Colonial Van Lines Reviews

The first movers were wonderful and very confident. In fact, he showed me on this one antique table that I have that there was a slight crack. That table was the first thing that came off the truck and it was broken. Somewhere out there, my stuff was unloaded and reloaded and the other people weren't aware of the tenderness of that table and it got damaged! I had talked to them and they said that I could fill out forms. I only paid $26 on that antique but it was an antique table. I had mostly boxes, so I didn't feel the need to ensure the load because some of the things were new. Even the guys complimented me on how well I packed. Also, I felt like there were always little add-ons from the salesman but I was naive. Colonial said that they were gonna contact the salesperson but that was just lip service to appease me. I have another move coming up and Colonial just lost it.

There was a web page which gave good descriptions of things that we might have, wherein I could plug in numbers of different items. We just filled it in and then submitted it and they gave us a low and a high quote and we hit about the middle. We were able to get a good idea of what it would cost and we knew ahead of time to be able to secure some money to do that.

Our contact person at Colonial walked us through the process and provided the hand-out that was filled with how much, what the items are etc. Then there was a young lady who was the real contact person when the move started. She was really helpful. She stayed on top of the company who did the move. However, they didn't communicate some things to her. She wasn't aware of it until she contacted me. So, she did a follow up and got it back on track for ourselves. It is important that she did that and I appreciated her for doing that. My overall experience was good. I'm glad to have somebody else to do the move for us and Colonial was very helpful.

Original Review: Oct. 9, 2018

This is a horrible company. They made such amazing promises to us and broke almost every single one of them. Firstly they lied when they CONFIRMED when the movers would come which threw off our entire schedule forcing us to get a hotel with a newborn and two cats. The movers themselves, outsourced which we were told wouldn't be a thing, were soooooooooo unprofessional. They complained about packing things we had specified, complained how heavy our mattress was, and overall were aggressive. They also smoked in the bed of the truck amongst all my furniture, and caused numerous other damages with their mishandling of our items. I've never had a more stressful move. This company is also refusing to give us the compensation we are asking for. If you don't prefer stress and like your things do not use this company.

We moved furniture out of Mexico, so I used an importer-exporter. Colonial picked it up for my importer-exporter in San Diego and brought it to me in Wisconsin. The drop off was great and the two guys were wonderful. We had little light rain which broke in between so they had to come right down the hill and put it in garage or in the basement. But they got here a day early and gave me an advanced notice for that.

This time, I took my chances with Colonial Van Lines. Three different people worked with us and they were all really good. I liked the beginning, the middle and the end. The people were really buttoned down and they were really good in terms of the follow-up. They called me a couple of days after the move and asked how everything was going. The quote was also reasonable and when the weight ended up being less than we thought, they rebated that money back. We had moved 4,000 pounds from Houston to Sarasota, which was not much. But we're moving down there over a period of time and that was the stuff we wanted to keep. On the move itself, the guy was running late but that was because the order ended up being 1,000 pounds more than what he was told it would be. Other than that, the whole thing went very well. I’m surprised how well it went.

Now three weeks later the service agent can't even get a reply from the driver regarding our delivery. We have called or emailed Colonial Van Lines practically every day to try and find out when our goods would be delivered. At this point, when the agent does call us, all she can say is "I can't get hold of the driver." The lack of transparency is appalling - if our household goods are lost or stolen tell us. I don't care that they subcontracted this work to NuLyfe, another terrible company out of Atlanta GA. I guess our next step is to pursue the tedious legal avenues available to us. I could never recommend this company and plan to file an official compliant with every state and federal agency that holds their license. If anyone has recommendations on how to handle this situation please post a reply.

We could afford to get this fixed ourselves. When I was discussing it with him, he cut me off and then tried to switch around what I was saying. He said one of their guys didn’t do it. I even gave them the name of the person who did it. I said his brother was driving, this guy backing and he opened the door. He probably didn’t mean it, but he did do it. And there was damage on one of our dresser mirrors. I know it wasn’t there before. They were frustrating. But the representative from Colonial was always great in getting back to me, whether it be phone, email or whatnot. She would follow-up and when she said she would call back, she did. So, I liked that.

I have moved many times in my life and have never had a two day window for pick up. Long story short, and severe stress on our end, I had to pay a mover $1300 more for a last minute move. I expressed this to a Colonial "executive" and told him they should pay me the difference. They should. It was not our fault that Colonial was BREACH OF CONTRACT on this deal. This is not over for me. The stress caused by their ineptness is unacceptable for anyone in their business. That lack of follow through so unprofessional. The inability to tell me in a timely manner that a truck was not available unacceptable. And I found that out only because I called them for answers.

I called to speak to a manager at 9 am on a business day and was told 4 were working but none could come to the phone. I called again this morning and as I write this, have been on hold for a manager for 21 minutes. So again, let the buyer beware. Do not try to save money and use them as your mover. You will spend more in the long run.

When I spoke to the rep on 9/19 to tell him the date which I decided to move and finalize the cost of moving my car and household goods, which was 9/26th. I then asked him to cancel the job order because I felt if this company is dishonest about thing like this, I better be off with other. Next day Paul ** from company assurance department reached out assuring me that he will fix the situation and give them another chance. Because of earlier incident with previous rep, I was meticulous about the precess of move. I disclosed numbers of moving items and my apartment being on 4th floor with no elevator. I asked numerous time if the total we decided will be change, he assured me by saying unless I added large items like household appliance, it will be what it's quoted.

I was then supposed to be contacted by dispatcher in regards to appointment time for moving date/time and after sending out numerous emails to its company, my assigned dispatcher contacted me said the moving guys will be here next day @ 7 am, which was 10 hrs away. The moving day finally come and when the third party hired moving staff came in, he gave me the invoice with almost $1000 increased from the price, I was told. It was so appalling but since it was 7 am, I couldn't contact company to speak with my dispatcher. I quickly sent email to Paul asking him to response. Meanwhile one of moving staff was throwing up thru my hallway window and they was rolling off my moving boxes from 4th floor to ground level.

It was a nightmare. The staff said how Colonial Van Lines is never good with communication and they were never told about walk upstairs and boxes indicated are all based in medium sized boxes so there will be extra charge. What the moving staff was saying was completely not true, I went over the details with Paul many times. Later that day Mena from the company called asking about the move, I explained to her what has happened, she said she will investigate and get in touch with me next day which will be Thursday.

There was no follow up and I have left numerous messages and emails and I have not heard from the company. It's 9/29 and I have no idea where my household goods are nor when they will get to my destination. I have not been sleeping because I feel like I have been deceived not once twice from this company. This company is not even a small back of truck company, this is substantial sized operation. I need to get this problem addressed and resolved asap.

Closer to the move, the account manager calls. She mentioned that once I have a place to move I have to inform her and she will coordinate with the truck and get my stuff. That's when she mentioned that they will have a window within which they will deliver. I said but if I needed it on a specific date, why would I pay for additional days it sat on the storage. She mentioned that I'll only pay for the date I had requested rather than their actual delivery date (I hope they will at least keep this up).

The movers came. They were ok. I only wish they hadn't used my plastic wrapper and tapes. The mover told me that they will weight after the pickup and Colonial will give me the actual price based on the weight. Damn the salesperson talk. Ok, I'll at least know the actual price once they weigh. I found my apartment for 9/10 and informed the account manager on 8/27. She had asked me to give two weeks notice so she can work out the time with the truck driver. Today is 9/16 (three weeks since I informed), she has no idea where my stuff is and what my final price will be and when my stuff will really make it.

They keep telling me that my window to get my stuff starts on 9/10 and ends on 9/22. I don't know why they needed two weeks notice before the start window of that "window" and wonder why the account manager to this minute couldn't get hold of the driver to find where my stuff is and when it will reach me. Someone from Colonial called after I took their online survey and told me that their account manager is one of the best and actively working with the driver. The account manager never returns my call or emails.

Either the sales team and the delivery team doesn't talk to each other on how they operate or else? Either ways, this is the most horrible moving experience I have ever had. I just hope I get my stuff soon. I'm going to keep calling them up this week. I'll update the review after that. So choose Colonial Van lines if you want to add more to the already stressful move.

Original Review: Sept. 5, 2018

I think I have some similar complaints as most people with a bad moving experience except I think it is still good to share our particular experience because we have had such a difficult time and continue to with Colonial Van Lines and their subcontractor West Coast Relocation. Despite all of the research we had done beforehand, we thought we had made a sound decision, so we're not prepared at all for the continual customer service and logistical problems that arose. One of the biggest concerns we had is they sent a confidentiality agreement to me to get the refund for the amount I was overcharged at delivery. The agreement had I signed, would not have allowed me to submit any reviews or further complaints regarding my experience with their services, many of which you can read about below.

Based on the numerous issues I have had during my cross-country move, it is hard not to think I was overcharged so that I would have to sign a confidentiality agreement to silence me from being able to tell you all the things that went wrong with my move. Also, please be aware we have had to submit claims for damages and lost items that have not been resolved to date.

Here is a list of things that went wrong: Charged more than invoiced. Provided a Confidentiality Agreement that must be signed to receive a refund of overpayment that would not allow for further recourse. Items held hostage unless I paid what they asked for. Pickup date was moved twice. Delivery took four weeks, 9-days past the delivery window, during which time the account manager could not provide information about where our belongings were or provide an estimated delivery date for over 2 weeks after the pick-up.

Movers broke furniture when loading. Items were lost, and I was told “they were looking for them,” which is difficult to understand when we were told our belongings were not taken off the truck they were picked up on. Items wrapped by Colonial were damaged in transport and some items were not wrapped properly or at all. Nothing packed by us were damaged. Account manager never met any of the “8-step relocation process” they outline. If we had not emailed or called to stay on top of the situation, I wonder if we would have received our belongings at all. Account manager provided conflicting information multiple times, which decreased our confidence significantly. Account manager was difficult get a hold of and rarely responded to messages. The supervisor (account manager’s boss) never responded after multiple messages.

Here are details of what happened… After paying the deposit nothing went right. The sales agent was very responsive, answered all questions, and made us feel that Colonial would be the best fit for us. It turns out the sales agent was just a great salesperson. Once we paid the deposit, we were handed over to the account manager and nothing went right. The original terms were a pickup window of July 7th/8th and a delivery window of July 18th through 27th.

The pickup date changed twice. When we paid the deposit, the pickup date was set for a two-day window of July 7th/8th. About a week before the pickup date, we were informed that the pickup window has been moved to the 9th/10th. Then on July 5th we were informed that the move date was moved back to July 8th. Having to adjust on short notice was nerve-racking but we made it work and we were ready for the pickup. Colonial does not have any trucks. They are a sales/marketing group that arranges sub-contractors. We were told that all the sub-contractors are “A-rated” but later I found out that there is no rating system for movers. The subcontractor which picked up our belongings was West Coast Relocation.

The day before the move, the driver confirmed that he will arrive between 9 and noon on July 8th (Sunday) He did not show until after noon. He called us in the morning saying that he was just minutes away but was waiting for his boss to call with the location of the scale. I would think that a professional mover would have researched the closest scale in advance and not start looking for it once they arrive. Also, we had no way of contacting Colonial during the pick-up to find out what was going on with the pick-up. The Account Manager assured us she would call the day off to make sure everything went well and did not.

The movers were very rushed to get the job done and scuffed walls and scratched floors. They broke one of two bookshelves before it even got on the truck. We expect efficiency but more importantly, care for our belongings. It was pre-arranged that they would package bookshelves, dining table, mattress (Tempurpedic to be stored flat per manufacturer instructions), desks, TV, etc. We paid extra for the proper boxes for our TV and desk tops. Our expectation was that they would use specialty boxes but instead they used moving blankets, cut cardboard and plastic wrap. We were very disappointed in the way things looked as they were being loaded into the truck, but they ensured us that everything was being well protected. In the end, we should have packed everything ourselves and not trusted them with boxing and wrapping.

The inventory documentation was essentially illegible. Luckily, we had inventoried all the boxes and had our record sheet, so we could account for all our boxes. I suggest anyone moving to make their own inventory sheet including any items which the movers will package and stay with the person who is creating the inventory list so that you don’t struggle with trying to figure out if anything is missing. We didn’t want to get in the mover’s way, but we should have stayed on top of them to ensure a legible and accurate list. This was our first cross country move and we expected based on the sales person’s overview of services, the movers would have done an accurate inventory. The movers were sticking number stickers on items, but as we found out later did not match up to anything.

The account manager was supposed to follow up on the day of the pickup but since it was a Sunday she said she will follow-up on Monday. We did not hear from her until Wednesday after leaving multiple messages. We told her about the issues we had with the pickup and that we expect smoother and better communication moving forward but this did not happen, and their customer service was poor.

