Colonial Van Lines Reviews

During the pick up, two guys showed up, and they took all the boxes. They were all boxed up, sealed, and put in a van. There was some artwork, some framed prints that I didn't have boxes for. So, they charged me a little bit extra, and they boxed the stuff up. There were a couple of desk chairs. They loaded up the truck, and within three hours, they were done and gone. I told Colonial that the stuff needed to go into storage because the new house that I bought had not been built yet. I gave them a rough idea of when escrow would close. So, they stored the stuff. Where they stored it, I have no idea. But when I finally got a date, they showed up here.

There was a small hiccup when their truck broke down, and they were going to be a little bit late, but the lady was very pleasant, and I said, “That's fine. I understand.” When we finally got a date, they showed up here very early in the morning, and brought the desk in, and assembled it. I told them to just leave the boxes in the garage. I would bring them inside one at a time, and open them up, and put stuff away. All in all, Colonial Van Lines was very informative. Nobody else called me back. But Colonial made the effort to call me back.

During that time, when I realized I was gonna let go of my deposit, I checked with Colonial. The guy I talked with was very helpful. He agreed with my assessment of what was going on and that it had been misrepresented. He said things to get me to switch to them and it sounded good. He told me they could get everything onto one truck and set me up with people who showed up and did a good job. It was a single truck move, although it wasn’t what I expected. And the van and the people weren’t from Colonial.

I was given an amount to pay and my understanding was that my stuff would be weighed, and if I had gone over what I had gotten a quote for, I would be charged more. I am not convinced that my stuff was ever weighed. The two amounts I paid were reasonable, and I wanted it all to be over with. I don't remember what I was quoted and what it ended up costing me. But it couldn't have gone too far off. I would have noticed that. The movers were friendly, and the experience was positive, but it wasn't what I had expected. It was two guys who had rented a truck from Enterprise. One of them couldn't speak much English, and the other spoke a little more English but not super well. There was a lady who kept calling to check on me and make sure I knew what to expect. I talked with three people from Colonial, and they did a good job of letting me know how everything would work and what I needed to do.

When the drivers arrived, they probably took more than what I had originally listed. My boxes ended up being a lot more, but they were helpful and moved all of my stuff. I was happy with that. After the disappointment, feeling like I had been tricked by the other company, and with Colonial seeming like it wasn't really Colonial but someone they had lined up for me, everything turned out very positively. The movers were very helpful, and in the end, there wasn’t anything to complain about.

One of my biggest disappointments was realizing that moves don't happen in one day. Since it was only a five-hour drive, I imagined my stuff would be loaded onto a truck, follow me to my destination, and be unloaded the same day. With Colonial, it wasn't so bad because they arranged for people who could work within a delivery window that was acceptable to me, and my stuff was delivered the next day. Overall, the move went well. The sales process wasn’t as straightforward as it could have been. But the end result was what I needed. It was a pleasant experience because the people were easy to get along with. They didn't nitpick about the weight or the number of boxes.

Some of the companies were insisting upon having a check on one end or the other. And what happened in this situation is I flew from Florida to Missouri and got them loaded up and made the down payment. Then I flew back from Missouri to Florida. And when we unloaded the truck, I made the final payment.

The other two companies I talked to needed a cashier's check on the delivery end, and that wasn't possible because we had not established a banking system yet in Florida for them. Colonial was the only one of the three that would allow me to make payments on both ends using my credit card.

And when you've got somebody moving cross country, and they are moving because of senior memory issues, and we are moving them into a care facility, those bank arrangements, we still have to open an account in their name, and we may never open a bank account here in their name. In today's modern banking world, there's no need to, except that it's almost impossible to get a certified check without a local bank representative. So, that being the final decider, I could pay them.

They did fine. The only thing that they were not upfront with me about, and I was very disappointed in the whole operation, was that I ended up being farmed out to somebody else. It was not a Colonial Van Lines truck that came to the house and picked up the stuff. It was not a Colonial Van Line person who delivered on the other end. They used a company called Florida Movers. Those guys were fantastic. Next time, I'll just cut out Colonial Van Lines, and I'll call Florida Movers. That was the one thing I was really looking for, and the one thing I did not get.

But the service on the pickup end and on the delivery end was fantastic. The workers did a great job. I have no complaints about how they handled any of that. It just wasn't what I was told was going to happen. On both ends of this move, it was impossible to get the delivery van to either the house to pick up or the apartment center to deliver. And so, they had to shuttle in smaller trucks. I thought they would be able to actually get to the delivery end. I anticipated the shuttle in the smaller truck on the pickup end in Columbia. But the truck driver from Florida Van Lines had contracted two guys to come in, and they loaded everything up, and they were fantastic. He just sat and watched. And he had hired them to do all the labor work. And in a day's time, they loaded up that truck and packed everything that had to go in it, and they were ready to go. They did great.

