I'm sorry I even have tto give a 1 star. This place is the worst company to do any business with. They lie, the have changed our delivery times, 3 different times and we still do not have possession of our furniture. They left Ct in Sept, its now Oct 4th. The woman called Ceulie is the most ridiculous, demeaning person to speak with and acts like she owns, this fly by night company. They charged us over 8 grand to move from Ct to Fl.. One can only imagine what the condition will be like. People, listen to the reviews, its a horrible company filled with liars. read more

The movers were friendly and professional. They arrived at my destination on time and my property arrived the same way they were picked up. read more

As you can see, I have upgraded colonial van lines from 1 star to 5 stars...Thanks to Mikel Perez for all his hard work in advocating for us...he promised he would rectify a bad situation and he did...Al Thank you too for your participation in this outcome, it is appreciated...Now thats how you earn 5 stars guys!!!...Thanks again Mike Perez...you promised, then you delievered....Jack and Suzanne... read more

Job #55338415-CO We had a successful move with Colonial & are very grateful things went so well! Thank you to everyone who helped make that happen! read more

This is an update to my January 28 review, Colonial has contacted me and we have agreed to a settlement Job No. 55368653-CO This was my 8th cross country move in my life. The first 7 were company relocation's so I was not as concerned about price. They were all made with what I consider more full service companies. What I have come to understand is Colonial Van Lines is a broker and contracts the job to others, My bad for not grasping this before the move. read more

Yelp decided to remove my original post due to "privacy concerns". After reviewing their rules on privacy and my post, I have discovered that the only possible issue was my job number, therefore, I decided to remove that portion and repost my review. I personally believe that all potential clients have the right to know how a company chooses to conduct itself. I urge everyone to complete extensive research on this company prior to hiring them. Day 1: the driver was 11 hours late! I was informed that they would be arriving at my apartment between 7-8 am. They did not arrive until 6pm and did not get done until 9. We were only living in an 800 sqft apartment and we had everything packed. Why it took 3 hours I will never know. The drivers were making excuses the whole time they were there on top of the fact that they started talking behind our backs unaware of the fact the my husband and I speak Spanish and understood everything they were saying. Day 14: what was supposed to be our delivery date came and went without so much as a call from the drivers to Inform us they were going to be late. When we finally got ahold of them, they again started making excuses.  Day 16: we finally received our furniture, some items broken, and paid the amount that was due upon delivery, even though we had less weight than we quoted in the beginning. (I am not worried about the broken furniture since I am refurnishing our new home) This leads me to where I am now. Almost 4 months later, and still trying to get the refund returned to us. I have called multiple times, left countless voicemail messages and emailed relentlessly and have not received a call back. Every single time I request to speak with management, I am ignored.  DO NOT use this company for any cross country trip. You are better of renting a uhaul and doing it yourself.  *this is new to my original post* After leaving this review, I again spoke with this company. They told me they would refund my money but I needed to sign a confidentiality agreement. Of course I refused and told them a review has already been submitted. At that point they proceeded to bribe me with an additional $150 to update my post to a 5 star review. I will leave you to make your own assumptions regarding how they choose to conduct business. Due to my refusal to sign their contact, I still have yet to see my refund. I was forced to request the refund from their subcontractor, whom I will also be reviewing, as well as submitting complaints with the BBB. read more

I thought moving states and finding a reliable moving company to help was going to be difficult. However, Colonial Van Lines was quick to respond, professional, honest, and kept me updated throughout my entire moving process! Plus, my items were not damaged, but carefully loaded/unloaded and I knew were taken care of! The employees involved were even courteous and on time! Overall, had a great experience and would recommend to a friend or use in the future! I don't know why they have negative reviews! job number (55401629-CO) read more

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! If I could give zero stars, I would. This company is great in the beginning. Their sales department is on the ball. It all goes downhill from there. You talk to like 6 different people to go over the list of items. Then you get a moving manager, ours was Karen. If you get Karen, immediately ask for someone else. Karen said the movers will be arriving on our last day within the quote, but that they will arrive in Naples two days later. Our window for packing and pick up was 10/23-10/25. Awesome right, they will be there 10/25, and we will have our belongings 10/27. Nope, 10/25, after their supposed arrival time, Karen says they had a breakdown. The next day they are supposed to show up and they are a no show. This time Karen says they are completing another job in Texas. She says the movers are from Austin and finishing a job in Austin. The movers are actually from Houston. She would not give me their names either. The Movers are then supposed to show up at 6:30am on 10/27, 10:30am, they show up. The whole time Karen says they are on their way and then said she didn't say when specifically. Then, Karen does not know when they will deliver and blames the movers. I talk to the movers on the phone as we are not there locally (Colonial van lines said that would be fine). We had various people take off work and leave their jobs to go and try to meet the movers that did not show up. The movers, over the phone, said it is dependent upon colonial van lines when they deliver. Karen said that is not true. Now it is the following Monday and no one knows when my furniture will show up. Karen verbalized that it is in a climate controlled storage unit until they deliver it to Florida. At this point, we ask to speak to her manager. We talk to Sharon, she says she had no idea any of this is going on and will attempt to get to the bottom of it. Sharon did nothing! I called customer service to see if we could go to the storage unit and see our furniture . Customer service calls the movers and our stuff is in the back of a truck and they are back in Texas completing another move. Our furniture is not in climate controlled storage and not on the way to us. They now say it will be the last day of our delivery window for them to deliver. Alvarez movers call us Friday to tell us the weight and how much to pay them directly. Our weight went from 7500 pounds to 11000 pounds. Wow! They also verbalize they will not be there within the delivery window and will be there Sunday. They are unable to come Sunday as they got a flat tire, and come on Monday. The movers themselves are very nice and very helpful. Now to unpacking, we are missing boxes, I have called and complained about all the above issues, nothing has happened. One lady called after I filled out the survey, and offered 250 dollars and would email us the procedure. She never emailed or anything. All around, it was a terrible experience. We had our house and no furniture and were essentially prisoner to colonial van lines. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! I recommend any other company, any other, literally find any other company! read more

