe. They sit around for an hour and a half after arriving wanting us to tell them to leave due to lack of manpower and proper equipment so we lose our deposit and they get out of the contract. We cannot as we have to have vacated our home by 10 the next morning as buyers take possession of home and all left contents at closing.

They move for an hour and a half and stop due to rain and improper equipment to load in rain. They say they will return between 5 am and 6 am with extra manpower and equipment for the safe in the morning and still have us out by closing. They come back at 6:40 the next morning, just the two movers and no additional equipment. We are panicking, stressed. We have our realtor talk with the buyers and their realtor to add an addendum to the contract giving us until 12 pm to vacate the premises due to the movers lack of ability to get us out on time as promised.

It’s a little past 12 pm, buyers and their realtor show up, moving men still loading last several items in driveway, safe is laying on cement concrete behind house, abandoned and badly scratched and dented by movers as they could not load it in the truck. Buyers, their realtor and my husband and I go back to determine if the buyers will accept responsibility for the safe or if my husband and I have to track down a company and pay for its removal from their property. Buyers decide to accept responsibility, so we do not have to pay for removal. However, the safe is forfeited, as movers failed to remove from property by 12 pm, and we are out 3000$.

Upon delivery of our items, we request resolution of our forfeited safe claim before paying the remainder of our bill, but Colonial would not unload our items if we did not pay. They also refused to remove the 800$ shuttle fee even though there was no shuttle. Since this happened, Colonial has received our receipt for the safe, showing what we paid, images of the damage to the safe, a signed statement from the buyers realtor stating what occurred, that we had to forfeit the safe and were lucky the buyers did not make us pay for removal or the additional two hours occupancy needed to remove our belongings post 10 am closing.

However, Colonial is saying they believe the moving men who are saying we sold the safe to the buyers. The moving men who subcontracted have incentive to say this as Colonial told us the settlement for the safe if there is one would come from the moving men’s pay. Colonial states due to this they will not reimburse us for our lost safe or offer any settlement. Please do not ever use this company!!! They are horrible, horrible people with no integrity. I hope this helps some people out there considering this company for a move to avoid financial losses similar to what we have incurred

I didn't notice some of it and how poorly it was done until I unpacked it here. Even at the end of the night, he upped the weight and charged me for boxes that I didn't want but had to buy because of how they wrapped things, even pieces of my furniture that I’ve never done anything but wrap a blanket around before because I have moved 18 times. It wasn’t my first rodeo and that crew caused a lot of stress to me. The biggest piece of damage was on an antique piece. One part of it had been broken before and I knew that but the way they packaged it broke it worse and there was no way to deal with that.

After I was packed and ready to go doing additional things, they spent seven hours to then get it up on the truck, and that surprised me greatly. Plus, the communication barrier was huge. On the other hand, the crew that unloaded me here was fast and courteous. They were fantastic and did anything and everything I said because I always know exactly where I want everything, and that went smoothly. That crew reinstated my faith in Colonial.

They use a sub contractor Right Movers who said this is typical of Colonial. My stuff, last I heard will be loaded on April 10 and we still don't know a delivery date. When I complained that they would never make the original window for delivery (April 4-11), I was told that was just an estimate. I guess by estimate they mean it's a crap shoot. I have literally called 20 times and keep getting the run around. I get a promise for returned calls and nothing. Everyone is always on the line with another customer (hard to believe since this has to be the worse company I have ever dealt with in my professional career.)

Now it will be loaded on a truck in Chicago but no idea when it will get to Florida. When pushed they said it could be 2 days, 3 days, 5 days, 10 days. Bottom line, it could be any of those. Trust me..pay a little more and don't go through this nightmare. They have no idea when anything will happen. This is the worst experience and worse service ever. Feel free to contact me for all the horrible details. Do not use them.

The morning of the 20th is the first time I found something questionable. The movers arrived right on time, earlier than I expected actually, which was great. However when I went downstairs I was not met with a Colonial Van Lines truck like I expected, I was met with a truck for “Affordable Moving”, a 3rd party. Not what I was expecting. I had done research on Colonial (apparently not well enough), not this group. Still they had forms and such for Colonial, so maybe they’re really them? There was a lot going on at the time and I was focused on getting the apartment empty, and besides what was I going to do, say “Nope” and be stuck with no one to move it? I had to vacate the apartment the next day, and they had Colonial forms, so I guess this is fine.

They came in, reviewed everything, raised my estimate by nearly $2000 in the process, which floored me. Based on my boxes and stuff they felt needed packed with their own packaging suddenly my weight was going to be way higher than originally anticipated. The weight as it turns out was not significantly higher, and outside of the extra packing that they did (which if I had known would be so much I would have packed the TVs and remaining unpacked items ahead of time) and at the last estimate it was closer to the original amount. After several hours the guys finally got everything out and away they went, and the next day off I went driving across the country to LA. This is when things fall into a black hole.

Sometime between the 27th and 29th as we had been asking for updates, we received a call that there was some sort of issue with the truck transporting our goods and things were temporarily held up. That is the last we heard from anyone at Colonial Van Lines until today, despite calls and emails, other than a call on 3/29 giving us our new final total bill. This person did not know anything about our shipment, just the amount due.

