Colonial Van Lines Reviews

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.

The only thing about the entire move that was upsetting was we were way off because I ended up paying about a third more than I expected to pay. It would have been much better if they had sent somebody out. A couple companies do send somebody out, and it's a disservice when they don't because there were a few.small things that I had. The extra cost was by weight and I get that. But then, when all is said and done, when they calculated the weights and they showed me the receipts, they didn't tell me how much gas was in the truck so it was a questionable variable right there and I'm not too happy about that. Other than that, Colonial seems like a good company and I'd still recommend them with a caveat that people need to make sure that they've got the proper quote.

I was a very complicated customer and the people at Colonial were great. No one ever even implied a tone of, “Oh, this girl is so crazy.” They were even super sweet. I had three account managers because I was a customer for such a long time. There was a good amount of communication between them. I never felt like I was starting from scratch. In fact, they always proactively do switches. They would send me an email and say, “Hi, I’m your new account manager. These are my hours. This is my contact information. This is my extension. I’m gonna call you in the next few days to introduce myself.” There was good relationship all around. I was a first time user of a moving company, it was an intimidating process, and the people at Colonial put me at ease at each stage of the process.

They said that the driver knew exactly of the delivery date. I asked to be contacted by the driver but I never heard anything from the driver. It was very frustrating. There was no fixed date until the very end. I have to prepare my home for delivery but it was very hard for me to know when should I expect them. In the end, it happened two weeks past the due time. It was still a good experience, overall, and the price Colonial Van Lines gave me was quite accurate but they have a problem with getting the exact delivery date.

Everything that the company represented was exactly what I was looking for. I’ve traveled, made several cross-country moves and this was the best experience I've had by far. The service was good. In fact, I was under the estimated weight load and I got my money back. The cost was a bit more than what I expected but it was well worth it and I would do it again.

My only issue was the day they said they were gonna call me when they were an hour out, they didn't. That would have been very helpful. All of a sudden, I looked outside and their crew was there. Still, their guy was willing to wait until I got everything. In the beginning, the moving crew wanted to know exactly what was in my box. At that point, I haven't even brought the box yet. I told them that I'll have about 10 boxes, but I can't tell them what was in them. They were a little bit quicker than I was organized, but it worked out. I would recommend them.

The pickup was on a Monday, but I didn’t hear anything from them at all until I finally talked to Colonial and told them how unprofessional it was and how it was not the way. They found out from the dispatch people that the delivery was set up for the next day. I was kinda left in the dark about it all. If they had told me they had to go to Dallas, that would have been fine and I could plan accordingly. But they told me nothing. They said, “We just can’t estimate at all.” They said they were gonna call me 24 hours in advance, but that did not happen. The financial guy called to try to make the last collection from the Colonial side and I told him my frustration with that. He promptly got on the phone and found out that it was gonna be the next day, so I was happy about that. The cost that I paid for was fair.

The movers were several hours late for pick-up and was a battle to hear from the movers for ETA. At drop-off, the driver called me saying that he was on a tight schedule and was going to be arriving at 5 pm. I made arrangements to ensure I would be home for the drop-off and at 6 pm, they said they were 2 hours away. At 8 pm, they said they would not make it in time and they will instead be arriving at 9 am. The office at CLV was not even aware that the movers were coming on that day. Anyway, I again made arrangements to be there for the movers and they did not show up until noon.

Lastly, my furniture arrived damaged. I was counting on this company to communicate honestly and to help me successfully move to my new home. Their tardiness cost me greatly. The office and the movers communicate poorly. When I voiced my disappointment to the mover at the time of drop-off, he told me that dissatisfaction is something he hears often from customers and that he doesn't work for CVL! CVL contracts their movers and simply put "the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing". It is an absolute shame the experience was so terrible. I have 3 family members looking to move within the next year and unfortunately I can't recommend Colonial Van Lines.

When they arrived at the destination, it wasn’t the same truck, which meant they had to take everything out and put it back in another truck. I didn’t have a place to put it, so I've put it in a storage. So moving it and putting inside the storage, the furniture was moved three times. I wasn’t happy with that because that will be hard on my furniture. I wasn't present when they've put everything inside the storage so I don't know the condition of my couches. When I got there, the storage was still open, and I saw my couches dirty. Keep in mind that they're brand new couches.

I pointed out to the mover that the couches were dirty and he said, “That was like that in the house.” I said, “No. My house was nice and clean. It's well vacuumed. I keep my house well kept. And they were clean when you moved out of my house, but they arrived dirty. And I wasn’t happy about that.” They should have a well-kept truck because they're moving people’s property, and it should be nice and kept clean. It had stuff like they were doing some kind of construction work.

Colonial themselves didn't actually do the move. Even though I hired them almost 40 days before the move, they had another company come out and do it. The first company was great but because of the weight differential, not everything would fit on the first truck. They also told me the day before they came out, they were sending a semi, so they'd have plenty of space but they ended up sending out a 24-foot truck which could only fit about 70% of our stuff. So, then we had to meet the movers and have my mother-in-law stay, so she could wait for the next group of movers to come. They came a few days later and then we had our stuff a week after the first load was dropped off.

We had taken the doors off our large refrigerator to get it out of the house and one of the doors was dinged up and scratched up during the move. But other than that, the crew themselves were great. They were very nice and they were as careful as they could be with our stuff. We were doing a 17,000-pound service and some things are bound to hit and get scratched or dinged, so I was not too worried about it.

Colonial did a bad job in preparing me for what to expect though. They told us that they were packing everything but we ended up doing the packing. If I had a fake tree or a small end table, I'm not putting it in a box and I don't think about that. But Colonial told me that all loose items are needed to be packed in a box. No one even asked me if this was my first time moving. When we got on the phone with them about the truck, and they weren't very helpful during the time. They just told me to let the movers get everything on and see what they could do later. I was in the middle of moving all my stuff from one place to another and they were telling me to just wait. That was not what I wanted to hear.

They should've had somebody come out and assess everything and give us a better idea of what they felt we should be estimating and what kind of truck we should have. Then when we talked to them the day up, they told us that we would have to pay for that service. Number one, it wasn't even offered to me and number two, no one ever brought that up. I would've paid extra to make sure that if I had known how important that was at that time. It would just have been a lot nicer if everything could have been all at the same time, one move. One of Colonial’s supervisors ended up calling me a couple of days later and talked to me about the whole situation which made me feel better. It made me feel that they actually cared but I was really pissed off the whole time and so was my wife.

With the help of the staff at Colonial, I was very prepared during the pick-up and delivery of my stuff. The expectations set by the rep were off but it was my fault. I estimated 30 boxes, and it turned out to be 40 something boxes, which was a lot more than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, the moving crew was very good. They came in within 15 minutes when they said they would be there. At the day that they delivered the stuff, they were here again within 15 or 30-minute timeframe of when they said they would be here. Colonial Van Lines was very good and I would recommend them.

However, it was frustrating that she wasn't able to get the movers to show up and leave on time. They were a day and a half late and then took three to four hours to get everything done, so I missed a day of work on the other side of my trip. Then, they showed up six days after schedule and just kept pushing it. The movers themselves were efficient although I had a couple of things damaged on the back ends which were small and I didn't really wanna deal with it. They also kept trying to stack on extra fees that I hadn't agreed to.

They also did a great job wrapping things and not one thing was broken in either job when it arrived. All the groups of people were very polite and very business-like. They did a great job putting things back together for us, although communication was a little hard with R&R because they were not 24/7, so sometimes, I had to wait or email to get a hold of them. Through Colonial, however, I could usually get a hold of them a lot faster, even though there was really no reason, just estimates of when they might be here. The drivers were good about calling and giving us an estimate when they would be here. For the small loads, Colonial was a good company to go with and it worked well.

It was a long move from Florida to Maryland, but the thing that was really special and stood out was they had packing services too. That was very nice and it wasn't that much of an additional cost, so I had them do the packing as well. The setup was great although it was kind of difficult because there were so many different people to touch points with. We had one person who initiated the quote, and then another person who helped me in between the move and the actual move date. One person was my contact for the move date as well as the mover, and then there were the budgeting people. It got confusing. If I had questions, I wasn't sure who to reach out to. Although Colonial was always good about putting me in contact with the correct person, having a main contact person from beginning to end would be very helpful so nothing gets missed through the cracks.

There were times when tensions got a little high, but that was just the stress of moving. The date for my move got pushed back because their truck was not working, and then I had requested a smaller truck because one, I didn't have a lot of stuff, and two, I wasn't sure if they would be able to fit in certain areas for where I was moving. But they didn't send the correct size of the truck, so they had issues getting into certain spaces for the move. The services were very accurate, nevertheless, and the move was very easy and fast. The people who had packed up my stuff did a really great job. I have some furniture that is kind of antique, and they were careful with it. Overall, it was a very efficient experience for a pretty decent price, so definitely, I would recommend Colonial.

They also wanted to move the delivery window being that they had moved the pickup date. It was stressful because I told them specifically that when they pick up the stuff, I wouldn't be in Oregon yet because I would be in Colorado. I was flying the next two days to Oregon to find an apartment. But they wanted to show up a day before, which gave me 24 hours to find a place, which was impossible. They showed up literally on the first day of the window, so I had 48 hours to find an apartment. I asked Donna if we could figure something out, like move the date, but they were having none of it and they said they would be there at 10:00 AM on Thursday. So I flew into Oregon on Tuesday, and I had to sign the lease on Wednesday night.

I feel like Colonial contracts people out and they just organize the move, but they’re not the people that actually do the move. I’m pretty sure that in my case, they set everything up and then they passed it on to a local Colorado company that they hired that gets the move done. I went through Colonial to move my stuff, and these guys from Morales Movers showed up at my door. I was expecting a Colonial Van Line van or truck to come, but then this random budget truck came with this random guy in there. The guy barely spoke English. Maybe Colonial could contract out to a better company or proof the people they hire.

I wish the moving guy was a bit more equipped to be able to better care of my furniture because ultimately, you’re asked to buy insurance or not buy insurance. Obviously, the chances that something is gonna happen to your stuff is minimal, in a sense, so you don’t buy insurance. It’s like 60 cents per pound or per article, and it's kinda weird. So, if I lose a big table, or I get a scratch up on my table, even if it’s a 100-pound table, I'll get $6. It’s just like you don’t wanna buy the insurance. It's not really worth it. Still, overall, as far as the experience from Colonial per se and the organization of things, I’ll use their service again.

Original Review: Jan. 30, 2019

Everyone at Colonial was very polite and kind at the beginning. They wanted to give me good service, and Veronica, the manager, gave me a really good price. I said I wanna move on January 2nd. I could have the movers come on the 2nd, have the cleaning lady come on the 3rd and then have my car shipped either the 2nd or the 3rd, so nothing was stressful. But she originally said the move would be on the 2nd or the 3rd. Looking back, my impression is that all along it was the 3rd but to get my business, I was told that it would be on the 2nd.

I lived in Florida, and on the very last week of December, when I had everything in order for the move, Colonial called and told me that the movers said they could not move me on the 2nd and it had to be the 3rd. But I was leaving at 12 noon on the 3rd to go to Tampa airport because I was flying out that afternoon. They said the movers would come early on the 3rd, and I said okay. As time went on, however, something came up about my car and it was not gonna be transported as planned. The guy was supposed to get it before I left but he was not coming until after that. So, I had to get a paper through my email from Colonial and printed it out and signed as my sister, who lived in the next apartment building in Florida to be able to sign for the car. Then the car man was a day late, and it was a hassle for my sister.

I talked to so many people on the phone, and a service person said that she would be with me when the movers come. She would call me while the movers are with me on the truck, to see if there is anything going on. My husband now, who was my fiancé then, was living in Shreveport, Louisiana and I was staying there until my furniture arrived in Bossier City. I got a call that the movers will be there on Sunday and I planned to be there. Then I got a call saying the movers are gonna be here Saturday afternoon instead. But he had a doctor's appointment and we had other things planned, so we had to cancel that and be here with the movers. Then when the movers came, nobody called me to be with me, so I called Colonial and tried to get in touch with somebody because here I had to sign the final bill. But being that it was a Saturday afternoon and Colonial’s office was closed, nobody was there to help me although I was told they would.

The service person that I talked to before said that when the movers come and deliver my furniture in Louisiana, she would be calling me. She told me not to sign anything with the movers until I talk with her. However, none of the things that she said would happen, happened. The movers got finished and got everything, and they charged me $1,000 more than they estimated. And because I had to leave in 10 minutes and they had my furniture, I signed.

