Starving Students Movers Inc

Do not use Starving Students if you value reliability and trustworthiness in a moving company. I found out the day of my move that they decided to not show up. Here is a timeline of this past week:
Monday April 28, 9:14 AM - I talk to Aaron from Starving Students, and we agree on price and a pickup window from 8:00am - 12:00pm on Saturday May 3. I comment that this is a large window, given it?s the first move of the day and therefore should be fairly predictable. Aaron says it?s not possible to shrink the window of time during which they can arrive.
Friday May 2, 7:05 PM - I miss a call from Aaron. I am left a voicemail saying ?How you doing Mark, this is Aaron, a representative of Starving Students. I was calling to give you a confirmation on your move for tomorrow morning. You can give me a call back at 510-451-1303. Thank you."
Friday May 2, 9:00 PM - I see I have missed a call, but I don?t call back, given that it?s late and there is nothing alarming in the voicemail.
Saturday May 3, 6:30 AM - I leave my house in San Mateo County to travel to the starting point of the move, in Walnut Creek. The drive is 50 minutes. (I aim to get there early so I can be ready for the movers.)
Saturday May 3, 7:25 AM - I call Aaron back at 510-451-1303. No one picks up so I leave a voicemail, asking him to call back.
Saturday May 3, 9:35 AM - I call Aaron to check on when he expects the movers to arrive. He says it?s no longer possible to have anyone arrive this morning. I can?t believe it - didn?t we agree on the time this past Monday? This is the first move of the day, so there should?t be any delays. When I express my disappointment at a sudden change in plans, Aaron claims he has been calling me all of yesterday afternoon, yesterday evening, and this morning, leaving voicemails, but I am not returning his calls. [According to my phone log, I only received one call and one voicemail, as documented above.] I counter by saying I called him this morning. He says he didn?t get anything. I say ?I called 510-451-1303 at 7:30 this morning.? Aaron asks if I left a voicemail. I say yes. He says ?well, I don?t see anything.? Aaron offers a $100 discount for starting the move on Sunday morning or a smaller discount for starting the move at 4:00 PM today (Saturday). I decide to go with another moving company, given that I am away from home and don?t want to wait for 6+ hours or re-do the long drive tomorrow morning. I inform Aaron that I will be going with another moving company. As I express my disappointment saying ?this is really unprofessional??, Aaron hangs up the phone on me.
A few reflections on the situation:
- If I had not called at 9:35, I would have been waiting until noon. Aaron did not try to proactively call me at any point on Saturday, even though we had not spoken and he was not planning to show up during the designated window.
- He did not once say ?I apologize for the inconvenience.? Instead, he made excuses such as ?this is the moving industry and things change? and ?one of my guys got injured.?
- He called me only once (at 7:05 PM the night before I?m planning to be ready at 8:00 AM), he didn?t say anything in his voicemail indicating that the move was not happening. He didn?t send a text message either. However, when we were on the phone, he blamed me for situation since I didn?t pick up or return his call - 7:00 PM on the night before an 8:00 AM appointment.
- Maybe this is an isolated incident and something extraordinary really did happen. However, the attitude with which Aaron dealt with the situation (blaming me and misrepresenting the facts) really turned me off.

The cost was more than what they thought it was going to be but quite a bit less than the other quote. They were good just for a basic move. If I was really, really particular about how everything was done and have a lot of fragile stuff; I am scared if anybody wants to move my stuff. Then I would probably not recommend them. If I want a good basic move and a couple of bumps and hits then they are fine. I am willing to settle for that for a cheaper price. They did a good basic job. They didn’t work as fast as I had hoped. In fact they could not move everything because their truck was full so I was kind of stuck. They didn’t get a large enough truck and they didn’t come beforehand to see exactly what they were dealing with. They were punctual to arrive and they were moving rather slowly. In fact I had to request a third person because it was too big of a job for just 2 people. I would use them again.