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Terrible Experience
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My experience with Starving Students began with a phone call with the branch manager. He was explaining the policy that has them charging for the time the truck is out. I ran the time on google maps and it came to an hour and 1 minute. He said that the time wasn’t always the same as the services said because of it being a large truck. I asked if he meant an extra 10-15 minutes or so. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t double or something like that. He assured me it was more like the 10-15 minutes and it would not be double.
Before the movers came, I had all the boxes stacked at a height that would fit on a hand dolly and labeled with where they went. I also had all the boxes from the same location stacked together. I had the furniture all moved to the front door area. I had a few things in the garage and some boxes. They were next to the garage door and ready to move as well.
The movers showed up on the day of the move. The older gentleman came in and looked around and had me complete paperwork. The initial paperwork was wrong and had to be corrected. During this time, the younger helper was just waiting and not doing any work. When the paperwork was completed, I made sure they understood that I only had a budget for 4 total hours of work, including the drive time. I went over the priorities for what needed to be moved. I stated to the movers, as I had to the branch manager, that there were a number of things that did not have to be moved. I could make arrangements for them later. Specifically, I mentioned that the things in the garage were only if there was an abundance of time. They did not need to go if it would add a minute to the 4 hours. My priority was the furniture, books, and kitchen things. I did not give them lamps, pictures, or any items that were awkward to carry and would slow them down. I transported these in my car, and later in a pick-up. After going over this, we were ready to get started moving things. Time charged when first item was loaded: 1 hour.
I was loading things into my car and I went out to see how the loading was going. They had loaded everything from the garage, and nothing from the home. They seemed to think that there would be plenty of time to load and unload everything. I noticed that the older gentleman was carrying everything and the younger one was just waiting in the truck and putting things away there. I began to carry the smaller furniture to the truck myself. The older one mentioned that they were hiring and asked if I could use a job….. The younger finally came out of the truck and started helping with some of the larger furniture. After a great effort by the older man and myself, with a little help from the younger, the truck was loaded. I asked if they wanted to follow me to the new location but they said they had GPS. I put one last thing in the car and left. As I left, I saw them traveling west. I live to the far east. I was hoping they would simply take a different road to the main road and get there quickly. I drove at or below the speed limit and was passed by several moving trucks from other companies as we were on the freeway and it wasn’t crowded. Then when we got off, we were on the street the new home was on, so only turn was to get into the complex. I arrived at the new location in 20 minutes. I didn’t see anything of the truck for over 45 minutes.
When they did arrive, they pulled the truck in and began unloading in the street. After a few minutes, the younger said they couldn’t stay there because they would be blocking traffic. The older started to move the boxes and items to the sidewalk, but the younger re-loaded them on the truck. He moved the truck but did not re-secure the things. The boxes had fell over that the contents were all over the bed of the truck. The older picked up some of them and put them partially away and then I got up in the truck and put the rest of them into boxes.
Time so far, without a single item loaded into the house: 3 hours 30 minutes.
Now came the time to move the things into the house. The older started bringing things into the house. The younger went back and forth from loading things on the side of the truck to standing in the grass and just looking around. I asked the older why he had to do all the work. He said he would talk to the younger. At this time, the younger said he would carry things up the stairs. So he would wait at the stairs for the older to bring things to him and carry them up the stairs. At first, he was waiting a good bit as it took time to get things from the truck to the stairs and he was only told to put them in the front room rather than the room they went to. But I started carrying things and between the two of us, we got enough items there to keep him busy and even put him behind. I carried all the end tables, chairs and smaller items myself. There got to be a backlog of items at the foot of the stairs. At this point, the sprinklers came on and soaked my chairs, tables and some of the boxes that were waiting to be brought upstairs.
At this point, we were already over the 4 hours I had planned on and a good deal left in the truck. I said just get the furniture upstairs and we can put the rest in the garage. I was not able to go over the 5 hour mark. So they began putting the rest in the garage, with the heavy boxes and kitchen items in first and the garage items in front. Finally, they had the truck unloaded. I still had a good deal of smaller furniture in the area in front of my apartment that had to be carried upstairs but at least the truck was unloaded.
Total time charged: 6 hours, including the time they charged for the truck to get back to the office. Total hours worked: 3. They told me they would not charge double for the time driving but it turned out to be substantially more than double. And I didn’t get two workers, I got at best 1 ½. If I hadn’t pitched in, this move would have taken another hour or two at the least. And I had two carloads and one pickup truck more to bring. Previous move: A 65 year old man and a neighbor with a pickup and trailer. Two loads. I was unable to help because things weren’t yet completely packed. Moved everything including two trips and lunch at In-N-Out in just under 7 hours. And in that move, everything was in place and set up. With this one, it was over a week before I found all the kitchen things (which I had all together when packed up), and I am still not through bringing things from the garage.
This move was the worst moving experience I have had in over 50 moves. I would not recommend Starving Students to anyone.
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