Our ending window to expect our goods of 4/7 came and went, so first thing on the 8th I sent a email to everyone I’ve had contact with asking where our stuff is and why have I gotten no communication on this in ages? This afternoon (4/8) I received a call from Monica (who was the 3rd or 4th out of 5 people I’ve worked with on this project) that our items had been held up in Florida for a while due to the truck, and just today they arrived…In NEW JERSEY. I was not previously aware that New Jersey was between Florida and California. I was so baffled at this I didn’t even think to ask for an explanation on how and why our items are in New Jersey. This was not part of the process explained to us. Apparently they don't take the goods directly to you, they take them somewhere else first. The goods are there, but as of yet no ETA of when they’ll start making their way to Los Angeles, and no ETA of when we’ll be receiving our goods at home.

I demanded an explanation and all I got back was the truck had a mechanical issue. I’m sorry, but that’s ridiculous and unacceptable. It’s now been nearly 3 full weeks since our items were picked up and our items are no closer to our home than they were the day they were picked up; actually, they are further away than when they started. The drive from Fort Lauderdale to LA was 2718 miles; the most direct line from New Jersey to LA is 2779 miles via Google Maps.

“Well how is your company going to make this right?” I was told they offer $30 for every day they miss their estimate. Oh ok…yeah, a couple hundred dollars for a crapload of inconvenience and items I was not planning on being without for more than 2 weeks…no big deal, call it a day! No, that is unacceptable and I refuse to pay any balance remaining for this company’s negligence and poor customer service. That at this point is the only thing that will make this right.

BEWARE - do NOT use this company. They outsource the job to smaller services, raise your estimates when they get there, then have poor communication and traceability of your inventory once they take possession. I will never use these people again and I urge everyone to avoid them at all costs. Sadly I have to give them 1 star because it’s required…otherwise they’d get nothing at all.

At least all the broken stuff doesn't need to come all the way in the house. Then guess what? You have to pay even more before the unloading can proceed, and Colonial will tell you what you should have paid after the unloading is halfway finished. Refund? You bet. They will promise to get it to you in a few days and a few more, and a FEW MORE - GO AHEAD AND WRITE YOUR REVIEWS AND REPORTING TO THE REGULATORY AGENCIES NOW! The money isn't coming. You'll do better hiring the truck and the labor yourself. That's all Colonial does while pocketing 40% of the money. If you call customer service about them hiring a truck that is too full to fit your stuff, they will tell you you must have went out and bought a lot more stuff after the estimate, or that they couldn't really see how much was there. Customer NO SERVICE. Be prepared to pay more and get less!!! DO NOT HIRE COLONIAL!!! Zero stars (minus 10 stars).

We used an agent of Colonial out of Bethlehem, PA. The guys they put on the job, Brandon, the driver, and his helper, Mark, did a fabulous job. They came to the house in New Jersey and when they walked in, we were packed and ready to go. They moved a fair amount of furniture and not a mark on the walls coming out of the home. They got it all under the truck. We then drove down to the tip of Southern New Jersey, jumped on a ferry, went across, and delivered the furniture in Northern Delaware. Going into the Delaware home, there were little scratches here and there but well within expectations.

The whole move was great. Moving and relocating all that stuff was a stressful event and the guys made it as stress-free as it possibly could have been. They did a great job and have kept their promises. Our move was really more associated with eventually retiring in the next few years. We've got a few friends that are in the same situation and we've told them to give Colonial a shot.

Natasha understood and asked me when she should call back. I told her in two weeks and she did that and it was great. Her professionalism felt familiar and I appreciate having a background, understanding a move, and personal and emotional. She wasn't pushy like the price would increase to $1,000 if I don't come up with a decision. She told me about some risks if I couldn't tell them four days before, but they understood our situation. During the delivery, the guy went from Atlanta to Orlando and had traffic so that was a little delayed. But I like the fact that they sent the same guys to help me pack and that totally made up for the time lost so it was fairly accurate.

I had specifically stated that there was no way they'd get a truck down our driveway at our new location yet they sent an 18-wheeler to pick my furniture up after telling them numerous times that it was not gonna work. I went with Colonial because they said that they were gonna send a small truck. Fortunately, the actual mover himself was very nice about it and he said that he lives in the town that I was moving to and that he has a truck and a trailer and he could transfer everything over and push it down for me. In the end, Colonial got my furniture where it needed it to be and that was what mattered.

I got a call on Saturday saying that it wouldn't be Monday or Tuesday but the next Friday. I took my time going. Instead of making it a normal 2 day trip I took an extra day and made it 3 days. When the finance department called and asked if I had been told the new amount for delivery I said I was and that the delivery had been pushed out an extra 3 days. Since I can't give a zero for the experience I have to go with a 1. It was terrible, if you are going to have another company do the work then tell people so they can make other arrangements. I would never, NEVER use this company again.

I really hated that Colonial put my furniture in storage and changed different trucks. My furniture was moved many times and I am still angry about having to replace the legs on my chair. There were also holes poked in the fabric around my mattress. They were supposed to put my mattresses in a box and I am sure I paid for boxes. They just shrink wrapped them, then they moved them down the hallway end over end. I didn't have any boxes. I had them load the TV and the box was mangled. I was surprised my TV still worked.

I, however, wasn’t anticipating that there would be another trucking agency that would be actually doing the delivery, who worked with Colonial. Still, those who picked up the delivery from that company were excellent and went the extra work to protect some of my more valuable items, like antique bed set, the painting, etc. They just went the extra care and were very personable, engaging, and professional. Those who delivered, though, I was not happy with them. They seemed very much in a hurry, would bring in boxes to the garage, and didn’t pay attention to whether the boxes were right side up or not. I think they were a crew that wasn't accustomed to working together, so that was just disconcerting.