I'm only giving 1 star because I can't give zero. We traveled to Missouri from Atlanta, GA to clear out my deceased grandmother's house. They gave us a window of Friday or Saturday to pick up our things. They then called us on Thursday to say they wouldn't be able to send a mover until Tuesday-Friday of the next week. Because of this, we incurred extra rental car charges, flight change fees, and missed time from work. We spoke with Ashley who was defensive and argumentative about the situation. They then said the accounting department determined $30 for each day missed was an acceptable reimbursement. Now they refuse to call back to discuss the extra charges. I'm very lucky my job was understanding but had to use PTO to stay the extra 3 days waiting for the truck. I will never contact them again and you shouldn't either. read more

READ THE REVIEWS AND NEED THEM!! I did not get the insurance because i thought it was too expensive. Even if i had insurance the cataloging of damaged and missing items would have taken me days. The crew out and out STOLE our belongings, damaged many thing by cramming them into boxes with no packing and lost entire boxes because they didn't use an inventory system. They showed up in unmarked trucks and brought used boxes which we were charged for. DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER DOING BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. read more

The move was a quite hectic due to my F150 breaking down half way across the country but I made it to my new home in time to receive delivery of my property. It was raining while their moving team was offloading but they worked fast and did a great job everything present and accounted for. read more

This is an update to my previous review, made on 1/2/17. Over the course of the last week, I've been working closely with Chris in Customer Care. He's gone above and beyond to fix the issues we've had with this move. It seems a lot of the problems were with the truck/moving crew (ESP Motors), not necessarily Colonial. However, they're taking steps to resolve the problems at THEIR expense. Can't say enough how helpful Chris has been responding to my calls and emails in a timely manner. He took over the entire account to make sure I had someone available to answer my questions and is making sure things are done right from here on out! I'm very satisfied with the way they've handled this situation. read more

very happy with service. Moved out of state. Very satisfactory move. Nothing missing, all items in perfect condition and delivered on time. Would highly recommend read more

After posting a rather negative review about our recent move, I was contacted by a remarkable lady, Donna Rose, who ended up being my advocate and support person throughout the process of resolving my issues. She was caring, thoughtful and really worked with us and the Resolution Department to address our concerns. Because of her efforts and the understanding of the department, the end of our move with Colonial turned out well. My initial review may have been a bit harsh, due to the normal frustrations of moving, but with Donna's help, it all ended well. Thanks to Donna and the folks at Colonial Van Lines for being so understanding. read more

Let me first start by saying we have moved multiple times including overseas twice. We have never had such a negative experience with a moving company. We hired Colonial van lines for our move from NC to IL. The biggest issues was they delivered our items 27 days after the guaranteed delivery date. The second biggest issue was the delivery truck arrived with the back half open (our belongings at the end of the truck were soaked) and our bikes tied to the outside of the van. The company has been extremely difficult to get in touch with both while waiting for 27 days for our items to arrive and after they arrived to try to resolve our issues. The company gave excuse after excuse as to why they could't give us an update on where our belongings were located and when they would be delivered. They kept us hanging on giving us a new date 5-7 days later only to be told multiple times the "moving truck broke down". Colonial Van lines is simply a broker that contracts out jobs so it was not until we demanded multiple times for them to hire a new contractor to move our belongings and submitting a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, that our belongings finally arrived. Despite these issues of living in limbo for 27 days without belongings, fast forward to the delivery day. We received a call on a Sunday afternoon from the movers themselves saying they would be to our house in 8 hrs. This would put them there at 7pm at night. We live in a wooded, dark area. The movers insured us they would stay all night unpacking if that is what it took. For security reasons, we asked them to deliver in the morning. They arrived on Monday morning, in the rain, to find the moving truck was half open and our bikes were tied to the outside of the moving truck. They had traveled 900 miles like this and left the truck overnight. Anyone could have easily opened the truck back as it was simply tied shut and not secured with a lock. Our belongings in the back of the truck were soaked and our bikes were damaged from where they had rubbed against the truck for the entire drive (we aren't talking regular everyday riding bikes, we are talking adult mountain and road bikes which are quite expensive). We were disappointed that the movers did not have masks to wear despite us being in a pandemic. After surveying the damage of our items, we were contacted by a manager to discuss. At first she was very nice on the phone however it was extremely difficult to get in touch with her after she promised to call back on a certain date/time. After multiple phone calls we were in touch with her 10 days after delivery in which she was only willing to refund us the standard refund of $40/day past delivery date. This compensation was minimal compared to the expenses we incurred due to the delay of our items. I own an online business and all my supplies were in the move, so on top of the unexpected added expenses we also lost a month of income. We are extremely disappointed by this company and I am writing to warn anyone that plans to use the company as I don't want anyone else to have a similar experience. read more

