On August 30th, I employed Starving Students Movers to help me move my possessions from an apartment to my newly purchased condominium, only six miles away. Starving Students Movers promised the following guarantee when I hired them:
1. Two strong, professional men would be sent;
2. A moving truck large enough to accommodate a 4 bedroom square foot home would be provided;
3. Furniture pads would be provided free of cost to ensure protection of my large pieces of furniture;
4. The rate would be $84.99/hour, with a 2-hour minimum, plus 22% added to the total;
5. Driving time in Los Angeles is doubled (i.E., if it takes fifteen minutes to drive from location to location, the amount of time would total thirty minutes);
6. A guarantee that no additional or hidden charges would be incurred in the price; and
7. My possessions would be cared for with the utmost respect.
However, these are not the results we received from Starving Students Movers. Following is a list of our complaints with
regards to the two charges:
1. One man took two fifteen-minute restroom breaks in the middle of the day;
2. The other man constantly kept making inappropriate advances on my girlfriend and making her feel totally uncomfortable and it was completely unprofessional;
3. Neither man brought any water or water bottle to drink from on a sweltering hot day in Los Angeles, to which I spent over $40 for several bottles of water and Gatorade for them for fear that they would collapse otherwise;
4. I opted to hire a third man to help with the unload at the condo but he stopped working 45 minutes before the job was done;
5. One man sat in his truck for over 30 minutes hand-calculating my total while only one man finished the job;
6. The truck did not accommodate all of the property within our apartment, which was only 1,200 square feet and included no large appliances such as a washer/dryer, dishwasher or refrigerator. We had to rent a U-Haul truck the next day in order to finish our move, which included 2 dressers, 10 boxes, 1 vanity, plants, a sofa and a desk with a hutch as well as lamps and a few chairs;
7. Furniture pads were not offered.instead, I was told by the two men that if I wanted my furniture protected I had to spend $29.99 to buy industrial plastic wrap and have each individual piece of furniture wrapped by them. This added an exorbitant amount of time to the overall move;
8. The rate was calculated at $89.99/hour instead of $84.99/hour which is what I was quoted;
9.in addition to the rate discrepancy and the $29.99 charge for the industrial plastic wrap, I was also charged three additional hidden fees: $18.40 for mattress bags, $3.00 for tape and a PUC fee (of which I am not sure it is) for $5.83;
10. During the unload, boxes that had clearly been labeled FRAGILE, CHINA or CRYSTAL, etc. Were turned upside down and very carelessly placed about;
11. Boxes were crushed;
12. Furniture had scrapes and scratches that went right through the industrial saran wrap;
13. Boxes and items were tossed carelessly throughout two rooms and I was told that if I wanted the movers to put the boxes in the rooms as they were labeled, I would be charged additional;
14. Once the truck was fully unloaded, I saw a stack of furniture pads that extended from floor to ceiling that were never utilized for the protection of my furniture;
15.in the end, I was told my balance due was $565.08 but 45 minutes later (when the job was actually complete) was told that the balance was $622.35 because the computer was now working and could accurately calculate the price;
16. The man who gave me my bill couldnt even verbalize a three-digit number, such at six-hundred-twenty-two-dollars-and-thirty-five cents.instead, he had to say the amount digit-by-digit in order try to explain my balance to me.
I called Starving Students Movers the very next day, August 31st, to complain about the service I was given. I was sent to a voice mail of a woman in claims who has never called me back. That same night I decided to call Discover to question the charge and find what kind of protection I had. Since then, I have tried calling back to Starving Students Movers to get the complaint department on the phone but to no avail. I feel I have been completely taken advantage of and have no form of recourse.
Finally, SSM contacted me to offer me $80 off of my $1,200 bill. They accepted NO blame and said that everything seemed normal to them. Are they serious???
0 comments