Colonial Van LinesReviews 151

I'm writing this review to warn others about the tactics used by Colonial Van Lines — tactics that I believe may be in violation of the Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA), a federal law designed to protect consumers from being silenced. We hired Colonial Van Lines for an interstate move. The initial logistics were poor — our delivery was delayed by nearly a month, and we were given multiple, conflicting explanations. First we were told the truck broke down. Then they claimed the driver was out of hours. Later, we learned that 1,000 pounds of our shipment was missing, despite the company having been notified weeks earlier. This was frustrating and disruptive, but not unprecedented for the moving industry. What truly crossed the line was what happened after we posted an honest review online. Colonial began repeatedly contacting us, pressuring us to remove the negative review, and told us that the $1,100 compensation they had already promised would not be paid unless we signed a gag order. The "Full and Final Settlement Agreement" they sent us required us to: Remove all online reviews and complaints Agree never to speak negatively about the company again Declare (falsely) that a "satisfactory settlement" had been reached Keep the entire dispute and settlement confidential These terms directly conflict with protections guaranteed under the CRFA (15 U.S. Code § 45b), which makes it unlawful for companies to include clauses in consumer agreements that prohibit, restrict, or penalize negative reviews. By conditioning compensation on our agreement to remove or retract public feedback, Colonial Van Lines appears to have violated both the spirit and letter of this federal statute. The CRFA exists to prevent exactly this kind of behavior — where companies attempt to cover up poor service by coercing silence from their customers. Worse, they also threatened to reverse our credit card payment unless we provided a cashier's check — a tactic that appears designed to apply pressure during a vulnerable moment in the moving process. I urge anyone considering this company to read the Consumer Review Fairness Act and understand your rights. Honest consumer feedback is not only protected — it's essential to ensuring accountability. Businesses that retaliate against that feedback should be avoided at all costs.

DO NOT USE COLONIAL VAN LINES! They damaged almost all of my handmade Mennonite furniture, demolished all 5 floor lamps, a big screen tv, pottery, wicker house hold baskets, mops, bar stools scrapped and nicked. Two movers showed up to move a 3 story, 3,100 square foot home. Both admitted they had no experience. One stated he was a recovering meth addict and not to talk to the second mover because he didn't like people. The driver tried to stop the move and come back the next day when the house was sold. Many items were loaded and not covered or padded. Two house painters who were finishing up my neighbor's house ended up helping. There were three movers who unloaded at my new house. Broken lamps were put in areas I couldn't see. The main mover cornered me twice to get the tips. When I refused to give them to him he threatened the driver and made inappropriate sexual and financial comments about me. Colonial requires two estimates for each item damaged. Both woodworkers required payment for the estimates. Payment was required for printing the color photos they required. Completely unprofessional, inexperienced movers, one of whom created a safety concern for me.

Pick up was great. The crew took their time in wrapping and making sure all was packaged and loaded well. Drop off was another story, granted it was 4 days before Christmas. It took two vans to move my stuff. Someone locked the keys in the cab of one van. So, two people spent the whole time trying to unlock tab. They borrowed my crowbar from my brand-new car, and never returned it. The glass shelf in my hutch was not wrapped, so it shattered, I replaced it. The dining room table was just set there, the lower bar was not tightened to secure the table, so it wobbled and was not sturdy, my son in law has since fixed it. The crew was anxious to get home, understandable, but they were not as careful in unloading my things. They get a C.

After 7/8 months I am not very happy with my move with CVL but I am happy that you are trying to help me and working on my behalf. So I would like to update my reviews to 5 Stars, but I want everyone to know that the 5 Stars is solely and specifically for the resolution department. They make you go through so much stuff to get any resolution.

All they do is lie to you. They gave me a window of July 1-8.I call them on Monday Jason told me that they are loading my stuff on the truck, so I'm think maybe my stuff will get there Friday or Saturday. Now they telling me my stuff want get delivered until 14th of July because they just loaded my stuff yesterday. I have kids with out a lot of their things. One of my kids have autism and he needs certain things to make him feel comfortable. They is poor service on their part. On top of that, I have been living in a hotel and paying for apartment that I can't live in until they bring me all my stuff.

So the owner of the company responded back to call this number, so I called the number spoke with someone then they going send me to voicemail. The company is a joke. Throw The Whole Company Away.

I highly recommend Colonial Van Lines. This is a trusted moving company, and you can be at peace about the details of your move. Every detail was taken care of reducing much stress and worry concerning safe delivery. My valuable China Cabinet, China Dishes, and Crystal were careful packed and delivered safely without breakage. The delivery men were also courteous and helpful. Very thankful everything went smoothly.

There was an issue with a safe that was moved. After the move, Donna at Colonial Van Lines reached out to use. And we were able to reach a mutually agreement to the issue.

The guys were very friendly and efficient. They loaded my entire house in around 4 hours. I requested boxes load first then furniture so that when we unloaded, I could get to the items I needed. Boxes were placed in the back and furniture along the sidewall of a 10 x 30 storage unit. I couldn't find any of my winter clothing or boots. Very disappointing. The storage unit was packed with a very short aisle 6' to walk in. I cannot get to the back of the storage unit as boxes are stacked floor to ceiling. My belongings will continue to be in storage until I get a house completed. I'm not happy about the huge mess in the storage facility.