I've also contacted with Cherry and they're rectifying that situation. They left a wardrobe-size box of garbage from their truck, food scrap, water bottles, drinking bottles, fast food stuff that had nothing to do with my move. I had to discard of those over the course of a couple of weeks. So, I bagged up five bags or so of trash from that. They are reimbursing a $50 check for that inconvenience on my part.

They informed us that they would be able to get it done same day which is logistically not possible. The movers were supposed to be there between 7 and 9 am. We were called around 11 the day of closing and informed the truck broke down. This entire time I had been having a conversation with a supposed supervisor named Leon. I asked Leon to send me proof that the truck broke down. He emailed me a handwritten invoice with the wrong date on it. I promptly called the company on the invoice and they informed me that they provided no such service to a truck that morning. They didn’t get a truck to us until 6 pm the night of closing.

They worked until 10 and left. They didn’t come back until 4 pm the day after closing and two days after closing they still have not shown back up. Leon had “promised” the entire week prior to our move date that he was working to get someone there on time. We talked with the movers that showed up and they were free all week. No one reached out to them for the job until it was already two days late. They are also full of threats. I was told by Leon since CVL was in breach of their contract and if I continued to push this he would just refund our deposit and cancel the order forcing us to line up new movers same day. They are unwilling to make anything right and are forcing us to arbitration to recover the losses we incurred by staying in the house beyond closing.

They worked with a second company that handled the actual move, but the coordination seemed to be okay. Except that there was a confusion with the quote because there was some misalignment with their quote and the third party’s quote. It was a pretty big difference in the quoting prices. They do everything based on weight, not volume. So, once they weigh the truck and got the actual weight of my belongings, the numbers were actually less than the original quote that Colonial gave me. So, it ended up working out. It was a good experience, overall. My stuff arrived and they were well within their windows of the dates they planned for pickup and the dates they planned for drop-off. It took 3 weeks from the first contact to the time my stuff got delivered and it matched the timeline that I was on for moving, so it works out well.

The account manager was awesome. She made sure that the driver came and that everything was on time. We had a slight snafu, but she made sure that everything still went smoothly. It was supposed to be a same-day delivery, but by the time everything got packed up and driven into town, it was so late. They still would've delivered the same day, but we asked if they could deliver it in the morning. My father is ill and we didn't want the delivery to run too late so that he could sleep. They were very polite and accommodating with that. They were able to deliver my things first thing the next morning. Everything was wrapped up wonderfully and nothing broke, which has not always happened in the past.

Summary: Fake, low-ball quotes until they get to your home and then tell you it will be double the weight (I stupidly tipped them off that I had recently moved and had documented proof of total weight of goods, otherwise, I think they would have tried to scam me further) took several days for them to get the weight amount to me, ticky tacky flat rate charges added after estimate, non-responsive “customer service”, sketchy bait and switch (colonial has A BBB rating, and the 3P they sent has ‘F’ BBB rating).

I was assured they weren’t a company that sub-contracts by the sales woman , single-man (the semi driver alone!) moving crew showing up days late for pick up causing missed flight, and in pitch black 10PM for delivery (4 days earlier than colonial rep communicated), 3P contracted who was unprofessional, aggressive, and tried to scam me, police involvement due to aggressive behavior and the fact that the driver took a picture of my license and credit card, only to return 5 minutes later to tell me that he had to take cash or cashier’s check “because the dispatch wasn’t available that evening”.

Miraculously, he was able to process my card once the police showed up (red flags, anyone?). Items wreak of smoke as the driver was smoking as he unloaded on occasion. He refused to put the items he disassembled upon pick up back together, and we can’t find the parts now… (even if he WAS willing to he couldn’t as he was his own 1-man crew and it was already ~10PM!) Missing several items, boxes/ furniture damaged - because, again, due to the fact that the police had to be called because of his aggressive/shady behavior, I locked myself in the van and asked that he call out the inventory numbers as he was delivering the items into the dark storage unit- to which he replied “was not his job”.

So, I wasn’t even able to check my items until the next day in the light. Feel free to message me for additional proof of this company’s unprofessional behavior and shady business practices. I’m making sure there isn’t any legal issues with posting the videos to social media I took of the driver throwing my stuff around during delivery in the dark of night. I also have a police report upon request. Leon ** tried to threaten me saying I was extorting the company because I wanted my money back for all the issues mentioned above. He basically was telling me it was illegal and I’d get in trouble. This is wrong! I should be able to voice my concerns through all channels to ensure other customers don’t get ripped off.

Kenya, the account manager, was rude, unhelpful, and at times laughed at me on the phone. The entire staff at Colonial would literally ignore my phone calls, and all managers would coincidentally be “out of office” when I called. The end game for them was for Leon to offer me $500 in remunerations for all of the issues. To be clear, the table alone that is now worthless, is worth more than $500, Leon. I will be filing a small claims suit against this company. The amount I’m suing for will be include time lost, undue stress from aggressive/violent subcontractors, plane ticket rebook fees, missing items, and of course the entire payment made, given the level of service was atrocious. Please, folks. Don’t do this to yourself. Choose ANY other company.