As for the first company that Colonial dealt with to transport my car, their truck broke down and Colonial had to get another company. At first, I could not have the phone number of the driver that's bringing my car but I was told that they were gonna be there between 9:00 and 6 o'clock. We drove for about 30 minutes from Shreveport to Bossier City, and we waited from 9:00 to 7:00, but the driver didn't show up. So we called Colonial’s office at 9:00 o'clock in the morning the next day, and the rep told us that she just talked to the driver and he would be here by 3:30 that second day. I asked them to give me the driver's name and phone number, and they did. In case he didn't show up, it'd be good for me to call him because we had to go back to Shreveport.

We waited until 3:30 for my car to be delivered, but the driver couldn’t make it. My husband talked to him and he said he would be there between 8:30 and 9:00 that evening instead. But then the driver said he would rather deliver my car the next morning at 9:30. That way, it would be daytime and we could see if there were scratches. The bottom line was there was not enough communication. I was left on my own when the movers in Florida picked up my furniture. When they moved my furniture here, I had nobody to talk to and say that they were charging me too much. But once my husband got to talk to the driver the next day, he was the nicest guy. The car was in great shape and I was so happy that finally that was all over with.

There were a few things that were broken when our furniture was delivered, but I didn't want the hassle of going through a report. We just hired a handyman to fix them. It wasn't that much money anyway, and the movers were very nice. But they had driven through the night so they were tired. They had talked to Colonial Van Lines that I had complained that it was too much money and about the packing, so they took a bit of money off for the boxes. My husband said Colonial should compensate me for the inconvenience and the stress, and for not communicating. At this point, I'm not gonna recommend them but if I could get something back, that would make me happy.

My daughter was moving from Philadelphia to California. It was just a one bedroom apartment to a one bedroom apartment. Everything was already in a storage locker, so moving everything out didn't take a lot of time. I sent pictures of the storage locker from which they estimated. Everything was going to be subject to weighing once the truck is loaded, but we didn't go with that option. It was kind of like the toss of a coin as to whether that was going to change the price significantly. So, when they picked it up, I told them to just go with the estimated amount. I handled the pick-up and my daughter was already in California. As far as the delivery, it ended up coming together in unlimited number of days because she moved to a new apartment. There was an address change at the last minute, and we delayed the delivery. When we got that resolved, however, the actual delivery was made in a very acceptable amount of time.

I have zero regrets of making that decision to go with Colonial as far as their responsiveness, responsibility and care. Everybody I spoke to in the organization said that they take things very seriously because they take their reputation very seriously. Everybody was really nice, and 98% of the communications were really beneficial. There were times when there were some unknown and gaps in follow up, but it wasn't anything serious. Overall, if I had to do it over again, I would skip wasting my time researching 10 different companies, and I would just call Colonial again. Those are good words of satisfaction. The service wasn't perfection, but it was definitely excellent.

The move was from Nashville, Tennessee to Denver, Colorado and it was a little difficult because it was my daughter moving. It was apartment to apartment, so it made it hard for the truck, but everything worked out. I got a lot of calls before the move to confirm stuff and it was repetitious. I was grateful, though, that there was that thing, but it was a little overkill. We were very prepared for the movers when they arrived. However, their communication was weak. They gave me estimated times, but those times came and went and I had to contact them to get new times. That was the most frustrating thing.

We were told somebody was gonna be there at 11:00, but I still hadn't heard from them at 12:00. I called and they said, "It'll be two more hours." They finally arrived at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. They need to do a better job. If they are gonna tell somebody the time, they have to be really sure. My whole day was shot. I could’ve done a lot of other things during the day, getting prepared for the move and doing a lot of things. It was really a wasted day and that was my biggest complaint. But once they got there, they were good and quick. They were very friendly and very professional, and they packed everything really well. They did a great job with that.

They also helped me do a couple of additional boxes I hadn’t anticipated and told me they could handle it for me. The move took about two and a half weeks from beginning to end as they had to go cross countries. They showed up within the window Colonial advertised. It was a day earlier than they said they would, which worked out even better. The unloading was quick and efficient. It took two hours and I got all my stuff, but there was a box of somebody else’s goods. I reported that and no one has gotten back to me on that issue. That aside, I experienced really good customer service and professionalism and I would go with them again.

The moving crew were really nice guys. My one recommendation would be, when you're in a high-rise condo where there are really defined windows for moving, that you get there on time. I don't think that was their fault. They were coming from another job and they were probably an hour and something late but it was still within the window that they gave us for timeframe. But it chewed into the evening. If it was a building where I didn't know all the maintenance people, I probably would have gotten fined because we didn't get out of there until 9 o'clock at night. That's something that might cause issues with other the people. But they were good guys overall. They were careful. They passed everything and were friendly. They did a real good job.

Colonial Van Lines didn’t offer me anything. They said, “Oh, normally, we give you $30 a day.” I said, “No. I thought I get 50 out of them at Oregon.” They should give me at least 500 back because I was moving from California to Texas and it was not a local move. They were not helpful and they didn’t care. I had to redo all my plans. I had people that I was flying back. They were gonna help us move out. Their schedules would’ve changed and I had a chance of losing all my help because Colonial decided an hour before that I wasn’t gonna get my truck as scheduled. They didn't stay behind what they promised. They said something about a house that didn’t close on time. They went somewhere else and they were gonna go back and get those people in Arizona because the house wasn’t ready to move. They should’ve put it at the end of the line. If it wasn’t ready, then they should move on.

The only good thing on the whole move was that the agents they sent were really good. They really worked hard, while Colonial didn’t do a thing to help me. The guys that loaded my furniture were very helpful and very nice. They did everything and bent their backs over. They were awesome. However, they were contracted and they had nothing to do with Colonial Van Lines. Had I known what I’ve known, I would fly past Colonial and call them directly. I got nothing but bad words for Colonial and they know it. I’ve ripped them more than once when they called. I wouldn’t go back with them.

The experience was awful and it was a nightmare. I have five parrots and two cats. I already had people helping and we had to drive all the way straight through 1,400 miles. I had all that arranged ahead of time and coordinated that once the furniture left, we were gonna give it a day and get out the next day, but Colonial put that drive in jeopardy because they decided to move my date. Everything went as planned, nonetheless, and it turned out okay.

I moved from CA to WA ( job ID: **, you should know who I am!) at the end of last year, and here are my issues: Why was I not made aware that we can do cubic feet vs weight? One of the driver told me so, and he said he would have suggested that, considering how many heavy items we had, it would have been cheaper for us. So I was presented with one option - the most expensive and profitable for the company! Also, I was sold on the idea that Colonial Van Lines, unlike some cheaper alternatives do not outsource the delivery trucks. Our move was outsourced, although the company was great, it was a complete lie that they do not do that.

The movers were about the most pleasant experience out of the entire process. Minus the broken items, and trash they left on the drop off location, everything else was fine. I am not sure why we were left with an account manager that was off during our move, so I was left dealing with rude customer service, and dispatchers to communicate with me.

Here is my list of complaints: 1. I scheduled my move and paid deposit about a month before it, for a specific date. The week of my move the account manager tells me it may not happen on Friday, 12/28, but the next day. Why was not aware from the start that this is a possibility? I would have scheduled my move differently, there were specific reasons we scheduled it for that Friday.

2. That Friday I spoke with the account manager, who said the driver will be calling me. That never happened, and I was told the driver will be over between 10am-2pm the next morning, on Saturday. The next morning, with still no call from the driver by 10 am, I called customer service. They called me back, saying that the driver will be coming between 12pm-3pm. I spoke with a super rude lady on customer service (Stephanie), who condescendingly kept saying she can't give me the driver's number. At the same time the driver called, and said they will be coming over between 4-4:30. And I can call him at any time if there were issues. Finally, at almost 5pm the drivers finally came, and they were loading until after 9pm.

3. We had to be up all night cleaning the apartment, and didn't leave until 2pm the following day, because the move got pushed so late. We planned on leaving that Saturday, and arriving on Sunday. I was supposed to be at work on Monday, 12/31, but I had to take a day off, and inconvenience my entire work team, because we had to be on the road driving, we needed to vacate the apartment. 4. The movers called that they will deliver on 1/2, which again got pushed the next day. It would have been nice for them to have clear picture of where they need to be when, so they don't give us the incorrect dates.

If I were to do it all over again, I would have done it myself, or hire someone else. Thanks to Colonial Van Lines, I will probably never hire movers again. I went with you, Colonial Van Lines, because of reputation. I accepted the fact that you are more expensive, but I rather pay, and have peace of mind that a reputable company is helping me out, than to worry about it. And that didn't happened. I worried, nothing was on schedule, it was way too expensive, a piece of really expensive equipment arrived broken, and it's a complete joke that you are giving me $0.60 per pound on a $3k canvas printer.

I paid for a shuttle service and I requested my money back. I was told that since there was a 36ft truck that came to pick up my stuff (and this is the shuttle), and not the 18 wheeler initially schedule, I will not get my money back, because "if there was the 18 wheeler to be used, I would have needed that". Are you serious? So, I essentially paid for both, without the need for one of them.

I reached out several times after the move with my complaints to my account manager and various other people involved in my move. I specifically asked to have a call scheduled on a set time, since I started to receive calls through the workday. That never happened, people were calling whenever it was convenient for them. I was told by couple of people that I won't get my money back because of the ridiculous excuse mentioned above, the last lady I spoke to I told that she is upsetting me, and all she said is "We won't bother you anymore". So all communications stopped. I don't know what's your policy at resolving customer issues, it seems to be "I will just argue with them until they get upset, and then will drop them". Thank you for ruining my first moving experience, Colonial Van Lines!

The driver, Anthony, was fantastic and I liked his personality. He also knew what he was doing. He wrapped the furniture in ways I’d never seen before. The productivity of the team was decent as well, but the ones in Florida were better than the ones I had back in Kentucky. In Kentucky, the driver ended up having to try and find a crew. If it was just Anthony doing all of it, he could have probably done it faster. I had some damages, but it was a long distance move so it’s expected. I called Colonial about it and they immediately sent me a claim form. I’m in the process of filling that out and sending it in. I would recommend Colonial Van Lines for sure.

I received my stuff on December 15 and since then, my husband and I have been in contact with Colonial Van Lines. We were dealing with them and they agreed to pay a compensation but it was only half of the amount we have lost. The first serious call I have received was a few days after my husband put a review on Yelp but before that, no one took this thing seriously.

My furniture not only ended up coming late (it took about a month for my furniture to arrive), but parts Missing as well as almost every large piece was Damaged (dents, rubbed areas as well as cracks). This happened late last year and because of the missing furniture I do not have a bed to sleep on - just a mattress with a headboard laying up against the wall...and my furniture is not even 2 years old. I am not a fan or writing negative reviews, but this experience needed to be shared. Hopefully this will direct other potential customers to better decision making (unlike myself) as well as push this company to do better.

Original Review: Jan. 17, 2019

I originally found Colonial Van Lines online while researching other options. Upon showing interest I was hounded day after day to chose them to be my movers. I explained that my company was moving me so I would need time to set up arrangements as well as explore other options but I was consistently contacted via email and phone. I eventually settled with Colonial and was given a quote of about $2600 to move from Virginia to Massachusetts, which seemed like a good deal. I talked to multiple people and told them the items that I had and they said they would send an 18 wheeler to my location and to make sure there was enough room to get an 18 wheeler in, to which I said no problem. I was told someone would contact me during the time the movers came and would ensure that everything was going smoothly.

Moving day came and instead of an 18 wheeler 2 vans showed up. Needless to say they could not fit all of my items and the driver suggested leaving behind "anything I didn't need", which was not an option, or find a way to move it myself. I had to at the last minute find a Uhaul and bring many of my items myself, in which case if I had to do that, why was I paying for movers? Upon delivery items were broken and their $2600 estimate turned into almost $7,000. Which through my company for a loop and caused a whole lot of frustration on their end. I talked to a representative at Colonial and told them that there were broken items, no one contacted me during my move to see how things were, and how I had to rent a Uhaul because they sent 2 vans instead of the 18 wheeler they had promised me they would send.

