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January 2024 by Maureen Baiocco
Our experience with Colonial Van lines was outstanding. Our movers, Antonio and Robert, arrived as scheduled on time. They called in advance, were very professional, personable, courteous and reviewed with us all items that would be moved, they were attentive to all details, and very carefully arranged items in the van.Since our move was from Florida to the Buffalo, NY area, we were kept informed of their progress. They unloaded into our reserved units carefully after a major snowstorm. Tremendous men and service!We also had our cars transported with Colonial Van Lines. When the driver was delayed to pick up our cars, Simone Tanis at Colonial Van Lines, contacted the driver and kept open lines of communication to inform us when he would arrive. Our cars were picked up and delivered the next day at a local transport hub right near us; Erin and Bill’s Transport. Once again, outstanding driver and service! We were very pleased with our movers and glad we bundled our car transport with Colonial Van Lines. Truly a very positive experience!!
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January 2024 by Ashwini Rao
Moving with Colonial Van Lines was very straightforward. They have a dedicated account manager assigned to your case who keeps you in the loop every step of the way, right from pick up until delivery. The move in itself was very well planned and quick. The movers were on time, packed all the items and furniture very neatly and it was delivered at the destination address and unloaded and unpacked. They also entertained a last minute destination change and shipped my car across states overnight. Highly recommend Colonial Van Lines for any of your moves.
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January 2024 by Lorrie T
Everyone was very helpful. The men that came to move me were very nice and friendly. It went so much smoother than I ever expected. I would definitely use them again.
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January 2024 by Jason B
Had a positive experience with Colonial Van lane as we hadto have an apartment packed up and move within a few days. The accountmanager kept in great contact during the move. Would definitely use themagain
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January 2024 by Stephanie B
My experience was okay with Colonial Van Lines. The person that came to organize and start the move was very helpful and explained the process very well. The cost was high but the convenience was priceless.
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December 2023 by Megan Giles
0 stars for company, 5 stars for resolution team. Please read full review before going with company.Update:I still stand by not using this company. However, Donna from resolution contacted us to resolve the matter by offering a discount of $500 out of the 10k we paid. The 5 stars on google (which was required to get the discount) is for resolution team and not for company. Company gets 0 starts.Review.My family and I used Colonial to move our stuff from Connecticut to Georgia. We paid extra for boxes, storage in an air conditioned unit and more.First, while packing up our things in Connecticut they expected us to help. My dad injured his back helping to carry out heavy things we paid the company for. The first day we had 3 people moving us. They could not finish and had to return the following day. Only 1 person showed up….1. Again my dad was forced to work the entire day to get our things out of the house. Finally our stuff made it to Georgia. Because our house was not finished yet we paid extra to have it in storage. As we know Georgia gets hot in the summer and since our things would be there for several months we paid extra to have it in a unit where there was climate control. We found out the storage unit was not climate controlled. A representative from the company stated climate control means “out of the elements.” This was ridiculous! We then went out found a climate controlled unit and asked colonial to deliver our belongings. We had to wait over two weeks to get our stuff because they could not find a driver.When we went to the storage unit a lot of our belongings were damaged.Not a good company.Both drivers were nice and clearly under a lot of stress by the company. While we have no complaints of the drivers because they tried their best the company is horrible.
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December 2023 by vicki lang
I don’t like to write bad reviews. In all my reviews, I think I have only written one. However I will forfeit the money they offered, to write this one, because I do not want someone to experience what we did.You may have a positive experience with Colonial Van Lines but if you don’t, the question is do they stand behind the mistakes they make? In our experience they did not.We hired them to move and store our furniture and personal belongings and it was returned to us infested in cockroaches, yellow stains on fabrics with a sour smell (I had to wash everything), grease stains on furniture, furniture scratched, mattress inners damaged. We were told by the movers that the storage facility must have had problems. We had to hire an exterminator asap to come spray our brand new house.Twice we were told they were they were coming to deliver our items and both times they never called or showed up. We had to call them numerous times to find out that they weren’t coming. The result was 5 nights in a hotel with two big dogs. If they had at least called us then this would not have been so upsetting. We were told by customer service we would be reimbursed unfortunately they were only willing to reimburse 1 night.Other issues - lost hardware on beds, our bunk bed was assembled in a very unsafe way,..Weeks of unreturned calls & emails from our customer service person at Colonial.I understand situations aren’t always perfect. Moving is very stressful as it is and one doesn’t need to add more with the moving company they hire. I have uploaded a few pictures to show some of the damage. I would never recommend this company.