Colonials reps came when they said they would be coming and everything went well in terms of that. The movers were fantastic, incredibly nice, helpful, and patient. I was very impressed with them. And I really needed their help. I packed boxes but I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. Still, they made up for it and were super about it. But the delivery was held up because of the storm and there was a problem with the communication. Despite that, I would highly recommend Colonial Van Lines. It was a very big move but the people who moved me were the best at what they did.

Original Review: March 22, 2019

Updated on 05/24/2021: In 2019 Colonial Van Lines moved my furniture from New Mexico to California. It turns out they subcontracted the moving to a less than qualified firm who did a terrible job moving my furniture. I naturally gave CVL a bad rating of only 1 star on this review site. CVL "blackmailed" me into increasing my rating to 3 stars or they would refuse to pay my claims against them. I am now giving them a true, very low 1 star rating, so that other people can be warned not to use this firm. In my opinion they were not honest through out, did a cruddy job moving, damaging my furniture and then "blackmailed" me to change my rating before they would pay a meager part of my claim. Don't deal with them. For my own legal protection against CVL, I state that everything in this review is in my opinion.

Original review: This is the worst moving experience I have ever had. 10 different people from Colonial contacted me, none of them ever providing any service. Then 3 days before the move they had another company, with a low DOT rating, do the move. Then 5 times they and the driver told me they would show up on Tuesday. Never did. Finally showed up on Wednesday after I complained. The movers asked me to sign blank pages. They refused to give me copies of any documents. They did not number my boxes. In my opinion their billing/charge numbers to me were fake or overstated, and I think they overcharged me significantly. They also damaged a number of my furniture. They also showed up in Budget Rent a Truck with boxes from Home Depot. I could have done all of that myself at 1/2 the price. Stay away from this firm. In my opinion they are really incompetent and I wonder about their honesty. Bad news. Stay away from them.

The moving coordinator did an amazing quality of work and gave a low estimation from a phone call. We were happy. We got a lot of interaction with them and the time and coordination were excellent. The contractor who picked up the material and drove it and shipped it was able to get into places that I couldn't imagine anybody else could get into with a big truck like that. The services and expectations that were set for me were accurate. I was amazed by the quality and quickness of the whole operation in Upstate New York. It happened to be a freezing cold day, but the work went quickly. It was clean and they did a good job.

The pick-up and delivery were very quick. I was prepared as I could have been. I used to have my company do my move always but I tried to coordinate this one on my own and the only difference this time was that Colonial is the van line I used. It was not bad but it was different for me as I had a different company that came to pick me up and drop me off, as opposed to who I actually had the initial contact with.

Also, I’ve never unpacked my bedroom furniture and to my surprise, I came back, walked them through and they unpacked my dressers with all of my lingerie. I was told that the furniture was too heavy when it is still fully loaded. I understood and respected that but I have never moved where it had to done so I was a little taken that the delivery person went through all of my personal belongings and boxed them up, which had me incur more boxes because I could have easily packed my own stuff. It was a little unnerving and I kinda felt like it was just to charge me for the extra boxes because it was not in my estimate. But he did not charge me so that was good customer service on his part.

My issues: They give you a two day window for pick up and promise to let you know 48-72 hours in advance. 72 hours came and went and then 48 and no word. We called and were told they'd get back to us on Monday, which was the day before the estimated pickup. We said hell no! So we pressed and they finally called back and said 9-11am today, Tuesday. It is now 2pm and still no van. The driver called a couple of hours ago to give a "Courtesy" call to let us know they were running three hours behind. At that time we expressed our concerns and he said they would make up the time. In order to stay on track, we moved everything from the second floor to the first. I MEAN EVERYTHING! We broke down all the beds, rolled up all the rugs, shrink wrapped all the antiques, etc. The driver also so said we were the only one on the truck and they may even be able to get there earlier than estimated.

Shortly after that call, we received a call from Colonial saying they were told by the agent we requested to be the only ones on the truck. No true. Everyone told us the entire time, based on the size of our load, we would most likely be the only ones on the truck. And the driver confirmed that. But now because we asked the driver about that they said, "We're going to have to revise the quote." Seriously? They just wanted to make MORE money off of us. Of course all this happens when there is no hope of us cancelling because we wouldn't get our deposit back and they know we would have to wait for another mover to reschedule. So they have us over the proverbial barrel and we have no choice but to continue.

Then to top it off they will only commit to a window of 5 days to deliver. How can you plan for a five day window? Another company came out to do an estimate and when it was Colonial's turn to do the a site inspection, they asked for the previous estimate, sent someone out and lo and behold they came up with the exact number of pounds. Exact! How in the hell does that happen? I'm sure they just used the previous inspection report. It's just been a nightmare.

Colonial Van Lines was by far, not the cheapest bid. They were probably at the top tier of the bids that I got. I’ve had all kinds of cautions about, “Oh, yeah, they’re gonna lowball you. They’re gonna add on a bunch of charges.” Well, I went with somebody that they said, “This probably will not go up because we have a good way of estimating it.” And they did really have the most professional way of estimating the load. But I still ended up having to pay more. There was a wrapping fee because of the weather, which was $600 more.

The packers were not the best I’ve ever seen. This is not my first rodeo. I’ve moved before, many times, and I’ve certainly seen anywhere from excellent care in packing and due diligence to watching these guys just stuff my fancy pictured framed wall decorations in a box with no wrapping. That’s not good. Even so, they were on time and worked very hard. The way they packed the truck was phenomenal and they literally had the truck stuffed full. It was amazing.

