I recently hired Starving Students to move me a short distance from an apartment, back to my house in Glenn Dale, MD. The team arrived promptly at 9am as scheduled. However, it was all down hill from there. While moving my things, the movers started arguing. I just listened at first, but they then got really heated. The younger guy was complaining that the leader was trying to be too bossy and that he was tired because this was his third straight day of working, while the leader had the last few days off. I asked them to cool it, but they ignored me. They proceeded to fight, punching each other and putting a hole in the wall of my building. Fearing that one of them would get seriously hurt, I intervened (I'm 6'4", 260lbs.) but was then threatened by the leader who was holding the other guy's head down on the floor with his fingers about to rip his nose off. He told me that they were family and that I needed to stay out of it. At that point I just let them go.By that time they were so tired and just stopped. After the other guy got up off the floor, his hand was bleeding badly. I went to my car and got my first aid kit and wrapped it up for him. The leader then apologized, but I'm just at a loss for words at this point. Now I'm afraid to leave my apartment, so I stayed in it until they were done, which seemed to take all day. Because I never checked the truck, I didn't see how it was being packed. So, after we arrived at my house, they opened the back door and there was my 42" plasma TV just setting on the floor. Not wrapped, not secured. That made me really nervous about everything else. As they began unpacking the truck, many of my things were damaged. They sat things on the top dressers without protection and my things, all fairly new, were damaged terribly. I was so frustrated. I called the dispatcher and he wasn't even concerned, and in fact, rushed me off the phone. I then googled "starving students movers complaints", and boy did I feel duped. I should have done that before I made the call. I immediately called my credit card company to cancel my card before they ran the remaining balance of $400. I just felt so violated and at the time felt there was no way I was going to pay for this type of crappy service.
I called the home office on the following Monday and got the run around at first until I was able to speak with Evita Vestal. She listened to what I had to say and seemed to empathize with me. I eventually filed a claim (still pending I guess) and am waiting to hear back.
Meanwhile, I received a voicemail from Josie in your accounting department threatening legal action, and to report me to the credit bureau (I love my credit like I love my life) if I did not pay the balance in 10 days. I tried to return her call several times without success. I finally got a call back from her yesterday. I attempted to share my story with her and why I felt I didn't want to pay until the claim was processed, but she was not interested in hearing my story at all. I asked if I could speak to a supervisor and she said she was a supervisor. I asked if I could speak to HER supervisor and she said no because I was just going to try the same thing with them that I tried with her. Said, in a very irritated voice, "I just want to speak with someone who cares". Then the line went dead.
I can't begin to tell you how I feel about this whole situation. My heart is beating very fast just thinking about how I've been taken. The sad part is, I wished I didn't care about my credit, and the fact that I have to pay this anyway makes me sick to my stomach.
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