Our account manager didn’t know where our truck was at any time. As we waited for delivery, we would ask our account manager for the location of our belongings, but she would not tell us where our items were. The answer we would get was a delivery date. Originally, we were told the items should arrive early in the delivery window but as the dates got closer the delivery date kept getting further and further out. Finally, when it was just days before the end of the delivery window, the account manager said that the truck had some mechanical issues and is in the “agent’s” warehouse in California. I calculated that they would not make it within the delivery window. I was told that we would get $30 off for each day past the delivery window which doesn’t make up for the bad customer service and not having my belongings for a month.

Also, we were told she did not know where the truck was, when in fact it was in CA the whole 3 weeks that we were waiting for updates. It is hard not to think we were being misdirected to cover up for either her lack of follow-up, their inability to work with their own subcontractor (we were told at one point the account manager could not reach the subcontractor for information) and/or being misdirected to cover the fact Colonial has not properly vetted their subcontractors.

The account manager’s lack of attention to detail was staggering. Not only could she not tell us where the truck was she kept telling us the close of the delivery window is the 29th. She never moved the window back after moving the pickup back to the original window. I had to argue with her over and over about this. Towards the end a different supervisor contacted us and agreed the 27th is the close of the window. This supervisor was not the original supervisor I was given the contact information for but was someone who contacted us after we left feedback about our experience in a survey we received to rate our experience at pick-up.

When things were going nowhere with the account manager, I was able to get her supervisor’s extension. I called and left four messages over a few days and never got a response. The supervisor which we did connect with called us after we completed a survey where we outlined all the issues we had to that point which was before we even got our belongings. This new supervisor was nice on the first call but fell off after that and almost never responded again. She promised that the delivery window was moved back to the 27th and the “agent” (subcontractor) has been notified and a discount of $30 per day will be taken off.

As we waited we were given a final invoice based on the original estimate because the document from the subcontractor showing the final weight was illegible. When the truck finally arrived on August 5th, 9 days past the delivery window, we were supposed to pay the total, equal to the original estimate, minus $270 for 9 days late. However, the driver did not have any information on this. Since it was a Sunday, there were no people at the Colonial office answering and could not verify the discounts. The driver threatened to leave if I did not pay and I was forced to pay more than what was promised by Colonial to get my belongings. When I contacted Colonial the next day, they told us we would get a refund.

The refund was to be shared between Colonial and West Coast Relocations. To this day, we have not received any refund from either one. Colonial is requiring us to sign a “Full and Final Settlement Agreement, Release of Liability, And Confidentiality Agreement” which states that all activities between Colonial and West Coast Relocation is complete and we would not file any claims, complaints, or grievances against them and all communications, documents, and correspondence would become confidential. We do not agree to this as we should not have to sign anything to receive the compensation which is promised to us and since we have outstanding claims for damages and lost items.

When the truck finally arrived, we were horrified by how the items were not loaded as promised. We saw the mattress standing on end and dirty, and the legs of the dining table (family heirloom) unprotected and shoved on top and against the side. When the items were unloaded we found the legs of the table scratched and top chipped. Desks were scratched, and bookcases dented or destroyed. Thankfully the TV seems to have been unscathed which was a miracle. On a happy note, the things which we packed were undamaged.

Colonial lost items. At the end, we were missing a box spring, large hamper full of miscellaneous items, step ladder, and side table. These are all items we trusted them to package and get to us safe. All boxes we packaged are accounted for, probably because we used a bright yellow duct-tape to number each box. When we followed up with Colonial to find the lost items they told us they are following up with the “agent” and will get back to us. I asked them to outline what Colonial and the “agent” was doing to find out items, and they did not have any answer except that they contacted the “agent.” We have pictures of our table taped to the ceiling of the truck in some sort of suspension, not wrapped in any protective blankets. In my opinion they should be fully responsible for the damaged items considering they wrapped them.

In the end we filed a claim for the missing and damaged items. They have up to 120 days to complete the claim. We have no confidence that they will compensate anything for the items lost and damaged since the process goes through Colonial. In addition, we trusted they would have some quality assurance in place, but poorly wrapped and not wrapped items and items and their poor inventory process has left us with damaged and lost heirlooms. To top it off, not one person we talked to seemed to care at all about our items as if they were just moving.

Updated on 10/17/2018: Colonial contacted me two months after my items arrived to "resolve" the issues we had. These issues included late delivery, overcharging, attempt to silence with an NDA, broken items, lost items, unresponsive staff, etc. It took a month, nine days past the delivery window, to have my items delivered. After discussing this with the staff member who contacted me, she said she will review it with her boss and get back to me. The offer was a few hundred dollars and to update my review to show that all issues were resolved.

I didn't feel comfortable with the terms of the "resolution" and therefore turned it down. It wasn't just about the money. Although there probably is a price which they could pay to make me feel better about the heirlooms which were lost or damaged, they don't seem to be doing anything to improve themselves to make sure these things don't keep happening. The whole industry of movers is already skewed in their favor with little to nothing in terms of recourse for the customer. Once your items are on the truck you are at their mercy to pay what they demand. The moving companies have no liability to keep your items safe or accounted for. The liability is placed on the customer by purchasing additional insurance or the default insurance based on pennies to the pound.

In all our discussions, Colonial could not tell me how they will try to locate my lost items. I was forced to enter a claim which they can take up to 120 days to process. Colonial had a great opportunity to win my confidence back but they just want to throw money at me. Unfortunately, the money they offer doesn't come close to resolving my issues. I feel that in any other industry, this type of negligence wouldn't be resolved in a refund for a fraction of the total paid. They could be an industry leader with policies which could change the industry but instead, they stay with the norm and take no responsibility or liability for their actions.

1. The Statement “Bidding Fee” is not related to bidding or non-bidding price, they neither respected the 100% (bidding), or 110% (non-bidding). You fundamentally will pay per pound, just as simple as it. So, look for companies that go and quote in your location, avoid this SCAM. 2. Mrs. Dee ** called me several times, I recorded some that I attended in my computer, insistently enforcing an additional full-value insurance. I did it partially, and after I received information from **, I notified Mrs. ** among others in the Colonial that the Driver should verify the condition of my TVs before and after moving; otherwise, the insurance would be automatically voided.

Colonial crew and their third-party driver fully ignored it, I paid for a voided insurance. Mr. ** (Colonial) said that if TVs were broken, I would be compensating by pounds only, and the Moving Insurance said that it is voided. I may not call it a SCAM, but certainly you have to avoid this sort of incompetent company that allows you pay for something that will not be covered anyhow.

3. Aside of delays, after all my belongings were fully inside the truck, Onyxx Driver (Mr. **) used an intimidating way to say “I used some extra wrapping here and there, you have to pay me, not to the company once it is between you and me, 350 USD by cash or check”, we ending on 150 USD of pure extortion. I reported it to Colonial, and Colonial said that they are not responsible for their Drivers or partners, the driver said it was a Tip. How a tip would be during the loading, 150 USD for a tip? I questioned, and Mrs. ** was not very polite in say that Colonial is not responsible for drivers and partners. You can still hire Colonial; would you be willing to be a victim of extortion? No Colonial action on this? Would you put your family or yourself in risk based on this? Mr. ** (Onyxx Movers) practice extortion under Colonial brand, with no actions at all.

4. Among other problems, we had… a. Low Staff and unqualified, complaining all the time when delivery was upstairs. b. Onyxx had a crew that was throwing my sofa cushion downstairs, in a dirty floor. c. They were not able to delivery in total, they asked “using pressure” to help unload the truck. 9:30 pm, no one from Colonial were available to support complains. Mr. ** from Onyxx, said that if I would not help, they would need to charge more to return thereafter. d. Several boxes were not delivered upstairs, and just few labeled boxes in the right place, I asked them to move, and they asked for extra money to do it. Again, Colonial seems not responsible for partners. e. Mr. ** (Driver) said that I should avoid brokers like Colonial Van Lines, and this moving could be done with him for less than a half that I paid.

In summary, I would recommend to a friend to STAY AWAY from Colonial, worse moving experience I ever had, they trap your moving with high deposit, acting like a broker without previous notice, hire unqualified and main DISHONEST partners, offering no warranty on their service or partners acting under their brand. WOULD YOU RISK YOURSELF?

At the end of the day, as a customer I have been totally FOOLED, wherein I have paid $4.76 per cubic feet (5,574 * 0.68 = $3,912.73 divided by 822 (total cubic ft)) where this estimate (given by me) was an absolutely on a higher side v/s the actual estimate which would be even lesser than 4,000 pounds (e.g. the actual boxes numbers were around 50 boxes, and the estimate was 90 boxes, so I should pay only for the reduced weight). So the Grand total finally is $3,632.68 (which includes $3,332.8 (as per 700 cubic feet) + $299.88 (Gas)), as mentioned in 'Interstate bill of landing contract and Order for service' - as attached. I am now extremely worried about all my household items as the way he has left from the house with all the heated arguments, seems like my household items will never reach to Texas and it's customer who will always suffer to pay more than what the actual amount is as per the weight.

For more escalations: 1. Because of the aggressive nature, he forcefully made me sign 'Post contract services order form' today after the load, which after real heated arguments we fortunately got back the form. 2. Bryan (driver) and his boss (Lucas and Tony from Home Van Lines company), all were threatening us that if you don't sign right now or agree with the terms (grand total) , "We are going to off-load all the items and then you figure out all the things with Colonial Van Lines". He also mentioned, "now while delivering all these items you will be charged will all sorts of expenses as mentioned in Post contract services order form" today after the load document.

3. I mentioned 100 times to the driver (Bryan), Lucas and Tony, to mention in writing about the deposit which I have already paid - $1,675.76 in the forms I signed, but they have not agreed to mention this amount anywhere, instead threatened us all the times to off-load all the home items back and figuring out with Colonial Van Lines. GUYS, please help me as a genuine customer please come out of this whole mess and ONLY CHARGE THAT AMOUNT, which is genuine and not a legitimate amount.

Maybe because it was a Sunday, I tried reaching out to Carol, Natasha and Chris and unfortunately nobody was available to help me as a customer, come out of this mess, in spite of repeated voice messages. Extremely frustrated and saddened on this whole process. I want to make sure that my goods reach on time (08/21/2018 - 09/05/2018) and yes NOBODY (TRUCK) has even come here to pick up my CAR, nor I got a call from the driver anytime since last couple of days!

Updated on 09/11/2018: Delivery issue: 2nd window (Sept 7th - Sept 9th 2018) - not delivered. 3rd window (Sept 10th - Sept 11th 2018) - not delivered. 4th window (Sept 15th - Sept 16th 2018 - coming weekend) - not sure whether it will be delivered or otherwise. Honestly, as a customer - I don't know what to do, have escalated my concern in emails, telephonic conversations, text messages, however I don't know whether my home goods really exists or not. Escalated the delayed delivery to the Home Van Lines folks (Lucas and Tony), however no actions.

The current driver (Robert), seems like working for a local Texas company (3rd party), is not a Home Van Lines person / Driver. He is just under the impression that he will off-load all the goods at the address (McKinney, Tx) and get done with it. Who is going to dismantle (e.g. Bed frames / Other items)? Carol from Colonial Van Lines is aware about the contract between Mihir ** and Colonial Van Lines, that the process of dismantlement is involved in my contract as well.

Refund issue: I really appreciate Teheria (Director, from Colonial Van Lines) who worked with me diligently to process the 'initial refund' ($780) with the agreement which I had to sign that, I will 'delete all my reviews on Consumer Affairs' and I signed that 'initial agreement' with an crystal clear assumption that 'the action will be taken once the goods are delivered on time and no items is misplaced, however refer to the delivery issue as above.

A week before I got a call from a lady from Colonial Van Lines - Kim / Krislin (sorry, not sure of the name), saying that my 'revised refund' is going to be $598 ($182 less than the 'initial refund') which I have not yet signed (obviously since my goods are not yet delivered), so my question to the Colonial Van Lines management is 'who is going to compensate customer about the expenses he is spending (e.g. by eating outside / Buying goods to suffice the kitchenware items, which are supposed to be delivered via the truck back on Sept 5th, 2018???). When asked this question to this lady Kim / Krislin, she mentioned - "I am only going to talk about the refund, and not the delivery." So you are just concerned about the money (how much less you can refund to the customer) and are not concerned about your quality of service??? That's ridiculous!!!

Ultimately as a customer, I am exactly at the same position which I was from Aug 21st (1st delivery window), where I am still without my household goods, not sure about what is the condition of those goods and even after paying each and every penny (full money for this kind of service), spending on extra expenses which was not supposed to be done had the truck come on time, where I am just escalating, escalating and escalating, still no answers / Actions except "I apologies and period", and an insane refund without giving a guarantee on when the goods will be delivered. That is all that I wanted to say and I have kept of saying since a good long time now, let's see where this actions takes me or my goods to?