I spoke with a representative from Colonial Van Lines who was very helpful. I really appreciated the phone call after my move and her assistance. Good customer service is very important to me.

Colonial uses promises to lure you in, but then, adds undisclosed charges and damages your property.
Colonial charged me for extra pictures, even though both the initial contact person, Anthony Perrone, and the van driver, Beldon Lawrence, said, at first, that my load had no overages. Colonial charged me $250 for delaying delivery even though I told six of their employees that I, myself, was driving cross-country and would not arrive until 9 Nov. In spite of 7 messages confirming what both Anthony Perrone and the driver, Beldon Lawrence, himself, told me that Nov 11 was the delivery day, Colonial changed the delivery day at the last minute. I was a full day's drive away from the delivery site when Colonial Van Lines called me, with less than 24 hours' notice, to say they were delivering the next day, Nov 8. I explained I could not get there and Colonial charged me $250 for delaying the delivery that they had assured me was not until Nov 11. I even asked the driver, Beldon, if he was working on Veterans' Day, Nov 11, and he said they worked all days. There was no confusion about setting the delivery for Nov 11. Colonial charged me $250 because I was not at the delivery point by 8 am on Nov 8.

Colonial damaged my chest of drawers; it now wobbles a full six inches sideways. The chest was solid when it went into the van. Colonial damaged an antique desk that was my grandfather's, in spite of the fact that I repeated several times that the desk had to be handled with special care. Colonial broke a number of smaller items, baskets, small glasses, and a bicycle.
I paid for full packing services, which meant putting things back together at the destination. The destination is a mess; nothing was reassembled the way it was before packing. The bed frame was put together without the washers for the bolts and without the floor glides under the legs. I told Beldon and his helper Shaw not to damage the newly refinished floors. There is a foot-long gash in the back bedroom.

Donna helped find our keyboard and have it shipped to us. She also helped us get a decent settlement for our missing items. "I'm the Donna" from Suits really fits if you know the show.

If you're on the hunt for a moving company ready to mishandle a quarter of your belongings, overcharge you without addressing your concerns, and teach you the costs and benefits of suing a moving company, look no further than Colonial Van Lines. Our recent encounter with their costly relocation services left us deeply disheartened and frustrated. Their estimate for our moving cost was 75% higher than originally predicted. We expected to pay around 4k to have all of our belongings packed, moved, and unpacked in a new home, but the end result was 7.5k - not unpacked but simply dropped and scattered around our new home. They decided to stop moving 2/3 of the way through the move. Thankfully, TaskRabbit workers came to our rescue. Their pricing scheme and the way they communicate is very convoluted. You are told that you will have a point person to explain everything and check in with you, however, I ended up have 3 point people, and each did not know what the other was doing. One person told me the price would be 5k after weighing everything, but later they raised it to 7.5k. What's more, our most valuable belongings were damaged or destroyed. Our experience with Colonial Van Lines was dreadful and we hope to help others avoid the same blunder. Knowing there are numerous reputable companies out there, we wish we had researched more diligently, and gone with something like Gentle Giant. To underscore the most pressing issues: our most valuable items were damaged or destroyed. Upon arrival at our new home, we were informed that their usual crew was unavailable, and they'd enlisted unprofessional workers, and then did not reimburse us for the "white-glove" service we had paid for yet did not receive, though they did give us $200 for the TaskRabbit workers which is what we will use next time in order to save a great deal of money and headache.

UPDATE: Donna from the resolutions department really went above and beyond to try and make things right after this review was posted; she was able to get us a small settlement on top of the insurance claim from CVL and for her efforts I definitely give 5 stars.

Word of advice to those moving cross-country: sell everything you possibly can, other than what will fit in a U-Haul that you drive yourself, and save the money to buy new furniture and things at the new place. We would have come out ahead of where we are. We were originally quoted about $10k for a 3 BR moving cross-country in June. When we came back with the correct box count, that jumped to $13k. Day of moving, it went up to $15k with all the "extras". They know you have no other choice at that point, they'll just keep adding fees. The workers/drivers themselves, I have no quarrel with, they were nice guys doing their jobs, but working with any moving company long distance is a bad idea. So now I'm in a new house, great, but with debt that will take years to pay off.

I must say that my experience with this moving company has been nothing short of a nightmare. From the very beginning, the lack of proper communication was evident. We received a call mere hours before they were supposed to pick up our belongings, leaving us unprepared and stressed.

What's even more frustrating is the complete lack of responsiveness from their end. Despite calling them more than five times a day to get updates on the delivery of our things, we were met with silence. It's as if they didn't value our time or concerns.

To top it off, when we finally managed to get a hold of someone, we were informed that our furniture wouldn't be delivered until a staggering four days after the agreed-upon latest delivery date. This is unacceptable and shows a complete disregard for their customers' needs and schedules.

The entire ordeal has been the most stressful moving situation we've ever dealt with. I wouldn't recommend this moving company to my worst enemy. If you're looking for reliability, communication, and professionalism, definitely look elsewhere."