Colonial Van Lines Customer Service Contacts

Epic communication fail and promises throughout the process. Did an internet search for good moving companies and Colonial was one receiving high marks especially for customer service. Spoke with estimator on phone. He googled our home in Minnesota and said that they would not be able to send a semi to pick up our load as our street (a wider street as it is a fairly well used route - not a regular suburban street) would not allow it with parking lanes delineated. I said I often saw moving trucks in neighborhood with no issues. He said that we would need a shuttle truck to pick up our load which would then be moved to a semi for the actual transport to our new home in Florida. This shuttle service would cost additional.

Was emailed a quality control person would call me and they did not.

Was told that I would get a call 24 to 48 hours before pickup to notify me of time truck would arrive in planned 3 day window. Got text message from driver that they would be there in 14 hours. Called customer service for help as I was not ready for them. No one answered. Got voicemails. No one called me back. Driver had dispatch call me and they pushed (rudely) the pickup time to exactly 24 hours from when driver texted me.

Pick up occurred at that time. Loading went well. When asking about the process to move load to semi, driver was vague and could not tell me what the exact process was. I should have been worried/concerned then.

Was called on a Friday by account manager to be told that the delivery would be on Monday between 10 and 4. Friends were being kind enough to meet the truck as we are still not in Florida. Monday, received text from driver saying they would be delivering on Wednesday between 1 and 2 pm. I texted back saying that I was told delivery would be on Monday and he replied they had had an "inconvenience". So had to ask my friends if they could do Wednesday between 1 and 2 pm. They fortunately said yes. I was sorry I had change day and time.

I called account manager and said that a window of 1 to 2 pm felt very specific after the 10 to 4 window she had previously given me. She said she would confirm with dispatch and call me back. She called back and confirmed the 1 to 2 pm window.

Wednesday arrives and I get a text message and phone call from driver at 9 am saying they would be at the house in 70 minutes putting arrival at 10 am. This is 3 hours earlier than what had been confirmed. Had to ask my friends once again to change their plans to meet truck earlier than had been confirmed.

Truck shows up and my friends Facetime me. It's the same truck they had loaded in Minnesota. Not a semi. They used the shuttle to transport my load.

Since we were charged extra for the shuttle and it was not needed to take our items to a semi, I called the Colonial customer service. They said that because they had to send a shuttle to pick up that was the reason for the charge. When I said I was told that it was needed to take my load to a semi but that was not what ultimately happened, I should not be charged for the shuttle. They just kept saying the same thing over and over again that I had to have a shuttle because of my street and that was a legitimate charge. When I said that I was told it was because of the street but that the load would be put on a larger truck but was not, I did no understand why I was being charged for shuttle when it ended up being the truck used for transport in the end, not just a vehicle to move my load to a semi. They refused to refund the fee for the shuttle.

I also complained about all the changes in delivery and pick up times. They informed me that they were only estimates. This was even though I confirmed that the 1-2pm slot was correct in a specific manner and was specifically told by the account manager that that timeframe was correct.

So if you want actual customer service to minimize the stress of a cross country move, avoid Colonial at all costs.