Do not use them!
Olga_s
Submitted this review about
Colonial Van Lines
Review made Live: 10/22/2015 1:37:00 PM
I had to schedule relocation from Louisina to Arizona in very short timeframe. The only interstate relocation company that committed to do so in such a short notice was Colonial Van Lines. I signed the contract without first reding all the reviews... I wish I did read them first. Colonial Van Lines Representatives were nice and polite before you signed contract and paid the deposit. The pricing was good however be aware that they give you just an estimate on the basis of what you tell them about your household belongings. My estimate was almost one third off when the actual movers arrived. So if you pick Colonial on the basis of the price be aware that they grossly underestimate the total cost so it looks more favorable compare to other companies. When the problems araised Colonial representatives were not so responsive and helpful anymore. I want to hope that it was just my "luck" and majority of my complains are related to actual moving company (Califirnia Van Lines) but I think that company should be responsible for who they hire to do the actual job. Also after money was paid Colonial Van Lines never returned my calls or follow up on my requests, I had to make an effort to get in touch with representative to discuss my concerns. I do not have too much of the experience in relocation with the company but I think that Cal Van is the worst moving company ever. It took them the whole day to load my 2 bedroom house in their truck and they packed just some furniture items, everything else was in boxes. Surely, they were late in delivering my belongings to Arizona. Even worst - Most of the furniture items were damaged or completely broken and several items were lost. I was told by Colonial rep that my furniture will be disassembled packed with nice padding and than reassembled at the delivery location. As I mentioned before, packing and padding was not so good since almost all of the furniture was damaged. At the delivery location movers made attempts to reassemble some of the furniture pieces but it was getting late at night and they told they would come the next day to deliver the rest of my belongings and to finish assembling the furnuture. Guess what - they never showed up! The worst part is that they misplaces a lot of hardware, screws etc, so I after I realized that I was left in the total mess I had to make several trips to Home Depot to find the right hardware and tools to fix everything. As for the lost items, at first I was told that several of them were located in the truck and that I will receive them in about two weeks. Now after more than two months I was told that those items are missing... No fair compensation was offered. Bottom line - stay away from Cal Van and Colonial Van Lines it you can or get total replacement insurance coverage (it is costly but trust me you will rerun all of it!) and be prepared to spend a lot of your time on the phone trying to get your belongings.