On the delivery end, I didn't find out until three days before I was anticipating the delivery that they decided they couldn't get to the delivery end with the big truck. And so, rather than calling me and saying, “We got a problem, and we're going to solve it this way," they just told me that my load would be delivered on such and such a day, and there would be a different vehicle. No explanation as to why it was at their facility for five days. What they didn't know was that I got an Air Tracker and stuck it in one of the boxes. I knew exactly where my stuff was, every inch of the way.

When they finally told me, "We don't think we can get in there with this truck," then they had someone else from Florida Movers unload the truck at their warehouse into a smaller truck, and then bring it here to make the final delivery. Once they got here, it was a team of about four workers. They knocked it out in two or three hours, and they did a great job. Of all the stuff that we moved, I only have one thing that was damaged, and it is a piece of art that had wooden leaves glued onto a wooden tree inside a wooden octagon, and one leaf came loose. No big deal.

I can't find anything scratched. I can't find anything broken. They have been going through and unloading as they wanted to, and unpacking things. And sometimes they've had a hard time finding stuff because they weren't there when it was packed. But when they find it, it all makes sense, 'cause it's stuff that was together. All of that was great. The communication could have been better. But the actual work was fantastic.

Colonial sounded the best. I looked for any reviews, and I didn't see anything bad. I even had the phone number of the man who drove it, who packed the truck and then unpacked it. I was always in contact with him. He would call me, let me know where he was, and everything they said they’d do, they did. Good company.

My move to Florida from home here cost me almost $13,000. My move back here cost me 5,000. I had my stuff, as they said, actually, even a little earlier. I talked to the driver. He was very nice. With the other company that I used to move to Florida, I couldn't get people. First, they wouldn't answer. Then they would answer but they would put you on hold.

Everything was fine with my experience with Colonial. When the crew packed it up, they did a real nice job, and then they were off. I was in contact. They arrived, and they unloaded it and put it in my storage, just as I asked. I even asked, “I had marked some boxes to be in the front of storage things that I knew I was going to need.” And they did everything right. No stress on me. I had a very good time with them. I had no problems. I couldn't ask for anything better. They didn't bug me about money. I paid them half when they picked up, and I gave them the other half when they unloaded. You can't really ask for much more than that, especially after dealing with what I had going on. Best move I've ever had.

At the end, there were additional charges, but that had to do with the boxes that were packed and shipped. It didn't have anything to do with furniture. I had a love seat, a coffee table, a recliner, my table and chairs for eating and my bed in the bedroom. Other than that, as far as furniture, that's really all I had. When the mover first arrived, he knew a guy in the area, so he hired him and they really hustled. At the end of the day, everything that was supposed to be on the truck was there. This was the first move I ever did on my own. I'm 72 years old. I'd always moved with my parents, or I had always had someone to help me move. It was an experience, but they did such a good job. Overall, you call and schedule your days with Colonial, and they will be there, they will be ready to work, and they will get you moved.

The second and larger issue is how our items were placed into their storage unit. Items wrapped when picked up in IL were unwrapped and haphazardly shoved into the storage unit. The deliberate act of unwrapping fragile items (like televisions) and smashing them into a storage unit without any care in handling them, is gross negligence. According to the contract, we should be entitled to replacement value for those damaged items packed and unpacked by their movers. Colonial Van Lines will not reimburse us for these items and has offered only a very small percentage of their value. The "white glove" promises made to us by sales were not the services we received. It was very disappointing! These photos demonstrate just three items that were initially wrapped, then unwrapped and significantly damaged while in their care.

If others want to move, Colonial is a good company to contact. I had a decent experience with them, and they got my stuff here in a timely manner and were very good at packing. They were also very good at explaining everything to me and getting everything I needed moved.

I had already made arrangements to leave after the first day. So, I had to leave the keys and the movers dropped them off with my Realtor after they finished at 6 o'clock the second day, which was kind of concerning. Apparently, everything got packed okay, but I wasn't there to see the end of it. The guy who was driving told me that things were hanging off the back of the truck. I lived on a hill, so they couldn't bring the big moving truck up. They said they were going to have to do a shuttle and it was kind of strange, because they ended up using the same truck that they packed it in to bring it all the way from California to Oregon.

I was under the impression they were supposed to transfer it to a larger truck. I had been told my belongings would probably fit in a 10x15 storage unit, but when they were close to Oregon, they called and said it wasn't going to fit, so I had to arrange a larger unit on the fly. Then, they said they were about 90 minutes away, but they didn't arrive until two days later. They said they had to go to Washington, but it was past where they were supposed to leave my stuff.

The movers did a good job of unpacking but I also had to pay extra because the larger storage unit was more than 100 feet, which they had to carry. I had to wait because where I was going was not very near where the storage unit was. When I checked the storage unit a couple of weeks later, everything had arrived safely and looked good. It wouldn't have fit in the smaller unit, and the guy at the storage place said they did a good job unpacking everything, though it took them a long time.