SERVPRO

Description of Work: I had some mold removed from my basement.

Description of Work: Servpro was referred to us by our insurance company as a way to get our basement cleaned and restored and mold free after a major rain event and multiple day power outage left 12 inches of water in our basement. As my wife was forced to deal with the problem herself, it seemed like a reasonable solution to the labor intesive cleaning and moving and drying process. In reality, this company has a business model that preys upon people when they are vulnerable and whose primary goal is to extract as much money from the home owner as possible. They wasted their time and resources trying to dry out everything instead of looking at the larger cost/benefit to the home owner. They walk through the door and require you to sign a contract without an estimate and then use that agreement signed under duress to extract as much money as possible. It was not until day 3 of our adventure that I was able to get an estimate of the cost to dry out and disinfect my basement and that estmate was very nearly the policy limit for water back up. They tried to dry out drywall at the cost of $625 per day versus just cutting and removing the wet drywall. They tried to dry out furniture made from particle board, which expands and loses integrity when it gets wet. After calling them on the carpet over costs and their lack of progress and their attempts to dry out things that should have been discarded, they did make a small discount in the bill, $75. For $4200 I fully expected my basement to be clean and ready for installation of carpeting and furniture. Instead, I spent the better part of two weekends finishing the jobs that they started and billed me for but never completed. I did ask them to remove their equipment so I would not be charged $625 per day for trying to dry out drywall. They say that this is why they did not put the finishing touches on their cleaning efforts, but they still had the heart to bill me as if they were completed services. The services they provide, with constant supverision, might be OK in the bigger picture, but their insistance on getting a signed contract without an estimate of total cost is absurd. It seemed too much of a coincidence that their estimate was nearly the entirety of my insurance coverage. In Illinois, you have two levels of water back up coverage, either $5000 or $10,000. Being referred by and insurance company meant they knew how much money at a minimum was available for their pockets. I would never, ever use this company again. For $4200 you can hire a lot of manpower to do what they did, and buy some fans and dehumidifiers and bleach the place yourself.