Starving Artists Moving

I’ve used Starving Artists twice during my time in Lawrence and had a great experience both times! Professional, friendly, knowledgeable, they really know what they’re doing and they’re great at it! Super honest and up front! Reasonable prices! They are awesome!

I’m very pleased with this company. My daughter needed to move — pronto — from central Kansas to San Antonio because of new job, and I agreed to make the arrangements. From beginning to end, Valerie (in the office) and Craig (in the field, so to speak) were courteous, friendly and above all, entirely open and honest about what was involved, and how much it would cost (and why).
The move went off without a hitch, and my daughter was very pleased with how carefully her furniture was handled, and with all the help she received at both ends of the move.
I should mention that unlike some of the large long-​distance movers, Starving Artists Movers will move your furniture when you need it moved, and won’t put it in storage until they have a full load, or a return load waiting. We had a specific date in mind — only about ten days after I first contacted them — and they accommodated us. Service like this may cost a little more, but it’s well worth it.

Absolutely loved these guys! They did a jam up good job! From scheduling the move to signing their paperwork when they were done, nothing but professional.
They have a two hour minimum which was fine. That’s what I paid for. Service took longer than expected (definitely not their fault). When we reached two hours they let me know before they continued to work.
I had already packed up all my stuff and rented my own truck. They loaded that thing and nothing moved at all on the cross-​country drive. They did sick an excellent job packing that it only took my and my partner an hour to unload everything.
Cannot say enough good things about these guys!

Awful experience to say the least. Loading went fine despite the crew being 45 minutes late. The trouble started at unloading… First, the «manager» asked if he could use the restroom, had I realized this was going to mean blow out my restroom so badly the entire house needed airing out, I would have said no. Then, my favorite lamp, $ 200 lamp mind you, was tossed across the truck and broken into many pieces. This then required the «manager» to attempt to explain to me the insurance he was supposed to explain prior to moving all of my belongings and ended in them offering me $ 40 for my now broken favorite $ 200 lamp. Not only was the lamp damaged, but after they left upon inspecting my antiques, every single one if them is scratched and damaged. Beyond disappointed to say the least. I highly recommend using anyone else.

Let it be known that I absolutely detest writing a review that is less than three stars. I have a feeling this is going to just stir up the anxiety all over again, but here goes.
Let’s be real: I doubt moving is ever an enjoyable experience. We all do it because we have to and I’ve done it three times in the past 15 months. One of these moves was across half the country (Brooklyn to Kansas).
SA seems to be in high demand in the KC area and Lawrence, so I reserved them a month in advance. They have you fill out a form where they try and ascertain how much stuff you have. Only problem is, they ask you how many boxes you have. They don’t specify the size of the boxes. And if you have to rent them a month in advance, how the hell are you supposed to know how many boxes you’ll have? Do people pack first and then try to find movers?
So, I filled the form out and promptly received a call from the really nice lady who I believe is the wife of the owner. She was a pleasure to deal with.
The morning of the move, we were surprised with our movers calling at 8am. I stupidly thought that the move was happening at 11am. It might have been nice if they sent out a confirmation email the week of the move. I’m sure it was my mistake, but still! Luckily we were up and prepared.
Our movers, the *first* time (oh read on, please) were awesome. They were nice, funny and like the lady who answered the phone, a pleasure to deal with.
Only problems:
1. They tagged on a charge for stairs. We had one staircase going upstairs to two small bedrooms and one half of a staircase that they would need to take the stuff out of the basement to outside (it’s an old house on a weird foundation, not unlike the one we moved into). If they charged someone for having normal stairs, I wonder what they’d charge for a 5^th floor walk up? Give me a break! To add to this? We were having them move all the boxes in the new house to the first floor basement garage, so no steps would be involved.
2. we were paying them the SAME amount of money per hour to drive the hour from Lawrence to KS.
3. The truck they brought wasn’t big enough. We were moving from Lawrence to KC, so this truly, truly sucked as it meant a second move was going to have to take place.
When I was handed the bill after the first move, I about had a stroke. Of course tipping on top of this was expected, it was a hot day and they did the best they could. So that first day cost about 1K with the tip and money we gave them for lunch. We didn’t have any big appliances to move, like an oven or washer/​dryer or fridge. I truly don’t think we have *that* much stuff. Hell, since we have a sleep by numbers bed, that meant no big mattresses to lug upstairs either! I don’t get it. Everyone we tell this to asked if they had packed all our stuff up, too. Um. No.
Fast forward a few days when I expected to have to take a day off work to meet the movers in Lawrence and then drive back into KC to meet them at the new house. I called the night before the day this was to take place. The owner never called me until the AFTERNOON of the move day. By then I had given up, so we had to put off this until Saturday.
Our movers on Saturday were also really nice guys, but they didn’t put the heavy iron table in the yard as I had indicated, thus requiring us to move it ourselves. Fun. What are we paying movers for again?
To be fair, this time at least we were only charged for an hour of labor. Because we piggy backed off another move taking place in Lawrence to KC. So, at least there’s that.
I asked the movers to have the owner call me, which never happened. I wanted to protest the stairs charge because why should we be penalized for having the normal amount of stairs one has in a house?!
For «starving artists,» they sure made more money from me over the span of 6 hours than many people make in a week.
The other sucky thing: I found several items had broken in the move. I had put «Fragile» on the boxes with breakables in them and had packed everything carefully with bubble wrap. I’m truly afraid to look at our vintage cocktail glasses which are still packed up. The broken items were several of my collection of plaster angels and aliens… not worth anything, but have sentimental value and yes, these had survived about 6 moves by now.
Never, in my many many years of moving has a move ever come close to what I paid for this service and left me completely dissatisfied.
To recap my dissatisfaction: Lax owner who never called me back, stupid extra fees for stairs, second move inconvenience, asking you to fill out an exhaustive, useless form when at these prices they should be coming to your house to assess what size truck you need, broken angels…
Rip Off Artists seems like a more appropriate name.
This would be a one star review if the lady answering the phone and the moving guys themselves weren’t so nice…

Props to the team at Starving Artists. My 3 guys worked very, very hard! They were polite — efficient and fast. Thanks guys!