Nothing was really said about my broken items, I was told no one is in the office on Sundays, thus no call (which was not explained to me when they were attempting to get my business), and in terms of the Uhaul they said no one told me to get a Uhaul so that was a decision that I made on my own. I explained that the driver that they contracted did tell me to get a Uhaul and not sending the appropriate vehicle caused me to have to go that route. After all of the hassle that was caused I asked for the $500 expense for the Uhaul be reimbursed to me and I was told no. Overall an awful experience and I would suggest anyone looking to move to find another option. There are other similar reviews out there about them, and I wish I had seen them before I used them.

The account manager would call every once in a while. He called about two days after I moved and he wanted to set up for the arrival of my stuff. I said, “Well, they got here two days ago.” He was okay. He wasn't really on top of it. But I had no problems with the workers at all. I wish they had said something about the thing that have been broken but they were fine, so I would use them again.

Once they got the deal, they weren’t providing any additional information. So, we were unhappy about that. It took two weeks before the crates even left California after they picked it up and they were two days late in delivering it. As soon as I found out that the merchandise took two weeks to leave, I told them that if I had known that, I would not have gone with their service. Other than that, the crew who did the work was very good. They were very professional and customer service oriented. They knew what they were doing.

When they got back with my goods, I watched them open the back of the U-Haul and all of my stuff was flipped over, thrown on top of each other and just piled up, not strapped down or anything! I had several very expensive pieces damaged as well as damage to my property. They also continually stacked boxes labeled “heavy” on top of tiny boxes. They also continually brought items into my home that weren’t mine. Absolutely terrible. No one calls me back, no one does what they say—worst company ever

The contractor had damaged the headboard of one of my beds and lost all the hardware to put it together so I can't even put that together. They also lost a box. Luckily, it was only one but it had all my dresses. A lot of my work shoes are missing too. They also couldn’t even put the entertainment center together. The guy tried but they had a scheduled time and he said that was it. That was all the time he could do. He told me I would have to file a claim, which I did but I don't know what's happening. Colonial said they would reimburse but by way that they're not gonna pay for any of the stuff. But I still have a room full of stuff that I gotta get rid of and I'll go buy new stuff. So I'm really disappointed with that portion because it's gonna cost me some money that I really wasn’t prepared to do. I wouldn’t have paid to have all that stuff moved. I would have just sold the stuff when I was out there.

Everything was great with Colonial. The only downside with them was that for the pickup status and the delivery updates, they kept handing it off to someone else in the company. They kept me in the loop but I always got somebody calling me and I didn’t know who they were. It was also a lengthy process. The move was from California to Iowa and it was a long trip. It was just about 1,600 miles. The stuff was picked up on time but they didn’t deliver until the end of the due date. I ended up having to stay longer in the hotel and because I couldn’t live in the hotel any longer, I came to the apartment and slept in sleeping bags.

When I first started with Colonial, their pricing was lower than the others'. But when I got everything all done, the price ended up being a little higher than the others' quotes and they didn’t even give me what the weight was when they delivered the stuff. They also charged me for things that I didn’t use, like bed mattress bags. But all they did was wrap it up in Saran wrap, which I was disappointed with. Also, they were mixing stuff with other people’s. I didn’t like that but that was how they ended up doing it. When they picked the stuff up at the house in California, they said they would put it in bags when they get to the warehouse. But when they delivered and brought the stuff off the truck, it was still in Saran wrap. I paid for the bags but they didn’t have the bags wrapped on there. All in all, I was dissatisfied.

This Company doubles the cost, breaks and destroys my things, holds my stuff Hostage unless I pay them $10,000.00 Cash. I spoke with Carol more than once. She assured me that they would reweigh my stuff. As I could tell R & R Movers in Hollywood Ca was trying to RIP me off. They will not check the weight until after I pay. Of course I am right. Driver Kevin of R & R steals my Cash and leaves as quickly as possible. They broke, smashed and destroyed several of my things and all the boxes look like someone played baseball with them.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. THEY SUPPORT THIEVES AND BAD SERVICE! THEY UNDERQUOTE TO GET YOU. THEN RIP YOU OFF! Do not use them or Atlas Van Lines. Or their contractors R & R Movers! Now they are offering me $330 dollars compensation for all this damage! What a joke. There are things ruined that were family heirlooms. You can't replace that! Complete disregard and disrespect for all the damages.

21 hours ago they posted that reply. I have of course not heard a word from them. I assume they are just trying to make it look like they are going to fix it Publicly. No Response from the supposed upper management. That is quite interesting considering I haven't received any emails or phone calls. I've gotten no voicemails. My phone hasn't even rung... I sent you a message with contact information. INTERESTING I NEVER HEARD A WORD. OR GOT A RESPONSE TO MY MESSAGE! Just more ** while they try to drag it out past the time I have for any claim!

Oh they want to give me .60lb for ruining my stuff. Your ad it says "Beyond all this, Colonial is the only moving company that’s solely dedicated to your happiness and satisfaction. If you have a question, we’re here to answer it. If you need something, we’re here to provide it. To put this another way: we’ll do anything we can to help you enjoy a straightforward and streamlined move, every single time." How is this true?

Update: Still haven't heard a word from the responder. What a Shock! More broken stuff more pictures. I just realized there is a whole box of pictures missing. There is a painting in there of the house I grew up in. Painted by my aunt. So upset! More Irreplaceable items either gone or ruined. My autographed Guitar by painting from my aunt. Is there any more damage you guys could cause??? The response from Colonial van lines is Completely untrue. They have my information. They are offering me .60lb on my broken Antiques and A Whooping $330 in compensation. GIVE MY MONEY BACK! I deserve a refund, you did not give the service you promised. ⭐⭐DON'T USE THIS COMPANY.⭐⭐

So today they sent me a Document asking me to remove all my reviews for $660 what a joke! So now they sent me one for $1240. Come on! I gave them $10,747.00 and they think that is going to fix my nightmare and all my irreplaceable, irreparable Antiques. Plus undo all the bull they put me through!! CHECK THIS OUT! They are try to say that The Checks that R & R gave me for the overcharges Lmao!! Are part of my Compensation. They want me to sign a Document saying I will accept $601. ARE THEY SERIOUS? They must deal with Stupid People.

They want me to sign an agreement saying I will remove my reviews right for $601?? That's doesn't even pay for anything. I couldn't even get my antique hand-carved carousel horse repaired for that! THIS COMPANY IS THE WORST! NOT ONLY DID THEY NOT DO THEIR JOB! THEY ARE TREATING ME LIKE I'M STUPID! It's May now. Still no resolution. I guess they just rip people off and get away with it. Call themselves a moving Company. More like a wrecking Co. This Company they assured me would do a good Job.

Original Review: I was referred to R&R Moving and Storage under a contract I signed with Colonial Van Lines. They picked my stuff up in Long Beach Ca on November 28th and were supposed to deliver it to my new home in North Carolina between December 18th and January 1st. Colonial quoted me $5300 for the move. When they arrive they immediately try to raise the quite to over $10,000. I call my customer service representative from Colonial who assured me that it was just a quote and it would be fine. Everything goes by weight anyways. So they begin to help me all during the move they are talking crap in Spanish about my choices in what I'm bringing with me. About what still needs pack about everything all day, what they don't know is I understand every word.

At some point I tell them to stop. So off my stuff goes on its way to North Carolina. At some point in December I'm contacted and told I will have to pay $10800.00 for the move? I tell them this can't be right and ask questions about how it got doubled in price. Oh you had much more stuff. Not that much I tell them and insist that they recheck the weight. Colonial tells me this will be done before it gets to my home. So Jan 2st comes and goes no Delivery.

On the 3rd I inquire where my things are. Oh it's going to be there between the 7th and 9th now? Again in the morning of the 10th I inquire. I am told, "Oh it will be there tomorrow." No heads up I am supposed to be given a delivery date to be prepared ahead of time. That doesn't happen either. I ask about the weight check. Has it been done? No it hasn't and they can't do it because there are other items on the truck.

They insist I hand them $10,800 cash or they will not take my stuff off the truck. I repeatedly ask about the weight. They finally agreed to weigh before and after my things are removed. But cash up front first basically holding my stuff hostage. I get out my agreement. The one I signed in California after being assured that it was just an estimate and the weight was what I was paying for. It says $9202.39 so they agree to take that to unload with the understanding that the weight will be checked. As they unload my things have been smashed, thrown and broken. Including my antique hand carved carousel horse.

At the end of the day we go back to the scale and what a shock. I'm right they have overcharged me for the weight. As soon as the driver Kevin from R&R hears this he quickly runs off with my cash. Basically stealing my money right out from underneath me. I'm not given the difference back as told. I contacted the company in Los Angeles they tell me to contact Colonial. This company is the worst, complete disregard for my things, stealing my money, trying to take advantage of me.

When the guys loaded the boxes, I watched them put the boxes on the truck, and they were so gentle. I went to the truck to make sure everything was in, and I fell and broke my ankle. Even though they were ready to leave, they waited for an hour to make sure that the ambulance came, and I was okay. They even wrapped my foot, and I thought that was so great.

It started off really well and then it fell apart, and then it was good again, and then it fell apart again. One of the people that helped us was Rose and she was very nice, helpful and responsive. I really enjoyed working with her and Glen. Everyone else was a little bit difficult because they weren’t very responsive, especially one woman named Donna. She was an awful person to work with. She never calls people back. She caused me a lot of headaches, but that’s where the Rose came in and helped us out and went the extra mile to do the best to make us satisfied because some things were broken. The brand new refrigerator has a bunch of scratches on the side, a cross statue that a friend of mine brought me from Italy was shredded into a thousand pieces, which was irreplaceable and glasses and dishes were broken. They compensated appropriately for some of the items that were easy to replace.

I filled out the quote with the inventory and all my stuff on it, and though it wasn’t super accurate, it wasn’t super far off. The more inaccurate quote I got was from the truck driver. I got his weight ticket and I challenged it, and all of a sudden, another weight ticket came from who knows where and they adjusted it. I had more questions on why the weight in the back of the truck when my stuff was loaded in the front of the truck, and they didn't know. There should be more clarity around billing and how they’re gonna weigh the truck. They couldn't tell me if they have a policy where the truck driver has to submit his fuel gauge to make sure that they’re not charging me for the fuel. They need to be able to explain for us to understand what we’re paying for, and make sure that we’re getting the value we need. I’m booking another move right now, and I’m not calling Colonial Van Lines nor am I recommending them.

I’m not sure using another company would have alleviated my issues but I ended up being dissatisfied with the vendor/subcontractor/carrier who did the pickup and delivery. It became apparent to me that I was only a dollar sign by the pickup and delivery team, and my customer service did not matter. Colonial did a excellent job working with me on this terrible experience – I just wasn’t lucky in who they contracted with (Pin to Pin Moving and Pasha Transportation/Freight – the guy at Pasha was the RUDEST person I’ve ever worked with in a business transaction).

I had Alexander ** as my salesperson. He was very helpful during the initial stages of the sale. However he ended up taking a new position or promotion and ended up losing contact prior to working out the exact pick up dates. That was a slight issue that in the long run did not affect the move. I did not choose the insurance because in my previous moves very little was damaged. I realized later that by not choosing insurance, the packers/movers/unloaders would treat my stuff like trash or freight boxes, damaging many of my goods (also, turned out that many items weren’t wrapped as I have experienced AND PAID FOR, to have done).

My customer satisfaction by the moving team was not at the top of their mind, only doing the work for as little effort and supplies as possible to make a buck. With no need to worry about insurance, they could save on costs such as wrapping and time to take care of goods – therefore weighing the time it took to properly care for my goods and supplies against 60 cents a pound per an item.

I would say the pickup and packing was slightly satisfactory. The team was professional and I was very impressed by their motivation and skills at packing. The team leader told me that he estimated that the weight would be more than estimated. I didn’t know how much more it would increase, but in the end it increased by 6,000 pounds. I was disappointed that the estimate didn’t prepare me for that.

One item that was hugely unsatisfactory was I learned at pickup/packing that anything that would be wrapped with blankets and then taped would be extra. I didn’t think that would be a big deal, but it ended up being over two dozen items that were wrapped that way. That was an incurred cost of $32 a piece. At no point prior to the pickup was this explained to me. That increased my total packing cost higher than previously estimated. I also had an increase due to the poor estimate and the amount of boxes that were used. The incurred wrapping cost was a frustrating and dissatisfying experience. Also, I was told pick up would take three days – they did it in two, which the rush worried me as at the end of the second day, items were not wrapped, just stuffed in boxes. Again – no insurance meant 60 cents per a pound per an item, a cost they were alright with it appeared.

