Colonial, American, Relo Van Lines - DO NOT USE
Virginia Roberts
Submitted this review about
Colonial Van Lines
Review made Live: 9/28/2012 1:57:00 PM
Around the middle of May I went online and searched for van lines for my move from Florence, SC to New Albany, MS at the end of June, with storage for 30 days since my home in MS was being renovated. I filled out a form requesting quotes from van lines and received 3 calls the next day – from Nationwide Relocation, Colonial Van Lines, and American Van Lines, in that order. The last call was from Alex at American Van Lines who asked what the others had quoted. I told him around $7,100, and he quoted approx. $6,899.22 for 10,136 lbs. I requested a pick-up date of 6/26/12 as I had a vacation scheduled the last weekend in June and didn’t want to lose the cost of airline tickets, hotel reservations, and show tickets. I would need the 25th to finish packing and had someone coming on the 27th to clean and re-stretch the carpeting before the closing on the 28th.
Somehow the 30 days of storage needed got lost in the paperwork, and I had to go back and forth from Alex to another rep to get it settled. I paid the binding estimate fee of $2,234.48 of which $412 was refunded to my credit card because of the missing storage charge. Not sure why it was less with the storage charges.
When I was trying to check into the hotel on my vacation, I received another call from Alex who wanted to know if I had other items not on the list he had asked me about before. This included lawn equipment, tool boxes, ironing board, etc. I had a piano that I thought I had sold, but the buyer backed out so I had to include it in this list. This raised my pounds to 11,256 and my total cost to $8,197. I was told after both quotes that the cost would be adjusted based on the actual weight of my goods after it was weighed on the truck. At this point I had to pay an additional binding estimate fee of $575.45, of which $163.45 was credited back to my credit card, for which I never received an explanation. I was able to sell the piano on the day before the movers came and also sold a drafting table and sold or donated several other items.
On June 25th, in the midst of packing my remaining items, I received a call from Colonial Van Lines saying that the truck would be at my house in 20 minutes. I informed the caller that I did not have a contract with Colonial, but had one with American Van Lines. He informed me that they were one and the same company. I then told him that the pickup date was the 26th – not the 25th – and that I was not through packing. He became irate and informed me that I had signed a contract for pickup the 25th or 26th. I told him I had explained to Alex that the only date I would be ready was the 26th. I was not given the amount that I would need to have a cashier’s check, money order, or cash to pay the movers on pickup. So I got a cashier’s check for approximately ½ of the balance, $2,900. The movers came and were very nice. They looked at my items and said that they could come back in the morning to load the truck. The only problem with them was that they did not leave copies of the paperwork I signed, as they said they would. Also, they weren’t sure where my goods were to be stored – Memphis or Nashville. I had to come up with $69.50 additional in cash to pay them, since I had not been informed of the amount they would require to load the truck.
On July 30, I called to delay delivery of my goods by 2 weeks, since my house renovation was not complete, and the delivery date was scheduled for July 28 – August 2. I tried to call American Van Lines 3 times, and each time I got through all the selections, the line disconnected. I called Alex who was supposed to ‘hold my hand through the entire process’ and he said he would connect me with someone in the department who handled this, only to be transferred back to the original recording I got when I called in. I then tried calling Colonial Van Lines and was able to change my delivery time to between 8/15 and 8/22. I was not told that this would be a problem and was told that I would be charged for the additional 2 weeks of storage. I had asked Alex about this originally, and he said I could call and reschedule the delivery if needed and did not mention that there would be any problems changing the delivery date.
When my house was ready 2 weeks later, I called on 8/17 to see when delivery was scheduled so that I could take time off from work, arrange for people to help, and get the final amount due upon delivery. I assumed that my goods were already scheduled to be delivered between 8/15 and 8/22 as I had requested. I was told by Kimberly that the amount due on delivery was $1,499.64. I went to the post office and got money orders for this amount. Kimberly said that they would call me back with a delivery date. I never heard from her again. I called back on 8/20 and spoke with David who said he would email dispatch and call me back with a delivery date. I never heard from them. On 8/21 I called again was told that Elizabeth, my account manager, would call me back by 4:00, which she did not. When I finally talked with her, she did not have a delivery date but did inform me that the amount I owed upon delivery was $1,990.20. She connected me with Marcus who emailed me an invoice upon request totaling $7,357.63, saying I would need to pay $1,990.20 on delivery – not the $1,500 I already had money orders for.
