Colonial Van Lines American Van Lines Inept, Irresponsible, Unprofessional -- DO NOT USE! Braintree, Massachusetts

We were scheduled to be out of our home on October 24, 2011.  I paid the rent for the last week in October for the new house so we could move in before November 2011.  I paid the landlord the prorated rent of $262.50 for this week. I then lost another $68.34 for the additional two days in November since we did not arrive until November 3, 2011 (see claims form and attached copy of check).

The moving truck was supposed to be at our house on October 24, 2011 between 3PM and 5PM.  My daughter called Colonial between 5PM and 6PM and was told that the driver had a broken axel and that our next moving truck was being re-routed after making another stop first, and would be at our house on October 27, 2011 between 1PM and 3PM.  We made reservations for that night since we knew we wouldnt be driving straight through from New York to Michigan (a 9+ hour drive).  That afternoon we were informed that there was yet another delay and because of this, we would be compensated $200.00.  The driver would absolutely be at our house on October 28, 2011 between 1PM and 3PM.

At 3:30PM on October 28, my daughter spoke to Matthew at extension 363 and was told that there was yet another delay because there was not enough room in the truck for our belongings due to a failed garage sale by the customers before us.  She was upset beyond words and called me in tears.  At this point, Matthew promised up and down, left and right that the driver would be at our house on Saturday morning, October 29, 2011 at 9AM.  He also said that if anything happened, or even if he showed up and everything was going smoothly, to give him a call.  We were the only stop for this truck so there should be no problems.  What Matthew failed to disclose to us was that he didnt work on the weekends and trying to get a hold of him would be a futile attempt.

This was especially aggravating when the driver was not at our house by 9AM or even 11AM and four calls to Matthew were unanswered.  After this, I  called customer service three times (which is two more times than I should have had to) and finally got a hold of a rather surly agent.  To my surprise, she informed me that he was at the house loading the furniture onto the truck, and then questioned whether or not we were at the house.  There was no loading truck and the fact that she second-guessed this was insulting in and of itself.  She said that she would call back to find out what exactly was going on. 

I did receive a call back about twenty minutes later and was told this phantom driver would be there no later than 3PM.  She also informed me that the drive should have called if there was to be a delay, and instead she had to get a hold of him to find out about said delay.  At roughly 4PM I called again when there was no sign of the driver and was told he would be at the house between 5 and 5:15PM because of the storm (even though we later found out he was coming from Buffalo where no such storm was taking place).

I finally got a call from the driver about quarter to six.  He lets me know that his partner was injured but hed come over that evening and begin packing our belongings into the truck with the help from a person found on Craigs List.  If he couldnt finish that night, he would come back in the morning and I found that entirely unacceptable, so I just told him to return in the morning on October 30, 2011 at 9AM.

The mover shows up at our house at 9:20, but there was no sign of the help procured from the Internet at the last minute.  What a surprise.  He had received a $125 tip check (or so he said) from a previous client and needed to cash it to pay this help since he lost his company credit card somewhere along the way.  He wanted me to go get money out of the bank for him to accomplish this!  It was unacceptable, inappropriate and put me into a very awkward and uncomfortable
situation.  Since it was Sunday, it was difficult to find somewhere that would cash this, but my daughter directed him to a check-cashing establishment in Syracuse.  He returned about an hour later without the money because the place would not cash a third-party check.  Where he got this check that wasnt even made out to him remains a mystery.

By 12:40PM there had been nothing loaded onto the very small moving truck.