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December 2023 by Takeshi
This is my first time to write a review on any business, and I’m not a fan of saying bad things about anybody, but I have to write this because it was very bad and stressful experience… here is my suggestion for you all if you go with this company.1) Do NOT expect your stuff getting delivered on time - We moved from CT to CA, they came to pick up our stuff in CT on Oct 11th. They gave us 3-week window for the delivery (Oct 18th to Nov 3rd). We kept asking them the exact delivery date, but the answer from the account manager was always “ETA”. On Oct 30th, he finally told us that our stuff is still at the warehouse in NJ… What…? We couldn’t believe that it was still in NJ 3 weeks after they picked it up, they had ZERO intention to deliver it on time… we finally got our stuff in CA on Nov 10th, yes it took 31DAYS… They gave us $210 discount ($30/day) for the delay, but we paid $5,200+ in total for 2BR. They explained about the delay, said it’s just because it’s long distance. The professional moving company uses the long distance as their excuse not to get the job done…What I wanna say is that they should NOT take the job and should NOT give us the 3-week window for the delivery if they can’t get it done. It’s just UNPROFESSIONAL… we were sleeping on the floor in the empty apartment while we were waiting on our stuff.2) Do NOT expect your stuff getting delivered in good condition - You believe or not, they showed up with U-Haul truck. Is that common the professional moving company uses U-Haul…? Well, I don’t need to say anything much more here, just see the pictures. Please know that your stuff will be damaged.Edited - 11/28/23) I changed my review from 1 star to 5 stars b/c of the resolution they provided us. The person, Donna, was very professional and respectful. She listened to me very carefully, understood what exactly happened, and handled the situation properly. After they delayed the delivery and damaged some of our furniture, Donna was able to get the approval from her manager for $400 compensation including all the claims. It wasn't enough for us unfortunately, but I'm adding extra comment here and gave more stars for the respect of what she has done for us.
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November 2023 by Andrew Ashburn
10/16/2023: This complaint is in reference to Job No. 1288986-CV-A; picked up on 7/29/2023; delivered 8/11/2023. We hired CVL to move our furniture and belongings from Tallahassee, FL to West Fork, AR, and to also provide packing service for fragile items with exposed glass (framed pictures, table lamps, etc).Foreman arrived at pickup with two assistants who required instruction from us on how to package fragile items, as they “had never done it before.” While all of this was going on, foreman gave us a new updated quote that was several thousand dollars more than our initial quote. After a couple hours on the phone with CVL support, they found they charged us for “bulky items” and several other things in error.At the delivery point, the same foreman from pickup arrived driving the truck, with only one assistant. Unloading went haphazardly at best, but we were disturbed to see that all the furniture had been re-wrapped, this time with far fewer moving blankets. Every single major piece of furniture was damaged. It wasn’t cheap stuff, either; this was barely a year old and from Haverty’s. The worst of the damage was a fist-sized hole in the back of the Newport Server, but every single tabletop surface was also scratched. Both the foreman and his assistant slammed boxes and totes carelessly on top of one another without the slightest care, and paid no attention to the clearly-marked indications of which room they were supposed to go to.We spent around $10,000 on CVL. In return we were repeatedly deceived, disrespected, and had our belongings damaged. Despite the many hours we spent on the phone they again said any settlement would come only from the claims process; they would not provide any compensation for their utter lack of any reasonable care for our belongings. It’s been more than two months now since delivery, which should be more than enough time for CVL to make things right. Unfortunately, they have failed to do so, so I am now forced to file this complaint.10/17/2023 -- Received callback from Donna, resolution manager. Gave greater detail on experience with CVL. She asked if I had submitted a formal damage claim, and I stated I had done so