Complaint Review: Compass Relocation (Compass Moving And Storage) Of Houston

We hired Compass Relocation of Houston (also known as UMC Moving, Compass Moving and Storage, Unity Moving and Storage, Lonestar Moving, 3S Rello Trans Llc, All American Apartment Moving, and University Moving, TxDOT 006025367C, with locations in Stafford, Bryan, and elsewhere through TX, constantly changing name and phone #) to move our belongings out of our house in Sugar Land, TX, on Jan 28, 2007, and into our new house in Sienna Plantation on Feb 3, 2007.

During the move-out, the movers put several dents in the walls of our house and refused to write them down. The head mover insisted that it was only paint and that we couldn't claim that as damage. The gouges were much more than just paint.

On Feb 3, the scheduled day of our move-in to the new house, we waited at our new house all day for the movers to arrive - they never came or bothered to call us. We tried calling them 10+ times that day on Matt's (the owner's) cell phone, but he didn't pick up or return our messages. One time, we called him on a cell # he didn't recognize and he picked up. After some stammering, he said he'd try to get us our belongings on Sun, Feb 4.

On Sun, Feb 4, we waited all day for the movers and got no phone calls. We tried calling Matt 20+ times, and he didn't return our messages. We drove to the address on their invoice and found that it is a post office box. We filled out a report with the Fort Bend County Sherriff, who called Matt and didn't get an answer. Around 8 pm at night, Matt called and said he had been out of town.

He did not apologize and was very rude on the phone. We said we were going to have another moving company come to his storage units and get our belongings. Matt charged us $2500 to let the other moving company pick up our belongings. Our original quote was $656 for the entire move, and Matt charged us $2500 for half a move.

We then found $4710 in damages to our belongings, including several pieces damaged beyond repair (done on purpose?). The second moving company we hired to complete the move charged $965 for the second half of the move, compared to Matt's charges of $2500 for the first half of the move.

Other issues we have with Matt and Unity Moving and Storage include: 1. Matt told us we'd get climate controlled storage our unit was not climate controlled. 2. Matt told us all his employees were full-time and uniformed one of the movers (Troy) kept talking about his other job in the oilfields and how he does the moving for extra cash, and the movers were dressed in filthy jeans and undershirts.
Matt denied our damage claim to the furniture (see email copies below):

From: Info at Unity Moving [mailto:info@unitymoving.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 11:44 AM
To: David A. Flosser Subject:
Re: additional damage claims

Mr. Flosser, I will certainly revue your claim in its entirety, but I do need to make you aware that in theory our liability for damage to your furniture ended when you moved it out of our storage. There were minor scratches to two end tables and some paint scrapes that were apparent on a white end table that Thuy brought to my attention while the items were still at our storage. In theory, other than that, the second moving company is responsible for your furniture and I would advise you to also file a subsequent claim with them. Matt

Original Message
From: David F**
To: David F** ; info@unitymoving.com Cc: mcolbert@unitymoving.com ; mattcolbert@yahoo.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 10:18 AM
Subject: additional damage claims Matt,

We found additional damages to our belongings. Please add this to the $3910 in damages to our belongings that we claimed last week.

Unity Moving and Storage uses the following phone numbers, that we know of: Toll Free - 888-654-6683
Houston 281-442-6683 and 281-208-5885 and 281-522-8370 and 713-896-7833
Austin 512-671-6683
Dallas 972-253-6683
College Station 979-693-3733 and 979-775-6683
Floresville - 830-216-2042
They use several addresses around the Houston area, including:
12218 Jones Rd, Suite D153, Houston, TX 77070
11630 Hartley, Bryan, TX 77803
1010 Staffordshire Road, Stafford, TX 77477-6216
707 S Tabor Ave, Bryan, TX 77803
7225 W Sam Houston Pkwy N, Houston, TX 77040
1209 10th St, Floresville, TX 78114
380 Plymouth Park # 226, Irving, TX 75061
Lonestar Moving of Round Rock, TX 78761
3S Rello Trans Llc of Irving, TX 75038

One of their storage locations can be found here (Matt has an office at this location):
11500 FM 1960W, Suite 117 Houston, TX 77065

Email addresses include info@unitymoving.com, mcolbest@umcmovers.com, umcmoving01@sprintpcs.com, mattcolbert@yahoo.com, and mcolbert@unitymoving.com.

Here's some more info from the BBB:
Principal: Matt Colbert, Owner
Phone Number: 888-654-6683
Fax Number: 866-552-8370
Email Address: mattcolbert@unitymoving.com
Web Site Address: www.umcmovers.com
Membership Status: This company is not a BBB member

They used to run Lone Star Moving of Austin, but that closed down - wonder why?

David
Missouri City, Texas
U.S.A.

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