Their moving coordinator was wonderful. She called and checked in a lot. Then, the two gentlemen who delivered and unpacked were very professional and did a great job. I had a couple of glasses that were broken, but that was just in the packaging since I packed them up. But everything else was fine. Overall, Colonial was a great company to work with.

The other company I was considering was really pushy selling their services, but Colonial didn't do that. They were behaving more like it's a service to me and were informing me of things, so it felt more comfortable. During the move, I constantly received calls making sure that I knew where the movers were, when they'd get to the destination, and how long it would take. It was nice. But because the weather was bad, it wasn't always clear what was gonna happen. I was really happy with Colonial Van Lines, the team that moved my stuff, and the move itself.

We worked with a couple of different people but the actual coordinator that came with the team was the best. His name was Josh and he really sat with us while the team was getting things prepped and he made sure we were aware that he was gonna catalog everything. We were gonna go through them again once they had everything wrapped up and on the truck. When they got to our destination, we did the same process again to make sure everything was there. We really liked the attention to detail they provided us.

The estimate they gave us was a week. But our stuff were the only ones in the truck to drive straight to Texas so we beat the estimate by a week. They were pretty much here in two days. We had one or two little things that were cracked but that was no big deal. We packed the boxes and they were probably not packed too well. Everything was fine and there were no major damages. We’ll probably use Colonial again because we are gonna go back to Florida in two years.

The move went smoothly. The only thing I would complain about is better communications. When the guy was supposed to pick my furniture up, he called and said he had broken down in Georgia. I called the lady that was supposed to be my contact person, but she was off that day. I talked to somebody else, and they gave me a line of baloney because the truck driver told me he was broke down and waiting for a tow truck. Then the lady that I talked to only half an hour later said he was in the shop and the truck was almost fixed. The truck wasn't fixed, and it was two days later until I found out that they were not gonna be there on time. I already sold my home and I had to be out by a certain date.

So I finally called my original contact person, and I don't know what he did. All of a sudden, the driver had actually rented a truck in Georgia and drove over to my place, boarded my furniture, and hauled it back to Georgia to put on to his larger truck once it was fixed. Things worked out okay and there was no damage to my furniture.

The other thing was the driver, I think he was Ethiopian or something like that and he just barely spoke English. He speaks in English but he doesn't understand the subtleties in the English language. A lot is lost in translation so to speak. He didn’t know what I was saying and I didn't know what he was saying. Even though he didn't speak English that well, he was a very nice person. He was also honest and careful. Their estimate from Colonial Van Lines was honest. It was a little bit high, but I got a refund check from them. Everything was done honestly, so I can't complain.

During the moving, I had packed up a lot of other smaller items and the movers packed up the bigger items, like the couch, the TV, the plants, the pitchers, the mirrors, and some of the small items I didn't do. And they worked straight through without a break. I liked their work ethic. They worked very hard and long. The guys who packed up my furniture were the same guys who delivered it. I liked the fact that they were there to load and to unload so they knew exactly what would have to be done. Colonial did a wonderful job for me. I was put at ease because of their professionalism and they covered everything from A to Z. I was happy with the results that I received from them from the sales representative down to the movers.

I reached out to Colonial two and a half weeks before the actual move and scheduled it for the 31st. They wanted to push back the delivery date and the pick-up date several times. Luckily, that was fine with me. It was about a week later before the stuff was picked up then the delivery was about a week later than expected. But with the delay in pick-up, I was not surprised.

I opened the few boxes that had box damage so the delivery people could witness me going through them. I didn’t see any damage so we’re good. The coordinator was good and did a very good job with calling and keeping up, and making sure things were moving, which was great. It was good service. The quote was good initially, but it went up. I had no idea that I was gonna use up 38 wrapping blankets. I thought it was part of the initial service, but at the end of the day, once they wrap these, they tape them up so well. When you arrive for them to unwrap everything and return their blankets, it doesn’t make sense. Also, I thought I was gonna be within that 75-foot walk-in path. So, I broke the bank there a bit because I spent 400 bucks on blankets and an additional $250 because it was 400 feet of walking in.

The move cost me 3 grand and $600 for additional fees but it’s hard to pin this down to the exact number. There are always horror stories you hear where items take three weeks. A month later and you still don’t have your furniture but overall, it was competitive. There were some that were cheaper, but you pay for what you get in this industry with moving and you gotta be careful and pick your battles out there carefully when you move, especially state to state. From the minute that Colonial Van Lines quoted the move and followed up, they did everything they said they would. They came through and I’m not gonna hold that one small hiccup against them.

Colonial Van lines sent one driver to make the delivery to my mother's apartment. They had no intention of completing the task when they arrived, because one driver cannot carry 3 couches and other heavy items upstairs. The driver dropped all my mother's items on the apartment lawn and in the apartment complex parking lot blocking vehicles. Rasheeda emailed and called me to tell me that my mother spit on the driver and this is why he did this. She told me the driver spoke to the security guard on the premise. This is the same security guard we have a statement from stating that this did not occur. This security guard and other tenants witnessed the embarrassment my mother suffered, and they are staying in contact to make sure that something is done about this.

