A Richmond family was horrified after they moved to Florida and found an empty urn — with their unborn son’s ashes nowhere to be found.
Brent Leung and his wife said they had asked a Richmond moving company to pack an urn containing their son Gabriel’s ashes.
“We wanted to keep (the ashes) with us, but neither of us knew the logistics,” said Leung.
“So ultimately, we thought it would be the safest to just send the urn and all (of Gabriel’s) belongings with the moving truck.”
The first sign of trouble surfaced almost two months later when they finally moved into their new house and noticed damage to some of their valuables.
Leung recalled casually asking his father, who was helping him unpack in Florida, if everything was “okay” with the urn given there was already noticeable damage and breakage among their belongings. “’Yes, fine,’” Leung recalled him replying.
As Leung continued to unpack, his father asked about the urn, “Is it supposed to be empty?”
“And I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Well, there’s nothing inside.”
When Leung saw that the urn was empty, he had an “emotional breakdown.”
His son Gabriel, the family’s first child, had passed away due to a genetic anomaly in 2016, six months into his wife’s pregnancy. His ashes were kept in a little bag inside the urn.
Trouble despite due diligence
Before hiring movers, Leung and his wife did their “due diligence,” and they felt satisfied the moving company “checked all the right boxes.”
Upon discovering his son’s ashes were missing after the move, however, Leung immediately reached out to the moving company about the ashes and damaged belongings. He also complained about the unloading process in Florida, noting his whole family had to help the two movers who were unable to handle the volume of boxes.
A spokesperson for the moving company said they never even packed the urn. If they had, the items would have been on the packing list, and they would have been declared to U.S. customs.
Regarding the issue of short-staffing at the Florida end, the spokesperson said they are looking into it, but it’s up to the Leungs to submit an insurance claim for the damaged items, adding that they follow a standard procedure for these situations.
Moving can be a ‘financial and emotional nightmare’
An average of 13,000 complaints and negative reviews about movers across North America are made to BBB each year, involving “financial and emotional nightmares” due to dishonest moving companies.
Not all scams or complaints are reported, said BBB spokesperson Aaron Guillen, as many prefer to cut their losses and learn from their mistakes rather than go through a lengthy reporting process.
"Consumers should keep track of all your belongings before and after moving, in order to maintain proof when moving companies may lose an important belonging,” said Guillen.
“Take photos of the items that are going into the truck and keep an inventory to ensure everything is accounted for."
BBB also advises consumers to check for reviews of potential movers, get three written estimates from different movers, talk about payment before signing contracts, prepare for damage and potential insurance claims, and keep their valuables with them. A full list of tips is available here.
In the meantime, Leung hopes that he will get an apology from the moving company.
“We’re not litigious and I have no desire to go to court. If nothing happens, I will. I just want some kind of refund… It would (also) be nice if he just talked and started there,” he said.
“Where’s the decency to just apologize?”
