Colonial Van Lines

"Colonial did a great job with my move from the Midwest to the East Coast. They accommodated my tight window for delivery and stayed in contact with me throughout. The teams did a great job packing and delivering. They were very courteous, respectful, careful, and professional. I would absolutely use them again!"

"Do not use Colonial Van Lines! I repeat do not use them if you value the items you are moving. After complaining to them directly and waiting for response and compensation for the damages they inflicted on our home items, my only resources to protect at least you from this offensive company who does not value you or your belongings. The provider that Colonial Van Lines (CVL) sent to pick up and deliver personal items from New York to Virginia failed to use "ordinary care" in packing, transporting and unpacking. This CVL vendor needs a complete training course in how to perform a move competently. His work was negligent and he did not demonstrate even the minimum ordinary care as the photos and explanation below will show. We chose to go with CVL, even though they were one of the more expensive quotes we received, because of their reputation. However, those reviews need to be updated with the truth. The indifference and lack of concern with which this representative of CVL handled the entire move was reprehensible and not in accordance with CVL most basic standard of care. It made what should have been an exciting start to a new life as a Navy Chaplain a nightmare. Everyone's personal items deserve to be treated with respect regardless of who they are and how much they have."

"Part 1: Let me start by saying that we chose Colonial for our move for the following reasons: 1. Overall ratings through search versus other companies. 2. Thoroughness of the initial process of estimate, communication especially compared to other companies and their lack of transparency. We hired them for packing and the move. I bring this up because this is where the problems begin. It was a 3rd party that Colonial Van Lines hired to represent them. 1. The packers (turns out were also the movers-new one for me) asked to come a day earlier then the window given. Not a problem except that they scheduled for 9am and did not show up until 12:30. And they showed up with out most of the supplies needed to PACK. Such as boxes, paper, etc. 2. How I found out they were movers was after they packed a box they moved it to the curb to be loaded onto a truck that wasn’t there. To potentially get rained on while they went to lunch. I found this out by them asking for something to cover my items out on the curb or they would have to go and buy something while out on lunch when it was potentially going to rain. That’s right they left for lunch with it uncovered. 3. Their truck with their supplies did not show up until after 4pm and they worked until almost 1am. Which if their packing was done with any care I would not have minded. Before leaving the guy in charge said he would be back at 8am even though I asked for 9am. Insisted he would be there at 8am. They did not show up until 9:45. 4. Without communicating they opened windows throughout the house that did not have screens on them and we ourselves did not open. We have pets, including a cat, that we had put away while they were so they would not get loose or in the way of the movers/packers. So when they left at 1am and I locked up the cat was free to roam the house. He found the room with the open window and ran away. That’s right they LOST OUR CAT. 5. The ESTIMATE: I realize that the estimate is based on a verbal conversation and that it could fluctuate. But to be a $7000 difference considering that the furniture side of the estimate was near perfect seems to be much. We packed most of our items in totes and UHaul boxes we personally purchased. And admittedly we had more of our own boxes and totes then we originally communicated, but to the tune of $7000, highly unlikely. They inflated the number of their boxes they used by almost double. Almost $1500 in over charge for boxes. Fun fact: They charged us for paper to wrap our items that we bought from UHaul and that they did not use. I found it packed in another box when we began to unpack our belongings. 6. Loading their truck with our belongings: They did so with such lack of care that items were loose, not furniture wrapped or disassembled as would be expected. The result broken furniture, damaged boxes, and mattresses dirty because they were not covered even though we were charged for the covers. They took black plastic wrap and just wrapped them. This wrap tore and still had areas of the mattresses uncovered. They even used this plastic wrap to top a tote we had filled with glass bowls instead of individually wrapping each bowl and boxing them in a dish box. There is so much more to complain about but I will let the pictures I add to this tell more of the story of the damage caused by the packing/loading team. 7. The delivery window: 3 days before the delivery window I got a call that the movers wanted to deliver our items 1 day prior to the window. I wasn’t going to be there and did not want my wife to have to do it alone. I expressed this and was then THREATENED that if I did not take it a day early that the delivery would be moved towards the end of our “delivery window” and that I would be charged for any storage. This was done by my Colonial Van Lines moving coordinator. Not the 3rd party. Not wanting to pay anymore than I already did and my coordinator not budging on this point we (meaning my wife) took delivery a day early."