I got called from their trucker or mover’s dispatch around 7/11, and he asked me the delivery window again. I told it should be 7/14-7/15 because of my business travel, and he said that’s too short to arrange because their minimum delivery window should be 6 days. I told him it’s ok to keep the current delivery window as 7/14-7/19 because I could ask one of my colleague to receive the delivery for me. I got noticed the delivery wouldn’t be made during my request window around 7/12 once I called to their customer care. My packages were not even departed from CA at that time, and they were planned to departing CA during the weekend (7/14~).

I was in Pennsylvania at the time and came back to Dallas TX during the weekend just for my initial delivery plan, and had to go back to Pennsylvania again on 7/16, and tried to make another delivery appointment for the following weekend (7/21-7/22). It was ok by then because I already took the risk of miss delivery with my initial delivery request. But, when I checked back with their customer service on 7/16 and heard my packages were still not departed CA, my disappointment begun. She said she would update me once it’s planned to move my packages, and there’s no any update until I called back to them on 7/19 or 7/20. She said although my packages were still in CA, they would be departed at least during the weekend (7/21-7/22) because the last day of my 15 days window will be 7/28.

I again came back from my business travel on 7/20 to prepare to receive my packages on the following weekdays or weekend. I never doubt it because the last day of delivery window will be anyway 7/28. When I checked with them on 7/25 (it was pretty hard to reach out to them), my packages were still in AZ and their mover was trying to deliver another customer’s stuff and there’s no even plan to depart AZ at that time until they completed another customer’s delivery. She also said they would compensate for the dates over the delivery window, but I don’t know how they could compensate for the mess that they caused on my packages. I had spent frequent flight cost to return back from my business travel, and I was having to staying at hotel even though my apt lease has been started from 7/14 just because they had not yet to bring my stuffs here to Dallas.

Finally, my packages were delivered on 8/11, after 44 days from my initial delivery request, with some damages or missing stuff (end table, fan, lamp, box springs were damaged, and dining table's legs were missing). They have deducted $30/day compensation for the delay for 13 days when I had to spend more than $2,000 additional money for the delay. The worst things are the salesperson as well as the customer care agent could not be even reached out from the end of July until my packages were delivered. I'm now processing for the damage claim, and I do not even know how long this will be taken or if it will be processed.

Original Review: Aug. 19, 2018

Even though they asked what furniture I had and sent someone out to look at all of my furniture, the subcontracted movers did not come with enough moving blankets for all the furniture and then charged me for the boxes they use to wrap furniture. They will still not protect all of your furniture leading to damage. My dining room chairs were not wrapped or some shelving units. I was quoted $3825 for the move which became $4819.

YOU MUST approve anything they may overcharge you because the company they sub the job out to will not begin moving your items until you sign saying you approve ALL charges. Then they will underpack boxes so they have to use move boxes. I was quoted the need for 16 boxes, they ended up using 53. Two months of back and forth emails never solved the problems and they just ignore my emails at that point. They will switch customer representatives on you so you have to start the process of your claim all over.

Colonial Van Lines was on top of everything, but maybe too much to a point that I've been getting calls when they got something. Also, the driver would call saying what he got. Nevertheless, they were there on time in delivery. They came on Friday and delivered on Monday. I had to race to get down there. They put my stuff in the garage and offered to bring them inside. It wasn't necessary but they brought some stuff inside. I was happy with the driver and the guys.

Original Review: Aug. 16, 2018

I deposited (a significant sum) a month ago with Colonial to move my relatively small load across country. I did not seek other quotes and did not shop around. Agent told me that a truck was assigned if I deposited by the end of that day so I rushed. My pick up window was between August 6th to the 8th and as of today, the 15th it does not seem as if Colonial is making any attempt to ship our belongings. On the 9th, I was told that I would receive compensation against my final bill for each day after the original pick up window, but it seems as if they are counting on my cancelling my contract in order to get my deposit back. I just want our things to be moved so my family can start the school year. At this point I do not trust Colonial to either move our things or follow through on the credit that they committed to on the 9th.

Over the last two weeks, I've spoken to a number of kind people. I don't think the individuals are necessarily incompetent, but it is clear that Colonial doesn't have the resources to follow through on their agreement. Today I received a message to call them back ASAP. When I returned the call, an agent looked my account and said there was a "technical issue" and they would have to call me back. I have learned that "technical issue" is a phrase they use when they look and see that there is bad news they don't want to share at the time. No one returned my call. When I called late in the day, the customer service rep informed me that they were no longer looking for a driver since the extended window had passed... That is unless I asked them to continue to look for a driver.

This has been an extraordinary bizarre experience and it is shocking to me that a business can operate like this. I rate them one star in every category because they have not even picked up my belongings which they committed to move with no idea of when they might pick them up. The review is nothing personal, I simply regret wasting so much time and money with Colonial and posting a review is the only thing I know left to do to get them to follow through with my move.

I called Colonial and wasn't able to get in touch with the agent but the operator said she would leave them a message but she could see that the move had been contracted out since they didn't have a truck in the area. They never told me that they contracted out to local movers until this call and this is where the nightmare really took off. That Tuesday I was up early to head to the house to meet the movers and instead of showing up at 8 AM like they said they showed up around 11 AM. I immediately asked the supervisor where the others were as it was only him and his teenage son. This house that we moved into took four guys a whole day to move out of our previous place and move it over so I knew for two people it was going to be a workout even though I had most of the boxes and furniture all located in the garage, dining room and living room which was a straight shot out through the garage door.

The agent did call me and asked how it was going and I told him that only two showed up and he told me that it was supposed to be four guys loading and one supervisor to do inventory paperwork and not just the guy and his son. I was told that this would be resolved immediately which took almost four hours before anybody else showed up. In the process I watched this guy and his son bringing my washer and dryer units down the stairs on a dolly without straps securing the units to the dolly. I was dumbfounded and angry seeing this as the units were bouncing on the dolly as they were bringing it down unstrapped and unprotected. I also watched the teenage son sliding boxes down the stairs. When two more guys showed up I watched one guy stand our sofa sleeper on its side and then it fell over onto a recliner. It wasn't until almost 8 PM that they finally got everything loaded up and everybody was heading out.

I went through the place before they left and picked up numerous discarded tape rolls that they used to tape furniture pads with. Using tape was ok but then just throwing them on the floor just made more work for me to pick up. The last movers used wide shrink wrap instead of tape and didn't discard the used rolls on the floors. This move took them more time to load than it took another company to load and unload when we moved into the place and the one local moving company we had used before had a lot harder move as it was a condo unit that they had to walk through down a winding sidewalk to the truck and then when unloading a lot of stuff they had to carry up the stairs. The next day they showed up in Utah and it was the same main guy and one guy that showed up at 3 PM. While unloading they dropped boxes down on the floor which caused boxes to split open.

Boxes that they brought in on the dolly were not strapped or securely held while bringing them upright so the boxes caved in as they had very light boxes on the bottom and heavy boxes on top. A lot of the boxes were brand new and were very well packed luckily as by the time they were done the boxes looked like they had been through a battle scene of destruction. We had wardrobe boxes that had been through multiple moves and still almost looked brand new before they loaded and unloaded them as we had to throw them away as they tore them up by ramming the dolly into them and slicing up the bottoms. The main guy brought a solid wood microwave cart off of the truck and I watched him run it right into the curb and then he tipped it up to check the area for damage. I was looking through the doorway and saw him move the mat away from the caster and you could tell the caster was broken off.

He tried to hide it but you could tell it was broken. Then later when bring in some furniture this guy had the never to say that when you have big heavy furniture you better expect having damaged furniture or scuffed up walls during the move. This had to be the most stressful move my wife and I have ever done and usually we get a U-Haul and have a local team load but we didn't want to do this. We didn't do this because of the drive we would have to do with a 26' truck and a large trailer and then still have to figure out how to get another vehicle to Utah. Between all of the stress, watching them damage our property, listening to rude comments by the one person and just the unprofessional attitude of the guys.

Also, there was a manager named Natalie who assisted me in the beginning. She took my order and helped me put together an estimate of everything. When it was getting to the time of the move, that was handed over to somebody else. However, my movers came on the 4th of July and Colonial's offices were closed. I ended up having some worries and problems. One point of dissatisfaction was I was not made aware, or I didn't see a line in all the paperwork that I signed that said, that the work could be subcontracted out. I was taken aback that the movers that came weren't actually with Colonial Van Lines, so it was a little discouraging to me because I thought that there was a good opportunity for Colonial to lose control of the situation if they are subcontracting out the work.

The guy that came was very nice and very professional, but he wanted cash up front and he said that it was to pay his movers. I was taken aback again because it was the 4th of July and the banks were closed. I didn't know if I was getting scammed or if that was okay. Nobody had told me that that might happen. I've spoken to him two times before and he never told me that he would like to have some cash in advance to pay for his moving crew. He wanted $400, so I ran around to three different ATMs to try to get enough. A fraud alert was triggered on my debit card because of all of those activities and that pissed me off.

I also had a point of confusion because I asked the driver how the weight was calculated. He said that before he came here, the van was empty and he had it weighed, but before they even started putting things in the truck, I looked inside the van and it was already a third full with some of the other stuff. I wondered why he told me that the van was empty. I was worried that I might be getting doubled ditched or that he was charging from the weight of the other person's move as well. He showed me the sheet that showed the weight, but I couldn't figure out how the time was calculated either when the weighing was done. That was a little worrisome because the move was expensive.

But all in all, he did a very good job. Everything was very well wrapped, although there was only one thing broken. It was a bird bath that they had put on the floor without any padding and it broke in half. It was not a big deal with the worth of my time to file a claim and given that I got reimbursed by the pound, I probably would have gotten $5 back at the most. Given everything else, smooth without incident, the move was good.

I would recommend Colonial Van Lines, but it really comes down to the luck of the draw in what actual moving company is contracted with. I would have been happier if the work hadn't been subcontracted out. To me, that is a wildcard and Colonial has a lot of opportunities to lose a lot of control there. I went with the big name because I thought that they're professionals and that they do this all the time. I also thought they have control over the whole things. Still, once they start sub-contracting out, it gets to be an issue for me. If somebody shows up to my friends' door and they're not wearing Colonial Van Lines shirt and a baseball cap, that would prevent me from recommending. Nevertheless, the overall set up went very well.

I kept calling Colonial Van Lines to find out where my things were and I finally got an answer of my things would be there in a week! In a week? It had now been 45 days so now wait another week? WOW!! So my things were finally on the way then I get a call that the movers had been in a wreck and needed to bring my half of my things so they could go back and get the rest with another PENSKE TRUCK!!! WHAT? AND WANTED ME TO PAY THEM BEFORE I GOT MY THINGS!! WHAT??!! Well that did not happen and now they are here wanting to unload. I told them I wanted ALL of my things before they got payment. They started to unload one of the trucks and what a SHOCK to see my stuff literally thrown in the back of this truck. As they unloaded there was not a piece of my FINE FURNITURE that was not damaged. Not a picture or mirror not broken, family photo albums destroyed. Antique furniture destroyed. Every box damaged.

My furniture has mildew because it had been wet, my solid oak furniture ruined because my stuff was not kept in a climate controlled warehouse like they had stated. THEY THREW MY STUFF WHEREVER AND HOWEVER THEY WANTED TO... OMG!! My life vanished in front of me. I contacted the crooks over at Colonial Van lines and they state that they will not pay for anything because I did not pay the the additional 5K for the extended insurance. Now I entrusted this company and felt like I should not need this insurance because after all they have been in business for 53 years. WRONG!!! Do not use this company if you want your things back in the same condition that they picked it in. I have more pictures if anyone would like to see the damage.

The movers he set up for our move was SSM Movers. Tony and his crew were very friendly, and also very good handling our move. They were very hard workers and packed things neatly and secure. I couldn't ask for a better crew to handle our possessions. When they arrived they were there when they said they would be. If we were to move again, we would work with Drexell and also request Tony and crew with SSM Movers to handle the move. The only surprise we had was when we accepted our things it was heavier than we expected. Tony told me it was probably because the boxes were heavier than normal. The price was higher than we originally had quoted, but we had several more boxes than Colonial knew and it was our doing that the price was more and was acceptable to us. Very happy with the move from start to finish. Thank you.

Now, they are requiring payment of the final bill without a scheduled delivery date - AND this final bill includes a laughable "settlement" offer for the breach of contract and delay, but is more than the final bill provided to me after the goods were picked up and weighed. They originally offered a settlement of $30/day delayed. I countered with a very reasonable request for reimbursement of my lodging costs during the delay. The final bill included a settlement of only $9/day, less than a third of the original offer. They are holding my goods hostage. Worst move of my life. They are dishonest and incompetent at best.