The team was worried about loading the hot tub that I owned. I had to pay extra for that when I was told by Colonial that the team would be able to do the loading. This lack of communication between Colonial, team and me cost me an additional $300 in unexpected costs as I had the spa retailer come and store the hot tub for later pick up. This was not the last time that the carrier did not follow through on what Colonial expected of them. The packing team did a terrible job labeling. I understand labeling some boxes very generically, I’ve experienced that multiple times in previous moves. I get that. But there were boxes that had nothing on them. Now I’m playing Guess Who? Pathetic.

As I said before, individual picture frames were not wrapped. I’m found boxes with picture frames, ones that are bigger than the standard 11x18 frames, all packed together, with nothing around them. Not what I experienced on previous moves – I expect the items to be wrapped individually to protect the glass and frame. At delivery things got WAY worse. The level of care that the carrier had for me as a customer was dirt poor. Terrible.

The Carrier (Pasha Transportation/Freight) was subcontracted carrier I believe with Pin to Pin. My move from Colorado to Indiana took me too far for Pin to Pin to do the long haul, so they hired the cheapest POS there was to do the move. And it became evident the carrier only wanted to get my stuff unloaded so he could go score another pickup/delivery (goodness, the poor customers who used him later). A breakdown in following Colonial Van Line policy and the services to be rendered occurred, when the carrier (Pasha) was brought on by Pin to Pin to do the move. Since Pasha wasn’t hired by Colonial, but instead by Pin to Pin, who already got paid by Colonial, meant Pasha didn’t care and follow through with what services they were to provide. And they forgot to be, you know, respectful business people. Issues are listed below:

1) The carrier for the delivery (PASHA TRANSPORTATION – NEVER USE THEM!) It was incredibly rude. He was curt and did not show the respect I felt a customer deserved. As far as I'm concerned this is the worse customer service experience in any type of business transaction I've ever had in my life. The team working with the driver, the hired hands that helped unload the truck, also mentioned to me the rudeness of the driver. He didn't speak very good English and it was incredibly hard to understand him.

The driver made first contact with me on Friday before the move. That was the first time I heard from him and I could not understand him. In the garbled English, I finally understood he was telling me I needed to pay the final balance in money orders. I had been given the OK to pay by credit card by Colonial and that's how I intended to pay as my bank is an online bank and not easy to get money orders sent. After a few minutes again in trying to understand what he was saying, he rudely said I can pay by credit card.

I'm then sent an authorization form that requires a 3% finance charge for the payment on a $6,700 charge. That's an additional $200 on top of the large amount I've paid for this move. The lack of communication from the agent to the carrier to me about the payment was terrible in this regard. On Saturday, my scheduled move day, when the driver arrived, I had to take 1 1/2 hours to find several locations to get the money orders. On Saturday it also was raining all day. In the morning it was a light rain.

Prior to his arrival I asked the driver if he can unload in the rain as I wanted to get stuff unloaded - and I thought he would take the care to prepare my house for the move, putting pads down or cardboard, basic customer care type services (looking bad I'm glad he didn't unload that day). He said he could as it was light rain. But when he got to my house and came inside, he rudely stated and asked "so you guys don't care about the people in the rain?" in relation to us wanting to get our items unloaded.

Unacceptable comment to a customer and especially after he had agreed to unloading in the rain. After I returned from the money order run, it was raining more and he made the decision to delay the unload until Sunday. I called Colonial to ensure that there would be no further charges for that and was told I had a four day window, starting on the 18th, to get my household good.

The move the next day, on Sunday, went very poorly and I'm very dissatisfied with it. Originally the driver and co-driver was unloading my items off the truck and putting them on the driveway and then in the garage - this included all my boxes, even the ones that were marked living room/kitchen/family room/master bedroom, etc. He gave his hired hands explicit instructions to unload into the garage - I've NEVER had a move like that before, I expected items to be placed where they belonged in the house (not unpacked, but if the box was marked living room, I expected to be asked "You want this where?"). The driver did not care about where the items were to go.

He only cared about getting the truck empty so he could leave. The hired hands told me he had another job lined up and needed to get there - I thought I had a four day window to deliver? Why was there another scheduled pickup? And why wasn't the focus on ensuring the current job, MY JOB, was going well? Unacceptable. Most items I needed to be unloaded and put into the house in specific rooms. Ensuring I was satisfied and getting on the same page with how this delivery should go was not on the driver's mind.

It was 100% obvious to me that I was seen as a Dollar sign, that he wanted only to unload my truck and get on the road to the next job. It felt horribly rushed and the communication was terrible. He didn't prepare the house for dollies to go inside, there was no cardboard put down or any effort to protect my household goods. His co-driver almost pushed a dolly with mud on the tires into my house before I stopped him. If items didn't fit through the door, there wasn't much effort to care for them, rather shove them through. I was incredibly unsatisfied with the customer service at the delivery. Saying that, the two hired hands that helped the driver and co-driver were fantastic and I appreciated their help.

2) The job was rushed so much that I could not write down and track all the items on the inventory list as they came in. When I told the driver that I intended to do track the items brought off the truck, he was shocked because of the amount of items and it felt like me doing that was delaying him. A good customer service person would have discussed how to do the unloading and made sure my needs were met. Rather, all the driver cared about was getting everything off the truck so he could leave. Terrible. When the driver left I still had over 80 items on my list unaccounted for - in previous moves the team waited and helped me find my missing items before leaving.

3) I had a hot tub in my inventory and paid Colonial a bulky item charge of almost $250 to transport and load/unload that item. At pick up I had to pay someone to pick it up at my house and load it later on the truck. That extra fee didn't make me very happy. Then at delivery I couldn't get someone lined up to unload the hot tub as the move was changed from Saturday to Sunday and all the stores were limited in manpower. So to get the hot tub off the driver charged me $200 extra to unload it. And! I helped unload!

So I paid him so that I could help unload it, as well as my brother in law. That is the biggest scam I've ever had as a customer. Worse than a time-share purchase. And when I said I wouldn't pay for that, and that I had paid an additional fee already to Colonial, the driver shrugged and told me (not asked) to find someone to unload it - and held my hot tub hostage. Where did the driver go to learn how to treat customers? Monsters Inc? Anyway, I had no choice but to pay the driver to get extra help.

In summary, services I paid for or expected but not completed – Boxes brought into the house where I wanted them. Boxes accounted for and marked off – after all boxes were unloaded items were accounted for – none of this occurred, I had to hurriedly mark off boxes as I went (In hindsight I should have made the delivery team wait until all boxes were accounted but I was so pissed at the experience I wanted them gone). Unloading of the hot tub – had to pay an additional $200 in cash.

Carrier would take a credit card – was going to charge me a finance fee, which wasn’t communicated to me – Colonial had said I could pay with a credit card during the pre-move process. Assembly of items that were disassembled at pick up – I had to reassemble the beds and bikes as well as other shelving units due to ineptitude of carrier. Protective measures for high volume traffic in my house – no cardboard or blankets were laid down in my house and dollies with dirty wheels tracked mud inside. Basic customer service.

A year later, after the move, I’ve found countless items damaged from improper care. It was ridiculous. I hope those who read this learn from my experience – first, PRAY that whoever is subcontracted to do your work isn’t a big ** like PASHA Transportation or have misfortune of having a poor customer experience. I was nickeled and dimed by this move to death. In the end, cost me $18,000. If I had gotten insurance, a lot of the stress would be alleviated as the carrier would have to covered so many damages. In the end, I did get over $1,000 refunded for this experience, to include the $200 from the hot tub unloading – but still, what a terrible experience.

If you want to do business with Colonial, I encourage it. Their customer service worked through the issues with me, and they said they wouldn’t use the carrier anymore. I don’t know how much of that is true, it may be hard to check that as I think the delivery carrier was done by a subcontractor to Pin to Pin. But I wouldn’t use Pin to Pin. No way. Stay away from them. And pray you never get Pasha Transportation/Freight. The agent, Colonial Van Lines, specifically my account manager Aneisha ** was fantastic to solve many of the issues. Overall, I wasn’t happy with the $18,000 I put into this move and the terrible experience. I didn’t feel completely whole in the return damages but it was at least something. Would I use Colonial again for my next move (which will occur)? I just don’t know.

The movers were fabulous. Edgar was great and way above the call of duty and I was really pleased with him. The only thing was it was a little bit confusing. It would've been good from the beginning if we had a little bit more information about how it was gonna go and the fact that there were gonna be several different people that I communicate with. Despite that, I would recommend Colonial Van Lines.

On the other hand, I would've wished to have had more of a heads-up on the delivery. The delivery guy had told us to pick the date and we picked the 28th. But they came much sooner. He called me two weeks prior to the date that we agreed upon and I wasn’t here. My husband was here but leaving it to him to put the boxes in places was not a good idea. But that aside, the moving coordinators did pretty good in my interactions with them and the expectations they set, as far as the service and the quote, were pretty accurate. The account manager who assisted during the move was helpful as well.

Original Review: Jan. 8, 2019

I researched numerous companies and decided to go with Colonial Van Lines. I contacted Colonial and spoke with representative Ann ** and scheduled delivery. I was given delivery dates from December 4th to the 5th. I was contacted on the 3rd and informed that the delivery van would be there the next day. That day, I was informed that due to a breakdown of their truck, delivery would be on the 5th. We were forced to stay in a hotel, since our belongings were already packed in boxes for the move. The next day, we were told that the van had additional problems and we would not be able to move as scheduled. We were told that the normal discount per day was $35, but since we had delays and hotel costs, we would be compensated $200 for the 2 days we waited. We stayed in a hotel again and we still waited for the movers.

The movers arrived on the evening of the 6th. Everything was packed and I was informed that we would have a weight the next day and that delivery in WA would occur from the 12th to the 23rd. I asked if the delivery may possibly be delayed, since we had packed Christmas gifts to be sent via the moving company. The driver assured me that there was “no way” that our delivery would go past the 23rd, since the moving company would not want to reduce the cost per day for each day late, which is $35 per day. The driver recommended that we be there on the 12th so that we would not have any delays in delivery. He said that the truck would leave the following day and would be there by the 12th if there were no problems. I confirmed with the moving company that we should be there by the 12th, so that someone would be available for the movers when they arrived to unload.

We drove cross country and arrived in WA on the 12th as requested. I contacted Colonial and was informed that I am now working with Shari **, who confirmed that they had not yet received the weight or price of the move. We were told that the original price was an estimate and that they had to weigh the packages in order to get an accurate cost. I contacted Colonial daily but was informed that they had been unable to contact the driver.

I was contacted by Ms. ** on the 21st and was informed that they estimated delivery by the 23rd. I reminded her that I had Christmas presents and wanted to know if the delivery would occur before Christmas. Ms. ** informed me that they could not confirm the date, since they still did not have the weight from the delivery driver, who had originally taken the boxes to their New Jersey warehouse. I was informed that someone would contact me the next day to update me.

When I did not receive a call, I contacted Ms. ** and was informed that they still had not received a delivery date and had not received the total weight. I was informed that they would contact me on the 26th with an update.I was forced to purchase Christmas gifts so that my children would have something to open on Christmas day.

On December 26th, I was contacted by Ms. **, who said that they had received the total weight for our shipment and that the remaining cost was $5,700, which made the total approximately $9,700. I paid a deposit of $2,550.33 on an estimated delivery cost of $7208.42. Upon pickup, I was informed that they had underestimated the delivery and I would need to pay an additional $1,442.31, which I paid. The new total was now $2,500 over the estimate and I was informed that delivery could not be given, but I would be updated on the 31st with updated delivery information. Ms. ** telephoned again on the 28th to inform me that the delivery window was now January 1, 2019 to January 5, 2019. I was assured that I would be compensated for each day that the delivery truck went past the original estimate, as well as the 2 days that they were late in picking up our boxes.

I was telephoned on January 2 and was informed that the driver was nearing Washington and my delivery would be within the next day or so. Ms. ** informed me that as soon as she had information, she would update me. I was called on January 3rd and was told that the delivery would be on the 4th or 5th. As soon as she knew for sure, she would telephone with the discount and total due. I was telephoned by the truck driver on the afternoon of the 4th and was informed that he was in Washington and would make the delivery on the 5th after 2 pm. He was not aware of any discount. I explained that I would call Colonial to find out what was going on. I telephoned Ms. ** and left a message. She did not return my call that day.