​Bill, The worst moving experience​ I have ever ​witnessed.​ Colonial takes furniture apart other that beds and does not put the furniture back together. They require payment before their employees give service and in long-distance moves change your merchandise from the original truck it was moved into another vehicle misplacing your property with some one else. I would not recommend them or their subcontractor Peace of Mind Movers to anyone. The company even charges additional fees if they have to take additional steps to unload your merchandise. They tell you to call them if you have an issue, but there is never anyone to respond after 5 PM CST. Then they tell you everyone is bonded, but how can you be bonded if your not a US citizen and been in the country only three months. My current delivery had property from someone else and I still don't know what I am missing yet. They do not tell you about unloading your personal file cabinets that may have records that you choose to keep. So, you have persons going through the file looking at your information and God knows what they may be taking pictures of with their phones. Lastly, they bring vehicles not large enough to pack all your merchandise and do not care if they have to leave items behind. It's your problem to see how the remaining long-distance merchandise is going to get there. Negative zero is not a score. But that is what Colonial Van Lines gets from me.​ read more

DO NOT HIRE COLONIAL VAN LINES (US DOT: 1434372) OR ANY COMPANY RELATED TO COLONIAL VAN LINES!!!! NEGATIVE STAR RATING! MOST STRESSFUL EXPERIENCE EVER! (CVL knows we tried many times to work thru their Resolutions Department in July, but they stopped communication with us when we refused to sign their illegal contract, demanding we alter this review. We are now having to use different channels for resolution and arbitration. The below response by CVL, must be automated.) We hired Colonial Van Lines (Interstate mover registered with the FMCSA) as our moving company (owns their own trucks and has staff to handle move directly) to move our property from NYC to CA and they DID NOT provide this service, but instead brokered out the job to unlicensed, unskilled, unknown movers who destroyed and lost half our property! SERIOUS COMPLAINTS against Colonial Van Lines: 1. Misrepresenting itself as a Mover when service they provided was as a broker. Their US DOT #1424372 states they are register to move household goods, but not as a broker. They are using false advertising on their website that does not indicate Broker status, but identifies them as an "expert moving company, with 50 years experience." The Colonial Van Lines salesman guaranteed us, we were hiring a professional moving company with their own trucks, and ONLY expert movers. 2. Not honoring the binding estimate in our contract (tried to double price from binding estimate) even though we reduced our property prior to the move by large, heavy pieces of furniture. 3. Significant loss to our shipment (over $3322 in lost and damaged goods) 4. Holding furniture hostage including threatening to leave our furniture on a NYC street if we didn't sign a new estimate under duress, and refusal to tell us the location of our property throughout the move (CVL had no idea the location of our property). Demanding we pay more money for fake "shuttle trucks" (they have six straight trucks in their fleet) to get our furniture returned - had to call sheriff to get furniture back. 5. Refusing to offer claim settlement (demanding we sign an illegal contract that directly violates the Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016 to even speak with us -- demands customers alter their negative star ratings and reviews, as part of claim settlements - yelp too! 6. Failing to provide list of moving carriers they used in our move and misrepresenting their dispatcher as a "Colonial Van Lines employee," when he is actually the owner of a poorly rated mover. The movers bringing in our property refused to tell us the name of their employer or their DOT #, and were hostile and scary! 7. Lying about delivery date (guaranteed by July 18, but then switched it to July 27, 2019 causing us extra cost and stress) 8. Refusing to allow us to witness shipment weighing, and refusal to re-weigh our property upon our request (do not believe shipment weight they gave us is "real" because they refused to let us see it.) 9. Refusal to honor agreed upon payment method (They gave permission for an "F" BBB rated mover to charge our credit card, without our consent) 10. Outsourcing our move, without our consent, to unlicensed, unprofessional, unknown, hostile, scary movers with terrible ratings who broke and lost almost half our property ($3322 loss and damage) with no identifying trucks, and no experience. OUR BILL OF LADING ONLY LISTS COLONIAL VAN LINES DOT #, NO OTHER MOVERS. 11. Bait and Switch - telling us they have expert customer and moving services, but then providing terrible movers and customer service. They yelled and laughed at us when we tried to get our property returned. Movers were terrible, loading boxes marked "fragile" under "heavy" boxes, not wrapping furniture and dumping fragile boxes on the ground. Property was smashed and almost every piece of furniture was damaged. Movers told us they were hired, by the hour, that day by the truck driver! 12. Withholding past criminal behavior by their owner including moving fraud fines. Ownership has already been brought into court by the attorney general for unfair moving practices 13. Refusing to provide proper insurance for goods (only offering insurance at an unreasonable fee and if we let "them pack it." Colonial Van Lines DID NOT perform the "expert" moving service we contracted with them. We have NO IDEA who was hired to move our property since CVL could never find our property throughout the move, and the movers refused to identify themselves. They let some unknown company charge our credit card! CVL is now refusing to work out a settlement with us, or even speak to us, because we refuse to sign an illegal document. We are demanding they reverse all charges to our credit card, and advise any other moving companies they outsourced, to also reimburse us for charging our credit card without our consent. I wish we had just rented a truck and moved our furniture ourselves! DO NOT HIRE COLONIAL VAN LINES!! read more

