Colonial Van Lines, Pompano Beach FL

We had a dining room packed and moved to a niece who lived in another state. Colonial sent packers for the China and the furniture which was also packed to make the trip safer.

I was impressed with the packers, very professional, diligent in completing their jobs and friendly. They answered any question I had with solid answers that made this venture less stressful.

Based on that experience, I can recommend Colonial Van Lines to you without any reservation.

My cross country move was made a little less stressful with Colonial. I was assigned a contact person with their direct extension and he was very responsive if I had questions. The time line of pickup and delivery was given to me with precision. The movers covered everything with blankets and tape but there was still a little damage to some things (but nothing I didn't expect in a move). The movers were very personable and polite. They were a different company - a sub-contractor if you will.

My one criticism would be the estimation process. The estimate is just that, an estimate. The actual price is based on weight. My quote increased by $2000.with no appliances or heavy furniture. The mover came in to my home and took an inventory to compare to the estimate. Since I'm not made of money I was shocked by the increase.

I had a very experience with this group. Price was as quoted and goods arrived as promised

They did not show up on the day they stated. (they picked the day) they also wanted a 10 day window to deliver. So on the day of the move I called them and asked for an arrival time. They said they could do it and were not sure on what day they could. I had to leave for a job that day and start my drive. I left my stuff in storage. NEVER USE THEM OR BELIEVE THEM.
I would not give them any stars but could not post without a star

We had scheduled an intrastate move with Colonial Van Lanes approximately 3-4 weeks ahead of time. They were supposed to show up on 9/30/23. They didn’t show up on 9/30, or 10/1 and on 10/2 they thought we would still be using them. By that time we had scrambled to rent our own moving trucks. Really caused us a lot of stress and unnecessary chaos in an already stressful time.

Nothing short of a scam moving company. DO NOT put yourself through this hassle of a joke of a front for a moving company. They are anything but a professional company. They did refund our deposit but only after we filed a complaint with our bank.

State of Florida should shut them down.

0/5 stars. Negative stars actually.

All the people I dealt with were courteous, helpful and knowledgeable. If I ever have to move again, I will call Colonial Van Lines!

Update:
so they offered $150 to cover the extra charge and ask me edit this review.according to the phone call, she sounded nice.

Moving from CA to TX, mover themselves are nice. But they are just contractors.
The custom service is very bad.
They charged us something extra we didn’t even have, said that the manager will get back to me, now it’s been a week.

Anyway, they are irresponsible, that’s why they only have contractors to move and drive instead of their own employees. Cuz then they don’t need to deal with the dirty things.

My first "cross country" move and overall had a good experience with CVL. Got a quote months back and they generally stuck to it. 1/3 of the $ upon booking, another 1/3 upon pickup and the remaining amount on delivery. Only had to move from a 1BR to another 1BR so it wasn't a lot. Still, the guys who picked up moved pretty quickly, taking everything apart, wrapping the TV carefully. Upon arrival, only had 1 broken chair. The rest was good. My only complaint was that he delivery went beyond the 10 day delivery window (total about 15 days without furniture and my bed). But I got compensated for the late delivery. The delivery guys also hustled to get everything brought up, assembled and have the job completed. The customer service is also good, always keeping me in touch with my delivery status (even when late). Overall, good experience and I would use these guys again.

Update 10/23
Spoke with customer service, Donna was professional and gave the details of how the items are counted and weighed. She was considerate about the price increase and agreed to refund a portion of the increase amount. It was nice of her to even consider this. Tips for future moves - make sure you have stuff packed, other wise you will have to pay a lot. Make sure your stuff is counted including boxes, furniture and keep room for little extra weight. Overall, I am satisfied with the customer service and would recommend Colonial Van Lines for anyone with their future moves

Booked through Colonial Van Lines assuming that they will be the carrier moving our stuff. The main reason I went with Colonial is that they will not assign to some other random movers. On the day, its outsourced to JM Moving company from Boston. I had my estimate all laid out with weight and with amount totaling $5500. The new guy from this other moving company comes in and looking at the boxes and furniture, he adds up everything and gives me a total estimate of $7500. I may have few boxes more than I initially quoted, but I wasn't expecting such a huge extra amount I will be paying. This happened on Sunday, so I could not call the representative I was assigned as they are closed on Sunday. Overall, the items arrived in good shape, few ceramic lamps broken, office table corners chipped, missing few items. I'm ok with these but not happy with the extra $2000 I had to pay in the last minute. As I cannot cancel on the day and go with another van lines, I had no other option but to go with them.

