Do Not Use!
Kristine H
Submitted this review about
Colonial Van Lines
Review made Live: 6/2/2012 8:01:00 PM
I really liked working with this company until I signed a contract. The woman that I was working with initially said that I would be talking to her throughout the whole moving process and I liked her. But she seemed to have vanished once I signed the paperwork. I then had to talk to a different person every time and they told me different things each time.
I ended up having to sign three different contracts with these people, because they would call and want to know how many boxes I had packed and I guess it was more than estimated.
I got a call one day from another random person that said that our stuff would be picked up the following day at 7AM. I thought it would be picked up the day after that. So, we rushed to figure out how we would make the next day work. Come 9AM when they hadn't shown up, I called. They had no record of them calling me. They would pick up our stuff the next day at 7AM. They didn't arrive until 12PM and they were not Colonial Van Lines. It was some Chicago moving company that Colonial Van Lines hired. So I guess I was paying middle men.
I was told by the original person that I wouldn't need an exact address of where we were moving to, because I didn't know, and that they would start moving our stuff in the general direction and I would tell them where exactly to take it a little later. Well it turns out, the Chicago moving company, held all our stuff hostage in Chicago until I knew an exact address.
When we got our stuff, the movers (who ever they were, no idea) carried our stuff in the house and dumped it at the front door. They didn't put anything back together. The damage some walls with our stuff. Every corner of our kitchen table was damaged. The box that was labeled video games had obviously been opened. Luckily we had put the actual games in another box. Parts of an antique bed were missing, so we had to throw it away. There was no way to replace the parts that put it together. The tool chest draws don't close properly now. Every box and every thing else was covered in black dirt. Your hands were black after handling one box. The tape they use on some of the non-boxed stuff, damaged half the stuff when removed and it was really hard to remove. Some of our stuff still has tape on it because I just gave up.
So of course I filed a claim. They had nine months to process it and they took nine months. It turns out that because, when the movers dropped off our stuff, we signed a paper that said everything was there, we didn't have any rights, I guess. Now remember that when we got our stuff it was put in a massive pile. How was I suppose to tell that everything was there and ok? As an act of "good faith", they were willing to give me $53 for my damaged and missing items. But to get my $53, I had to notarize a paper saying I wouldn't take them to court and I had 5 days to do it. It cost $10 to notarize that paper. It took them two more months to actually get me the check for $53. So, I am finally able to make a complete review a year after my move. Yay!?