Joe **

Original Review: July 25, 2018

Well, let me just say first: I am glad this is over with. It’s been about 6 weeks and I can be more objective in my observations. I moved from Arkansas to New Mexico, with the household goods leaving AR on 6/9, and arriving in NM on 6/11. My initial contact with Colonial was April 2018. I spoke with Paul **. We went over the household inventory and I received an estimate for move with packing services. I was initially scheduled on a move window of 6/4 a 6/8. I came to NM to start work 5/14, with the plan to fly back to AR on 6/2 to be there for the packing and loading, pick up my family and leave for NM as soon as the truck was loaded. I was contacted by my moving coordinator Shari ** on 5/31, in that conversation she explicitly stated “your window has been narrowed to 6/5 or 6/6, and I will call you, for certain by 6/2 to confirm."

Well, no call by 6/2 which was a Sat, no call by Mon 6/4, so on Tue 6/5 I called Shari and was told the move would happen on Thu 6/7. Thus, no follow through on an important commitment, important because I have a young family and it is nearly impossible to make the 1100 mile journey in less than 2 days, and I had to return to work at my new job to follow through on my commitments in a timely manner. So, the movers arrive 6/7 at around 1:30 PM (already lost 1.5 days of critical time). It wasn’t even Colonial Van Lines, but a sub-contracted moving company, which was a family operation - Dad and teenage boys. I had fenced property in AR, which is accessed by crossing a concrete drive over a steel culvert, which I was uncomfortable with as to not collapse the driveway, which led to the first discussion about “if we go more than 75'" there are additional charges.

I proposed coming into a side gate and backing up to the house as an alternative to having to walk more than 75’. The answer was “no, we cannot bring the truck on the grass”. It happened to be a rocky top of a little ridge, practically a gravel drive, that just happened to have a few blades of grass growing through the rocks. So I relented and decided to take the risk on the driveway - to the peril of the new owners I guess. This family was nice enough, polite and courteous enough. So I just said get on with it. The first walk through the mover estimated the boxes, guessed the time and said “we will be done this evening”. Maybe late, but this evening. Well, I have been through 3 full-pack moves and in the previous 2 the workers scattered into the perimeter rooms, neatly packed and catalogued items in boxes, then did more boxing, until most of the packing was done, then began to load the truck.

Well, the teenage boys would pack a little here, move a little there, occasionally take something to the truck, pack a little more in another room, smoke a cigarette here, listen to a little music there, take a break whenever... well, you get the picture. Thu night 6/8 about 11:00 arrives, and the status: well, really just getting started. The mover boss/dad, Daniel, explains to me they will need about 4 hours on Fri to finish packing and loading. Well enough, other than I am now 2 days behind schedule. I was also advised that I would have to pay this sub-contractor directly by certified check, or by credit card, it he would have to take a picture of my card. I have never heard of paying a sub directly for services you contract wiling another company, not allowing anyone to photograph the front and back of your credit card.

Shari calls me on Fri 6/8 and I tell her it is basically going bad and I have concerns about being 2 days behind on my schedule, having to pay a sub directly and the picture of the credit card. He answer in a nutshell was “that’s the moving business for you”, in which my response was “well, your industry is definitely living up to its reputation today, isn’t it."

I respond later Friday to a customer service email rating my service so far from Colonial, which I detailed my grievances, and receive a quick call from a Customer Service “supervisor”, that really turned out to be nothing but a talking head that spoke using platitudes and alternative facts, such as “well, our position is we arrived within the original window”, seemingly trying to ignore the fact that “we” did not arrive, but a sub-contractor arrived, and arrived no less than one day later than Shari ** promised on 5/31/2018, causing me to make my schedule with the assumption the packing and loading would be done on 6/7 and I could leave for NM on 6/8.

Of course Shari’s commitments weren’t seen as valid commitments by this supervisor, but more like a “misunderstanding” that “we apologize” for. The supervisor lady (name I can’t remember) asked “what can we do to make this right?”, I responded “compensate my for 2 days lost wages, because being 2 days behind on the move schedule, which is no fault of my own, I will probably have to be off work 2 additional days”. She replied,”give me a number”, which I gave her (I suppose she must have thought I made about $50 per day) and she said "well, I tell you right now I can’t get anywhere near that number but (and yes, here it is) I will see what I can do”. Of course, that was the last I heard from her until a couple of days after the delivery.

Well, here we are on Friday afternoon June 8, and the family operation is still packing a little, smoking a little, hangin’ out a little, and about 5 pm the boss advises me “I think we are going to run out of boxes”. Okay, well to keep the momentum going I asked him how many and headed out to Home Depot - 15 miles away - and got some boxes for the movers. As the evening progressed it got into questions such as “are you taking this?”, “are you taking that”? “What is this”, “what is that?”, sighing, moaning etc... well, you get the picture. Then I was advised we would be over the box count and the estimated weight. Well, okay, I had read and heard that frequently happens.

Of course, I am invited to the weigh station for the weighing, which is nice, but I have no clue, and neither did they at the time, where the nearest weigh station is. Besides, that happens during the day, and will have to be Sat because we are already into Friday night. Literally, the packing and loading of the truck came to an end at about 11:45 PM Friday June 8, 2 full days behind “the window” (of course Colonial’s alternative facts put this time and date within “the window”). Oh, wait, are we done, yeah!!! No, wait a minute. There is “paperwork that must be filled out and you will have to sign”. “How Long does that take?” “Oh, about an hour. Can we come back in the morning and finish it, and then you can follow us to the weigh station”. I am like, in my mind, “** NO”... but I politely said “no, we need to finish tonight and I need to leave for NM in the morning”.

Jump to 1 am Sat 6/9, “Sayonara, adios, adieu my friends”. Finally they are out of here. Think it ends there, well no. I had to take an unanticipated day off from my new job and charge it to my vacation, this after being give the week of 6/4 - 6/8 as compensated time in my relocation package. The movers pretty much showed up in NM on 6/11 and dumped the load into my home. There was literally underwear packed with olive oil, soy sauce and spices. Tools with socks, alcohol with bibles, candy with curios. It couldn’t have been more comical. My new house, which has Saltillo tile, strangely had many cracks that weren’t there when I purchased the home. All of that circus Magen, and I have to give these guys credit. There was one, maybe 2 broken items and they were minor.

They were a nice immigrant family from St. Louis. Dad’s name was Daniel and the company was American Movers of St Louis, Mo. I was still put out about paying a sub-contractor directly, almost $10,000 by credit card they insisted on having a picture of. I have been a business executive spending company money for over 20 years, and one thing I can assure you: you never pay a sub-contractor directly. The contractor pays the sub, you pay the contractor. You have a contract with the contractor. What this tells me is this moving company didn’t trust Colonial for their payment. I was troubled that Colonial didn’t even explain to be there would be a subcontractor. I was assured by Paul ** early on it would be a Colonial truck and crew. Perhaps I should be happy it was not?

Then I’m told by the sub-contractor “oh, you should have called me directly. I bet you paid Colonial a lot of money to arrange this. I would have only charged you what you just paid”. So, I paid Colonial in excess of $3,000 to make a few phone calls, float a few platitudes and alternative facts past me (“BS” is what we used to call it) and then send some greenhorns out of St Louis to my home, all the while not knowing I would be dealing with this little outfit until they arrived in front of my house (more than 75’ from the door). I tell you what, if you don’t have to move, don’t move. If you are young, singles and have to move, commandeer your buddies, buy some pizza and cold beer, and get on wiling it. If you are young and a family person, get U-Haul or Penske or whatever.

If you have to hire a moving company DON’T CALL COLONIAL VAN LINES. THEY HAVEN’T EARNED YOUR BUSINESS AND THEY WILL NOT EARN YOUR TRUST. Scoundrels would be the best way to describe them. Oh yeah, that supervisor lady called me back a day or two after the move was over, for an ”customer satisfaction follow up”. All I said was all I want is my lost wages, where are we on that”. She says “oh, this sounds familiar... what I can tell you is, even if I get such a thing approved the maximum it will be is $50, but more likely to be around $35”. I told her to “quit insulting my intelligence, I am glad this is over, keep your $35 grease money and GOODBYE!!!”

Updated on 7/31/2018: I submitted a review the week of July 23, 2018, with a 2 star rating, regarding my experience with Colonial Van Lines and my move from Arkansas to New Mexico. They immediately responded and resolved my grievances to my satisfaction. I wasn’t aware that I could upgrade my original rating at the time of resolution. They handled the issue in a timely and highly professional manner, recognizing the problem and acted immediately to resolve it. I am upgrading my experience to a 4 star rating.

My first interaction with her involved her calling me on a Saturday night while I was out to dinner with family/saying farewell. She was calling to tell me that my husband’s car (which was being picked up the next day), would be delivered to CA on Tuesday and we needed to be there to meet it. We were leaving OH on Tuesday and driving to CA (therefore impossible). She also told me it was cash on delivery. I had to rush around and arrange to have someone (our real estate agent) meet the car, and I had to pay a finance charge in order to use a credit card. I was told by Colonial I would be reimbursed for this and have yet to see the money (our belongings were picked up June 17 and did not arrive until July 5. (I have a feeling I will never see that money.)

Side note on the car- the first time my husband tried to drive it after we moved he discovered the air conditioning was busted. We moved to the CA desert in the middle of the summer. I asked Colonial multiple times for a claim form. I have yet to receive one. Also, the guy was hours late picking up the car (no one called to tell me. I had to call dispatch multiple times. I will never get back the hundreds of hours I sat on hold throughout this move). He then told me he would deliver at 5pm. The 7pm. He showed up at 10:30pm. My real estate agent had to meet this guy in the middle of the night because he couldn’t tell time and arrive at a reasonable hour.

The actual move itself was so incredibly awful there may not be enough characters left in this review to include all of the horrible details. When I booked Colonial I asked if they had their own trucks. They said yes. They said summer is busy and there was a possibility of a truck not being available and they would need to enlist their network of agents. I should have run away then. My move was outsourced to an absolutely horrendous company called Best Price Moving and Storage in Chicago.

On June 17 two men showed up at my (extremely small) house to pick up our stuff. We literally have almost no furniture. The vast majority of our belongings were in boxes. First they had the wrong paperwork (it was the first, smaller estimate, not the updated one I paid extra money for). They told me they had to call their supervisor because they hadn’t allocated that much space in their truck for our stuff. Their truck was empty, thank goodness, so they had to just rearrange other pickups. Fine, whatever. Not my problem. These guys took so long (nearly 8 hours) to load a truck that my husband and I bought them food and ended up helping them because we wanted the whole thing to be finished already. Also, it was a Sunday, and it turns out Colonial doesn’t believe in working on Sundays. No one was there to help me when they showed up with the wrong paperwork. No one called me back or emailed me on Monday morning when they opened.

Fast forward- our stuff is supposed to arrive between 6/24 and 7/1. In fact, they changed our pickup date when they found out we weren’t leaving Ohio until the 19th (original delivery window was 6/20-6/30). I stressed to them from the start that we would begin our new jobs 7/2 and HAD to have our stuff by 7/1. No one could have prepared me for what happened.

After hours of being on hold, crying, begging, no one being able to tell me how much the final weight was, no one knowing where my stuff was or when it would come, being screamed at and called a liar by Mary (the dispatch person at Best Price Moving and Storage), filing a complaint online and then being contacted by one of the owners at Colonial (who screamed at me and threatened to give me a refund, drop our account, and leave our stuff in a warehouse in Chicago where BP Moving had left it and said they weren’t scheduling any trucks to CA), being told 50 different stories a day by the mostly incompetent employees of Colonial (the only person who truly helped us was Leon. No one else knows anything and will just put you on hold or promise you a call back, which you will never receive), etc.

I could go on and on. I have never been treated like that by a company ever. And, to top it off, the delivery window means nothing. Somewhere in that BS contract you sign it will say that the window means nothing. Stupidly I believed they would honor their word and deliver it on time. I couldn’t have been more wrong. In fact, when the truck finally did come (oh and tons of my stuff was broken and ruined), the driver told us that the person they delivered before us had been waiting two months for their stuff.

I heard so many excuses from Colonial- this is how it is in their industry (Nope. Not true. This is how it is when you hire an unethical company), new regulations passed in June were to blame (hmmm, didn’t seem to affect anyone else I knew who moved at the same time. Oh, and if new regulations are going to make it impossible to get my stuff on time then tell me so I can hire someone else), it’s their busiest time of year yet they had NO trucks going to CA?! All lies and excuses and BS. Day after day after day.

When the truck finally arrived they made us pay more than we owed, even though our weight was only 200 lbs above the ORIGINAL estimated weight. Luckily I knew in advance that they were going to try this since the driver gave me the wrong price over the phone AND told me he couldn’t take credit cards (said those had to be processed with the office. All of this a direct contradiction to what Colonial had told me when I booked my move).

