Items Damaged and Stolen- Very Unprofessional
Andy
Submitted this review about
United Transport Inc
Review made Live: 10/29/2012 4:40:00 PM
First off, my estimated moving costs were $2800 from TX to NC. It ended up being $4700!?! This review is being written as events take place so that I don’t miss anything and can accurately detail the amount of nonsense that took place during my move.
The driver was VERY rude, spent most of the time outside on his phone speaking very loudly. My attempts to even speak to him made me feel like I was bothering him. The driver left his bank balance receipt on my counter when he left which was a negative account balance; this was right after asking me to make my check out to Cash. My check was cashed within minutes of them leaving my house. They brought a rental Penski truck to load my furniture into. The 3 man crew that came with him were hard workers but totally unprepared. It was probably 100 degrees, I had some bottles of water for the guys but when it ran out they were still asking me for more. They did not have the proper tools to disassemble any of my furniture. Not even a pair of pliers. So they ended up using all of my tools which they did not return and I had to run out as they were leaving to retrieve them.
They brought my washing machine downstairs and tipped it over on my wood floor! Water spilled all over my living room which no one even bothered to clean up, in fact they all walked through it and tracked it into my kitchen as well.
As they took my plastic shelves apart in the garage they kicked they and tossed them around. After they were done they just left, didn't even say anything. They also did not clean up anything. I had plastic bottles and cups all over my lawn and all through my house. There were empty tape rolls in every room on the floors and also scraps of plastic wrap all over in every room. I asked when I could expect my stuff at the new house and all I was told was "7 days". I was told I would be the only house loaded on the truck and it will take 7 days to go 920 miles. I was told they can do 400 miles per day, not 130. Right now I just hope that my stuff shows up at all. In closing, I did not feel comfortable using United Transport for my moving needs and I would definitely not use them again or even recommend them to a friend.
*Update- Now that this nightmare of a move is basically complete, I can repost this review (above) and add the events that took place since I first posted it. The review was removed after several people at the company hinted that I wouldn’t get much assistance until I had done so.
After my items were picked up on July 9th I relocated to NC and awaited delivery which I was told would be 7 days. On the following Monday I received a call that my items were still in storage in Dallas and would be picked up on that day to make their way to NC. Up until that point no one knew or would tell me where they were, they were unsure if my stuff was in transit or not. Tuesday the 17th a driver calls me to schedule a delivery for Wednesday (18th).
He shows up in yet another Penski moving truck, this time an 18 wheeler. Much friendlier than the last guy, they unload my items in the heat. As they are finishing up, I notice that one of my most expensive items is missing. My 47” Samsung LED LCD Ultra Thin TV. They check the truck again and then tell me that it was not in the public storage unit that they picked up my items from. They call in to their company, which I have no idea who they worked for but was told they never picked the TV up so it is not their problem. I asked if they worked for United Transport and the driver responded with “Who?” I had the United Transport website up on my laptop, the driver looked at it and then told me he had never heard of them. He got a piece of paper that said pick my stuff up there and drop it off here. At this point we look at my inventory sheet, I notice the sheet goes up to 160 but the last sticker was 172. I also see that my 32” TV was not listed on the form. My 47” TV was listed and had a sticker number of 40 so I go over and look at my 32” TV and sure enough it had number 40 in it. Basically they put the sticker that was supposed to go on my 47” TV on the 32” TV which is not recorded on the inventory and with a little magic, someone other than me ends up with a nice widescreen TV. I had read about this happening to a few other people before my move was worried that it would also happen to me, I guess I was right.
The pick up driver did not allow me to review the inventory before leaving, he shoved it in my face while holding the papers and told me to sign and then immediately walked out the door.
I immediately called United Transport to tell them about my TV, their initial response was that I had 1 TV on my inventory sheet and received 1 TV back, regardless of the size difference. Refusing to accept this as an answer I told them my inventory said I had a 47” TV and I did not receive one. Finally I worked my way up to the owner who told me they would look into it. This was a few days after the debate about removing my review from mymovingreviews.com was settled by me doing exactly that. Also it is very hard to get hold of someone at UT when you need to.
After a few more days of waiting, Cliff who is the owner/manager called me back to say they could not locate my TV. Through their claim process I would get $.60/pound which a TV like that would get me about $20, he said they were willing to pay me for the item to help me out. I paid $1800 for this TV in Feb of 2009 and now they go about $1000 which I relayed to Cliff, he said they wouldn’t be able to give me that much but would find out what their offer would be and call me back in a day. 2 days later I called back in, spoke to someone else that told me to fill out a claims form and mail it in.
While all of this was taking place I also noticed several other items were missing. (3) 2’x3’ glass tops for my desks never made it. My washing machine looked like someone took a sledgehammer to the top of it, there was a huge dent in the metal and the lid was bent in the middle. Several glasses and a crystal bowl were shattered, including my Guinness pint glasses! The boxes were torn open, some were crushed, and even some of my plastic bins were crushed. As I hooked up the Wii for my kids I noticed the box was tore open along the bottom and a Wii remote and TV remote was missing.
I filled out the claims form for the first set of missing items and mailed it in, meanwhile I notice that a small window AC unit that I had also didn’t make the trip. Also as I am preparing for a camping trip this coming weekend and go to look for my large gray cooler that had some of my camping equipment inside of it, I notice that it is nowhere to be found as well. Also my wifes sewing machine never made it to NC. Now I have another claims form to fill out.
So after filling out and submitting my 3rd claims form and mailing it in, a week later I was notified that I am only able to submit 1 form and that I would have to redo all 3 onto 1 and mail it back in again. I said forget it, take the first form with the TV and get on with it. Another day passes and they tell me they combined my forms into one and will be processing it which could take up to 2 months?!?
Now 2 months later I continue this review, still no money and no update from UT. This is extremely bad business; I would not trust these guys to deliver a pizza at this point. I have sent 2 emails in the past month for an update on my claim and have not received a reply. I am now consulting with an attorney and about to fill out a BBB complaint against UT.
I now received my claims form from UT with the total amount they are willing to give me for the loss of all of the above items. It came out to a whole $148. Completely and totally unbelievable. I am now in the process of contacting my attorney again and filing a complaint with the BBB. I will post any updates in the comment section if possible so that I may get the word out on how shady and poorly run this company is. Please DO NOT use this company and avoid a massive headache and potentially being ripped off.
Another month later and I received my UPDATED claims form, they added $100. So now a grand total of $248 for all of my missing items including my $1800 tv that was stolen during the move. Now is it time to involve my attorney and the BBB. I am done dealing directly with this incompetent company.