I canceled my plans for Saturday and waited for the movers to call and show up. The driver said he would call approximately an hour before arriving. I was given a delivery window from 2 pm to 4 pm. There was no call and no delivery within that time frame. The driver did call after 6 pm to say that they would not be there that day. He said that there were elevator issues in the first delivery that caused delays and they would not be able to come. He said that they would be there for the delivery between 9 am and 10 am.

On Sunday January 6th, the nightmare continued. The driver, Sergei, arrived and wanted cash. I explained that I would pay with a credit card, since this was one of the methods of payment accepted by Colonial. I said that the Colonial representative told us to not pay with cash ever. He said that he did not work for Colonial, but worked for a different company, Traditional Van lines. He did not want to use a credit card and said that when he called me the previous day, he explained that they took cash or a money order from the US Post Office only. I reminded him that it was Sunday and could not use either method. He then said that they would accept a credit card!

While he searched for a credit card authorization form, his workers began to unload the truck. I provided him with my information and he took a photo of my license and credit card information. The unloading was proceeding smoothly until he announced that the credit transaction would not go through. I told him I would call the bank, since there was probably a hold on the amount since it was so high. I telephoned the bank and reached a recorded number that the bank was closed on Sundays and that there was no one who could assist me. No problem, I thought, since I would call Colonial to straighten this out. I called literally every number I had listed for Colonial and reached the same message that they are closed on Sunday and that there was no one who could assist me.

The driver continued to badger me to go to the bank to withdraw the funds. He did not seem to realize that I would not be able to withdraw the funds from the bank. He then continued to state that I needed to go to the US Post Office to get a money order. I reminded him more than once that the post office was closed on Sunday, but he continued to suggest that I go there to get the money order! My wife explained that a wooden chair that one of the workers had unloaded was not ours. Sergei said that it had to be, since it was without items. He searched for a sticker and could not locate one. He said that the chair was our chair, since it had no identification and could not be returned to the warehouse! I asked that the chair be removed, but after they had left, we realized that it was in a corner of the garage.

The driver continued to complain about the fee and had informed the workers to stop unloading the truck. This caused the workers, who were apparently day laborers, to complain and wanted me to pay their scheduled fee. I informed them that I had no idea who they were and would not be paying them anything. This seemed to enrage one worker, who began to make threats. Sergei calmed him and continued to call his company. He returned and said that there would be an additional fee of $500 for re-delivery, as well as a 3-hour fee for Sergei’s work at $75 per hour. I explained that I would not be paying for the fees since if he would have been there on Saturday as he informed me originally, the bank would have been open and none of this would have happened. He called his company again and spoke in Russian, so I was unaware of what he said.

My wife had surgery prior to our move and she asked if there was any way that he could leave our mattress. I have back problems and she cannot sleep with her abdominal cut and we have been sleeping on an air mattress. Sergei ignored her. She asked again and he walked away. At this point, she begged him to leave the smallest mattress so that she could at least sleep on this. He ignored her again. Sergei then took a call from his company. When he finished, he repeated his statement to me and when I said that he would need to reschedule the next day, he reiterated that he would not do so without the additional fee.

I explained that I would contact Colonial and would get this resolved. He then cursed at me in Russian. I know some curse words and things began to get heated. I cursed back at him and he said that I did not need to get nasty. I responded that I knew that he had cursed at me in Russian and he appeared shocked. He said that he was trying to get things resolved and his dispatcher was trying to get in touch with Colonial. I reminded him that I had tried every number that I had and that the only response was that the office was closed.

After about 15 minutes, he appeared agitated and said that he would have to redeliver. I told him that I had informed him about that over a half hour before. He wanted the paperwork that I had and I explained that this was the only proof I had that he had my items. I did relent and he cursed again in Russian and I told him the same in English. He then drove away angry.

Approximately 5 minutes after they left, my sister telephoned to see if the movers had shown up. I explained everything to her and she offered to use her credit card. I immediately called Sergei and explained what my sister had offered. He said that he had already spoken with his manager, who told him that another company would deliver my items. He said that he had already arrived at the Colonial Seattle warehouse to store my furniture. I asked how he could be in Seattle when it was at least an hour drive. He said something that I could not understand and I asked him to repeat himself, as I did not understand him. The call was disconnected. I tried to call him back and telephoned at least 4 times. The telephone rang numerous times and went to his voicemail. I left messages, but Sergei did not return my call.

I telephoned Sheri first thing on Monday January 7, 2018 and she had no idea what was going on. I drove my daughter to school and was extremely surprised to see the driver and the truck that was supposedly on its way back to New Jersey. I thought that I was mistaken and it was a different truck.

I called Sheri again and told her my concerns. She said that she had spoken with her manager and that they were trying to get the fees waived from Traditional Van Lines. She said that she would call me soon to update me. Over 3 hours later and I still had not had a telephone call. I decided to call Sheri again, who said that she had spoken with her manager, who said that unfortunately, they could not waive the fees. She said that they had honored the original $400 credit for the 2 days I was required to stay in a hotel, since all of our furnishing were packed and the drivers had not shown. She said that I would have to pay the $500 fee, as well as the $75 for 3 hours that the driver was at my house! I explained that the driver was there less than 45 minutes and she then changed her story to the time the driver had left the warehouse and was at my home.

I reminded her that the mover had explained that he was in south Washington and was on his way, so he could not be at the warehouse and also approximately a few hours away and on his way to my home. Shari then said that I would either be charged the $500 plus the $225. But they were not going to be able to credit me for the 14 days at $35 that I was informed that I would be credited. I reminded her that I had not received the $400 credit that she stated I had received and I was also being punished by Traditional and would not receive the $490 credit for late time. She could not provide a rational explanation for why I am no longer getting the credit. I complained and she said that she would speak with her manager and get back to me. She again could not explain where my furniture was.

Upon returning home I could not believe that the Traditional Van Line truck was still in the parking lot as it had been at that same location for the past 8 hours. I stopped and confirmed that it was indeed a Traditional Van Line truck. I live in a town of less than 2,000 people, so that the odds of them making a different delivery was almost nonexistent. I took photos of the truck and the company logo and truck number and emailed them to Shari at Colonial. I telephoned her after this and her. It was not the end of their work day, but I did not reach anyone at any extension I called. We are living in a house with no furniture. I had to buy Christmas gifts over so that my children could have Christmas. I had to buy my children clothes so that they could go to school. I also had to buy dress clothes so that I could begin my new job. Colonial could care less about their customers.

The first person I talked to was the Colonial salesperson whose name was John and the final person was with the local affiliate, Cal Van Lines. So, we were captive in the situation and not given an opportunity to evaluate the correctness of the weight. I was not sure where the breakdown was but there was one. On the other hand, as far as facilitating the move and staying on top of it, it was clear that there was coordinated communication. There was frequent contact and every time I spoke with the local mover, I would get a call from the coordinator at Colonial. Everything was completely packed and ready to go at the time of pick up and the movers commented that it was very easy for them because we had done all that work. They got the job done and on time, and it all worked out fine.

The moving coordinator was great. We explained the situation, and she said, “We can do this. We can work this out. We can get your mom’s stuff and get it up there. We have the capability of doing all this stuff.” And she set it up. The account manager was also very good. She kept in touch and they shipped it here sooner than we expected, but it was within the time frame that she told us, so it wasn’t totally unexpected. The movers, R&R Moving, were great and very efficient. They were so patient with my mom. They changed her one-bedroom apartment around five times. She decided she wanted to try something else, and there was no hesitation. I was the one that was rolling my eyes, like, “Oh my god, can this ever end?” Not them. They’re just, “Yeah, we can do that.” And they stopped what they were doing, and they moved the stuff around.

When we went over my final bill, they quoted me $1.06 a pound for the whole move, whether I was 3,000 pounds or 5,000. They called once we had 3,600 and said that we were paying a higher rate than the $1.06 because we overestimated our weight. We came in under, so we got to pay extra. But when the driver got to my house, he only had the 3,000-pound estimate anyways. So, he didn’t even know that we updated it to 5,000. It was a headache to be quoted one rate at 3,000 and 5,000, and then to be told that since we came in at 3,600, we were paying a higher rate. It was a little frustrating. Colonial did fix the issue because I was adamant that I wasn’t gonna pay the difference based on the weight amount. But that was quite stressful and kind of a shady practice to overestimate and having to come under, and then charging a higher rate because of that. So, I was not very happy with that when it was all said and done.

The driver that Colonial connected with us was really good, and the movers that they brought did do a good job. But it was more Colonial that was the issue than the actual work getting done. Don’t use Colonial. Not everybody is going to be kind of a jerk like I am to get what I want when I feel like I’m getting shortchanged. So, I would avoid the headache.

Today she told me that it would be sometime between 8 am and 8 pm tomorrow. I understand that they have a 2 day window of time but I would hope that the day of the move they could narrow it down and once they do finally show up they have 4 days to deliver, which they can't give me any information on that either. If you want to know when your move will start and when your items will deliver do not use Colonial! I am afraid that they are going to drag this out for a week! They have made this a very stressful time, I have never had anything like the happen in my 15 moves that I have made, the only thing I did wrong was choosing Colonial.

It was the same driver and he was the one who really stood out. He brought someone to help him and they listened to me. They did everything that I asked them to do and they worked. I made them a little frozen pizza and they had a bite but that was it. They didn't even eat. They just worked and I was 100% happy. Though a ladder was missing, nothing was broken by the movers. Also, we had so much stuff and we didn't even say anything to Colonial because it was just a ladder. Colonial Van Lines had a good reputation and their price was the best. We would definitely use them again. I just recommended them to somebody.

During the move, the team used a tag system to help keep track of goods. We had one of the little tags fall off but then they put the tags together. Thereafter, we referenced the tags and while we thought we had all the stuff, we were missing a part of a bookshelf at some point. Nevertheless, the move was still pretty good overall. I'm very happy with my experience with Colonial.

Colonial used a subcontracted company out of California called Thomas Brothers, and they were amazing. It was a father-and-son team. They were very friendly, caring, and were understanding how stressful it was. I needed great care with antiques and musical instruments, which they did beautifully. They were extraordinarily helpful too. They gave me some great advice on the way to pack certain things, so that I could continue to pack very unusual things, and to be assured that I didn't have any breakage. It was amazing. I have not yet found one thing broken. That could not be said with any of the other companies I've used.

My only concern with Colonial is I wasn't given many opportunities to communicate with all the different persons there. There were almost too many people and I was very confused as to who I was talking with and what their role was. But I got a tremendous amount of communication from them, both by email, text, phone calls. Nevertheless, they were very much on top of every part of the move. I had a wonderful experience moving with Colonial.

The account manager was really good. She called me about 10 times during the move period and it was very helpful. She made sure she got a hold of the drivers and that I knew how to do the payment. She gave me the dollar amount and everything. I had an old piano that I needed help trying to get moved and I had some concerns with that, so we went back and forth on that a couple of times. I was trying to understand the insurance and what the insurance required versus what the moving required and the actual movers would require. It was disjointed, so I needed help with that. I didn’t feel I was 100% prepared on that, but for the rest of it, we worked out really well.

The movers were good. They did the same day pick-up and delivery and they worked around my schedule a bit that evening because they ended up having to wait on me for about 45 minutes until I could get to the actual house. They were really polite and helpful. They moved everything when I asked them to take it upstairs versus downstairs and there were no complaints, so it was all great. However, it was somewhat confusing sometimes with the account manager versus the quality person versus the moving coordinator, and sometimes I wasn’t quite sure who I was supposed to call, but I was able to call any of them. Though I was just never 100% sure that I was calling the right person, they started putting me in touch or talking to each other, so it worked out in the end.

However, we did accommodate their request. They said they would compensate us for this change, which cost us anxiety and $200, but after the move was finally over they merely offered us $50 for this change. On the day they showed up to pick up our belongings they required us to sign a totally new and different contract. It didn’t matter that we had accurately described and detailed all the items that were to be moved. We had to sign this new contract, adding thousands more in moving costs, or they would walk out the door the day before our house closing date. We were forced to accept this new contract. We were forced to agree that the “binding estimate” in the original contract was superseded by this new contract. Overall it cost us $6400 more than our original contract. We felt that this last minute change was their plan all along, in order to squeeze more money out of us.

