worst movers in the world
David
Submitted this review about
Unity Moving and Storage
Review made Live: 3/19/2007 2:24:00 PM
Christopher Matthew Colbert (owner of Unity Moving and Storage) has several felony and civil charges against him in Brazos County, TX:
http://justiceweb.co.brazos.tx.us/judicialsearch
(search for Colbert)
His TxDOT number (006025367C) expired in February of 2006:
http://www.bbbbryan.org/commonreport.html?bid=90001965
We hired Unity Moving and Storage of Houston (also known as Unity Moving, UMC Moving, Compass Relocation, Compass Moving and Storage, Lonestar Moving, 3S Rello Trans Llc, 3 S Relo Trans Llcn, 3S Relo Trans Llc, All American Apartment Moving, Stagecoach Moving and Storage, ProPac Van Lines, LP/Move Dynamics, 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. We should have immediately been worried, because the movers drove an Enterprise rental truck. 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 A. Flosser
To: David A. Flosser ; 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.
David & Thuy Flosser
Unity Moving and Storage uses the following phone numbers, that we know of: Toll Free - 888-654-6683 and 888-571-6683 and 888-571-6689
Houston/Katy – 281-442-6683 and 281-208-5885 and 281-522-8370 and 713-896-7833 and 281-395-2005 and 281-347-6683
Austin – 512-671-6683
Dallas – 972-253-6683
College Station – 979-693-3733 and 979-775-6683 and 979-775-7155 and 979-694-1200
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 and 11630 Hartley Rd in Houston, TX
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
16206 Parkview, Austin, TX 78728
1524 Hawk Tree Dr, College Station, TX 77845
22807 Mountain Creek Ct, Katy, TX 77494
They may also go by ProPac Van Lines at 220 E Bethel Rd in Coppell, TX, and at 11375 Grissom Ln in Dallas, TX, and at 504 Parish Pl in Coppell, TX, with phone #'s of 972-462-8019, 972-745-1900, and 817-442-5255 as well as fax # 972-745-2515. This is based on the fact that ProPac Van Lines uses the 888-654-6683 phone #, according to the BBB.
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?
They've been doing this for a while:
http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1995
http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16933
http://www.bbbbryan.org/commonreport.html?bid=7002789
These kind of scams go on all over the country:
http://www.komotv.com/news/archive/4092866.html
Go here and search for the name colbert:
http://justiceweb.co.brazos.tx.us/judicialsearch/CrimSearch/crimfrmd.htm
http://justiceweb.co.brazos.tx.us/judicialsearch
Update on 3/15/07:
Christopher Matthew Colbert had a guy who identified himself as Gerald Edwards call my cell phone at 10:41 am today from the following number: 281-636-2582. He said he wanted to come look at our damaged belongings for Matt. I asked him if he worked for an insurance company, and he said no. I asked him what agency he worked for, and he said he just looked at things for Matt. He sounded like a very unprofessional person on the phone and a bit scary. I told him that, considering Matt’s felony charges, I could not have him over to my house if he could not give me the name of a company that I could verify. He hung up at that point. Scary stuff.
TxDOT verified that Christopher Matthew Colbert has no valid TxDOT licenses whatsoever and that all his previous licenses were revoked for not providing insurance info. Why would Matt want to send someone to my house if he doesn't have insurance? I've reported this to the Fort Bend County Sheriff, in case something should happen to us (God forbid).