My mother's items was left outside overnight. She took items out the box and moved what she could up flights of stairs. She sustained back injury due to this. The next day it rained on her property. That morning my mother called Colonial Van lines crying. They sent a local driver to move the 3 couches upstairs. When Leon got there the couches were soaked. He took pictures and they apologized. They offered $100 for the pain and suffering. I have email communication, pictures, and audio of this company admitting fault. They also said this was not regular service and was incorrect. My question I pose to you is did it happen because of racism or ageism?

Original Review: March 4, 2019

You will lose so much sleep if you go through this company. Save yourself the stress and money. Worst experience of my life. While friendly on the phone, it feels like they are hiding things from you every step of the way. The original quote was within our range and that is why we agreed to go with this company. It was not told to us until AFTER the cancellation window was closed that it could increase drastically by weight and that our quote was not locked in.

We were assured it would probably not go up, because their estimated weight was for very high end heavy furniture and most of ours is light. But they still raised our quote by $1200 more, and then on day of pick up another $800 more. They also could not verify that we were not paying for the weight of the men moving the furniture or the gas in the vehicle. In the end, we still paid $1000 more than our budget.

It was NEVER mentioned to us that we would have to share a moving truck with different households. On the day of pick-up, we were informed by the driver that he would at least have 4 additional moves before dropping our belongings, maybe more. We lost a very heavy tote that had all my husbands belongings from Germany -- he was heartbroken. When we finally got it back, half of the stuff was missing. Amazing how it can be shipped on a cargo ship internationally just fine last year, but from PA to FL can't make it.

During the entire process, we were under the impression that the time frame between pick-up and dropping off our belongings would be in the range of 2-3 days. When trying to set up a pick-up date, the agent stated the drive to FL was only 2 days and we needed to make it down in time, which was sufficient for us. It was 7 days between pick-up and drop-off. Each day the belongings were not delivered, we were unable to work--further losing money. The actual sub contracted movers themselves were decent. Very little was broken and they did go out of their way many hours to retrieve the missing items and returned it a week later. It is unclear who took the items from the missing tote.

That driver/packer was so rude and careless. They have about 3-4 client moving items in the same truck, and he said he took our entire furniture out in between to drop some other client‘s items (when asked about the missing items). They pack stuff tightly in the truck and maybe that’s why all the furniture was damaged. In the end it was like there was no point moving them. I moved from NJ to NC.

I then received a phone call from the actual movers. It was a father and son team. They were fantastic. They told me that they just got the order and that this happens a lot with Colonial to where they don't get the order until the last minute. They told me that they would come tomorrow morning on the 13th at 7:00 AM. I told them that was fine, but I was a little upset because I had been waiting all day for them and it was no-show. They were there promptly the next morning at 7:00 AM to start. They worked very hard and very diligent all day long.

When I called Colonial and spoke to the coordinator, she said they gave me a window of two days. I told her that was correct, however, she called me and said that the movers would be here on the 12th. She kept going back in saying that they gave us a window. And then she said, "Yes, I did guarantee you they would be there on the 13th." She said that very word. I didn't prompt her for it, but she said it, and they have this on the recording.

I had to pay rent for another day to stay in my house because the coordinator had guaranteed me that the movers would be there on the 12th, but instead on the 13th. It had cost me money to stay in the other house. It's just a lot of trivial things that had to happen for delays. It was frustrating. When I talked to her again, she offered me $30. I said that I didn't want it and I just ended the conversation.

The guys packed my dishes and I was informed properly as far as pickup time and delivery. One thing I had a problem with on pickup and delivery was the second person could not help as he had surgery on his knee, so I ended up having only one mover. They were coming from California, so he had to notice that he wouldn't be able to work. It would've helped if their guy did the work in half a day, but it ended up being almost a whole day.

If I had wanted to hire an unknown, unrated mover I could have done that without their fee and been ahead by being able to directly call that company for updates rather than going through CVL’s operator calling 3rd party’s operator who calls the driver. They were asked specifically “I will see a Colonial truck with a Colonial crew?” and the answer was “Yes, our truck, our crew”. When they showed up to load a day late, it was a 3rd party who I couldn’t even find the name of on Google or Yelp. CVL had a credit card on file, but the driver that showed up insisted on a personal check.

They then took an extra 7 days beyond their first “confirmed delivery” call to actually deliver my goods, at which point I was required to pay cash or a cashier’s check. Every day that this 3rd party was late, Colonial called me with an update claiming just one more day due to maintenance, then mechanical problems, then crew problems, then just ‘late’. They refused to refund any portion of their fee, claiming that they had to be even later than they were and even them would only refund $30/day, not a refund based on my costs for their lateness. The third party truck also had no divider and the crew had no tools to do assembly of furniture.

This was the first time my wife had a professional mover. I had been in the military for years and I had moved from all over the country and overseas. I’ve always had good luck and I did have some stuff damaged in the past but I never saw a thing damaged in our move with Colonial Van Line. In fact, we do have a couple of the pads that belong to the company, which were around the coffee table that was delivered. They didn’t unwrap it, so we’ve got the pads that we need to send to them.

The delivery was great. Everything even the glass and fragile things that we had seemed well wrapped and intact. The delivery crew was nice. Even though the building that we moved into in New York has a lot of security and it was kinda hard to get some of the information in, it was nice that the delivery went as smoothly as it did and it got in on time. Overall, it had been an excellent experience with Colonial Van Lines.

