STARVING STUDENTS

After calling me 4 times to confirm the move (don't know why they'd need to confirm so many times) the date of the move came and the company's Ventura County branch sent over two very young (no older than 20 years old) with a truck that had extensive body damage (quite embarrassing for then new neighbors to watch). The kids they sent out were very nice and polite but came to realize they had no business working for a professional moving company. The kids operating the truck had absolutely no professional training, they probably knew as much as you and I would. Their technique, or lack thereof, and their logistical sense was completely inadequate to complete the job in a timely manner. As a result of the above, the company charged me for a 7h day for a 1.5 bedroom move! As you can imagine this gross miscalculation and nonprofessional MO ended up costing me a pretty penny for a service that shouldn't have been. I will never use Starving Students again.

I've moved many times in my life and this was undoubtedly the worst experience. First, the movers were late and there was no phone call. When I called the headquarters, the manager indicated that the movers had not left yet. I specifically told him to have them them call my home phone, since I was obviously at home waiting. An hour later (they were just coming from Santa Monica to Westwood), they knocked on my door and said that they had been waiting for 30minutes outside since they couldn't reach me. They had been calling my office, even though my home number was on their routing sheet. The manager charged me for these 30 minutes of their idiotic waiting time which was a total scam. The two young men did not get along so moved everything individually even though some things like the futon would have been faster to move with two people. They also grumbled about each other. When the furniture was moved to the new place, they did some really unprofessional things, like leave my desk top-side down. How was I supposed to flip this over myself? Even though the move was right around the corner between two apartment buildings that both had elevators and consisted of a bed, dresser, futon, desk, two bookshelves and about 20 boxes, it took over 4 hours. My move from San Francisco to LA with Northwest Vanlines involved the same furniture going down 4 flights of stairs and was done by a 50 year old and a 60 year old man in the same time but they also disassembled all of my furniture and reassembled it at the other end. Including the fact that the furniture was driven 400 miles to LA, the price was only $770. I should have been suspicious when Starving Students did not send me a contract or a written estimate and also offered no written terms until I had asked for them myself. They also forced me to sign a waiver on the day of the move saying that if they got a ticket for where they had parked their van, that I would pay for it. Otherwise, they would refuse to do the move. This is a very large company with probably a large client base but I doubt that any of them are repeat customers. This was by far the worst consumer experience I had ever had. When I wrote a letter of complaint to the company afterwards, they were completely unapologetic, defensive, and appeared not to give a flip.

It went quite well. They moved all the furnishings. Everything went very well and they were good about setting up things when they got there. I would say that they were professional and efficient.

They arrived on time, protected our wood floors and were very careful not to damage our kitchen cabinets. When the refrigerator was ready to be connected to the water for the ice maker, one of the movers helped us get it connected correctly. They were very courteous and professional.

THE MOVERS WERE QUITE EFFICIENT AND HANDLED BUSINESS IN A PROFESSIONAL MANNER. THEY WERE EXTREMELY CAREFUL TO ENSURE NO DAMAGE OCCURRED TO ANY OF OUR ITEMS AND WORKED AS A TEAM IN ORDER TO GET THE JOB DONE EXPEDITIOUSLY.