NIGHTMARE COMPANY, THIEVES AND CONMEN, STAY AWAY! We signed a contract with Colonial after we were told by Tony Darden the salesman that our possessions would be picked up on the 27th or 28th of the month, then delivered to our destination on the 29th or 30th which seemed reasonable as it is about a 12 hour drive away. Because we needed to book a freight elevator at the destination, we asked repeatedly for a more solid delivery date and were told by both Tony and our account manager Alexis that a solid delivery date would be available on the day of pickup. Everything was picked up on the 28th but we heard nothing about delivery and were on the road ourselves moving the family and pets by car. The next day, the 29th, we emailed to get a delivery date and got a one-line email basically saying they'd tell us when they were ready to tell us. On Friday the 30th, called to follow up again and was told that they couldn't give us an ETA until the following Tuesday, the 2nd, but that it looks like our move won't be delivered until sometime around the 11th!!! That's TWO WEEKS WITHOUT OUR POSSESSIONS, not knowing where anything is, how it is being handled or protected, or when we will have a bed to sleep in, kitchenware to cook with or any chance of getting our lives back together. They are not even a moving company per se but a sales team that sub-contracts the actual moving to WeMove, a U-Haul company, which we could have done directly for less money and more direct communication. HORRIBLE NIGHTMARE COMPANY, DO NOT USE. read more

Made a move from Stillwater, OK to Atlanta, GA and everything was perfect. The follow up on the part of the customer care people was constant and thorough, but I was especially impressed with the driver/movers. They were exceptional. No damages, the move from start to finish only took 3 days, and all was great. The only downside was that the destination parking lot couldn't accommodate the 36' semi that was dispatched for our move (they were supposed to have checked it out ahead of time and said all should be ok) so we had to hire another smaller shuttle truck to offload the goods and bring them in for another $300. But by and large, the move was worth every penny. Would use them again. read more

We are thankful that Donna in the resolution department was able to solve the concerns my father had to his satisfaction. That is why I am amending my previous review. read more

Wanted to repost this in case it got lost. The company offered to refund us a small portion of our payment in exchange for removing all bad reviews and signing an NDA. We didn't feel that it was worth our dignity to do this and hope that others can learn from our mistakes. POOR/incomplete JOB AND DECEPTIVE BUSINESS PRACTICES! We've already filed a complaint with the DOT/FMCSA and they will open up a federal investigation. I wish I could give no stars. They did not honor their original estimate and despite multiple calls to customer service have not agreed to help and tried to put the blame on us. We will unfortunately have to go to small claims court. They demanded that we pay double the original estimate or they would not release our goods which I've come to realize is illegal. We should've been able to pay %110 of the original estimate in order to release the goods. They delivered on a Sunday when we could not get a hold of their corporate representatives despite the drivers themselves talking to supervisors, and told us they would charge a missed delivery fee in order to come back when the offices were open. Furthermore, Colonial brokered the move out to ZIP Moving without our knowledge. Movers missed their pick up window and loaded things at 10 pm at night in the pouring rain which resulted in damaged, moldy, furniture. Hopefully, they will help us replace but I'm not holding my breath. Furthermore, they argued that things were not properly packed and charged us an additional $1000 in packing supplies upon delivery. In the midst of packing, they forced us to sign incomplete documents without speaking to a representative or to be charged for an additional day. Upon hearing this, we tried to phone the driver and he refused to answer. I would strongly advise anyone to use another company and we sincerely hope this one gets shut down immediately. Unprofessional, we were passed around between 5 or 6 different employees with no real account ownership. I have plenty of documentation to prove that the initial estimate was not honored and that we were forced to sign blank paperwork. read more

