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Man claims moving company lost his mother's ashes
FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with the son about what happened as well as the moving company's response.
HOUSTON - "You packed my mother's remains with the silverware," said Russell Jones.
Last fall, Jones hired Coleman American Moving Services, an agent for Allied Van Lines to move most of his belongings into storage.
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He and his wife were going to sale and the cost of the move was $22,000.
In January, the couple took the house off the market. Jones says his belongings came back on this flatbed filled with crates.
"You can see through into the crates the covers on the crates are broken," he said. "It rained that day, we have several photos that are ruined."
Jones says it went downhill from there.
"We were telling the movers not to move this, and we found when the box was delivered, there's nothing in here," said Jones.
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The remains of his mother are now missing.
"My mom and I are so close. I'm an only child my whole life, revolved around my mother," Jones said. "Losing her it hurts."
Jones says when he initially filed a claim with Coleman Allied, he was told to stop unpacking and the company would send someone to investigate. That's yet to happen.
Jones showed us several broken items, including a couch and table. He says several items are missing, and some boxes arrived empty.
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In a statement, Coleman Allied Moving told us, "We offered Mr. Jones $1,000 for the missing ashes as a gesture of goodwill...." The company goes on to say, "Jones never mentioned anything about ashes or remains, and if he had, we would not have been able to transport them as it is against our company policy."
Jones says he didn't want the ashes moved and told the movers not to touch the box.
"If they would refund us, or actually show up, and take a look at what they actually physically broke and repair it, we'd most likely let it go," Jones said.
In a statement to FOX 26, the company said the following:
Mr. Wallace:
"Thank you for reaching out to us. While we typically do not discuss customer claims with anyone outside of the customer, it appears that Mr. Jones has invited you into the claims process and provided some information. We will comment on the information contained in your email and the email and materials referenced by Mr. Jones sent to you.
As you can see, we have been in regular contact with Mr. Jones regarding his claim. We certainly regret the claim and strive to provide all our customers with the very best in quality relocation services. We have tendered Mr. Jones a settlement offer on the claim which included a gesture of goodwill. It is important, however, to note that Mr. Jones did not identify anything in his shipment as containing "human remains," nor did he notify anyone in our company of their presence in his shipment. We interviewed all members of the crews performing services, the salesperson, the customer service representative and the manager of the local facility. All confirmed that Mr. Jones never mentioned anything about "ashes" or "human remains." If he had identified anything in the shipment as "human remains" or "human ashes" we would not have been able to transport them as it is against our company policy.
As a matter of fact, Mr. Jones signed the Descriptive Inventory listing all items tendered to the carrier for transport under language signifying that the items listed on the document contained a full accounting of everything he gave this company for movement. Again, there is nothing that notes contents as what he claims. The Inventory number that he claims housed the "ashes" is noted on the Inventory as "Lamp."
We did tender an amount as goodwill as we take customer service very seriously and could see that he was upset; however, the documents do not support a claim for "human remains" or "ashes." Mr. Jones reached out to you after we reached an impasse on the amount we were offering in goodwill for the item that is not listed on the Inventory.
This is something we do not treat lightly and thoroughly investigated the claims and the shipment. This included interviews with those involved. It is our hope that this information provides relevant material as you do your own investigation into the claim made by Mr. Jones."