Colonial Van Lines

This company caused us immense stress, emotional distress, and financial harm and then attempted to silence us through blackmail, coercion, and threats.

Stay far, far away from Colonial Van Lines. Colonial delayed our delivery by nearly a month, gave us misleading and inconsistent information, could not tell us where our belongings were. Furthermore, we were subjected to harassment and threats for posting an honest review and Colonial tried to leverage compensation in exchange for our silence.

After experiencing a catastrophic move with Colonial, we posted a truthful, negative review. In response, Colonial Van Lines began a campaign of intimidation. They called us repeatedly, demanding we take our review down and even threatened legal action if we refused. They withheld a promised $1,100 compensation, offering it only if we deleted our review and signed a *** order preventing us from speaking further about our experience a clear violation of the Consumer Review Fairness Act.

At one point, they forced us to provide screenshots proving we deleted our initial review in order to receive the payment they had already promised a payment meant to make up for leaving us stranded in an empty house across the country without our belongings for nearly a month. When we refused to sign away our rights, they reneged on that payment.

Their misconduct didnt stop at intimidation. During our move from Colorado to South Carolina, Colonial misled us about delivery timelines, fabricated excuses (including a fake story about a "broken down truck"), and ultimately couldnt even tell us where our belongings were despite us paying for climate-controlled storage. It later came out that 1,000 pounds of our shipment were left in Denver for weeks, which they tried to cover up.

When challenged, Colonial continued to threaten us even going so far as to say they would cancel our payment method and demand a cashiers check instead, attempting to exploit our financial vulnerability.

Their behavior was not just negligent it was deceptive, retaliatory, and predatory. They attempted to buy our silence with money they already owed us, and when we didnt comply, they tried to punish us for speaking out. We feel violated and bullied by this company.

Consumers have a right to share honest feedback, and businesses that operate in bad faith should be held accountable. Colonial Van Lines has shown they are willing to threaten and manipulate customers to hide the truth.

You might as well burn everything rather than hire Colonial Van Lines, because you will end up with a pile of damaged items, and they will not take any responsibility for the mishandling and damage they cause. If you have no other choice but to hire them, be ready to file a Dispute with your Credit Card, as that will be the only way to get any refund on their despicable service.
This is what the Colonial Van Lines Website reads
'professional movers trained by Colonial Van Lines would come to our location, load everything in a professional manner, treat my move with the respect and attention it deserves, because 'our movers know how to pack a truck', and then UNLOAD in any manner in which we requested, and boxes would be placed in any location that we requested, and items dissasembled at pick up would be reassembled at delivery
"we teach and test our moving team to pack it, stack it, but never crack it"
"Before any driver, mover, or packer trains in the field, they must get past the moving instructors at CVLU first".
"We teach a strategic approach to loading and unloading your home contents.

At CVLU, packers and loaders are taught to look beyond just securing load and consider how the truck will be unloaded on arrival, and, in what order".
None of this is true.
This was a business move. Before hiring Colonial Van Lines, during 3 weeks we spoke at length with Moving Coordinator and his Supervisor, everyone understood what was being moved. We hired two containers costing us over $25K.
We were concerned about having two moving trucks showing up at the same time, but Moving Coordinator confirmed that truck#1 would pick up one day, truck #2 would pick up the next day, and on delivery, truck #1 would deliver on one day, truck #2 would deliver the next day.
Truck #1 picked up June 8
Truck #2 picked up June 9 and never showed up on June 11, or June 12, or 13, 14, 15, not even the last day of the 'estimated window", June 18
I began calling Colonial Van Lines on June 12 asking the whereabouts of the second truck. They did not know.

I called and emailed over 50 times in 5 days, each time they make you feel as if you are bothering them, making things up, or like you misunderstood something, or you did something wrong... so I stopped calling. Truck #2 eventually showed up 4 weeks later.
Each day our business was closed, we lost $2K daily in revenues.
What happened? Colonial subcontracted my move to Posh Moving, who after loading, drove 3 hours and put all our items in a rat infested warehouse for 4 weeks without my knowledge or consent.
All our tools, equipment and merchandise were in a warehouse with temperatures up to 140 degrees, Colonial knew that our merchandise was packed in styrofoam boxes and containers, yet they decided to put all this in a warehouse...

and with that excessive heat, the boxes warped, some even disintegrated.
when their professional movers 'reloaded' these from the Warehouse to a moving truck, no care or thought was put into that process, because the boxes were thrown into the truck
Colonial Van Lines website reads that items disassembled at pick up would be assembled at delivery. Not one fixture or bookcase that was taken apart at pick up was assembled upon delivery. Instead, the movers wanted to charge me extra to put the shelves and fixtures back together.
Things that were not disassembled at pick up, were taken apart at the warehouse, and upon delivery, the pieces/parts were nowhere to be found. We ended up with many fixtures/furniture that we cannot reassemble due to missing parts.
No 'professional mover' showed up...
Truck #1, was a Driver with her brother and three laborers they picked up at Home Depot
Truck #2 , The service was NOT performed by Colonial Van Lines using Colonial Van Lines fleet/equipment.