RUN, DO NOT WALK, AWAY FROM COLONIAL VAN LINES! They are SCAMMERS and everything they tell you is an absolute LIE. They are not worth the stress, money, or emotional damage. My boyfriend and I recently moved from Virginia to San Francisco with Colonial Van Lines and it was hands down the most STRESSFUL, emotionally DRAINING experience of my life. Pickup: Two men arrived on 8/2 to pack up our stuff and took 8 HOURS to load the truck. They quoted us $9k for the move (originally quoted $5k) and told us our window would be up to 35 BUSINESS DAYS from the first available date (8/8), even though we were initially told our window would be 8/8-8/23. This was all presented to us AFTER our entire apartment had been loaded onto their truck, and therefore we were pretty much forced into signing on the dotted line. In addition, insurance documents were NOT presented to us at the time of pick-up, so they were sent to us the next day with no discussion or opportunity for questions. Upon pickup, we also learned that these men were an AGENT of Colonial Van Lines and not actual employees. Colonial Van Lines is a BROKER so DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THEM. Communication: Initially told we'd receive a smaller delivery window upon pick-up day, but instead we received a MUCH larger delivery window. Had to f/u with our account manager, Shari-Ann (if that's her real name), MULTIPLE times to attempt to get a more narrow delivery window. After pretty much begging Shari-Ann to get us a window, which took so long because the *AGENT* was extremely unresponsive, we were given a delivery window of 9/18-9/19 and were told we'd receive a call from the dispatcher 24-48 hours prior to delivery to let us know what time they'd arrive, etc. As our delivery window approached, we received no updates from Colonial. We called Shari-Ann on 8/17 for updates, as we were flying out the next day, and she had no updates and gave us no reason to believe we were not still on schedule for our 8/18-8/19 delivery. On 8/18, we flew out to San Francisco and emailed Shari-Ann on the plan for updates, in which we got no response. When we landed in San Francisco, we called Shari-Ann for an update. At that time she told us we were given the WRONG DELIVERY WINDOW and our belongings would NOT arrive on 8/18-8/19, and she didn't have an update on when our stuff would actually arrive. I cannot express how angry and frustrated we were at this point. We just flew 3,000 miles because Colonial told us our stuff would arrive and we needed to be present to accept our delivery; we couldn't easily turn around and go home. We had nothing but what was in our suitcases and didn't know a soul in this new city. We had to purchase an air mattress so that we weren't sleeping on the floor. For the next few weeks, my boyfriend and I had to call Colonial Van Lines multiple times a day, everyday (including Saturdays), in order to try and get updates regarding our delivery. We spoke to various staff members (Shari-Ann, Shari-Ann's manager, Manny, etc.) in order to escalate this issue and basically begged to get our stuff to SF ASAP. CVL finally took over our move from the agent and with a delivery window to SF of 9/8-9/11 (original window was 8/8-8/23). This window was, of course, then pushed to 9/12-9/15 because CVL can't stick to any of their promises. Our stuff was FINALLY delivered on 9/15 (one MONTH after our original delivery window of 8/18-8/19; 23 DAYS outside our initial window of 8/8-8/23; 44 DAYS since our pickup on 8/2). We were told a reverse inventory would be done at the warehouse in Maryland; however, this did NOT occur. Upon delivery, we learned that the agent drove our belongings from Maryland to Alabama in order to meet Colonial, and that is where the reverse inventory was "performed" Missing/Damaged items: Upon delivery, we were missing our box spring, a piece of extremely large wall art, & our 42in TV was delivered broken. Not sure how you can replace such large items. Many of our items were slightly damaged (scratches, etc.) because of poor packing. The boxes delivered have a musty smell, and so do all our belongings inside the boxes, AND a cockroach came out of one of the boxes while unpacking. Fraudulent Credit Card Charge: I paid our remaining balance to Colonial via phone and gave them my credit card information. Coincidentally, I had a fraudulent charge to my card the next day. Although it could be a coincidence, the timing is extremely suspicious, especially given the fact I've NEVER had a fraudulent charge to any of my cards prior to this. TLDR: CVL lowballs their estimates and gives smaller delivery windows to draw in unsuspecting, innocent customers only to screw them over in the end. Hiring Colonial Van Lines was the BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE. I will be leaving reviews all over the internet in the hopes that I can prevent anyone else from enduring the stress we did. Take this as a warning: DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THESE SCAMMERS. read more

[Updating to 4 stars because of Donna's hard work getting us to a resolution. Original review below.] This company was by far the worst experience of my 6 interstate moves. Please don't get scammed like we did! During the sales/on-boarding process everything seemed great, but when it actually came time to move, we realized that numerous things they told us were lies and days past our "latest" pick-up date, a truck FINALLY showed up to get our things. That was when the real issues began, and the nightmare continued right up until the very end of the move. Major issues with this company included: --They asked for a huge deposit up front with no in-person estimate given. This is a huge red flag and was part of their deceptive sales practices. Dave, our sales rep, assured us that our estimate was "binding" even if we had more boxes than expected, but when the movers showed up, they demanded $3200 more than our original estimate. When we tried to update our inventory prior to the movers showing up, Paul was evasive and never responded to multiple calls and emails. --They sent a driver who had just gotten out of the hospital, making him drive hundreds of miles with our goods while still having health issues. --Dave assured us that the company would take care of a street parking permit for the truck but never did, so when the truck showed up, it couldn't park near our house and the pick-up alone took all day. --Shanee misled us about their insurance policies, costing us huge money and lots of extra time spent re-packing our goods. --"Customer service" was rude, defensive, and evasive through most of the process. Alexis, the rep we spoke with the most, gave us bad or outright false information multiple times and often asked US about the status of our move, where the driver was, etc. Colonial was ultimately just a needless and incompetent middleman that made it FAR more difficult than needed to coordinate with the contracted driver and crew. --We had to deal with 7 different representatives for each "step" of the process, and nobody could answer all of our questions. If they seem cheap, it's for a reason--avoid Colonial Van Lines at all costs! read more

This is a sham company that is essentially a broker who will take the order and give you a feeling of confidence and then hand your move over to a shipper. After committing to a window from 4/20 to May 12 to deliver from MD to CA, they still showed up a week late. Communication on pricing between Colonial and the shipper (Cal Van Lines) was non-existent, resulting in a screaming match between me and the driver over the price to be paid upon delivery. Colonial provided one balance and Cal another. The driver showed up with one guy instead of the two he picked up with, indicating that one had gotten sick and further that the kid he had with him did not have the capability to move the heavier items. Then he asked where a Home Depot was so he could recruit another guy. Then he tried to recruit a couple of guys from a nearby work crew and when that didn't work, he recruited some guy off the street and paid him $50. With obviously no regard for the fact that this guy was not at all insured or trained. Just an all around bad and stressful experience. This company should NOT be in business. And whatever you do, don't let the smooth salesman fool you (Mine was a guy named Drexel). He got totally lost and was unreachable once the chaos of this move started. I had to go on the truck to identify my items because everything on the truck was so mixed up. Just horrible. read more