Our belongings were to be delivered between the 11th and 17th of November. Each day we had to arrange for someone to be available to accept that delivery. But from Nov. 9 through the 15th we were only able to reach a live person at the office twice, and both times they could give us no information on delivery. We left numerous voicemails and emails, but no one would call us back. No one would give us any information. Finally on Nov. 17th one person, the assistant to our move manager, called to say that they would have information on Nov. 19. On that date, two days after all of our belongings were to be delivered; we were told that the delivery would take place the next day. They offered us, after much discussion, a mere $150 for this three day delay.

At one point, weeks earlier, we had asked about the cost of delaying our delivery and were told that a three day delay would cost us $3,304. But because THEY delayed delivery three days they merely offered us $150. The overall move cost more than $20,000 so this $150 is less than 1%, not what we consider a fair offer. Overall we feel this company is not trustworthy. We feel that they did not treat us well. They were not responsive to our many phone calls, and they did not provide the service they had contracted to provide.

Originally, the quote was at 2,000 pounds and when we gave the actual item information to Colonial, it was gonna be 3,500 pounds. So, we were quoted $1,500 higher than the original quote. Our stuff was overweight because we had them weighed at a weigh station and when it came down to it, we were just slightly over 2,000 pounds. So, adjustments were made in the pricing and the rate ended up with an extra $200 more.

The communication went well and Colonial worked with us in terms of dates and overall pricing. It was a little confusing that we were turned over to different agent and account managers but they seemed to all know what was going on and they kept us in the loop. It was a first time for me and it was interesting to deal with. I would recommend Colonial and also, folks should be well prepared in packaging their items to avoid any additional packing cost. We didn’t incur that but there were some items that we had to repack and secure before they were put on the truck.

When they got to us in Florida, Elijah's work partner never showed up so this poor man had to unload the truck by himself. He was beyond muscle-bound, but very careful. I was not able to help because I’m a little handicapped but my daughter helped with some of the lightweight stuff. He kept saying to let him do it and my daughter told him that he needed to let us help him as it was not his fault that the guy didn’t show up. He would bring in one load and run back to the truck so he would not keep us waiting. This guy was phenomenal. I can’t say enough. But Colonial should do a little better job when they’re screening people so that one guy isn’t left holding the bag.

There were complications because of the condo complex I was moving into. There are small bridges going over little rivers and the bridges can’t support the weight of a big tractor-trailer truck. Colonial worked with us to get a smaller truck so that they could get in to the complex. I’ve already recommended them to two people here in Florida and to one person in Atlanta that was going to be moving.

I could talk to anybody at Colonial Van Lines. I worked with a few different people on updates and they were definitely very responsive and very accurate with the estimate. I felt like they were in there with me. We looked at different moving types of things, like pods and just the location of the house, and they had gone to Google and looked at the private drive that we were on. I felt very good about that. They were very communicative and proactive. We had a little damage to a clock but they were on it. They had scheduled all the replacement and they got it all taken care of. I felt Colonial really wanted to see through my experience to a positive way, and they did. I would recommend them above everyone. A move is not a recurring thing and it’s a big thing to put the trust of your things in the lives of someone else.

I spoke with Donna ** and she was incredibly helpful and proactive in getting all my concerns addressed with her management. I spoke to her around 5 pm today and she called me back a little over three hours later with a refund resolution that was very satisfactory to me. I very much appreciate Ms. ** dedication, professionalism and her desire to create a good experience for me with her company.

They were a van line and I didn’t have to have other people’s belongings on the same truck as mine because they offered a straight truck. It was also offered at a reasonable price. I got a straight move and it was based on weight. Even though I did not have enough weight on there, I had exclusive use, so rather than waiting until after I relocated to purchase the furniture I wanted, I purchased it already and had it delivered.

From my sales rep down to the moving coordinator, they kept me in the loop the entire time because my move was predicated on the sale of my home, which my home still hadn’t sold, and they kept in touch over time. I had a situation where I could not put my move on my credit card because I had to wait until after I had closed on the purchase of my home. It was exactly two weeks away from my move date and they were still able to accommodate me. I kept them in the loop the entire time leading up to me closing until the day that I closed. I was given a clearance, so I was able to inform them to get the move going with the deposit.

The account manager kept in touch, although I was a little leery at the beginning about her because she was new to the company. I could tell she was reading a script when I had questions and that was unsettling with me, but I was patient with her. She constantly called to check in and to make sure I have been contacted by the agent that Colonial Van Lines used prior to their arrival, as well as to confirm if they arrived. She even contacted me after their departure and did a survey as to how they moved everything out of the house to the point of when they moved everything into my new home.

The coordinator I spoke to was helpful and our interaction was pleasant. He was able to answer all of my questions and was detailed in explaining everything to make sure I did not miss anything. He did not seem like we were gonna get screwed over. He also told me that I get a full refund if something was not right. They sent a documentation that said all that and I made sure that it added up to what he said. I felt comfortable with the terms so when he sent me what we had, everything that I mentioned was there. They also had a decent quote.

The move was 27,000 miles from California to Virginia. The crew who helped the move was on-time. They got there at 8:00 but they did not start moving until 9:00 and they were out by 3:00. They explained what they were gonna do well. They also handled our stuff with care and wrapped everything well. The crew that came uses a moving cube, so they explained it and how it works. Everything was moved into the cube, locked up, and was not touched again until they were delivered to Virginia and then unlocked the cube again. They were fast and everything was like how it was and there was no damage.

Upon arrival, the moving truck didn't have any CVL branding on it. It looked like a non-descriptive semi. The movers themselves didn't speak a lot of English and were not very helpful. After two days of putting our stuff in the truck, we were told that the moving truck would arrive Sunday, October 28 by noon in Tennessee. My husband and I drove through the night on Saturday to ensure we arrived. Noon rolled around and we didn't hear anything from Sergie the "head mover". I tried contacting CVL and didn't get an answer. I tried calling CVL several times on Monday and Tuesday with the only response being, "We don't know where the truck is. We received a phone call on Wednesday October 31st Halloween at 815 am! They went to the wrong address!

When they got there they decided they couldn't maneuver the truck down our driveway. CVL could have googled our address to see pictures of the house. After wasting a couple of hours, they decided we had to pay more money to bring it down the driveway. We also found out that they went to Michigan to pack up and deliver to new place instead of delivering our belongings. All which was scheduled by CVL Dispatcher!! ALL LIES BUT IF WE WANTED OUR BELONGINGS WHICH WE WAITED FOUR DAYS TO GET OFF THE TRUCK WE HAD TO GIVE THEM $5511.00 FIRST!! So to date we have paid over $9100 for this move.

When all was said and done, we were overcharged for boxing up items (which I have in an email was not necessary despite what the movers said). Our items were not directly shipped to Tennessee which is where we were waiting and the overall customer service was atrocious. At one point, James from CVL told us when trying to find out when the truck would arrive in Indiana that "we must deal with the cards we were dealt". Please do not use this company unless you want to be afraid of your belongings disappearing and be overcharged for poor customer service.

It would be easier for me to advise the visitor/reader to review all the recent 1-star reviews for Colonial, because that would just about cover our entire experience with them. We have moved extensively over the past decade - overseas, having split shipments, local, interstate, multiple companies. This is THE WORST moving company we have ever dealt with.

Theft of property, needless damage to belongings, severe lack of communication with client, faulty estimation of weight to garner funds at pickup, misleading, significant delay in delivery, exceptionally poor customer service, no accountability taken, no sincere reconciliation to customer, and last night as my wife checked through the last unopened plastic container we packed ourselves, they had opened and rifled through the contents, no doubt looking for valuables to steal, which they had already done by stealing a box with most of my wife's costume jewelry. She was already heartsick about the theft of sentimental items, but now was even more upset over the violation by representatives of CVL looking through our personal property... that MAY cover everything.

They (RELO) delivered almost 2 weeks past our delivery window, had zero communication with us or our CVL support agent (Mena) during that time, damaged our brand new $3000 Tempurpedic frame and mattress, and a couple of other pieces of furniture. We have been offered some compensation along the same lines as many others, but I continue to see the same horrible experiences we suffered being experienced by others that have used CVL after us. Thieves are still employed, mismanagement runs rampant. We are looking at arbitration and legal avenues for our situation. Would strongly advise others looking to move to look elsewhere.

Original Review: Dec. 1, 2018

They told me they would pick my stuff up on the 5th or 6th. They picked it up on the 9th. The driver told me it would be delivered by the next Wednesday. When I did not get it they said it would be the next Monday or Tuesday. When I did not get it they said on Thursday (Thanksgiving). When I did not get it they said Friday. Then the driver called and said he got held up by the last customer. Then they told me by Monday or Tuesday the next week. When I called on Monday they said my stuff was in Kansas and the roads were closed but hoped to get it there the next day. They finally showed up at 7.30 pm on Monday the 26 and had it unloaded by 9:30 pm. They tried to give me my broken (mended) kitchen cart and I told them I didn't want it in the condition they had it with broken drawers and a piece missing on one of the legs. Terrible experience. Do not use them unless you like being lied to.

Here are some other things we have done in case you are ever caught up in a similar situation. Well, first we wrote this review so that others might benefit from our experience. We hope it is helpful in guiding you toward a more reputable moving company. We contacted the Better Business Bureau. They weren’t much help. We filed a dispute of the charges with our credit card company. They immediately credited us back a large part of the money we had paid to Colonial. This credit is only temporary pending an investigation which is still underway. We are hopeful that the eventual judgement will stay in our favor.

So, please think twice before you chose Colonial as your mover. Look at the many other reviews on this site with stories similar to ours. Broken promises, lost and damaged property and no accountability.

Please don't consider Colonial for your move or for anything else. Our experience with them was totally unsatisfactory. They lied to us about how they were going to pack and transport our property, about when our property would be delivered and about how they would resolve these problems when we called them to their attention. Our property was kept in two different locations. Some was in our apartment and some was in a storage unit. We asked specifically if our property would be loaded, unloaded, stored and reloaded and we were assured that it would not. They told us it would be loaded onto the semi at the apartment and transported directly to our new home. This was a lie. Instead they loaded it onto a shuttle, transported it to Chicago, stored it until they got around to it, then finally reloaded it and moved it to our new home.

We were told they would need a shuttle to pick our stuff up at the storage unit because they couldn't access the storage unit with the semi. They said the shuttle would link up with the semi at the apartment when they would load the shuttle contents onto the semi along with the apartment contents then they would head out directly to our new home. This was a lie. Instead they took all our stuff 400 miles to Chicago. Why did we let them do this? Well, you really don't have much choice. When you've moved out of your old place with really no place to go you're at their mercy and they know it. You've already paid them a substantial amount of money plus they've got your stuff. I suppose if you complain they could unload your stuff out onto the sidewalk and leave. They also lied to us about when our property would be delivered. They gave us a time window which appeared reasonable.

We didn't find out until we were at the new home that the window was a "guideline". We sat for weeks in an empty home. After eating out three meals a day for a week or so we finally figured out to go buy some cheap dishes, pots and pans, etc. so we could at least prepare our own food. We had a few things with us so we could at least take a shower and we purchased a queen size air mattress so we had a place to sleep. When asked about this, the smart aleck point of contact told us we should have read our contract. This is the same contract we signed when we were standing in the street with all our stuff on their truck. When confronted about their lies, Colonial told us they would review the recordings of the phone conversations we had where they made these promises. They later claimed that they had reviewed the recordings and no such promises were made. Another lie. Of course, they would not allow us access to these recordings.

Shortly after our property finally arrived Colonial told us we would be reimbursed for our inconvenience. This was another lie. She later told us no reimbursement would be forthcoming and we have not received any. Our property had obviously been handled very roughly. Several items were damaged or dirty. Some items were missing. Yes, you can file a claim with the carrier or sometimes your homeowner's insurance company. Be aware that the carrier will reimburse you based upon the weight of the property, not on its value unless you purchase the extremely expensive additional insurance they offer. The deductible on your homeowner's policy is probably something like $1000. We have filed a claim with Colonial which, if approved, will cover only a small fraction of the value of the lost or missing property. We have yet to hear from them about this and, honestly, I don't expect to hear anything favorable from these disreputable people.

