Complaint Review: Colonial Van Lines

Never ever deal with Colonial Van lines, especially if you are not an expert in moving. below couple of reasons why i said so. you can contact me anytime in email if you need more proof that these guys are there to loot the customer.

Job ID:- 55432312-CO
pickup date/Place:- 13th May 2016 / San Jose, CA
Delivery Date/Place :- 13th June 2016 / Edison, NJ

Estimates Prepared by/ moving coordinator :- Jimmy Seppanen
Account manager :- Penny Mcclatchie ( for the first 2 weeks), Samantha Witter ( for last 2 weeks)
escalation:- Kenya Daniel

i have listed all the person’s name since it will be helpful for people in future.

Issues:-

1) Colonial is just a coordinator and they don’t have any control over any part of your move.

1) Deliberately under estimate the weight.

They don’t entertain to do onsite visit for estimation. So that it will give a room for them to under estimate the weight. Even in my case, i have provided one of the other quote (which I received after onsite visit) for them to refer. But they included all the items from that quotes and estimated less than 50% of the total weight. As a first time mover, we don’t catch this. they always ask you to confirm the number of items not the weight.

2) Estimates and final invoice doesn’t follow same pattern.

This is one of their another technic to don’t allow customer to compare their estimates with final bill. The estimate and final bill will not have any similarity. This will allow them to provide very attractive estimates. The estimate colonial provided will have detail breakup and cost for each heads. But after the pickup, all other invoices and revised estimates provided by the moving agent and their bill is just a lump sum amount.

3) They will make sure all the cost options mentioned in estimates are charged.

they will park their truck far away from your building even though truck can come closer. They say it is convenient. But after pickup they charge extra for long carry.

4) doesn’t follow the payment schedule mentioned in estimates.

As per the estimates, need to pay ~20% while booking and rest of the amount on delivery. But as soon as you paid the advance on booking, they will change that and ask us to pay another ~50% while pickup. You guys think what is the big deal on it, anyway we have to pay either in pickup or delivery. But this is another trick from them. With this new payment schedule, we have paid almost 80% of the original estimates to them while pickup. Soon after the pickup, they start talking about additional weight and all. as i mentioned earlier, underweight in estimates, the actual weight will be at least 50-60% more than original estimates. this itself will increase the total cost by a large amount. Since their revised estimates doesn't follow the original pattern, we don’t have any option to compare.

5) increasing the cost by $ 100-150 every day after pickup.

Once the pickup is done, somebody from colonial will call you every other day to say they missed one charge which will add another 100 or 150 to your total bill. if we ask explanation, they ask us to contact the account manager ( which we never able to get into). Even if we get connect to account manager after 5-6 attempt ( they don't call back even if we leave a voice message), it’s always one sided conversation. The moment we ask for the explanation of additional cost, they will put you on hold. 2-3 times i have waited for 15-20 minutes but no luck. Later i realized that it’s their another trick.

6) doesn't do unpacking/re-assemble

As per the quotes, they claim they will re-assemble all the furniture which they have dis-assemble while pickup. But while they will say many reason and excuses not to do so. We don’t have any other option since they will collect the entire balance amount before they open the truck at delivery. if you deny to make payment before delivering at your house, they will take the truck back to their warehouse.