on 10/16, but was awaiting an acknowledgement of receipt.10/22/2023 -- Still awaiting damage claim acknowledgement, despite the claim form explicitly stating "Upon receipt of the claim form, you will be emailed an acknowledgment letter advising that your completed claim has been received."10/23/2023 -- Called Donna back to let her know we still haven't received acknowledgement letter, 7 days after submitting the claim. She said she sees in the notes it was received by them on 10/17 and assigned Claim Number 23-0869. She said we should receive an acknowledgement email from Claims department shortly, and to message her when we receive the acknowledgement email.10/31/2023 -- Spoke with Donna again, let her know we still haven’t received claim acknowledgement email. It's now 14 days since we submitted the claim. She said the file shows her note requesting the claim acknowledgement email after we spoke on 10/23, and they hadn’t updated it, but that she would call over to the claims department today. She said she would press them for a claim amount today so we could hopefully proceed with the resolution process.11/2/2023 – Rec’d callback from Donna, who said they’d been sending the confirmation email to my partner instead of me, even though the claim was submitted from my email. When the chain was forwarded to me, I replied-all notifying them that all further communication regarding the claim should be directed to my email or phone number. Still no claim amount as mentioned 10/31.
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November 2023 by Debora Szymski
I called 3 different companies to get estimates and Colonial was the least expensive. I usually will not go with the cheapest but was assured by Tony that the items I quoted were correctly estimated in both weight and volume in his quote. With that said, I did add some big items to our move and the additional cost was not a crazy amount.The communication from the transportation crew kept us abreast of timing as well as helped with tips on how pack up some of our pictures, to help reduce our costs.The gentlemen that packed us up were late in coming to our home, but when we saw the care and time in which they wrapped and packed our items, we were not upset and assumed their diligence in packing the previous clients were the reason they were late.The gentlemen that unpacked us were just as careful as the previous crew.The only complaint we had was that we were assured we could pay with a credit card on delivery. When the delivery crew called to tell us, they were on their way, they told us they would only accept cash or money order on delivery. Fortunately, we were able to make arrangements to comply with this. We did inform Colonial, who were ready to take steps to correct this issue, but we were already got the cash.We would definitely use Colonial again but hope we will not be moving again!!!
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October 2023 by Serge Gojkovich
I hired Colonial Van Lines expecting a professional moving service, but was sorely disappointed. The crew seemed untrained, composed of friends rather than professionals, and used a rented U-Haul instead of a specialized moving vehicle. They tried to bypass my building’s designated delivery area, causing unnecessary complications. Worse yet, due to their lack of professionalism, many of my items, including a valuable 85-inch TV, dressers, and bookcases, were damaged during the move. I trusted Colonial’s advertising and feel deceived by the vast difference between their promises and the actual service delivered.
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October 2023 by Cashmere Dawn Qualls
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! Our move was a disaster, literally every piece of furniture moved by Colonial Van Lines was damaged and I mean significantly. Paid over $6K for them to move us from Texas to Florida and received over $40K worth of damage to our furniture. The movers were unprofessional and rude with no regards to our personal property. The claims process is a nightmare we had to send 63 emails with a claim form and pictures of the damage for each item...in short, we are left with everything we own ruined! We reported them to the BBB and requested a refund. I was told “our stuff was moved we don’t get a refund”…wow that’s customer service for you. I repeat DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! I added just a few of the over 200 pictures of damage to include property damage to both locations.