It was PICKED UP by two un-vetted pot heads hired by POSH, that were smoking marijuana in my bathroom all day, and loading our boxes into a Ryder Rental truck. Although we informed them NOT to tape or wrap the Styrofoam boxes, they did so anyway.
Neither the PICK UP or DELIVERY followed Colonial Van Lines Service Standards as defined on their website.
As I ponder on this move, I realize that the issue is that the website is all lies, wishful thinking, and that the Moving Coordinator's task is to get a reservation... get that deposit...

sell you on the service...
and then, Colonial does not care at all what happens after the deposit is taken.
These are not 'trained movers', these are unvetted laborers, I hired Colonial professionals, and got who knows what... one time workers that have no relationship to Colonial, don't care what happens to the furniture/fixtures/items, they toss, dump, throw boxes, all marked FRAGILE, with no care whatsoever, because they answer to nobody in Colonial.
None of these 'movers' were trained by Colonial Van Lines University, and the people that showed up had no clue how to pack a truck, Monkeys could of done a better job!

I don't know how Colonial came up on a couple of sites as 'highly recommended.' I suspect they were paid placements. Even a little more digging would have revealed that their actual movers are not employees--they're independent contractors.

In my case, a random team of two who rented a beat-up Ryder truck, which broke down when they arrived at my delivery location, delayed the move-in by several hours and cost me an extra day's rent. Even worse, as others have observed, was the deception: At first, Colonial appears well-organized, generates lots of official-looking paperwork, but the agent you deal with initially then ghosts you once you make your 50% deposit, and hands you off to a 'customer service' agent who, in my case, tried to change the drop-off date; who didn't communicate with or even know who the drivers were. The drivers also tried to change the dates on me 'as a favor', which caused me enormous stress. The arrangements I made, including a power of attorney I signed for someone else to supervise the move-out, was never communicated to the driver.

They refused to answer the phone repeatedly and didn't return calls for hours, even while I was driving 500 miles to my destination, not knowing if I'd have to turn around and drive all the way back. The worst part was the fact that they supposedly gave me an initial $150 discount but then upcharged me even more on delivery. The driver threatened to refuse to unload unless I paid the higher amount. They claim they charge by weight, but have no way to weigh anything, despite the fact that my updated furniture and container list was totally accurate.

My past moves, unlike this one, included a pre-move home visit by an estimator, which always resulted in an accurate charge. Colonial used semi-literate contractors who live long distances away, so that didn't happen. Bottom line, it's the worst company, with the worst people and the worst move.

It's an absurdly high cost with unending stress that I never had with ANY other move, including military moves overseas and domestic moves to DC, Ohio, Detroit, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, New Jersey, Long Island, and Philadelphia. Avoid this stressful, high-priced, bait-and-switch, unreliable clown show of uncaring unprofessionals.

We had a feeling this was not going to go well from the beginning, but we were in a pinch with an interstate move right after the holiday. Anyway, they contracted out our move to a company called 'Re-Movers'.

Our initial quote was $7500 (they refused to come out to give an estimate in person because 'everyone does it this way'). Today, which is the day of the move, they have been here for 4 hours and nothing is loaded yet because they are giving a more accurate price as they count and sort every single box which apparently takes hours. The cost has almost doubled, but the real problem is they sent only TWO guys! This is a 2 bedroom ranch house with a full basement...2 guys??

Last time we moved a 2-story plus full basement and that company (who was not available for our dates) sent 5 guys that hustled and were completely loaded in 4 hours.

I'm losing my mind, and now they also want to come back in the morning to finish the loading, and they are not even sure everything will fit!!! AVOID COLONIAL VAN LINES at all costs!!

We had a feeling this was not going to go well from the communications prior to our move, which is currently 4 hours in and NOTHING has been loaded into the truck. They insisted on giving an estimate without sending someone to check it house (red flag #1).

It has taken 2 hours to count the boxes and write up the final price, which has gone from $7800 to $13000!!

And we even got rid of stuff since the first estimate.

We are moving a 2 bedroom ranch home with a full basement of mostly boxes, and they sent TWO guys!! Little guys at that.

The last time we moved (with a local company) it was a 2-story plus basement and that company sent 5 guys, which loaded in 4 hours.

HIGHLY recommend to AVOID Colonial Van Lines at all costs!

I swear their "good reviews" must be by paid shills. Our disaster didn't happen until after we moved.

The initial movers could barely speak English, missed a bunch of items, didn't offer me additional insurance (which I never knew about, stupid me) and then when it came to delivery they not only packed my OLED TV horribly, it broke and won't work, they damaged the interior of my home, lost a bunch of items including some valued pictures and wall art from family. And now they're trying to get away with paying only $.60/per pound. And yes, stupid me for not knowing more, but this was my first time using a long distance moving company so how they *** would I know that I should've purchased more insurance.
Oh, and the ridiculous storage fees plus the extra $$ tacked on for underestimating my move (and I was told by a friend that all moving companies weigh their loads after filling up on gas to get a few extra bucks).

This is absurd to the 10th degree.
I'd remove this review IF and only IF Colonial honors the damage and not to mention theft, that their third rate contractors did to my stuff. I'm just glad it wasn't a ton of money, but we lost almost $3k with what they did, maybe more considering the home damage hasn't been addressed.