At 1:07PM the mover, Victor Torres, asks my daughter to sign a new contract.  She naturally didnt feel comfortable doing this and directed him to me.  This contract had the poundage listed for over 15,000 pounds where the original had 10,000 pounds and he informed me that the final price would be over 5 thousand, over a thousand dollars more than was contracted for.  In the next breath he didnt think it would weigh over 8,000 pounds.  I told him that no, I was not signing a contract like that since I already signed a contract with Colonial for the 10,000 pounds and knew in advance that if it was over at the weigh station, I would have to pay an overage charge.  And I was completely fine with this.  But after the fiasco with the third party check, and him offering me a new contract with 5,000 pounds more and an additional $1,000, I said absolutely not, that I was not signing that.  I then asked him if he was going to start loading the truck and he stated not unless I signed the contract that he hand-wrote (even though nobody we talked to said there would be another contract we had to sign created by a  driver who was over a week late at that point).  I told him I would not sign anything until I spoke with somebody from Colonial.  This was, of course, on a Sunday when the offices were closed.  I asked him again if he was refusing to do his work and he repeated not unless you sign the contract.  At this point I told him to get out of my house.  He became belligerent and said he would just say in the driveway overnight, which made me even more uncomfortable so I told him he had better get off my property until I spoke with somebody from Colonial the next day.

The next day (October 31, 2011) we called Colonial and was told that no, we did not have to sign a
new contract.  Then when he arrived, he proceeded to come up with four new contracts, the Post Contract Services Order Form, the Interstate Bill of Lading Contract, the Packing Materials Order Form and the Order for Service.  These were all blank except for my name, the date and the destination.  After yesterdays fiasco, we called Colonial again and they said that no, we were not to sign any blank contracts and they werent sure why he was asking me to do so.  My daughter informed him of this, even though he was eavesdropping at the bottom of the stairs, and he followed her upstairs into my bedroom and barged in where we proceeded to have a screaming match.  As I told him the day before, I wasnt signing any blank or new contracts.  He informed me that at this point he wanted to just walk off the job and felt like quitting because of the way things were going, even though it all fell on him.  So I called Colonial in front of him (per his insistent and rather pushy request) and Kyle at extension 341 told us all that I was to not sign any type of blank forms or contracts.  We went through each form with Kyle and put N/A on the forms where applicable, signed the left side of the Bill of Lading to pick out what type of insurance I wanted and left the other side blank, per his advisement.  Victor then grabbed the phone and got belligerent with Kyle about these forms, and Kyle repeated what he said to me.

So from 9:30AM to 2PM absolutely nothing got done, after we were told it would only take four to five hours to load and get out.  By 11PM, only about half of our house was loaded and I had had enough.  Im sick, recovering from the hospital with a life-threatening illness and couldnt take anymore and told him to come back in the morning.  This was when we lost our second hotel reservation because it was too late to cancel.  He stayed parked in our driveway overnight and finished on November 1, 2011 about 4:30. He was at our house for three days and a day and a half of it was spent refusing to work when he and other agents at Colonial said it would only take
four to five hours, total, to load the house.

We finally arrived at our new house on November 3, 2011 at 12:30PM.  He informed us that, once again, it would only take four to five hours to completely unload.  He didnt finish until 16 hours later at 4:30AM.  A brand new chair was hidden under blankets in the truck and was only produced after my daughter questioned where the sixth was chair was.  He pulled it from the truck and the back of
it was shattered.

Items 344, 402 and 450 (a new box of dishes-serving 8, a coffee table including glass top and a
sizeable picture) were all earmarked for the Salvation Army to pick-up the next daymy neighbors were going to take care of these for me.  I was shocked when he unloaded them here in Michigan.  So not only did the Salvation Army not get them, but I had to pay to get these unwanted items shipped to Michigan after my daughter went through the house with him three times and explicitly told him what was going and what was staying.  And I even told him the Salvation Army was picking up these items.

This was, without a doubt, the worst moving experience of my life.  Nobody at the company is on the same page about anything, including the supervisors, and I dont understand how this company can function that way.  You specifically get a name and extension and leave message after message, and nobody ever gets back to you and when you finally get a hold of somebody its excuse after excuse and it gets old really fast.  Ive never dealt with such an unprofessional employee that represents a company.  He was threatening, belligerent and unprofessional in the way he acted.  I was Director of Nursing for 15 years in a facility where 1,500 employees reported to me and never in my life have a seen such a lack of unprofessionalism and customer service.  Im actually quite surprised that the company is still in business and I would never use this company again.  I would rather purchase a pick-up truck and move my furniture one piece at a time.