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October 2023 by Peter Conlon
A client I assisted hired Colonial online for a cross-country move. I generally don't like van lines since they are hard to schedule exactly and you generally don't know who is showing up. After reading many negative reviews, I was worried. However, the experience was very positive. Jose and Wally showed up in a huge Colonial moving truck and proceeded to protect and load everything in a highly professional way. I had packed all boxes and they were careful to load them to avoid damage - heavy on bottom, light on top. They padded and wrapped furniture extremely well and very fast. They hustled, could not have been more polite and professional, and the clients at the delivery end reported the same. I can't comment on the cost (as I don't know), but I can comment on the high quality of these two movers. Communication with the main office was also fine.
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October 2023 by Deborah F.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, they are the WORST moving company that I have ever experienced! Hands down! The full reason they are top ranked is because if you have an issue and they give you a small credit back they make you sign a non-disparaging agreement which means you cannot tell anyone how bad the experience was or they can sue you. The $200 credit they offered me was a slap in the face.My son was moving a studio apartment from Massachusetts to DC/Virginia. I was talked into this company by their sales rep, Zachary Velez. I was going to go with First National Van that was $300 cheaper but Colonial convinced me paying $2700 would get my sons furniture their safer and faster. Boy was that wrong. It was an 8 hour drive from one apartment to the other. My sales rep told me they would likely do it in two days at the longest it would arrive on Saturday. Wrong again, it took 8 days!To start the day of the move the driver called my son and told him he would be there in one hour. One hour and forty-five minutes later the driver showed up by HIMSELF! He kept telling my son that another person was on their way but no none ever showed up. He took numerous smoke breaks. It took this guy hours and hours to move everything from the studio apartment to the truck.My son and I called Colonial everyday, multiple times no one ever updated us. When I would call my sales rep he would transfer me to dispatch and they would RUDELY tell me that they had no update or that someone would call back. I cannot even count how many times they told me that someone would call to update and never did. A lot times the rep or dispatch or customer service would say they called me but got no answer. Which is ridiculous, this is 2023 I have an iphone if they truly called they could have left a message. Bottom line, they never called. When you are moving into a city apartment you have to reserve the elevators and unloading area. Colonial also charges if their drivers have to walk more than 75 feet to unload. So we needed to know when they were arriving. Eight days after they picked up my sons stuff they arrived at the new apartment. The truck that contained my sons stuff had been towed. At least that is what East Coast Van lines (that Colonial had hired) told my son. A top manager, Aaron Seusaran from Colonial offered to give me a $200 credit if I would sign a non-disparaging agreement toward Colonial. Aaron also refused to give me his last name, He told me it was company policy but my rep Zachary Velez told me that was not true. Aaron also told me that it was planned to only have one mover pick up my sons stuff which was also not true because Zachary, my sales rep told me there should have been two movers. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND GOING WITH ANY OTHER MOVING COMPANY OTHER THAN COLONIAL. THEY ARE A DISASTER OF A COMPANY!
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October 2023 by Tanner W.
Unfortunately, I do not recommend using Colonial Van Lines.They take item estimates over the phone, which end up varying widely from the estimate you are given in person. Professional moving companies typically schedule in-person visits to prevent such a discrepancy.For paying a large deposit up front (months in advance), they do not communicate effectively when it comes to your pickup date for the move. We received a pickup window a few days before the actual pickup, and they did not even show up in the designated window. Our movers ended up calling us at 9pm telling us that they could not deliver that night due to the drivers legal miles exceeding the limit. This was strange because our original window was 8-1pm, then it moved to 3-6pm mid day, then 4-8pm. How did Colonial Vanlines not know that the drivers weren't going to make it on time when they were going to exceed their legal driving limit for the day? I felt as if I was lied to all day. They showed up the following day roughly 24 hours after the latest window I was given.From what I can tell, this company contracts other moving companies to do the physical work for them, and they do not have a clear communication line with the individuals that are actually picking up and delivering your items. The team of two that were headed to pick up our items were told a different pickup time than Colonial told us, and both Colonial and the subcontractor ended up blaming each other for the problem.Steer clear of this company if you are looking for movers that actually care about your belongings and your sanity.
