MISSOURI CITY, Texas — Most of us have had to deal with moving companies at some point in our lives but one Houston woman said she'll never deal with them again.
"I’m not trusting anyone with my stuff at all ... period," Nissa Wisuttismarn said from her Missouri City home.
Her cross-country relocation turned into her worst nightmare.
"My move was supposed to go from Santa Clara, California, to Missouri City, Texas. Straight through," Wisuttismarn said.
But she said that’s not what happened. While she was still in California, Wisuttismarn called Compass Movers. She said they scheduled her move and took her deposit.
“The deposit was around $2,400 and an additional $350," Wisuttismarn said. "And when the movers actually came to pick up they charged me another $2,500 or so.”
As it turned out, Compass Movers wasn’t actually a moving company. It was a broker -- an entity that takes the moving orders, schedules them and then bids them out to carriers. That broker company is now out of business and operating under a different name.
The carriers that get the jobs are supposed to be licensed, insured and vetted by the Department of Transportation to operate. Wisuttismarn said she started noticing red flags when the movers first showed up.
“There was no itemized checklist," Wisuttismarn said. "He just kind of comforted me and said, 'I know you’re in a rush, we gotta get you out, we gotta get you out, that’s the most important thing.' And they just, you know, took off with my goods.”
Wisuttismarn waited in Texas for her stuff to arrive, but it never came.
"I was like, 'Hey I haven’t heard from you, it’s two weeks now,'" Wisuttismarn said. "Nobody is responding and if they are responding somebody who is not familiar with my account says I’m gonna call you back."
Months passed.
"I’m starting to freak out," Wisuttismarn said. "I said I can sit here and sulk or I can really try to do something about it and figure out what's going on with my stuff."
Wisuttismarn took a week off of work to do some investigating. She ultimately learned the carrier took her stuff to Washington state and dropped it off in a storage unit.
“Public Storage has a $1 first month free promotion," Wisuttismarn said. "My stuff just got put in there and they just defaulted. They didn’t care."
After that, it was put up for auction.
"It was over $25,000 but to me it was everything," Wisuttismarn said. "It was all my life’s goods."
Ultimately, Wisuttismarn was able to find the man who won her stuff in the storage auction. He told her that she could get it back for a price.
"It wasn’t all there and he had sold a lot of it," Wisuttismarn said. "And we negotiated that I would buy back the rest of my goods for $3,000."
Wisuttismarn said her electronics, piano and jewelry were all gone.
Defending the defenseless
“They’re victimized. They’re basically realizing that they’ve paid these people to steal their life-long property, their cherished goods, all missing," consumer rights attorney Susan Chana Lask said.
Lask has represented clients victimized by moving companies. She said that once you spot a red flag, don’t let anyone take your stuff.
“If it's too good to be true, then it is," Lask said. "Meaning, they’ll give you a very low price. Check out the reviews online, like Google reviews and other places. Three, stick with named companies that are major carriers in the business.”
Lask said, ultimately, federal legislation is needed.
“We need legislation from Congress to protect consumers and people out there who are moving because there’s no law that protects them," she said.
For Wisuttismarn, it was too late.
“That was our life in that 850-square-foot apartment," Wisuttismarn said."Everything we owned. All the memories.”
KHOU 11 called the owner of Compass Movers who said he is just a broker and blames any problems with Wisuttismarn's move on the carrier.
Christopher Ruwe said all of the carriers his company uses are licensed by the Department of Transportation.
Ruwe could not tell us the name of the carriers that were used.
KHOU 11 was unable to find a name for the carriers or their contact information.