Of course, Colonial isn't open on Sunday, so that was a cluster. Regardless, we got it figured out and the movers agreed to back on Monday 1/21. The packing and moving in California went really well, everyone was professional, pleasant, quick, yet careful. Great experience. We were told by Colonial that our items would be delivered by 2/1 "at the latest." That quoted date was an integral reason we went with Colonial in the first place. We were slated to start our new jobs on 2/4, so we needed everything to be in place. We were informed on 1/31 that our items would not arrive on time and that they "didn't know when they'd arrive, but most likely the following week." Absolutely NO ONE could give me a definitive date, they told me "between Tuesday and Thursday." That wasn't helpful! We had to postpone starting our jobs by a week, which resulted in lost wages for an entire week.

I wouldn't imagine how unprofessional it would have been to start our jobs and then tell them "I need to take a day off between Tuesday and Thursday, but I can't tell you when." Our items were finally delivered the following Thursday at 4 pm! We were told they'd arrive between 8-12 pm that day. But I don't know why I was surprised, Colonial can't keep a service agreement to their customers. And they called to make sure their payment on delivery cleared before they would come to my house with MY belongings that they had kept hostage. I had paid a hefty deposit, don't treat me like I'm going to rob Colonial of their remaining payment. It felt so shady. The delivery was a nightmare, with damaged walls and broken items, and just a rushed and unprofessional job. Granted, Colonial is not directly to blame for this part, because they contract their movers, they don't do their own work.

After all of this nightmare, I've been working with our Account Manager, which is a joke! We were trying to negotiate a refund to help offset our lost wages due to their gross under estimate on delivery. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, this has been the most unhelpful and unprofessional experience. Colonial takes absolutely no responsibility for their terrible service. After being dissatisfied with my Account Manager's lack of communication and lack of professionalism, I asked to deal directly with her supervisor because nobody has time for that! Lo and behold, the unprofessional demeanor starts from the top at this company. In summary, while their name may be fairly familiar in the relocation community, I will tell you that they use contractors for their work, they do not hold themselves accountable for anything they say/do, and you will inevitably be disappointed with the overall experience. Buyer beware!

Original Review: Feb. 28, 2019

I was moving from Long Island to Colorado. I called Colonial and their guy was friendly and nice. He quoted me a good price and everything went well. But I didn’t really hear from him. I then had to reset my date and that worked well. It was fine working with Colonial on the phone but once they showed up to get my furniture, everything went downhill. They came in, looked through everything, and said their price was wrong. They had to requote me. They were already at my house picking my stuff up and I couldn't really tell them no. They ended up quoting me an extra $4,200 more. There were also little add-on things they started doing that they didn't tell me ahead of time. I went from supposedly paying 2,800 to 6,200.

When they moved my stuff, not only did they damage all of my furniture, they also damaged my physical house. Also, once I had my stuff, nobody called me to see how the move was so I called them. Every time I called them, no one ever answered. It always went to voicemail. They called me to tell me my stuff was being delivered but I already had it, so what was actually being delivered and what they were coordinating were two different things.

I told their rep I was extremely unhappy and that I would be filing a claim against them. The lady told me to get it all together as soon as possible so they could get on top of it. But the thing is I need time to unpack and see what’s damaged. They are trying to rush the process which I feel they shouldn't. If I find one piece of furniture damaged, I’d rather see everything that is damaged. Nobody has called me back to find out what’s going on with my claim or what I’m doing. I didn't have a good experience and I’m in the process of filing a claim against Colonial. I’m getting the paperwork and the pictures together to do so. I would never recommend them.

I also have a file cabinet, an armoire and a bed with rails damaged. I have missing stemware and I have damage to my walls. Their staff cubed everything and moved it within very securely, so I'm shocked that the stemware is missing. My dad gave me a complete set. Prior to moving, the stemware was in the cabinet which required two shelves. As it is now, it doesn't require two shelves, so I know it's not just that I might have forgotten. Something happened to those pieces. It's a shame on what broke and at the same time, the things that weren't broke surprised me. I have a lot of figurines and glassware, and those things were fine. So, it just goes to show they packed well. The damage either occurred going there or coming back or when unloading.

I had to file a claim and it took a while to get all the boxes up because you have to open everything before you can file. Then, they said they are waiting on the paperwork from the people who physically did it here in California. I'm waiting for them to get everything together and the reimbursement for the damages and the breakage. The move didn’t work out so well but I would use Colonial Van Lines again and I would recommend them.

Original Review: Feb. 26, 2019

We were left with a condo with furniture in it and we had to fly to the city to see what was there to empty out the residence and move it back to our hometown. At that time, we did not have much notice. I called around and Colonial Van Lines was able to do it with very little notice and my experience with them just added to the already difficult experience. When they had the truck completely loaded, they told me that it was gonna be about $1,400 more than what I was prepared for.

The person that I dealt with on the phone was friendly enough. Also, the two gentlemen that were down there were fine but they were not very professional. They left tons and tons of trash behind including boxes, paper, and plastic they didn't use. There was crap laying everywhere throughout the condo. They were subcontractors and I expected somebody with trucks from Colonial, not the local rental place. Overall, I did not have a good experience with Colonial. It was one I hope to never repeat.