After spending thousands on our move, including car repairs, buying things to help us survive while our entire home sat in a warehouse in Chicago, and replacing broken stuff, Colonial only reimbursed us just over $800. They owe use another $90 (they only pay $30/day for each day they are outside the delivery window, and even though my stuff was due by 7/1 and arrived on 7/5, they apparently thought that added up to $90). I refuse to sign the paperwork for that reimbursement as it leaves me unable to go after them for anything else, and they still owe me for the penalty charge for using a CC to pay for the car, car repairs, all the stuff I had to buy while my stuff was sitting in Chicago, as well as countless broken and damaged items.

They did offer to rent me furniture when mine didn’t come. I told them that I didn’t want rented furniture. I wanted my stuff back and I wanted reimbursed for the stuff I had to buy to survive. It was a nightmare, an absolute nightmare. The only person at Colonial who actually helped me was Leon. He finally got me my stuff, some money refunded, and did not have a “the customer is always wrong” attitude like everyone else in that company. Best Price Moving and storage just needs to go out of business. They are just horrendous. Al, the owner, could use some customer service lessons as well. When I asked him if he treats all of his customers the way he was treating me he threatened to leave our things in Chicago and dump us as customers, and we could find a way to get them back ourselves.

Do not, please DO NOT use this company and never let BP Moving and Storage take your belongings. I hired them because of their Consumer Affairs rating, which is why I am back here reviewing them. If you have hired them please cancel before it’s too late. They are absolutely terrible, nonresponsive, they don’t care about you or your belongings, and it WILL be the biggest headache of your life. I can’t tell you how many hours I wasted sitting on the phone trying to get help from these two terrible companies. I have never cried so much thinking everything we owned was gone forever. Please don’t put yourself through this. There are far better companies out there.

Original Review: July 18, 2018

I contacted Colonial Van Lines because of their high customer satisfaction. I felt they could handle our move across the country from Missouri to Florida. I was informed by Colonial and Royal (their contractor) I would be packed on Friday 6/22 and loaded on their semi 6/23. None of which happened. Royal Logistics packed all of our belongings in Home Depot boxes with no tracking labels for inventory. Midway through the first day of packing I was presented with an enormous estimation which I did not request nor agree with. Royal and Colonial both stated it is only an estimate we will get weights of truck. 2 guys packed 6/23-6/24. I was told Royal would be back with helpers to get loaded up on 6/25 and it would only take a few hours. Called Mikal at Colonial. Mover still not at the house to load at 12:41, I was informed they were working to get a truck.

One Budget truck showed up at 2:52 pm on 6/25, they had to stop and get blankets and weigh the first truck is why they got delayed. I called Mikal back at 6:09 and he stated he would call back with answer on why there was no semi and why they were running behind. No call back from Colonial. I asked the driver to speak with his boss-received a bunch of excuses and assurance they would get it all loaded up and get more trucks. Natalia at Royal stated the mover would be back on 6/26 by 10am with another truck to load the rest of the house. I asked the driver to be sure there was a lock on the load on 6/25 while they had it at the hotel. Assured there would be one-truck arrived on 6/26 with no lock. Load unsecured night of 6/25. 10am 6/26 mover not at the house as promised.

I called Colonial and Mikal will not answer-ask to speak to supervisor, Colonial tells me they will call in 30 minutes, Mikal called back 45 minutes later not a supervisor. I spoke to the driver at 9am and he stated they were again working to get a truck, I asked that they be sure to get extra blankets and wrap for all of the furniture and pictures to be loaded for the day. Movers arrive at 12:03. 1:05 pm the movers are out of shrink wrap. Driver stated they needed to get more-since it was raining now he couldn’t go out in the rain. I called Natalia with Royal Logistics and she was upset they didn’t show up with everything they needed (as were we, since I just asked him before they arrived). I called Colonial frustrated they were running out of space on the second truck since they only got a 16 foot truck.

I spoke with Sanad at Royal to express my concerns and sent pictures. Third truck arrived at 4:25pm (no weight ticket). Finished packing 3rd truck at 9:58 pm only because we physically had to help bring stuff to the truck. My family had to drive their 3rd truck for them and go purchase locks to be sure everything was secure. No lock on truck / inventory not accurate / carried all backyard furniture around to the truck / no “picture or TV boxes” as in estimate most wrapped in blanket - not all pictures protected with blankets or boxed. Move out was 4 days late related to insufficient equipment and personnel / the movers had to use my dolly and screwdriver to disassemble items-bed frames-did not bring own tools. That completes phase one of lack of commintment to deadlines and fulfillment of services.

Phase 2 delivery. I was promised by Mikal at Colonial and Natalia and Sanad with Royal Logistics that delivery would go much smoother and they would be on time and deliver to Florida on 7/14. Attempted to call Mikal 7/9. Left message that morning - no return call. Spoke with another agent that got Mikal on the phone and confirmed delivery for 7/14 between 9am-12. I wanted to be prepared to drive my family for 2 days across the country. I heard nothing the rest of the week from either party. 7/13 I called to be sure everything was still on track for 7/14 delivery. I was then informed by Mikal the delivery is now delayed until 7/19 or 20th (no one called to update me on this delay). I called Mikal at Colonial for update on 7/16, per the conversation the truck was in Tennessee on 7/13-per Mikal we would be delivered in the window by the 20th of July.

7/17 I called for an update on where the truck was, Tyrone from Colonial stated that he would have a manager call me since he was not getting any commitment from Royal Logistics. 7/17 Mikal called back to state Royal now can’t commit to be here before the 20th after they originally agreed to arrive on 7/14. To date I have incurred significant costs to provide for my family and work to keep them comfortable while we have no belongings. We have had to purchase personal items, clothing, hotel stay, pans to make food, and also miss countless hours of work related to deliverables not being received. We need help... We still do not have a date on when our items will arrive to our home and we need a resolution. We have already pre-planned personal and work trips as our belongings were supposed to arrive on 7/14.

Original Review: July 16, 2018

I am waiting, at this moment, to hear from CVL regarding my pickup. I was given an “estimated pickup” of July 15 or 16, after requesting a pick up on July 15. I was “never” told I had to pay extra to get a “confirmed” delivery date. I knew if the date were July 16, I would still meet other deadlines I had. My initial contact with CVL was with Annie and her great service is why I chose CVL after reading many of the negative reviews. And sure enough I too paid 30% of my final costs upfront.

I’m writing this review before my disaster strikes because today is July 16 and I’ve not heard from anyone at CVL. I called Friday after talking for the first time with my supposed “move manager” to communicate items I told them about were not on the list. (She’d suggested I check each item carefully so I did.) I waited on hold for ten minutes and no one ever picked up my call. I left two messages after that call. I’m so surprised I’ve not heard from anyone because I’ve had several changes to my move as late as a week ago, and they had been so supportive and responsive.

I am so concerned my experience will be like all the other negative reviews I’ve read. I decided not to wait until after the “scheduled” pickup to communicate my concerns. I should have heard from someone by now. It seems their service review teams dies their job because they respond immediately to customer concerns. I pray that by posting here before I have any more concerns will get me a response now because I cannot wait for days to have my furniture picked up.

Nicolas assured me I will hear from him, to understand what number I will be on the route. I have called Nicolas NUMEROUS times and have left NUMEROUS messages. I have also communicated with Mena ** and yet to receive information. The window I got for delivery was 7/7 to 7/14, which is 2 days for the window and I am yet to receive the weight and cost. I sent a review 2 days ago. I received a generic response that someone will contact me. I am yet to receive a call. I called and still have not gotten a response from anyone.

However, the contractor used by Colonial gets low marks as they provided a different experience from Colonial Corporate. The driver who came made it clear that he had been up since 2 o'clock, that he didn't even know he was coming and that he had another pickup at the end of the day. I got a bunch of whining when he was here to do a job. He had attitude which I already communicated to corporate. Then, instead of moving a queen Tempur Pedic bed, we were moving a king Tempur Pedic bed instead. The whole bed itself doesn't weigh more than 150 and I estimated that I had to pay an extra $1500 or $2000 in deposit because their contractor was estimating all the extra weight. That started sending up red flags for me because I felt like I was starting to be taken. He kept saying that it was just an estimate but here I was signing the document.

That was when I called Colonial and complained about the guy. They told me that I could always meet the guy at a certified weight station on delivery, follow them to my house, unload and follow them to the weight station to get another certified weight after. That was great to know and that was what we did. The guy was way off and the actual weight came in less than the quote originally given by 100 pounds. Had I not verified per Colonial's rep, their contractor would have overcharged me. Instead, I got a refund of 1200 bucks.

Colonial was true to their word that they charge objectively. As a consumer, I wouldn't use any transport company unless I was paying by weight only and that I could verify before and after delivery. Still, I wouldn't trust Colonial's subcontractors because they are paid based on the weight they deliver. They have every incentive to fill up the gas tank at the appropriate time to make sure the truck weighs more to say that they transported more. Because Colonial told me I could verify the weight, I would use their service again and I would recommend them.

(3rd) We were given an exact date/time, but the movers showed up a day early, which by the way, were SUBCONTRACTORS! I was not told that they sub their work out. They arrived at 4 pm on a Saturday and packed until midnight. We were furious! We were also promised weight station tickets for before and after the pick, which we never received. So, after we paid $300 for a hold my fiancée drove 14 hours to meet the truck, and they decided to leave a day later. (4th) I still haven't received any documentation from Colonial Van Lines stating our final bill...

Now the real sad part. I'm in Maryland at work, my fiancée is in Florida, the truck arrives and they are demanding payment for $3000, and if she doesn't pay, our belongings will go into storage. She is crying her eyes out, and having a panic attack. I had to write a nasty email to CVL, demanding my documentation which I should've had days ago to prepare for this move. If I knew the final bill was over $5000, I wouldn't done this differently. Anyway, I was forced to leave work, and pay by credit card. I made several emails, and spoke to Roxanne at Colonial Van Lines, the account manager, about the breach of contract, and how we had the WORST experience ever. I still haven't had any response. They took our money, and left us hanging. I will Never use this company, and I will Never recommend this company... Stay Away from COLONIAL VAN LINES!

Updated on 07/25/2018: I finally received a call after a week and half about resolving this matter. I was told, they will ONLY refund our funds if I write a review stating this matter was resolved. I have rights, and people need to know the truth about this company. They need to know before choosing a moving company. It's a Big deal! I will only accept a fair refund, which is not even close to what they offered us. Also, once this is resolved, then I will post, that our situation was taken care of, in a professional manner. I've read about their tactics in other posts.

We followed them to the weigh station afterward just to make sure they didn't pull any shady stuff. Apparently our household goods were 2000+ pounds more than what was quoted to us. We didn't get a chance to see them weigh the truck empty, so we are suspicious of that. We will be requiring them to allow us to inspect and weigh the truck before and after, just to ensure they did the right thing when they weighed it the first time. That is, if we ever get our stuff.

They told us that our belongings would go straight to storage in the city we were moving to. That was a lie. It's still in storage in Alabama where we moved from. We called them two weeks ago to tell them we had gotten our house and were ready for our stuff. We were initially quoted a window to receive our things between June 21st and July 1st. They didn't even call us to tell us they weren't coming on those dates. We were then told that they wouldn't arrive until the 4th of July.

With that being said, we canceled our plans. They just called today (July 3rd) to tell us that we won't get our things until the 8th. They also told us their truck broke down in Missouri... While our stuff is still sitting in Alabama. So, doing the math, they will have our stuff for over 30 days when we were ready for it three weeks prior. We are currently living out of suitcases, sleeping on an air mattress, and eating fast food since our pots and pans are with the movers. Needless to say, we are pissed and have surpassed our threshold for patience. This move has cost us $7,000+ and most of our sanity. Whatever you do, don't call Colonial Van Lines or J T Express. They will screw you harder than you've ever been screwed before.

During the pick-up, I was prepared but my daughter did not quite have all her stuff packed up. She was still kinda going through her stuff in the bedroom, but the movers helped her. I was also impressed with their efficiency. You could tell they were very experienced with the way that they pack things. They knew exactly what they were doing. Also, the driver who dropped our stuff was a wonderful person to work with. I've recommended Colonial Van Lines to some friends in Savannah and told them how great and efficient they were. They were in and out in one day, which really surprised me. Everything worked really good and nothing major was damaged during the move.

So later Friday evening I called back and got someone in dispatch who told me my account was on hold and in compensate status. Saturday came and dispatch called around 10 am to inform me they still did not have a driver to pick up my load. I was crying and frantic and desperate and sent about for hateful emails to Anne because here I am in my apartment and my lease is up the next day and I have no way to move any of my stuff and nowhere to move it to and nowhere to go. She called me back later Saturday afternoon on her way out the door to tell me they were still working on finding a driver for my load and just left me hanging. At the very least I should have been offered some kind of credit card or PO number or something so that I could go get a room on the company since they put me out so horribly.

