Complaint Review: Starving Students - Long Beach California

 Do Not Use Starving Students! Horrible customer service, unprofessional movers that are not in shape. Here are the highlights of my experience: I moved from a studio apartment (the studio was roughly around 400 sq ft) to a 1 bedroom apartment. The apartments were 2 blocks away from each other. These were the items: 2 book shelves, 2 couches - one was a love seat, 1 armoir, 1 writing desk, 1 tv, 1 bed, The rest were boxes mostly filled with books & kitchen items. I chose the minimum because it shouldn't have taken more than 2 hours to move my things. I was told that they would need a deposit based on the amount of time they thought it would take to move my items & that the movers would let me know on moving day.

The movers arrived. They asked for a $500 deposit becasue they figured it would take them about 4 hours to move my items because of the stairs!! I told them I couldn't do that. After discussing it for 15 minutes-- it was obvious the movers were not happy about the stairs-- the 2 movers started moving. 45 minutes later, they said that in order to keep me at the 2 hour minimum they would need to stop loading the truck & head over to the other apartment. I looked at the time when the finished unloading at the new apartment which had an elevator & there was 20 minutes to spare. The guy sat in the truck & did paperwork, came to me at 5 till the hour was up to sign paperwork & they left on the hour. You know, I felt horrible about the stairs! I thought 'OMG these guys are working so hard!' I was actually concerned about their health. They didn't really look like movers. The studio was on the 3rd floor with no elevator. I know how hard it is because I moved myself in there with the help of friends. So, I went ahead & moved myself the rest of the day. It was a holiday weekend. I was calling everyone to help. When the 2 friends I found that did not go away for the weekend finally arrived at 8pm, they were stunned at how much was left when I had hired movers. It took me 6 hours to finally get completely moved- after the movers.

Here are a couple of stories from the friends that helped finished my move: Susan- she hired ALLIED MOVERS to move her out of her studio apartment into a 1 bedroom, BOTH APTS ON THE 2ND FLOOR- NO ELEVATOR, and the apartments were about 4 blocks away from each other (we are in the same neighborhood. She lives 1/2 a block away from me), IT TOOK THEM 2 1/2hours & she roughly paid about the same amount that I did. Jacque- Hired LINDEMAN MOVERS. They moved from a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment into a 2 story 3 bedroom house. THE MOVE WAS DONE IN 4 HOURS AND the movers help set up their furniture by putting beds together, arrange the couches, and entertainment center. On the day of my move, the movers plopped everything down in the living room. Bed was not put togther nor were the feet on the couches put back on that they removed in order to move! There is also a rip in one of my couches. I unfortunately did not do my homework. I will be making sure to tell everyone I know not to use Starving Students. They do not care about what they do or their business. I have called & written emails to Melanie Thompson in the Claims Dept to try to resolve the fact that they did not live up to their end of the agreement. I had about 40 minutes that were not used to move me. All I get are blanket statements stating that I signed a contract. The facts don't seem to matter to this company. Good business practices don't either.