I’ve worked in accounting and reporting for 38 years, and I’m not sure how these companies do their accounting. I can’t reconcile the charges from the original binding estimate for 10,136 lbs., the second binding estimate for 11,256 lbs., my actual weight of 8,800 lbs., and the invoice total. I was told that the charges were based on actual weight, so how can I now owe more than the original estimate since my actual weight was 1,300 lbs. less than the original? The whole process of changing the binding estimate seems to be a ploy to confuse the customer. It appears that the cost of the extra 2 weeks of storage was less than $200, so that cannot be the entire difference. I argued this with Elizabeth and was told that Colonial listed items separately that were included in totals on American’s quote, but that doesn’t explain why it is so much more. Also, the Colonial Van Lines invoice was sent to me from American Van Lines. I have another money order for the difference in Kimberly’s total and the invoice.
I have tried to call several times to get a delivery date and 3 times went to a number that played music and told how much they appreciated my business for 15 minutes each time before I hung up. When I spoke with Elizabeth she told me that when I called on 8/17 I was then put on the schedule for delivery – not when I rescheduled it on 7/30. I was told that it could take 2 to 3 weeks after that to get it delivered.
I called on 9/6 since it had been 2 – 3 weeks since 8/17 and spoke with Nicole who said that Elizabeth was out to lunch and would call me back in 15 minutes. I called back 3 hours later, not having received a call back, and Nicole said she did not tell me that Elizabeth would call back in 15 minutes but that she would call me when she had a delivery date.
On September 11th I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau for the delays and lies I have been told. Their reply to the BBB was that delivery was not guaranteed on a specific date since I did not pay an additional fee for this guarantee. What??? I was not ever told that there was such an option. I replied to the BBB that I did not accept this response, as I still had not received by goods and had been lied to repeatedly about the delivery time. I also mentioned in my reply that I question their charges.
My daughter, Julie, then called on 9/17 and spoke with Teheria, a manager, who informed her that after I called to reschedule it could take 30 days for my goods to be delivered. When my daughter pointed out that that amount of time had already passed, she said it was 30 working days, and of course there was a holiday during that time to be considered. They have to have a truck of the size needed to transport my goods delivering to Nashville before they can pick up my goods from storage in Nashville and deliver it to my MS address. There seemed to be no problem getting a truck to Florence to pick up at the correct date, so why is there such a problem getting a truck to deliver? Julie informed her that if my goods were not delivered by 9/30, we would file a police report October 1st that they have been stolen. Teheria told my daughter that Elizabeth would call me the next day with delivery info, which she did not.
On 9-19, Teheria called me and said my goods would be delivered by the end of the week or no later than the first of the next week, 9-25. She had to check with the truck driver and called me back later that evening saying it would be the week of 9-25. There was a truck in Dallas broken down so they were getting one from Oklahoma. She said I could go ahead and file a claim for the delay and emailed me a form that could be used for delay, loss, or damage. The form states that American Van Lines and my moving coordinator “bear no liability for any and all damaged/missing items sustained during the course of my relocation and agree to forever discharge said organization from responsibility for the actions of the carrier including but not limited to damaged/missing items”. I emailed her back that I would not sign this form until I received my goods and could determine if there was any loss or damage. I also had no idea how many days’ delay to claim since I had not yet received my goods.
It is now Friday, 9-28, and I called yet again and asked for Teheria’s extension number. I was asked my name and after being on hold for 15+minutes, was sent to Teheria’s voice mail. I left a message that I did not appreciate being put on hold for 15 minutes and then sent to voice mail and telling her that if was Friday, she had promised delivery of my goods this week, and I had heard nothing from them. I told her that I would report my goods as stolen to the police if I did not receive a call back within 1 hour. It is now past that time, and I have heard nothing.