However, they went through a third-party vendor, which was not good. They contracted some local guys for the truck and they picked up and delivered. It would be better if Colonial would maintain their own shipping house, persons, and trucks and handle things from their end. I had household items and a car delivered and Colonial was awesome. The car was good, however, I missed two boxes for my household items. I've been following up for a week and I've emailed and called back Colonial so many times, but nobody is responding. Still, I would recommend Colonial to a friend. I like the way they are taking care of shipping things and giving progress for each and every step-by-step process.

Original Review: Feb. 25, 2019

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT MOVE WITH THIS UNETHICAL COMPANY. I was initially quoted $2500 and was ensured it would not go up or "hardly" go up. I even expressed my concerns of a bait and switch company and that is exactly what this company does. They rope you in with your deposit on the "low budget" quote they give you, and then it magically doubles at the end of the move. This is a pitiful company with 0 value in ethics or morals. I could have hired movers to BOX EVERYTHING AND move it for the same price they billed me, but I was trying to save money.

I'm 9 months pregnant moving which is the ONLY reason I hired movers to begin with. My 60 year old parents came out to help me move. Then the movers showed up 3 hours late not just on the first day but on the second day as well. Because I was so stressed about the move my 60 year old parents began carrying boxes up and down the stairs so that the movers would get everything done on time. I didn't see a price reduction for their terrible service. THEY WERE THREE HOURS LATE... TWICE! I was also told it would be a semi truck transporting my goods and it was not, it was two budget rental trucks. I think this company is totally unethical and I have nothing but regrets choosing to work with this horrible company. I cannot stress enough for you not to use this company. They are a classic bait and switch company.

Colonial did not do the actual move itself. They had some contractor do the move with the truck and it was the worst move I ever had in my life. They moved the items okay but it was just the way that they packed stuff. There were some things that weren't packed that should have been packed and there were some things that should have been taken care of a little differently that wasn't. We had lampshades and normally, you would put them in boxes that don't get crushed or damaged. However, we had lampshades not packed that were just sitting on the top of something else. The guys they had to do the move were freaking terrible. I wouldn't use Colonial again but if they would have done the move themselves, I might.

I understand that they got a schedule to keep but it really bothered me that if my son wasn’t there then I wouldn’t have known what we would have done. There was no way I could move the next day. It was so unfair and unreasonable. I also talked to somebody and she said that they were gonna send me a gift card because I talked to her about it but we never got it. I figured that maybe we were just talking and they really weren’t doing that. Other than that, everything went so good from the time I first contacted them in September 'til we made the move in January. The driver and the assistant, Jose and Jamal, were great. They worked very hard because they had a lot to move and we were in an apartment building. Everything was great up 'til the end and Colonial is a good company.

The only issue that we had was that they determined from pictures that there was a low hanging tree so their truck wouldn’t get through. They said they were gonna need a shuttle. They were to take our furniture off of the original truck and put it on to a smaller truck. I told them that that was not going to be the case and that they must have been looking at old pictures because 15 trees had been resolved.

They charged us $400 for the shuttle at the end. I've been calling them for almost two months now trying to get our money back. They would say they were gonna take care of it then a week would go by and nothing would happen so I would call again. They finally relented and said that they were going to give us the money but it took about 10 calls from me. I had to be very persistent.

My husband is staying in California and I live here in Washington. The company sent us a form that we both had to fill out, to sign. I told them they need to send him a separate one because we're not in the same place. It ended up that they did not send him one too, that they only sent it to me. I had to spend an awful lot of time on trying to resolve the $400 issue for a shuttle that they said that we received but did not. Still, I was satisfied with the actual logistics of the move. The movers themselves were good and they worked very hard.

During pick-up and delivery, though, it wasn't what I had expected it to be. It was awkward with the movers there and I wasn't sure where I was supposed to be or what I was supposed to do - like if I was supposed to hang around and watch them. I also felt awkward because they asked me to give a survey of how they did. I felt compelled to put a good report because they had all my stuff.

The movers were friendly and great. I just felt like they were in a hurry and they were really tired when they got there. They had been delayed by a few days. And then, I was watching them and one of the guys got up to the top the ramp and some of the boxes fell off on to the ground. But I didn't wanna tell on them. I know accidents happen and nothing was damaged. The only thing was, the movers were walking in and out a lot and there was a lot of rocks carried in. It took me a little while to get all the rocks out. I'm not sure if they are supposed to lay down plastic and then bring it in if the weather is supposed to be bad. But no biggie. I was just really happy to get my stuff.

The pickup and delivery crew were really professional and quick too. They wrapped everything up. They numbered everything and put a sticker on to make sure they didn't forget anything. They let me know the whole process of everything they had to do as far as getting the weights, and where they were going to weigh the van before and after they picked up my furniture and everything. They were really organized. I didn't have any issues keeping track of what was going on. They kept me informed about everything.

So, it was actually a little later than we thought. It was in the timeframe, but she had called me and said, "It'll be there Monday." So, we got everything ready on Monday, and then somebody else called back and said, "No, we're not coming Monday." So, her information was so bad and not accurate. Her being able to tell me what was really going on was a real disappointment after the way Chad followed up with everything. It was a Friday or something when they finally showed up. She didn’t follow through. She says, "I call you." No call. "I'll send you an email." No email. So, I didn’t appreciate her at all. It's shame because they did a good job on the move. The goods came. Nothing was broken or anything damaged. They came in and did a good job of putting everything into the house. They did a great job in packing everything up and moving out of the house. So, from that standpoint, will highly recommend Colonial Van Lines.