I trusted them and they totally screwed me over and they have $1,650 of my money and I am still sitting in a ghetto Motel 6 in Topeka Kansas wondering when the hell I'm getting moved. If I wanted to move myself I would have rented a U-Haul. Doing what they did to me put me out having to move again before I even get moved by the moving company not to mention having to store all of my possessions when I've already been paying two months on an empty storage shed in San Marcos. As far as I'm concerned Colonial Van Lines you owe me big-time. Nice way around doing the right thing by your customers putting your clause in your contract under shipping letter G to say pickup and delivery times or estimates.

Who the hell hires a moving company with an estimated pickup date? You have thoroughly destroyed my trust and confidence in any major moving company ever again and I will never do business with you in the future. Tomorrow I will call and my contract lady and tell her I want a full refund plus reimbursement for this ghetto motel room I'm in, my meals for yesterday and today and I will just go get that damn U-Haul and move myself and tow my car. 0 stars as far as I'm concerned.

Updated on 07/21/2018: So I was supposed to get a check for $200 from Colonial Van Lines "for my troubles." To help offset the cost of the motel room I had to get the night THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO MOVE ME... I never got it. Today a rep said they were going to expedite the money to my checking by Monday, 7/23/2018. Then he called back again today to say the reason the money had not be disbursed was because I haven't removed my review from ConsumerAffairs website. I WILL NOT TAKE YOUR $200 BRIBE COLONIAL VAN LINES. Keep your money!! You cannot just say "sorry for the inconvenience" and continue doing this to people. If I could give you zero stars I would!! Shove your money where the sun doesn't shine!

I was also warned many times by people saying that Colonial was a trumped-up van lines, that they contract out to everybody, and they don’t have any van of their own. But the person that American Van Lines contracted out to really worked well for me. They did a very good job and were very careful with the furniture. Two persons came out for the pick up and one of them was the same one who delivered my stuff in Kentucky. At the time, he brought another person with him and they were small individuals but they were mighty. They lifted a piano and an organ and I didn't think they were gonna make it but they did.

And in the end, their charge came in $500 less than the estimate and they delivered on time after two and a half months of storage. The guys who came out were very fine men. They were from Portugal and with my knowledge of Bulgarian, I was able to speak to them a little bit. So, it was sort of fun and I liked dealing with them better than with some of the reps from Colonial Van Lines. I even got some bad information from a survey individual that called and told me the final payment which turned out to be wrong. She quoted $3,070 and the final payment was $1,060. But it all worked out very well. I appreciate the service and I thank the world for the people that came out.

Original Review: June 27, 2018

I ended up picking Colonial Van Lines based on some reviews and some pricing when they had given me a quote. The interaction with their rep was good. I was really happy with that. But I did have a couple of issues particularly regarding items being dropped off because we moved and most of the items were supposed to go into storage. We were first told, “Well, the truck can make a stop off before they put it into storage.” We found out a week before we were supposed to move that whoever had given me that information was incorrect and we then had to take all the items that we needed and ship them.

We then had an additional problem where one of the items that needed to come was a set of tires and because I was also having my car trailered through them instead of driving it up myself, one person I'd spoken with said, “Well, we got an approval for you to load your tires into your car and they'll just take them when they trailer the car.” So, when the person showed up, he asked about the tires and said he can't take it. So, that was an issue as well which I did end up getting figured but basically, they said, “Well, we’re gonna get charged X amount for being overweight. Can you give us an extra $100 to pay for that?” There's no way I was able to get it out there and this was the day before I was supposed to fly out, so I didn’t have much of an option then.

When we did finally got our things delivered, the window for delivery was supposed to be between 10:00 AM and 2:00 was when they were supposed to start. They did not show up until 7:30 at night. We kept trying to get in touch with people and they said, “Oh, we got to talk to dispatch and this and that and everything.” I guess our items were stored in Chicago and we were moving out to Denver. So, when the time came to move, they had one driver coming from Chicago and was supposed to be meeting the local team so that there’d be two of them to unpack. So, something fell apart between the scheduling with them because it sounds like the guy from Chicago was sitting around for most of the day waiting for the crew.

And when they did deliver, because they were running late, they were very much rushing. So, a lot of the items that got brought in got put into random rooms. They took our directions of where we wanted things for the first hour and then after that, they were just moving stuff in. Because of the rushing, they also did manage to drop a couch on top of a 200-year old antique writing desk which we did get reimbursed in full because we had bought extra insurance on it. But that was not pleasant. I don't know if something fell apart on Colonial side or if it was from the local movers they were using. So, that was concerning.

Furthermore, as we were going through stuff, there were definitely a lot of things that were missing and unfortunately, I've already put in my report. So, it sounds like I'm not allowed to add things now. Obviously, I'm not real happy about that. A lot of the stuff that we got out which was supposed to be in a climate-controlled space, as we were told when I talked to them in beginning, was definitely not in a climate-controlled space and it came out extremely dirty. Colonial Van Lines definitely could use some work.

Original Review: June 27, 2018

Oh, Colonial. They contract out to the lowest bidder, and it shows. Expensive as hell for the deposit. About $2,300 for our initial deposit. Once the goods are picked up, another $2,800 or so. Let's talk about the guys who came to pick up our stuff! They got lost on the way to our house. We lived on a military installation that isn't hard to find at all. By the time they did show up, they were two hours late. We were quoted a window of 8 am-12 pm, so that put them at our house at 2 pm. We blocked off the whole morning for them, where we could have been taking care of other things we had to do before the move. We boxed up everything ourselves and took inventory of everything to save them time and save us money. They charge outrageous prices for boxes and materials, so we bought everything ourselves. We also hauled everything outside so all they had to do was take everything to the truck.

So, one of the movers (they sent us two whole movers), spoke terrible English, and the other was just weird. They finally came on the clock at 3 pm, and instead of starting to load our things onto the truck, they immediately took a 20 minute lunch and cigarette break. So, after actually starting at around 3:20 pm, they took four and a half hours to take everything to the truck, one small box or item at a time. They took 15-20 minute breaks like every 45 minutes. Our account manager (Tyrone **) kept great communication throughout the whole process up until our household goods got picked up. Suddenly his phone didn't ring in his office and he didn't check his messages.

After calling other people and complaining about him, they told us he has been in his office all week. We finally got in touch with him where he claimed he didn't receive our voicemails we left on his phone, nor any of our calls the whole week. Because of this, we might receive our household goods by the end of the quoted window for delivery (June 21-July 1 was the quote). They might even be later than that. We called the people they contracted out to and they weren't any help either. I will update this review once we receive our things and let you all know if anything is missing or broken. Nothing will surprise me at this point.

Original Review: June 26, 2018

Don’t use Colonial Van Lines. They are a brokerage and not a moving company. They subcontract the move. They charge about 30% over the actual cost of the move. If you go with a mover directly you will save 30% over using Colonial. We had a contract. The first item on the list was a pizza oven (weighs 1,000 lbs.). Contract was in place 5 weeks before the move. 6 days before the move Colonial called to say they couldn’t move the pizza oven. If we had more lead time we would have changed companies right then but we were stuck with our timeline. 4 days before the move date they called to say they could move the pizza by using a separate truck with a lift gate. 2 days before the move they called to say the separate truck was not possible and they talked to the drivers for our move and the drivers said they couldn’t move the pizza oven.

At that point (less than 2 days before the move) we ordered another pizza oven to be sent to our new house and would leave the old pizza oven there. 1 day before the move (less than 24 hrs) they called to say they could move the pizza oven. When the drivers arrived they said they could move the pizza oven. I asked the drivers if Colonial had contacted them about the pizza oven. Drivers said no. We asked Colonial to take $1,000 off our bill of $9,000 to partially compensate for the cluster they created. They declined. Don’t use Colonial. Colonial Employees: Get your resumes together. A company with this many problems will go out of business.

However, we had a little issue because after the movers got there in Knoxville, Tennessee, it’s a little bit confusing on when they were gonna arrive at the next place. They said they could get in Aberdeen, Maryland at a certain date. We asked if they can get there in the next 24 hours to which they said they can. But we never got an ETA from the company when they would exactly be there. So we called and they said they were given a long date range from 23rd of May to June 2nd. We needed our bed and stuff and we thought they would happen just a little quicker. It wasn’t super slow but they were about a day off from what we thought it was going to be. It wouldn’t have been a problem had we known. But some of the communication was messed up and so it messed up our plans, which wasn’t necessarily the best.

I like the movers and they were nice guys but I didn’t like that they smoked around my stuff and some of that got into the boxes, which is unprofessional. I didn’t particularly like that because we have a baby, but they were very good with our stuff and they moved real fast. Another thing was the way Colonial do their estimation. We were told one amount for the estimation and they said that it would change based off of weight, but it wind being $2,000 more than they initially estimated. I’m blessed that my job paid for the move but that probably would have been a huge issue if that was a regular person. I could have probably found a company who have done it for less and we would have known to guarantee the rate for us. So, that’s not very good.

The only thing on the papers were the moving information at origin and destination, no dollar amounts of any kind were on the paperwork. My daughter took pictures of all documents that she signed, when they went outside to the truck knowing that if any dollar amounts or information was changed that document would've been altered. They loaded the truck with no issues. After loading she signed the inventory list and the driver signed the list as well. When my daughter asked for copies of all of the other documents, the Duntara driver stated she could not have the copies because they had to go through quality control at CVL and that they would give them to her.

Two days later I got a call saying that the truck weighed 1,880lbs more than the original estimate and come to find out Duntara did not weigh the truck before loading or after loading. They waited until 2 days later which is a violation from the US Department of Transportation (red flag # 3). At this point we asked for a reweigh at destination (Michigan) which was our right according to the U.S. Dept of Transportation. We also asked for a copy of the weight ticket and copies of all documents signed. Upon receiving scanned copies of the documents we learned that not only was almost every document altered in some way but they also forged her initials on the document stating that she agrees to a new weight and increase in price.

For 2 weeks we reached out to CVL to resolve all of our issues without success. We talked to multiple representatives and each one had a different story. Representatives from CVL at multiple times asked us what compensation we would agree to so that we wouldn't post negative reviews or file a complaint against them. May 25, 2018 day of delivery in Michigan. After watching the truck get reweighed in Michigan the household items were taken to my daughter's house. I was then told that I owed $2,451.11 in cash, (this is called bait and switch) even though my paperwork said $802.31.

We were told that if we did not pay the money that my daughter's stuff would be put in a storage shed in Chicago and we would be charged a daily rate and good luck seeing our stuff. We were on the phone for almost 3 hours trying to get this straightened out with CVL without success (reg flag # 4). We paid the money so at least my daughter could get her stuff. Not only did they not put the stuff in the house or go up any stairs (which according to my contract 21 steps were included) my husband had to help them unload the items because they were running behind. Many of her boxes were damaged and she was missing a ladder and wardrobe box.

When the driver gave us the Household Goods Inventory list to sign stating we received our stuff, we noticed that document had been altered after both parties signed it at origin. We have proof of this. That document was changed to justify the 1880 lbs increase of the first weight ticket by saying boxes were heavy. They also had changed the codes to state things were rusted, damaged, etc to cover any damage in transport caused by them. After all items were unloaded from truck, I again followed it back to the weigh station. Come to find out the correct weight was 2,740lbs. Duntara had bumped the original weight of her household items by 2,140lbs (red flag #5).

Since May 25, 2018 I have reached out to CVL for my refund of money that is owed to me based on the weight of our items. I have spoken to and emailed Leon multiple times with no resolution. CVL has said it would be credited back to my original charge card but has not. I was contacted at least 3 times from CVL regarding compensation for not reporting any of this move to agencies or internet websites. Each time I have declined. I have many pictures, emails and paperwork to prove all my allegations. I could continue but I am sure you get the message that no one should ever use this company for a move. What I can say and prove is that my moving contract was with CVL. They choose to outsource it to another company which is not in my original contract with them. All paperwork has CVL as the heading on top of them.

I can prove that CVL allowed bumping of a weight ticket, altering of paperwork after it was already signed, forging initials, allowing the bait and switch tactics, and trying to bribe me with compensation for not reporting them. I am almost certain reviews get screened and they use the good ones, but I also know that I have been to many websites that have consumers like myself that have been taken advantage of by this company. This company allowed fraudulent activity to take place and they didn't honor their contract with me on multiple occasions. I would not recommend anybody using this company and to make sure you take pictures of everything you sign and they sign because they will alter them after they leave your house. If you are moving anytime in the future go to the Department of Transportation website and look up your rights as a mover so that you do not get scammed.

Another issue or concern is that we have moved many times and clearly our 4 bedroom - 3,100 sq. ft. house was not going to fit in a U-Haul. We told the lady supervisor that everything was not going to fit. She said she will gauge that. Thirty minutes into the packing she comes back to us and starts requesting we pay for more boxes because they don't have enough boxes for what they were told by the Colonial estimator. What the heck is going on here? This is a $10,000 white glove move and is becoming nothing but a disaster and moving is stressful enough. We continue to watch our move and sure enough not everything will fit in the U-Haul, they had to go rent another U-Haul. They finally get everything packed up and we ask when our items will be delivered. Shocked once again all our items will be driven to another city, unloaded and stored for a few days until an 18 wheeler comes to pack and deliver.