However, I felt like they were unprofessional. They gave me a quote at first, and then they called me two weeks prior the move and increased the quote to $1,000. So, I had to pay a deposit when I didn't need to pay it anyway because our original rate was right on. That was very aggravating. And then, when we got into the move, there were some issues along the way that I had to call about and take care of. While we were in the middle of a move, they called us a couple of times to try to get more money from us because they weren't documenting how much money we already paid. Luckily, I took pictures of what I was paying them, so I just sent that over to prove to them. It was a very stressful experience for us. I would not recommend them.

I was a little bit flexible because they said they were gonna come at 2:00 on that day but they got there at 4:30. I've moved before, so I know that if they're picking up different loads, they may not be able to really know long it's gonna take them to load something. They don't have any idea how long it was gonna take them to load my stuff. It's all kind of an estimate. But I had a phone number, where I could call the guy that was coming, and he would tell me where he was and that he was hung up somewhere.

They showed up at 4:30 and were out by 8:00, which I was fine with. So go with Colonial Van Lines. My niece used them and she had all kinds of problems. But I suspect my niece was not as patient as I was, and as clear. They did a good job on everything that we agreed upon in terms of dates, timelines and delivery. They came in, either on or ahead of schedule.

I found out that Colonial Van Lines go from Florida to LA then turn around and go back to Florida. And that was one of the main reasons I went with them. They had scheduled back and forth and were very nice. The people in LA were fabulous and we love them. And the guy in charge of overseeing the moving was an incredible, young man. We were only with him for a few hours, but we talked to him previously and after. We had a very good relationship with them and the young lady in their home office.

We had done a lot of packing of personal items ourselves but the main objects like the furnishing and the antiques, they did. They wrapped everything cleanly and neatly, and were finished within an hour. They cooperated with us when we found out we couldn't get into the place we were supposed to be in right away. They held our furniture with no charge to us. And then, when we moved out, they got us into storage and then took us out of storage when we wanted.

We moved twice and each time, the quote they've given us was good and was on the nose. Everything else went fine and smoothly. Things came in like it should have. There was no damage and blanketed things just like it was when it left. We were very pleased with them. In fact, I have a friend who used a well-known company who had hired some people who stole most of their furniture and left the truck standing somewhere in the middle nowhere and I told that person about Colonial.

We had a lot of problems with the move, but these were not with Colonial. We had sold our house down there and we were supposed to go to the closing up here, but the people that lived in this house didn't move out. We wound up living in the motel for almost three weeks and that wasn't fun. Meanwhile, all our stuff was in the truck and couldn't be delivered because these couldn't be put in the garage, so these wound up being moved all over the place.

The moving guys tried to be very careful with the way they packed everything and we had minimum losses. Some things might have gotten broken with all of our stuff being loaded and unloaded off the truck, then loaded and unloaded again, but it wasn't their fault that they had to load and unload these so many times. The cost for the service kept changing from the quote that they gave us at the beginning of the move, but a lot of that wasn't their fault either. They had to put our stuff in storage, so we wound up paying storage fees. Nonetheless, Colonial Van Lines is a good company and I would recommend them.

I’ve done moves many times before. So I knew what was gonna happen when the guys who would pick up my stuff showed up and they were great. They were older family guys and were terrific drivers. They were clean, courteous, professional and personable. They wanted to deliver it before I arrive from Massachusetts, so I had to make a special request and ask them to adjust the delivery date, and they were fine with that. And it was the same guy who delivered it. I had a wonderful experience with Colonial Van Lines and I would absolutely recommend them.

The moving coordinator, Scott, was fantastic. There was a specific issue regarding the logistics because when you’re moving, the person that’s coordinating the moving needs to be there to meet the movers and with the long-distance move, you got a window of 36 hours where the movers could show up. I was flying from Rhode Island to Virginia and I told them that window doesn’t work for me because I can’t be sitting around for 36 hours, waiting to hear when their guys are gonna show up. The coordinator was able to tighten that window for me, which was super helpful.

The actual movers were not quite as well organized but they were very nice people. I felt like they really cared about making sure that things got packed safely and moved safely. They were very kind to my aunt the day that they moved her things into her new home, which was very stressful for her. They were very sensitive about that. I would recommend Colonial Van Lines for their moving service.

We had a pleasant experience overall except that I found a very old, valuable piece smashed to death, and it was so clearly marked on the package. It had a sign that it was from Ireland and had dollar signs on it. It was worth a lot of money. It had 1979 on it. It was packed in a plastic thing that was padded with puffy stuff. I packed it myself. It had styrofoam on top and bottom to protect it. I can’t imagine how that could’ve happened when it was so clearly marked.

The account manager who assisted me was also excellent. He didn't beat around the bush about anything and was punctual. He was also on top of things and was keeping me in the loop on everything. The dates were perfect as well. They were prepared on picking up my stuff and the guys that picked them up as well as the guys that delivered them were on time. Plus, nothing was broken. I would refer Colonial Van Lines to anybody. They beat the pants off of all their competitors.

Then on the day of the move, I was very satisfied as well with the way everything happened. The movers arrived on time. They were courteous and everything took place quite rapidly. There were a few boxes that were marked fragile that ended up being at the bottom of piles. I was concerned about those being under other heavy boxes. In the end, nothing was damaged but I would have liked for boxes that were marked fragile to be handled with a bit more care. Other than that, my experience with Colonial was very positive and so I would recommend them.

By the time they got here the mover was badgering my husband why we had people calling him 3 times about our delivery. Excuse me?? We've waited 2 weeks for this and then you think it's our problem you got called out doing your job? Pay the extra money and use a reputable company that will pick up and deliver with at least a half smile on the days you want with customer service that's responsive. The one silver lining is that the guys picking our stuff up were super nice and professional.

During the move, I didn't get any specific times and dates. I wanted to move this date and I understood that it probably wouldn't happen in one day. That they would do it and it would be an overnight thing. That was okay but then, that was even in question. I thought I had to be in Maine to sign my closing papers, and then, all of a sudden, I found out that they weren't coming on Thursday and I was supposed to be in Maine on Friday. So, that caused some angst. It ended up okay, but only because I didn't have to sign anything that day and I had to do it over the phone. When you ask for somebody to pick your stuff up at one day and then drop you off at another day, you would expect them to be there because you're trying to plan everything else out. Nevertheless, the guy who did it was okay.

Initially, I was going with another van line ‘cause I couldn’t pull up any reviews for Colonial. In the rep's follow-up call, I told her I decided on somebody else. Then she asked why and I told her. She said she could provide that for me. She connected me to online evaluations and I appreciated her going that extra mile. And the reviews were all very favorable. And then follow-up beyond that as I moved through the process, she was always there, or she would hand me to the appropriate person. Colonial had a good coordination system where I get to the quality person or the person scheduling the trip.

For each of the two moves, I reviewed the list of stuff with the quality department. Then when I was passed to the delivery group, they would communicate with me when the move was. The actual guys that moved were with WeHaul and it was one of the same guys for all the moves to Vermont. He picked up and dropped off in Vermont and picked up and dropped off in Indiana. He and whoever was with him did a great job both times, just pleasant as could be. I had read online reviews of other companies where there were disagreements with the movers ‘cause they said, “This wasn’t what was on your list,” or, “It’s more than what was on your list.” There were none of those with these guys and everything was on the list. They were also cooperative and happy and they just wanted to please. I would definitely recommend Colonial Van Lines.

The things that were missing came a week and a half later. The sewing table had 3 broken wheels, and I never got the dolly. The service was terrible. Getting someone to call back was impossible. I was offered 377 dollars to settle, but expected me to give a favorable review and drop the case at the BBB. No way was the stress and aggravation worth 377 dollars. There have to be much better companies out there. Some that care about their customers. Well over 6000 dollars was too much to pay for poor service!

When that hurricane hit, we were up here in Maryland. But the settlement on the condo that we were selling was delayed. Plus the elevator was out for over a week, waiting on parts, and Colonial couldn't have moved us without the elevator. Then we decided we would leave everything down there and pay through the end of the year or we would move back to Maryland whenever they opened I-95 again. I talked with the moving coordinator a lot about all that, as well as on the payment side of things. It was a massive move, about 15,000 pounds. We had about 200 boxes and the weight of the move ended up being heavier than we thought. They took it in chunks as we figured out what was going on.

With it being a large move, they wanted to bring an 18-wheeler. I told them they were okay getting an 18-wheeler into the condo complex in North Carolina but that they were gonna have a really tough time getting it into the condo complex here in Maryland. So somebody went out, looked at the configuration and said that I was right. They listened to what I said then they asked about bringing two trucks plus a tow trailer and it worked out. That was beautiful.

They showed up when they said they were going to. And it felt so good to see seven men walking around the corner because I had been handling this thing by myself. I was so grateful that they were there. The guy that managed the team told me that he was there to make me happy, whatever I wanted them to do. I had been packing for about two weeks and was exhausted. So they allowed me time to run the cable boxes up an hour away and turn those back in. Then they packed my kitchen and my China cabinet for me because I didn't have any more energy to do any of that. They were just wonderful. They even reassembled everything afterwards. They did a great job. Colonial Van Lines is first rate. It was absolutely excellent service and I was very pleased with them.

At the end, the cost came in $500 less than what Anne estimated. I could not have been more pleased. They even delivered three days early because they had told me they couldn’t deliver until the 1st of November. I wasn’t expecting them that day, but they showed up on the 27th with all of my belongings. I paid for it and everything was unloaded. The handling of my items was great. The clothes were packed and hanging in large boxes that were tall and they were not crumpled up in any way. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Now, it was in my house much earlier than I anticipated.

However, when actually in need of assistance, the account manager was difficult to get a hold of, so most was communicated via voicemail. There is a two day window for pick up. When I hadn't received a call from the driver or company halfway through the 1st day, I was told that they "weren't sure" of the route and would need to get back to me. I received a follow-up call later that day saying that the drivers had 3 pick ups in my state, and since they were unable to pick up that day, I'd be the 1st in line for the next morning (between 10-12).

I received a call from the driver at 11 am, he shared that he didn't know what time the company told me he would be there, but it'd be between 2-3pm. I once again adjusted my travel accommodations due to their lack planning. At 3 pm, I got a call that the drivers truck broke down and he was unsure of if he would be able to pick up my items at all. After many phone calls and MYSELF figuring out a way for the driver to get a Uhaul, the movers arrived at 5:30 pm that evening.

The driver flat out told me how Colonial does not coordinate with the drivers effectively (i.e. accurate routes, travel time between jobs, etc.). He also said that the customer service reps/salesmen are not forthright with the customers about this and simply see how many jobs they can schedule within a day. When I spoke to the Account Manager, he said he knew he had "calls to angry customers" that he had to make that day, insinuating that he knew I'd be upset due to my experience. With this all in mind- I never received an apology, an offer for a discount- nothing. Horrible customer service! As an Account manager, it is his responsibility to ensure the customers are receiving quality service.

The mess has only continued since the pick up. I've called inquiring when I should expect my delivery and again receive the response that they will call me back or let me know. My items were picked up 13 days ago, and I am just now being informed that my delivery "should" be this evening and that I need to pay prior to my delivery time, now (really? because you've proven to be so reliable?). I am not holding my breath as this company clearly is unreliable, and highly unprofessional not only in the lack of follow-through, but the way that they speak to customers, and their fellow colleagues.

The pricing was accurate, but the timing in terms of when I would receive my goods was not. My stuff was picked up on a Friday and I was told that I would know either later that Friday or Saturday when I would receive my stuff in Colorado. Colonial works with a consolidator and it was with the consolidator that things fell apart. I called each day and I was given reasons like they just didn’t know when yet. Days later I was finally told that I wouldn’t know when the stuff would be delivered until 24 hours before they actually delivered.

When the mover called and told me he would be here within 24 hours, he gave a three-hour window. Then he called me on the last hour to say he didn't think he would be able to make it on time. I’m a therapist and I had to rearrange clients. I lost a whole day of pay. We rescheduled the next day and he showed up late. Two movers came, which would be fine, except, one of them was very overweight and out of shape. They came from DC and they were now in Boulder, Colorado, which has a much higher altitude. Usually, it takes people two or three days to acclimate and he had to walk up two flights of stairs with all my stuff.

The movers unloaded everything onto the sidewalk. I asked who was gonna watch the stuff while they were moving. One guy said one of them would always be down there. That was not true though. They needed two people to lift some of the heavier things so I had to watch my stuff on the street, which was not cool. It took them about five hours to move a one bedroom place and I lost a second full day of work.