"This was the worst moving experience I ever had with a supposedly reputable company. Do not be distracted by the fake ratings of 4 and above that are placed by their own employees in a bid to get more customers. From the beginning I was given an estimate that was far less than what my overall charge was. There was zero communication between the account manager and me prior to the move, I actually had to reach out MYSELF and ask 24 hours prior to the final day on the pickup estimate timeline to see if this move was even happening. On pick up day I was quoted 500 more than my original estimate based on the weight per the movers. The movers who picked up my items are not part of colonial they are a third party mover that is outsourced and you have no way of contacting them after picking up your items. My move was estimated to take 2-7 days and ended up taking nine days for which I once again did not get a phone call about during this period. I had to reach out once again to my account manager to which she replied oh it will be tomorrow. Two days after my “official” window. On drop off day the movers once again told me the WEIGHT HAD CHANGED AGAIN. By the end I paid around 1000 more than the original quote. And on top of that they broke a 75 inch plasma screen TV and offered me a $60 compensation from filing a claim complaint. Overall my advice would be to never do business with this company. The are frauds and give you an extremely low ball number and fake timelines to convince you to the sign the contract and move with them. You are so much better off working with highly reputable moving companies who don’t charge you a ridiculous deposit and honor the heavy weight price and have tighter time frames. I could not recommend this moving company less."

"WORST MOVING COMPANY EVER! SAVE YOURSELF THE HEADACHE AND THE MONEY & DO NOT HIRE THEM!!! 1. The move-out date was not specified until 24hrs before. 2. The movers did not start the move until after the time window we were given. 3. The movers dragged our furniture and left VERY NOTICEABLE scratches on our hardwood floors! 4. They movers were a 3rd party company, they are NOT employed by Colonial Van Lines as promised! 5. It took 9 hours for the movers to put our belongings into the truck. They did not finish until 9:30pm. We lived in a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment with minimal furniture. 6. We were given a 1 week move-in date range that changed 3 times with only 24 hours notice each time, causing my husband to book a flight at an airport that was far away from our storage unit, because no flights were available at the last minute at either of the 2 surrounding airports. This resulted in spending more money on the flight, and we had to spend money to rent a car to get to the storage unit. They also did not confirm a move-in time until a few hours prior to the move, which meant we had to spend even more money to change our return flight to the next day with very little notice, and pay for an extra night in a hotel. 7. The contract is NOT binding, as promised. The price we were quoted was NOT the final price. On the move-in day we were charged over $2,000 more, despite the fact that our belongings were under the expected weight limit and we had much LESS furniture than what we originally stated to the company (we sold all of the furniture in our office and balcony prior to the move). They will hold your items hostage until you pay the final price!!! 8. Our belongings were delivered 4 days after the delivery window and we were told we would only receive $30 per day compensation (we haven't received anything yet). We told Colonial multiple times that the new delivery date did not work for us and they threatened to charge us $500 per day to store our items if we could not make that day work! We had no choice but to cancel/rearrange Doctor's appointments (I am pregnant) and other important things that were scheduled months in advance in order to avoid getting charged more money! 9. The company was NEVER apologetic or flexible. They have ZERO care for their customer's concerns and do not bother to help resolve any issues. All they care about is ripping people off and doing it with an attitude! Elsie and James are particularly unprofessional and rude. They did not admit to any fault in any of these issues and continued to repeat that everything in the contract we signed is just an "estimate" therefore can change at any time. I could go ON AND ON. The bottom line is, despite all of the negative reviews we decided to give this company a chance because the price they quoted us was reasonable & they are well known. After the 2-week-long headache they caused my family, and after the final price was over $2k more than what we were quoted, there is NOTHING good I can say about how this company operates. This was a classic case of bait-and-switch. If we are not refunded MINIMUM $2,000 we will be reporting them to the Better Business Beauro & other appropriate organizations. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!!"