We are now at our new home and still waiting for our delivery. We have receive several calls from Colonial saying the 3rd party moving company has run into delays and now will be here past the estimated Colonial delivery date. Fast forward 12 days later our items arrived now in a Penske truck with a haul trailer. Our 4 bedroom house has been packed, unpacked, packed again and now delivered late. As items come out they are damaged one after another. We understand an item or two might have a scratch but we are having items severely damaged. This is pure negligence not a mishap. Beware this company is not one to be recommended, very misleading and should have gone with another moving company!!!

I was looking for somebody to help me to move my stuff over from Las Vegas to Idaho and the guys in Las Vegas were priced around $12,000 for the move. I said, "Are you guy nuts? I'm only going one state up." It didn't cost me that much to move my stuff from Hawaii to Iowa along with my two cars. And so, when I called Colonial Van Lines, they were about half of $12,000. And then they told me, "If you have a hard time, you can make payments." Nobody tells me that because nowadays, it's about money. They walked me through the whole step until the last item was put into my house and never charged me a penny extra. I like them. I am so pleased and grateful with them.

And then, the guy that they contracted out to move my stuff was really nice also. He assured me that everything would be okay. The company also made sure that they packed everything in so much bubble wrap that I had so much bubble wrap to unpack. It wasn't funny and only had a few items that was cracked, but nothing to complain about. I would recommend them to everybody. In fact, I just did to a lady that went to church with me in Las Vegas. She's gonna be moving to Texas. Her husband passed away too, so she wants to be with her children. She called and asked about my move with Colonial. I said I had an excellent experience. And if I have to do it over again, I would definitely go with them.

These companies subcontract all their moves to other moving companies. A 2012 US Senate investigation found that DiSorbo broker companies regularly misrepresented themselves as moving companies, stating, "[d]espite regulations that require brokers to disclose their status as brokers, customers repeatedly reported that they were not made aware that the [DiSorbo] companies they were dealing with were brokers and not carriers with the capability of conducting their moves," and, "Websites for the DiSorbo Broker Companies and Budget Van Lines often portray themselves as full service moving companies seeking to service a consumer's move from initial estimate to final delivery of goods. The websites of these companies often fail to clearly disclose the fact that the companies will likely never move a consumer's goods but instead act as a broker and contract with a carrier to complete the move."

According to that same Senate investigation, DiSorbo companies also received a disproportionate amount of complaints submitted to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. From January 2006 to October 2011, DiSorbo companies received 4,500% more complaints than the average moving company, where a customer's goods were being held hostage while DiSorbo's company demanded ransom. The following, which comes from the same Senate investigation, is an example of DiSorbo's conduct. The company in this situation, Nationwide Relocation Services, is also owned by DiSorbo.

"Similarly, a Nationwide Relocation Services customer moving from Colorado to Florida spent nearly five months negotiating with the carrier to deliver. The customer was given an original binding estimate for $3,332.85. She paid an initial deposit of $1,585.73, leaving a balance of $1,747.12. After pick-up, the carrier advised that the 'final weight of her goods was an additional 2,035 pounds above the original estimate.' The customer was also charged for $1,220 worth of additional packing services, increasing the amount due at delivery by $1,877.52. The customer objected to this increase and alleged that the carrier made her sign blank documents. The customer was unable to pay the increased fees, and the carrier placed her goods in storage.

After several months of unsuccessful negotiations, on March 9, 2011, the carrier sent the customer an auction notice. After many more months of haggling with the carrier and Nationwide Relocation Services, the carrier agreed to deliver her goods for $2,500." The full Senate investigation can be read here: **. Submit your own complaint regarding a DiSorbo owned moving company here: **

The driver was in charge of relocation. He was really good and he called us. We set it up anywhere from the 1st and the 5th of May. He got it there on the 1st. We were contacted and everything was good at that point. But I didn’t think the packers did such a hot job. We found some things that were broken and some things that were just packed and labeled wrong. We've unpacked boxes that said dog toys and tables and didn’t have any of that in it. So all in all it was a decent job, but not the extraordinary job that we first thought we were getting.

My sister said the guys had a great attitude and they really worked hard and so she thought they did great at the beginning and we didn’t get any major damage to things that were breakable. But for her, it was the clothes that was not a good deal. My sister had some very expensive suits and they were left on the hanger, triple folded and rolled in a ball and then put in the bottom of one of the shipping boxes that had shoes in the closet with them. I wasn’t real happy. I had a lot of the clothes like that, too. They had wardrobe boxes, but they either didn’t have enough of them and didn’t say anything to anybody. I also thought they overdid it with the packing paper, but I can't really fault them for that. There's a lot of dish packed and the kitchen was really big to pack.

While there were a couple of dings in the furniture, there was nothing terrible. Their guy told me that they took basic effects to their home base in Missouri from our place in Oklahoma and then when we were ready for delivery, they went and retrieved it out of the storage unit there. They were the only ones that ever had a key for that storage unit and so our things were under their watch.

She gave us some pointers that we didn't need like to put all of our shovels and stuff in a garage trash can because it would be easier for the guys to move them. We did and the movers laughed at us and they separated them and taped them together like four each. Also, she told us what to expect to pay the mover when they came to get the stuff out of our original house and we did.

We paid what we were supposed to. I went and got the money order for the 2,000 they told us to have when he got there. The guy said okay and told us what we owe for storage. I told him the lady told me that storage would be calculated at the end because if we didn’t use the full 30 days of storage that we would not pay for 30 days of storage. He said no and that we owed him. I didn't have cash on me then so he said he would send me a link so that I could get that paid which he never did. But then when they delivered, we ended up paying the remainder of it for storage.

It was hard to pinpoint a delivery day because it was the time that we set it up. I didn’t have one because we had not closed on our new house. Then we got a closing and the mover kept saying he would get back to me. And I kept calling Colonial and the guy who was helping me out said he would call the mover. The mover said that he could do it that Tuesday. But then Colonial called me back and said that the mover called and that he was not gonna make it until that Thursday. We finally got them pinned down, but that took a little while.

I have a lot of Pyrex broken and we had wrapped it, put it in boxes, and marked them fragile. I expected it got moved, put in storage, moved, and hauled back. Also, the lady that I talked to on the phone initially told me to not break anything down because sometimes the guys don’t like it broke down, sometimes they do. And we were told when we moved that anything that they broke down, they would put back together. They broke down two beds, eight sets of shelves, an exterior table that went outside my yard, an entertainment center, and a baker’s rack. But they put up our bed and that was it. They left everything else and we had to put them together. But I would definitely recommend Colonial and I would use them again, too, because they did well. It was just trying to put stuff together so that we could get stuff unpacked. And then panicking over paying and not knowing that we would pay at that time.

But other than that inconvenience, the movers were very good and professional. They did a great job. There was damage to a piece of my furniture. The mover brought it to my attention that they inadvertently mistakenly damaged and I appreciate the integrity about bringing it to my attention. The rep had me submit paperwork to do a formal claim about it two weeks ago but I haven't heard anything yet back. That was kinda concerning me. But maybe they're trying to finalize that thing.

They eventually sent us a 2 man team and a 24 ft truck. 12 hours later, we finished loading. My families help. The quote went from around 5,000$ to 10,000$. The weight estimated was 10,000 lbs, but eventually became 16,000 lbs. After this failure, I contacted three other companies who proceeded to tell me that a 2 man team and 24 ft truck for that size house is a clear undercut... expected to become inflated.

Get the Deposit: The first payment you pay, is their money. As in, every penny spent after that first downpayment, is the money they pay the sub-contractors for the move. This gives them massive financial flexibility and safety to push back and separate themselves from any loss for poor service. By the time the scam is apparent by the purchaser, your money is already in their account.

Sub-Contract: Colonial doesn't show up to your house. They don't pack your stuff. They don't move it. They don't unload it. They literally, just pick up the phone. My "deposit," of 2900$ to them, was paid for a bad estimate and a phone call. That's it. EVERYTHING ELSE, is sub-contracted all the way to the end. There are zero services rendered beyond poor customer service, which they have a lot of. See other reviews here and elsewhere. Their response is canned and always "we've been trying to contact you..." Hilarious if you had been in my shoes the last 2 weeks.

Walk away: And here is the prestige... once their subcontractors show up and explain how you've been lied to and cheated, Colonial will not resolve anything for you. They will not send more crew, more trucks, they will not refund you for their poor estimates, nothing. They will not call you back. You will be the one picking up the phone every time, trying to find someone with some sensibility. You will be redirected and lied to more, until you give up... because you're tired of their existence.

Moving is deeply stressful. No one deserves this. Do the best you can and find an alternative - there is lots of good competition out there. I would highly recommend you start with a company who: Will send someone out to do the estimate. Has their own trucks/and crew. Does not require large upfront deposits. Be cautious...

The only thing I was upset about was that it got here a couple of days outside of the protected delivery date, but beyond that, things were fine. When we got to the new place, they unloaded everything in a very short amount of time. All my stuff got there perfectly fine except for a couple of minor dings on a coffee table. But I wasn't worried about it at all because those things goes with moving. Overall, it was one of my better moving experiences. I'd definitely be using Colonial Van Lines again.

Once the move was booked, I was contacted by Christopher in quality assurance as well as Michael who was my account manager. My move was scheduled a short time prior to the actual moving date, but everyone made the process smooth and easy. I was contacted prior to the originally scheduled pickup date and asked if I could have things picked up one day earlier with the hopes that delivery would be earlier and I agreed. Communication was great throughout the process. On moving day, the driver (The only person whose name I forgot to write down! He was wonderful!) showed up on time and did a full inventory of my items, wrapped everything that required packaging and went over all the charges with me. Within a few hours my items were loaded and on their way. He gave me an estimated time of travel and we scheduled a tentative delivery date for 3 days later.

On the day before delivery I received a call from the driver confirming the delivery time and he arrived promptly at that time the next day. The truck was unloaded quickly and all of my items were placed where I wanted them. My bed was reconstructed and furniture items were positioned where I wanted them. During unpacking, I have noticed that some of the boxes were a little crushed from being stacked rather high, but so far I have only found 1 broken item which was only a decorative item that was not of great value.

Following the move I was contacted by Michael and Stephanie to assure that I was satisfied with my move. I have been very happy with the service, communication and ease of this move. My items were delivered very quickly with only minor damage that is to be expected when moving things. Colonial Van Lines and Beast Coast Moving (Colonial is a broker and Beast Coast was contracted for the move) were wonderful to deal with and I will be using them again for my next move!

But Colonial's service was very good and they were on top of things. Everybody kept us informed all the time as to what was going on and we really appreciated that. The moving coordinator told us how the service would be and we were expecting that, and he turned out to be absolutely right. We were very prepared and all set for them to pick our things up and have these delivered. The guys who packed our stuff up did a nice job. They were very professional, as were the guys who dropped our stuff off. Everything was very seamless.

I had some stuff moved into a storage unit and then stuff moved to the house and I couldn’t be there. And it probably would have went better. I had my sister trying to coordinate unloading the stuff that went into the storage unit. There were a few things that should have came to the house that didn’t and there were a few things that should have went into the storage unit that came to the house. But we were able to solve, fix and correct it so it wasn’t that big of a deal. I was much satisfied with the experience.

I also just found minimal damage despite the amount of stuff that we had and despite the truck being extremely packed. Fortunately the stuff that was damaged wasn’t anything of extreme value. They sent me a claim form and I'm not working on that because I've been going through some of the items in storage and found several items in the storage unit that were damaged. The items that came to the house I didn’t find any damage. This was the first time I dealt with a moving company on my own and Colonial made it extremely easy. I was a little bit stressing with the thought that I was missing something, but they seemed to make the move less stressful.

The moving coordinator was very good. One thing I noticed, however, was that it may not have been as detailed as some of the other I saw at the other companies, but it worked it out fine and we adjusted a couple of times and they were very accepting of that. They were very easy to work with. The only frustration I had was that we had an address and it was wrong on the document. I was really afraid that they were gonna take it to the wrong place because I wasn’t gonna be at the end of the line.

And so, even up to the day when the mover came the zip code was wrong and it said Albany instead of Schenectady, and so I was freaking out a little bit. And then he said, “Don’t worry, we got this. We know exactly where we’re going and you’ll be taken care of.” So they really allayed my fears, so I was fine. I don't live in that address, so they worked with my son on the other end and it just really worked out perfect. Everybody was cordial and I was pleased.

Also, the estimate was very accurate. We had a good idea of what we wanted to move. We also added in boxes of stuff that we didn’t really end up sending but it was close and the estimate was pretty much spot on. On the day of pickup and delivery, we were very prepared and were ready to go. We had everything all packed up except for some furniture they had to take apart for us, and they were careful.