Also within the first 20 minutes, they called me at the truck and said, “You may want to look at this.” It was my desk that was cracked in half and they said they didn’t take any steps to move it out of the truck because it was just gonna fall apart even more. I also had boxes that were physically crushed and I had a bunch of things broken, including my plasma screen TV and a few other personal items. They sell you their extra insurance, which, to me, is in case something unusual happens, like a flood. You don’t expect to have to use the insurance due to their negligence. They pay 30 cents on the pound and that means I get paid the same amount whether the item is crystal or a notebook. So even though I lost $2,000 worth for stuff, I only got back about $600. I am not happy with the resolution, but I have no other recourse.

The quote they gave me was overstated, which is fine. They told me what their estimated weights were and that they would overstate it. I ended up paying less than what I thought. The only real concerns that I’ve had right from the beginning were they gave me a two-day window on when they would pick up and an eight-day window on when they would deliver. I don’t understand that. The move was only 153 miles. It’s an apartment and it’s on the first floor, so there were no steps. Also, I found out that they outsourced the job two or three days prior, and that was when I got the first call from the outsourced company to say they were gonna pick up on the second day and not the first day. They also still didn’t know at that time if they were going to be delivering the same day or within eight days. So, it was a little disheartening. That was not easy to plan because everyone has work, and I find that to be not customer-focused.

I didn’t have any communication with the outsourced company until they came and we were told that they were gonna be there by 9 o’clock. They finally got to my daughter’s apartment at 11 o’clock because that wasn’t the time that they were going to deliver. They started at 9 o’clock. They had to first go to their location and get the truck, and then drive to pick up the stuff. So, I thought that part was very weak. Other than those, the move itself went well.

The people they hired to unload must of come real cheap because they put together my son's bed but didn't screw the boards in so the first night he fell through. They put everything no matter what the label said in the garage - piled with boxes. As a concession, they said they would send a crew here to fix everything and bring the boxes out of the garage. After rescheduling a few times, one man showed up. He said he was allowed 4 hours including traveling time. He lived 1 1/2 hours away... So for the hour he was here he worked really hard. He was the only good thing about this experience. I wonder about the 5 star reviews on this site. But then I saw someone say the BBB gave great reviews. They didn't... The experience from start to finish was horrible and the stress they caused was terrible. DON'T USE THEM.

The employees of this company have been horrible to deal with, and no one really seems to care that we are living in an empty house and have no idea when our stuff will arrive. We have contacted the Better Business Bureau. I urge anyone considering this moving company to choose someone else, as it is nothing but shady liars. I would give it negative 5 stars, so to be clear the site made me give a rating of 1 star. Absolutely the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. I hope they go out of business before they can screw anyone else over.

It was disappointing though that they delivered the last day within the window that they had available but that was something that had nothing to do with Colonial. The company that they contracted out to do the actual move had some sort of issue because in New York, a boat is needed to move stuff here, so it was crazy. But all in all, Colonial Van Lines is a great company.

Duntara, the company that was delivering the furniture, called and gave me a date. But then, I was told by Mike, Duntara's owner, that there was gonna be an extension on that. They were late as they seemed to have had so many problems with their truck. One excuse was that somebody had punctured the fuel line, so we waited two days to get it repaired. It just went on and on until finally, they came on the morning of Labor Day. But by the time they unloaded, they told me that they couldn’t get my couch in the basement. It was still all wrapped up and they put it in the garage. Then I found out later, when I had some people help me move the boxes around, that when they took the wrapping stuff off of it, the box came off of the couch and they were able to move it in. I paid to have all that done. So, the delivery team was not trying hard then. They said the back didn't come off of the couch, but that was only because they didn’t unwrap it to see.

Colonial Van Lines offered good prices and I read some good reviews. Although some reviews were bad, those were the ones on Duntara. I was not aware before the move that Colonial subcontracted to other people to move things. I thought Colonial Van Lines have their big truck and advertised Colonial Van Lines and all that. That’s what I thought I was calling. Nevertheless, I still feel like they were tried their hardest to get information on the delivery schedule and what was going on. I just got the impression that maybe Duntara was not getting back to them. Anyway, I have filled out a report, and I’ve been told that I’m getting a refund of $300 because Duntara was 10 days late. That was three weeks ago and I have not received anything. The longer we wait, it’s not gonna be that good of a report. I was told that I would be receiving the refund, so I’ve been waiting for it.

Original Review: Oct. 21, 2018

When I was looking at the companies and comparing them, I was finding that the mom-and-pop places seemed really sketchy. I wasn’t sure the price they were gonna give me was gonna be the price it was gonna end up to be. It didn’t necessarily seem like there was gonna be a lot of accountability or sway on anything that I did with them. So I also got quotes from the bigger guys but it was out of my price range. We were relocating quite a distance in a short time period. It was from Albany, New York to Chicago, Illinois and it was during the busiest part of the moving season, and we weren’t really getting any benefit from the company to pay for it. We were on our own so we needed to find something that was in our budget as well as something that we were comfortable enough to choose. That’s why we landed with Colonial. They felt big enough but the price they quoted us wasn’t as bad as the bigger carriers.

I initially worked with someone who gave me my quote and took care of the things from that standpoint. After that, they gave me an account coordinator who was supposed to walk us through the whole move process and on the day of pick up and the day of delivery, they would call, check out how things were going and make sure everything was okay. They were fine except for the fact that they severely underquoted me on how much product I had to be shipped. We were 3,000 pounds over what they had estimated which was definitely a shock from my standpoint. And it definitely drove the price up.

When they did the estimate, they seemed like they just cared about the bigger items of the house, like how many couches and anything that wouldn’t really fit in boxes. Even in reviewing as they took the items out of the house, I accurately represented those items so there wasn’t any surprise items that weren’t in there. I was baffled as to how they didn’t get that correctly. It seemed like it was just boxes of stuff that really drove me over. They’ve counted a certain number of boxes and then I was over by quite a bit.

So I was a little frustrated that they were so far off, and they couldn’t really explain it. They really weren’t willing to do anything about that portion of it either. I expected that they might have apologized that they goofed on their estimating and said that they would split the difference and meet us in between. But that was not what happened. I called the customer service a few times about the price but it really didn’t seem like they were gonna budge or try to do anything about it. Basically, I was stuck at that point. They had my stuff and I had a short time for my move. I was moving so far and other places I talked to were booked out.

We also waited until we were able to close on the house then we made sure that we had the moving company scheduled. We closed on Friday and the moving company was supposed to come some time during the next week to deliver our stuff. But they missed their delivery window and another week and a half passed before I actually got my stuff in the house.

My account coordinator had helped me through the move and talked to me before and after. But during that week of delivery, I never got a call from my account manager to say the delivery was gonna be on Friday or to apologize that Friday was gonna be passed and that it was gonna be Monday or Tuesday. I had to call her to get updates and figure out what was going on. I got to the point where I actually stopped hearing from her, and at that point, I wasn’t getting on the phone at all. I could get people like from calling a random number but I couldn’t get the actual person who was assigned to my account. They were supposed to call and tell me, check during the move and the delivery, and then call me afterwards to make sure everything was okay. But Colonial didn’t do any of that. The only interaction I had at that part was from the van line itself. Even when I finally got a delivery date, it was the actual van line that I had heard from.

Then when the stuff arrived, we found out that the van lines broke a few things, mostly due to bad packing. The TV was broken because they packed it in a box with a blanket instead of with bubble wrap around it. Both of our bed frames were also broken. We weren’t able to put our daughter's crib together either and she's still sleeping in her Pack 'n Play because they didn’t deliver the crib correctly.

Then a week later, we found out that we were still missing some stuff as well. They weren't the big stuff so it was hard to figure out that we were missing these few items. We had a piggy bank for my daughter from her christening and it was stupid on us that we didn’t pull the money out of that before we moved. But during the actual packing of the move, they took $300 out. There were still a couple checks in the piggy bank but most of the money was gone. We were also missing a couple of bottles from my daughter’s room, some puzzles and a few DVDs.

It was a bad experience. The only thing that would have been worse is if they scammed use out of our money and didn’t deliver our stuff. But this is the next closest thing to being in somewhat of a horror story. I complained about it and I did talk to them about claims. A guy called me last week about trying to rectify monetarily and he said he was gonna provide me a document about a fee to round up the thing. But then, I never saw anything emailed to me from him. So even the claims process is falling back on me.

I moved from a single bedroom and according to the list that I gave, their expectation was that I would probably have 24 boxes. I had a loan of $5,000 to do this. I was told it was gonna be $2,800 and I knew it would go up but the actual was $5,200, which was more than I had anticipated. I didn't mind that the price went up though. I had a lot of books and heavy, glass-framed artwork. But part of the reason that the price went up was because the time frame of when I was supposed to have the pickup was not met.

The time frame was a two-day thing. Then out of respect to me, Tyrone added a third day, which was before the two days. But he was very clear. He said that he was just trying for me but he didn't expect that it was gonna happen. But what happened was that the people who were scheduled to come bailed the day before. That wasn't Colonial's fault. But it threw my schedule off for two days which meant that my sister could not come with me. She was gonna drive her own car so there was a whole car load of things that would have not been on the truck.

Also, I had scheduled either the 17th or the 18th to have the pickup because the 19th was my last day at the apartment. But what happened was that I couldn’t leave until after that. So I had to pay more money to the apartment people. I had these extra expenses and when I got the phone call to tell me that the pickup had to be delayed, it was from a woman that I hadn’t talked to at all. She was vivacious, vibrant and cheery. She immediately started saying there would be compensations. She didn’t even flinch and at that moment, I wasn’t even thinking about the expense. But I respected and appreciated that. I thought it was why Colonial was number one. They knew how to handle people. But I never heard from her again.

I couldn’t get Tyrone to get back and talk with her either because by the time Tyrone was aware of what was going on, I was saying there was going to be compensation but he said no because the new peole that they had gotten haven't come late. I told him that Colonial Van Lines is number one for a reason. They had taken care of these problems before. This was not new. This has happened before and there’s a plan. It was not my fault and it was not their fault. But it would matter from the point of view of their reputation of being number one that they know how to handle the situation.

I told him there was someone at their office who was gonna know how to handle this and that he needed to talk to somebody. When he called back and said there was no compensation, I told him to check again. Then he asked me how much I wanted. But at that point, I wasn't aware how expensive it was going to be. I told him something in the vicinity of $325. It was again, push, push, push. He said we would deal with it later but I said I wanted to talk to someone right then. In the end, he offered about $125 and I could have had more had I sent him the bill from the apartment. But here's the thing. I didn’t get anything. It was not like, “We’ll give you a little bit now and we’ll give you a little bit more later.” No. There was no money that came to me. Also, one thing that wasn’t clear was that they would not send a Colonial van.

It’s been a tough go but this does happen. And yet, there was not a contingency plan for when that happens. There needs to be. I would love a gift from Colonial Van Lines. They could have given me $300 and although it isn’t gonna able to cover the difference between $2800 to $5200, they would have had a stronger sense of commitment to the customer. I would have been willing to tell that story. Instead, I’ve got a different story to tell.

The day before the pickup day, we still hadn't heard from the company or driver. This is when Colonial went into full shake and bake. Any call I made was transferred to non-existent departments, full voice mails, fax machines. I was hung up on in the middle of explaining the situation. Luckily I found a corporate email and sent a lengthy comment on just wanting to find out what was going on. The next morning-our pickup day!

Our original Colonial representative called up, and like canceling a coffee date said, "We're sorry, we couldn't find a driver. We're cancelling your move." What?! What kind of national company cancels on the day they are supposed to pick your HHG up? "But we're going to refund your $5,000.00 deposit." You thought you were going to keep it. Luckily we had boxed ourselves up. I ran around and got two of the largest U-Hauls (26 footers) and hired some guys to help pack and did what I had to do to move. Of course, I'm a disabled vet (the reason I wasn't moving myself in the first place) so this was a fun experience. Oh, and since I couldn't fit all my HHG in two U-Hauls, I got to fly back cross country and get another van to bring the rest. If I knew I had a chance I would send the bill to them. Mark my words.

They were very clear and concise with their communications, like when we were getting the date straightened out and when the movers are gonna come, so that was really good. Then on the delivery side, they were good about communicating as well and they were flexible when we needed them to be flexible. And so overall, the move went well. They beat the hell out of the boxes, but there wasn’t anything broken inside so we’re happy about that.