I received a call after submitting an online quote from a man who was cocky and short with me. He told me that my move from Ohio to Florida could take them a couple of weeks once my stuff is put on their truck because they do more than one customer's belongings in the same truck. First off hell no I'm not risking that my stuff may end up elsewhere or I may get someone else's belongings and second I'm not going without my stuff for days or weeks. When I told him that he was the only person that told me they move more than one customer's belongings at a time he immediately told me I was wrong and other companies do it and wanted to know who else I have gotten quotes from. Not that it is any of his damn business. Besides maybe if they weren't shady as fuck or lose and damage people's stuff they would get better reviews and more business. Or maybe they just need to have people who aren't defensive pricks handle customer transactions. read more

LOST MY WEDDING PHOTOS, MILITARY EQUIPMENT, $4,000+ Do not use Colonial under any circumstances. They simply under-estimate the move price by several thousand dollars, jack it up when the movers get there, and you have no place to turn. 24 hours late showing up. Move was subcontracted to some no-name fly-by-night outfit who mixed up the numbering of the boxes. I've lost over $4,000 worth of items which I can document the value of - and SO MANY ITEMS that have unlimited value, including framed photos of our wedding and engagement which can never be replaced. Also missing: TA-50 military equipment. After SIX MONTHS of calls - with agreed-upon follow-ups being weeks late - they offered to pay an insulting $250 while materially failing to perform their duties as outlined. Also note that they pay people to remove negative reviews - I got an emailed 'agreement' that my issue had been resolved and that I'd agree to remove my reviews in exchange for $250. $250! The reviews online for this company are overwhelmingly negative, simply look around. Vets, active duty, guard: BEWARE. This company could care less about you, your memories, or your equipment. Everyone else: BEWARE. read more

COLONIAL VAN LINES IS A DISGRACEFUL COMPANY!! DO NOT DO BUISNESS WITH THEM! I hired Colonial Van Lines (CVL) to move my Aunts household belongings from Pennsylvania to Colorado. My aunt suffers from new onset dementia so her son wanted her to move into an assisted living facility near his home. The initial contact with Kelly Furlong was thorough and pleasant. The move was booked nearly one month prior to my Aunt's scheduled relocation. The pickup date was contracted for August 1st or 2nd dependent upon CVL schedule. On July 30th , Megan from CVL called to confirm August 1 between 10am - 2pm as the pick-up date. The morning of August 1 (just prior to scheduled pick up), Jessica from CVL called to say the truck was unable to come because it was put out of service for driver rest requirements. I was angry and frustrated as I had gone through great lengths in preparation for the August 1 pick up. Jessica assured me that since my job was next to be picked up, the truck would arrive on August 2nd between 8a - 12noon. Since I had to work on the 2nd, I was left scrambling, from limited resources, for someone willing and able to wait at my aunt's house and take responsibility for the contents of the home to be moved. Fortunately, a family friend cancelled her obligations to help me out. I completed and submitted proxy forms per CVL requests, and had everything in place..again! Remember, I was assured the pick-up would now be between 8a-12noon on August 2nd. At 10:30am on August 2nd (2 hours into the waiting period) Spencer from CVL called to say the driver picked up a load the prior evening which was "a heavy load" and now the truck is too full to pick up my Aunt's belongings. WHAT!!! I was told the day prior the truck was out of service!! How is it that it picked up a load?!? And wasn't I next on the schedule?!? I was told they were "frantically" looking for another truck but didn't know when they would have one. During the day of the August 2nd I called several times trying to secure a new move date. Out of frustration, I mentioned canceling the contract as they failed to fulfill the agreement. Spencer was quick to want to cancel and touted that my deposit would be returned. I requested to talk with a manager. Spencer stated he would "escalate" my case and a manager would call me within an hour. A manager never called. Instead, I received a call back from Jessica and later Spencer. Both asking if I was canceling the reservation. When I asked about the truck, neither were able to give me a date. I was told by both that "it doesn't look like we have one [a truck] even for the next week". My reply, keep looking. Saturday August 3, no one from CVL called or email to update me on the status of a truck the claimed to be "frantically" looking for. I called at 3pm and spoke with Donna. Still no pick up date in sight. I cancelled the reservation. Clearly Colonial Van Lines lacks respect, consideration or commitment for/to their customers or people in general. read more