The follow up was great too and we kept in touch right up every couple of days, right up until the actual move happened. And then it was subbed out to a local vendor down in the area I was moving from, and they did a great job because they were really prompt. They were also very careful. Overall, Colonial Van Lines was very professional. I was very pleased with the first person I spoke to and then the person I dealt with as the move was getting closer. They were two different people but I was very pleased with the interaction that we had. That helped me make my decision and think I made the right choice.

The movers were R&R MOVING, the guy in charge RODOLFO I THINK WAS HIS NAME, said they are in Los Angelos. He was a problem from the beginning, rude, did not answer my questions, kept repeating "it's all about the weight", shook his head when I'd ask the question again. Ruffled through his papers as though he didn't know what they were, pushed me to sign the contract... Even when I told him I needed time to read it. He actually said "this is the worst move I've ever been through." Kept saying "I'm a professional" when he obviously wasn't. AT ONE POINT ASKED ME IF I WAS MARRIED!---WTF??? AND IT GETS WORSE!

His helper showed up, looked like he'd been on an all night bender! Wore a "wife beater" T-shirt, baggy faded jeans that looked like they hadn't been washed in months and floppy shoes, was so old he couldn't lift the end of my dining table... I had to help them! I even gave them $50.00 each in a tip and asked them to not damage my dining table, it was my prize possession. Well, it came damaged from top to bottom. Obviously had been dragged on its side resulting in two cracks 4" in length on that side, marks all over the top, likely laid on its bottom with stuff stacked on top, probably because they didn't want to lift it. It's a beautiful Crate and Barrel dining table. Each box was damaged to some degree, some crumpled 1/4-1/3 down from the top.

My antique desk had the bottom trim ripped right off, half of it missing! Glass was broken, pictures and dishes broken. Before the movers arrived I was working with a "Kim" actual name is Camelita. Only because I complained to her that I was getting calls from many different people with Colonial and I wanted one person to work with. She was courteous and consistent after that. The deliver guys were quite good, big and strong, two were able to lift my dining table easily. The guy in charge became frustrated with me when I wanted to write all the damages down before signing the contract. All they wanted was a signed contract and no questions asked. He became so frustrated yelling and throwing his arms in the air! What the what???

Two of my dining room chairs were missing which I reported. The first mover didn't tag any of the dining chairs or the table so my dining chairs are lost forever. Kim said they would look for them, I told her they weren't tagged, so they don't know what they looked like. She went silent... I suggested I email her a picture which she said, "Oh that's a good idea." Also I called Colonial to inform them of the damages and the rep. said she'd have someone call and talk to the mover, they never called.

This company if you dare to call it a company was awful!!!! I cried many times after receiving my damaged goods that looked like they had been thrown all around. I know this is a long review but felt I had to say everything so readers would understand the horror this experience was. I strongly advise anyone considering using this company to stay away... You will be sorry if you don't.

I moved 61 times in my life from coast-to-coast and continent-to-continent. A lot of those times, I’m with myself, but often with a company. Colonial is responsible for the people that they hire to do the work and Thomas Brothers, who Colonial contracted, was beyond the payout. They did everything so well and not one item was damaged. I did my own packing but they went through and verified that everything was going to be safe in transport. They were fast, efficient, fun and cheerful through everything. On the way back, I had a lot of scares and but they didn’t hesitate and there were no complaints. They called me within 24 hours with what the official weight was and texted that to me so I wouldn’t worry. They went way beyond what I would have expected, which would have been indifference because that’s what I’ve always thought. But not these people plus, the follow-up with Colonial was wonderful.

There was some sort of issue with the billing and before anyone even had a chance to go over the paperwork, they noticed it and refunded it immediately. I’ve never heard of a company taking the initiative and checking it. All these national companies are only as good as the people they contract to do the move because people that are being moved do not make a distinction between the contractor and the company. So Colonial Van Lines, in choosing Thomas Brothers, absolutely demonstrates the quality and the values that Colonial holds as a business. Because if these people had not been any good, I naturally would have declined Colonial in the long run. It really matters who they contract with, and they chose a wonderful company to represent them. I have three families that are moving to different places and I recommended them. I told them all that they would be foolish not to contact Colonial.

I had to go back forth a couple of times because we sold our house and they were looking online at our house that was staged. It looked like we had a lot but we had a bunch of stuff that kinda crammed into spaces that other people couldn't see. As I started packing, I felt that I wasn't comfortable with their original estimate so I went back to them. They upped it and when we got the new number together, it ended up being 40 pounds off which was pretty amazing. Their moving coordinator, Paul was fantastic as I went back and forth with him about the estimate. He was great on the phone and spent time talking to me about the weight.

The person who coordinated with the dispatch was good as well. She wasn’t extremely personable which is fine because everyone is a little different. She didn’t return phone calls but she returned emails, which is fine because she wasn’t in communication. She just didn’t seem like she was gonna go the extra mile. Still, there was no problem and she was on the ball. During pickup and delivery, I was really happy with how Colonial Van Lines' team helped set everything up. We ended up needing just only a few additional boxes which was fine. Everything went off without a hitch. Based on our experience, I would recommend Colonial.

The timeline worked out perfectly and there was no delay in service for whatever reason. The moving coordinator that I got was very professional and very nice, too. He told me he was going to quote high because they wanted to be safe than sorry and the final price ended up being somewhere in the middle. His walkthrough and assessment showed straightforward communication and we understood what was going to take place and what was going to happen. The account manager also had good communication, was prompt, and returned phone calls. Then, when the movers came for the pickup, they were two hours early. We were wrapping things up when they arrived and it was a little bit of a shock but it wasn't a big deal.

Initially, I was assuming that Colonial Van Lines was not going to subcontract the packing and delivery. They were my main contact people but Cal Van ended up packing and moving us. That was not made clear to me in the beginning and I didn’t really think to ask. But I would have liked to have known that and understood that a little bit better. When I found out it was Cal Van Lines, I went online and found that they had bad reviews. I was a little bit disturbed about that but things worked out. I would recommend Colonial Van Lines to a friend.

My move was from Houston to my retirement home in Anderson, South Carolina and it’s about 900 miles. During the time of pick-up and delivery, we were very well prepared. And at the delivery end, there was no way they were getting a big truck here so they had to shuttle everything. They actually helped me out, covered some of that cost for me, and did all that. I’d recommend them if people are moving ‘cause they made it easy on us. They handled our move with no problems and we were very pleased with them.

The total was nine days from point of pickup to drop-off. It was pickup on Friday and delivered on the following Sunday. The people involved in the picking up and the unpacking were spectacular. We were able to get in and at least, get semi-functional very quickly. I found that the individuals who we dealt with were polite, respectful and attentive to our needs.

We were reasonably prepared for the pickup and delivery but the guys came in and burned through the place fast. It was amazing. They would say that we weren’t as packed as we thought but they wrapped up literally everything. But there could have been a little more communication with the guys on the ground because they packed some stuff that we haven’t asked to be packed and that caused a little bit of trouble. It was a minor inconvenience but they packed my girlfriend’s or some stuff that we were holding on to and just put it in the box. It got moved perfectly, but it had my girlfriend's driver’s license and bank cards in it. Also, we got multiple calls from multiple individuals on the same day of the move or within an hour of each other, telling us the same information. We’re busy trying to do other things and I’m getting repeat calls. That should be coordinated slightly better.

Aside from that, they were unable to give more than a two day window for pickup. When you’re trying to book plane tickets and so on and so forth, that’s very difficult to do if you’re unable to provide that window with less than 24 hours in advance. If I’m moving back to Michigan from Wisconsin, that’s a car journey, that’s fine. I can do that. But when I’m trying to move four people and a dog across the country that’s definitely a lot more difficult.

Lastly, I need to get an invoice and it has been excessively disappointing. I contracted with Colonial Van Lines and regardless of who got paid, I need one invoice to show “This is what got paid and we received the money” so I can go and get refunded by my company. I tried emailing a couple of times last week but I received nothing. I also reached out this morning but also received nothing. But overall, I've had a highly successful experience with Colonial.

Original Review: May 2, 2018

I cannot believe these reviews. I should have just looked at BBB for this company for an accurate review. This company brokered this load to someone I never heard of before. Provided a moving box truck, not a van. They could not fit all of our things in this box truck so we had to leave our things. Customer service does not exist. They claimed that they call but they don’t. I called multiple times leaving messages. Only one of the movers spoke English. Upon delivery the only concern they had was moving everything off of the truck and into our garage.

The three things they did disassemble I had to reassemble and replace bolts that were lost. This whole experience was an absolute nightmare. $6,700. The truck that the movers used was a Penske truck. All in including fuel for the distance was $2100. Quite the difference considering I did the reassembling and moving everything from my garage to the correct spot. Don’t fall for these fake reviews. Look at BBB. I’m not alone.

But we ran into a bit of problems on the day of the pick-up. The original driver that they had scheduled cancelled on them so, my pick up date was one day late. It was still within my window, so it all ended up working out. But because of that, the communication was a little sketchy. When that driver fell through, they were working very hard behind the scenes to get me another one. There was a point where nobody knew what was going on. But as soon as they found a driver, the driver himself called me to let me know. And he was amazing. It was just the one person and he did it all. I couldn't believe it. I'm very impressed.

The job got backed up though. They told me it was gonna happen on a Monday and worst case scenario was Tuesday. But then they told me it was gonna be Wednesday and I think the reason for that was somebody had trouble with their closing. It ended up happening on Thursday then I got the delivery here on Friday. It wasn’t a big deal other than we were under the gun to get out of the place since it was a rental. But it all worked out.

I had lived up here in the steel mill I worked at but it shut down. Then I moved to Atlanta to work construction but then I decided to move back to Kentucky. I'm retired now and I ain't moving again. But if I had a friend who was gonna move, I would recommend Colonial Van Lines. The guys who did the work were exceptional. I had pickups at two different locations in one town and delivery at one location. Two of the guys delivered but three picked up and the two who delivered were on the pick up as well and they were very good at their job. In fact, they were staying in tight. They were just good people.

At the end of the move, there's a wait for one hour when they unloaded everything up. They made me sit and wait for an hour while the guys sat on the phone, flipping through his paperwork, and talking to some guy some other place. I didn’t know what the techie was doing or why he had to talk to the guy on the phone for about an hour and fiddle back and forth. At that point, I started getting angry because it was getting late and we were all tired and hungry. If I would’ve known I would’ve just picked a local moving company instead of a large company. It turns out they get a middleman to do it for them and then charge the higher price.

When you're closing on the house and you got to be out by a certain date and they can't pick things up for two weeks that doesn't work. I spoke with them a couple times when I handled the furniture because I got two different apartments. It's two different areas of Colonial but one handles household goods, the other handles transporting cars. As far as the furniture move the people that handled it did a great job. Colonial Van Lines followed up a lot as far moving the household goods.

I was properly informed but they guesstimated the weights and of course it was a little bit more because we had a lot of stuff. The quote was a little low but they're trying to do it over the phone. You're describing all you had. We had more boxes we thought we'd have. The moving crew we had was excellent. They delivered quicker than we thought they'd actually get to the house. We had the furniture and everything the same day we closed on the house so it worked out well. I was impressed and I'd recommend them to a friend..

The two gentleman who actually did the pickup were very knowledgeable. The driver didn't have payments for them, and it was awkward and uncomfortable. Luckily, the laborers that were there really knew what they were doing and packed the truck very well. Also, I didn't get a final cost set before the driver showed up here. I got to pay by credit card, which was fine. But it's a little hard to prepare yourself for not knowing. Other than that, it was fine. The price was really fair for the poundage that I had.

Also, Colonial didn’t explain in-depth how the move works and that was my very first time having a moving company because I was going from state to state. Rather than telling me that the total is $1200, they should have given me one big total that would've already paid for them to pack home and pack the stuff. They told me it's one price and then I just get everything together that I have. But when they came, they told me they still have to pack things and those have to be packed in a particular way. Then I had to come up with another 1,000 something dollars because nobody told me in full what needs to be packed and wrapped. If I would’ve known that they were gonna charge me extra, I wouldn’t have had people come and pack everything for me in that one price at that. And so, I wouldn't have ended up paying more than what I had to.

The pickup and delivery went perfectly as well. Their guys showed up within the window of time that they said and completed the entire job on the same day even though they could have done it in two. So I was incredibly pleased with that. They also did a nice job of taking my stuff apart and putting it back together. They ran out of room in the truck for my stuff, but that was fine. They never came to look at the place, so we did an estimate over the phone and I covered everything that I had. All in all, I would recommend Colonial Van Lines to my friends. But I would tell them that if they could, they should have a picture of their place so Colonial would know exactly how big a van to send. They should also make sure to ask about all hidden costs like the packing tape and boxes.