I called 3 different companies to get estimates and Colonial was the least expensive. I usually will not go with the cheapest but was assured by Tony that the items I quoted were correctly estimated in both weight and volume in his quote. With that said, I did add some big items to our move and the additional cost was not a crazy amount.
The communication from the transportation crew kept us abreast of timing as well as helped with tips on how pack up some of our pictures, to help reduce our costs.
The gentlemen that packed us up were late in coming to our home, but when we saw the care and time in which they wrapped and packed our items, we were not upset and assumed their diligence in packing the previous clients were the reason they were late.
The gentlemen that unpacked us were just as careful as the previous crew.
The only complaint we had was that we were assured we could pay with a credit card on delivery. When the delivery crew called to tell us, they were on their way, they told us they would only accept cash or money order on delivery. Fortunately, we were able to make arrangements to comply with this. We did inform Colonial, who were ready to take steps to correct this issue, but we were already got the cash.
We would definitely use Colonial again but hope we will not be moving again!

I can't say enough good things about them, We had a tricky situation, They were able to move a few things around to accommodate us, showed up on time, no complaints. Price was far less than other movers quoted us, couldn't be happier with the whole experience.

I was happy with most of Colonial especially my assigned coordinator Colin. He was fantastic! Always got back to me right away. The movers were professional and did a great job packing me up. However, in the 17 days Colonial set up in their contract with me, as we got closer to due date I could not get any answers. How hard is it for dispatch to contact the driver and ask? ! Why did I have to wait 24+ hrs.to get answers when it should have been within the hour! When they call you for p/u, hold on to the drivers number! I wish I had. As it turned out, the delivery was 2 days late. Since Colonial breach the contract I HAVE TO fill out all sorts of claim forms if I want more money back. I was being charged $390 a day (x 17 days. Do the math) and for the 2 days they were late they were willing to give me a $30 a day discount. Pretty insulting for a company to think that's copasetic. And now, I have to make the time to deal with all the paperwork. It's a little upsetting that this inconvenience is due to Colonial not following through. They dropped the ball not me. Too bad this had to happen.

After hearing so many nightmare stories about moving companies and their poor customer care, I was thankful that I chose Colonial Van Lines for our move. I am grateful to Drexel Benson, our Estimator and Moving Coordinator. From the first to the last moment of the experience, the service was professional, communication honest, open and detailed, and the care for our belongings exceptional. Drexel knows his business and brought confidence and calmness into an otherwise stressful event.

I hired Colonial Van Lines expecting a professional moving service, but was sorely disappointed. The crew seemed untrained, composed of friends rather than professionals, and used a rented U-Haul instead of a specialized moving vehicle. They tried to bypass my building’s designated delivery area, causing unnecessary complications. Worse yet, due to their lack of professionalism, many of my items, including a valuable 85-inch TV, dressers, and bookcases, were damaged during the move. I trusted Colonial’s advertising and feel deceived by the vast difference between their promises and the actual service delivered.

10/16/2023: This complaint is in reference to Job No. 1288986-CV-A; picked up on 7/29/2023; delivered 8/11/2023. We hired CVL to move our furniture and belongings from Tallahassee, FL to West Fork, AR, and to also provide packing service for fragile items with exposed glass (framed pictures, table lamps, etc).

Foreman arrived at pickup with two assistants who required instruction from us on how to package fragile items, as they “had never done it before. ” While all of this was going on, foreman gave us a new updated quote that was several thousand dollars more than our initial quote. After a couple hours on the phone with CVL support, they found they charged us for “bulky items” and several other things in error.

At the delivery point, the same foreman from pickup arrived driving the truck, with only one assistant. Unloading went haphazardly at best, but we were disturbed to see that all the furniture had been re-wrapped, this time with far fewer moving blankets. Every single major piece of furniture was damaged. It wasn’t cheap stuff, either; this was barely a year old and from Haverty’s. The worst of the damage was a fist-sized hole in the back of the Newport Server, but every single tabletop surface was also scratched. Both the foreman and his assistant slammed boxes and totes carelessly on top of one another without the slightest care, and paid no attention to the clearly-marked indications of which room they were supposed to go to.

We spent around $10,000 on CVL. In return we were repeatedly deceived, disrespected, and had our belongings damaged. Despite the many hours we spent on the phone they again said any settlement would come only from the claims process; they would not provide any compensation for their utter lack of any reasonable care for our belongings. It’s been more than two months now since delivery, which should be more than enough time for CVL to make things right. Unfortunately, they have failed to do so, so I am now forced to file this complaint.

10/17/2023 - Received callback from Donna, resolution manager. Gave greater detail on experience with CVL. She asked if I had submitted a formal damage claim, and I stated I had done so on 10/16, but was awaiting an acknowledgement of receipt.

10/22/2023 - Still awaiting damage claim acknowledgement, despite the claim form explicitly stating "Upon receipt of the claim form, you will be emailed an acknowledgment letter advising that your completed claim has been received. "