Horrible!!! I have never been so disappointed with a company in all my life. I signed and contracted with Colonial Van Lines in Alexandria, VA. And instead got 'Budget Movers' a very poor subcontractor. My belongings were picked up in Alexandria on 8/10/2020, with a delivery window of 8/25/2020 as the last date. After over 20 phone calls generated by me to Kenya, Alexia to get a status update on my move. I was told it would be delivered on 8/25 (NO SHOW). I was told the weekend of 8/29 (NO SHOW). I was told 9/2/2020 (NO SHOW). Then I was told by Budget Movers it would be with out a doubt over Labor Day Weekend, so I canceled my travel plans, and guess what no delivery 9/5/2020, 9/6/2020 or 9/7/2020. I left messages for EVERYONE and got no return calls. I went to work on Tuesday 9/8/2020 and finally got a call from Mr. Robert the driver telling me he would be delivering my furniture on 9/9/2020 in the morning... and I should be home to receive it early. So, I took the day off, and waited. I called Colonial, Mr. Robert and Budget and could get NO ONE to help me find my furniture. Finally, at 1:45PM on 9/9/20 I got a call and was told my furniture would be here between 3PM and 5PM... I could have gone to work and not lost a days pay. My furniture did arrive at 3:15PM on 9/9/2020, 1 month after they picked me up. I have yet to get an explanation, apology, AND, I had to calculate the discounted rate of $30.00 not the $50.00 per day I had been quoted... Then I had to wait for the approval before they would even open the truck. I have and will continue to share my story with everyone who will listen. There is no quality of service, customer care, any longer.... I can tell you I got a call from the finance/accounting department about money! But no calls about where my furniture was or why it wasn't being delivered. I got a ton of excuses, but no help! NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use this company and PLEASE, ensure you are not being passed to a 2nd party vendor for your work... spend the extra money and go with an independent company - family owned and operated. read more

From start to finish for our move, everything was wonderful!!! Everyone was kind, caring and professional. They explained every part of the process. The moving men were fantastic! I highly recommend Colonial Van Lines! read more

My dispute with the Colonial Van Lines has been recently addressed by Donna and resolved. She followed up the issue and get it done even after I gave up on it. My stars go to Donna, Thank you. read more

This moving company was responsible for holding onto my items over several months while I looked for a place to live. Once I found a spot, I gave over a month notice in advance of where I would be moving. On the day of move-in, no one showed up. I waited in an empty apartment I was paying rent for, with no notification from the company whatsoever. I proceeded to get the run-around from the company for the next three to four weeks, with no confirmation on where any of my stuff was. This ended up costing me thousands in losses, and the company offered something like $200-$300 in compensation provided I don't write any reviews like the one I'm doing right now. I had to have a police officer on site while my items were finally being delivered, because of the way cash was suddenly being required at the last minute. I finally received *some* of my stuff, but a few things were missing, a lamp was shattered, and a mattress was stained. Maybe Colonial operates properly within the Florida jurisdiction and merely is acting as a broker to far shadier movers working under a contract. However, I received a letter from the Florida Attorney General that Colonial Van Lines was under investigation for violation of Florida Statute 501 Part II (Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act). So it seems that these shady practices continue within the state. read more

Here's my experience: 1. They sent a 26' truck from a sub contractor that was in extremely poor condition. I was worried that it wouldn't make it from CA to Arizona. 2. My worry was correct, truck broke down in LA. 3. My wife was flying to AZ to meet the movers and had to change flights. Because of other travel plans we incurred several hundred dollars in flight changes. 4. Movers dropped off our furniture in AZ, my wife noticed some damage and was told she would have to make a claim with Colonial since they were just a sub contractor. 5. The day after the movers left we kept getting calls and emails from Colonial to write a review. Very pushy about this. 6. Submitted a claim for damage to our refrigerator and couch. 7. Over 2 months went by with no response then I get an email stating they are still working on it. 8. Sent back an email asking why it was still in process. No response. 9. Several days later I just received a call stating the claim is denied because the movers didn't write it on the invoice. In summary: Sent a crappy truck that broke down costing us several hundred dollars in flight changes. Beyond pushy trying to get us to write a review. Denied a valid claim based on the information the movers told my wife. They lied to my wife to get away from the house without documenting damage so they wouldn't have to pay a claim. Worst moving experience I've ever had. read more

Horrible experience. 600 dollars cash missing from a dresser we didnt even move. Things broken. Came on the one day I asked them not to. Said 7am and showed up at noon, making us late for our first day of work in a new city. They charge almost 400 dollars for a shuttle that was quoted "about 200". Then refused to take my coworker's things to her apartment down the way acting like I didn't ever mention that was the plan. 2 apartments in the same complex. And they were rude about it. I threw out the broken glass as is the natural reaction when one comes across BROKEN GLASS, and now I cant claim damage without a photo apparently. My 55" smart TV is broken. Things are missing. Never consented to have an audio recording of a phone call and specifically my cc info being recorded and then used for a future transaction. Service is rude. Would never recommend. read more

UPDATE: Working with Donna helped to fix my issues below. She was exponential with handling the issues and providing a fair and reasonable compensation for the previously poor experiences. However I wish the company would have her same understanding through the entire move process and not just at the end when problems have had time to develop. I appreciated her reliability and swiftness on the issues. Overall the move got completed, with minimal physical damages. ____________________________________________________________ Please avoid at all costs. Without having to read all of my review here is a breakdown for you (0 out of 10 ratings): Cost: 0. Reliability: 0. Communication: 0. Quality: 5. Overall rating: 1 out of 10. I chose Colonial Van Lines for a move from Nashville to Orlando. They where the lowest quote I received (not by much) but man do I regret not taking the slightly higher people that quoted me a price and "not a penny more". To start off they withheld a deposit that is more than 1/2 times the cost of the move. This didn't seem like an issue at first but it's a way for them to trap you to use the company. Getting a quote was easy and I received a call earlier in the week of my pick up to confirm a pick up date and time. My pick up time was from Noon-4pm. I got a call from the actual truck driver after noon telling me it's not going to happen.... During which time I was expecting them to be at my house, I call their office and all I get is a "well that's what it's going to be" kind of attitude and they will show up tomorrow. Tomorrow comes and I get another call from the driver they need to charge me ~$280 to get a shuttle because they brought a whole tractor trailer to pick up barely a 2 bedroom apartment (only roughly 3,600 lbs). I thought a moving company would plan accordingly for a pick up (like others did) but after arguing I had to agree to pay this. (Pro tip: don't threaten not to pay for it, because they will just not move forward with the move, I tried it, they have a nice deposit from you at this time and they do not care. You have no leverage as a consumer here). So they picked up my items (actual movers where cool dudes) and I embarked on my own journey. I got a call from them on Friday telling me they aren't sure when my delivery will be and will call me Monday to confirm a date as for my delivery window was that Wednesday. Surprise if you guessed it they never called me Monday. I got a call on Wednesday saying it won't be till that Friday or Saturday (believe it or not I was actually okay with this since I was working). Anyway I didn't find out until Friday that they would be coming Saturday between 8-10am (I am still okay with this). No one shows up or calls well after 10am, so I had to call them. They inform me that it won't be in the morning but in the afternoon (now it's getting annoying). They call me that afternoon and tell me that it's going to be tomorrow (now really annoyed). On top of that I get a "sob story" of how this move is costing them "soo much" since they have to reimburse me for the days it's late. To be clear it was a grand total of $90 I will be getting back! Yup, for comparison I requested a mattress box for my move which cost me $80, they never actually brought a mattress box just wrapped it like any other furniture. While I am talking of charges they tried to add another $80 for "bulky items", which was none existent. I had to call and get that removed from the final price. These did get removed. Moving on, it is now currently Sunday. I still do not have my stuff. I can't get a hold of anyone or have heard from anyone. Unless you want to be sitting in an empty house one day, wondering if your stuff will arrive or if they just stole/lost it somewhere, and writing a yelp review then just avoid them. Please. I guess I will follow up with what shape my items arrive in when I get them... if I ever get them. read more

Great company. Willing to go above and beyond for their customers! They are also willing to work with you when there problems with your move. Give the a chance and let them be your movers today. read more

Donna did a good job helping us get this resolved. We are looking forward to having the issue finalized and the agreed amount refunded to our account thanks to her help. read more

Moving is always stressful. I had a few issues with Colonial's van driver but once Donna with the resolution department took over I felt satisfied that my issues were handled and the driver trained so no other customer faced the issues I faced. read more

I accepted a job in Colorado and needed to move quickly. Most major vanlines were booked up, but Colonial had availability during the window I needed. Everything was smooth in the beginning and the initial sales process was seamless. Unfortunately, things began to unravel as the move progressed. Initially the problems started when the movers arrived a full day outside of our pick-up window. We were told that our pickup would occur between June 27th -30th. I made it clear to Colonial before the move that we needed to be out of our apartment on June 30th. We received a call on June 29th that said the pickup would occur between 12-4 on June 30th. At around 3pm on June 30th, we received another call explaining that our movers were delayed and would not arrive until July 1st between 12-4. We ended up having to pay late fees and additional rent at our apartment due to the tardiness of the movers. When the movers picked up our belongings they were demanding that I pay the remainder of the balance before they started packing any of our boxes. I showed them the contract and told them I would not pay them until the goods were delivered. They begrudgingly agreed, but it created an uncomfortable environment from the start. It also wasted about an hour of my time because they would not begin moving until they sorted it out with their dispatcher. Then I received a text from the movers after they had my belongings that said they needed the remainder of the balance in cash upon delivery and that I couldn't use a card. It was worked out and I was able to use a credit card, but it was a frustrating half a day spent trying to figure it out. It was all very unprofessional. We also requested that delivery be made on ANY day outside of the 4th of July. We received a call on the 3rd of July that said the delivery would be made on the 4th of July between 12-4. We were frustrated, but happy that the delivery would be made. Unfortunately, we were waiting for the movers until 8:30pm - and we completely missed celebrating the 4th of July with our family. The movers arrived 4 and a half hours late and were not finished until 11:30pm. I had to leave for work the following day at 6:30am. We were pleased with Colonial in the beginning of the move - but the second half of the move was sloppy. We really wish that there would have been better communication throughout the process and that we would have had a better idea of what to expect before we entered the agreement with Colonial. I am happy that our belongings arrived safely - but I will not use Colonial again, and will definitely not be recommending Colonial to friends or family unless some of the communication issues are cleared up. read more

After the struggles of delivery outside the 5 day window they gave me and the loss of 2 boxes, Donna Rose worked on my behalf to come to a resolution. read more

After sending numerous requests to provide us with the date of when our leftover items will be delivered, we are still waiting for a response. It's like everyone went on vacation ... again. We have been even including Attorney General in our emails for future reference if we need to pursue legal actions. This company has been nothing but unfriendly, uninformative and deny any responsibilities on their part. I also love how they make it sound that they are doing so much for you that you should be grateful and just accept whatever they offer which is a few hundred dollars for all the damage, undelivered items and all the broken promises/lies. And how we should take down any and all bad reviews since we are the ones now showing bad faith/face and if we don't, then they feel offended. Also been told by Donna and Sharon that usually people take down their bad reviews as it seems that's what they expect since they are trying to help but if we don't take down a bad review then they might not be as interested in pursuing to help us. Really!?!?!?!? read more