Area's Best Carpet And Upholstery Cleaning Inc

See above.

I don’t know how to compare them to anyone else. They did agree to do the ceiling in the basement because I don’t have a drop ceiling; you just see the rafters, pipes, and vents and there were spiders all over the place. I liked that they cleaned it; it was a good service. They also had a very new and impressive carpet cleaning machine. It was a heavy-duty machine and it worked well; it was very effective. The price was really reasonable and I thought it was well worth the effort. I had them come back to clean the living room carpet.

The reason why we used them first is that our washing machine decided to flow all over the carpet in the utility room. We had to have it pulled out, have the room dried and have new carpets put down. They were excellent. We had them back this last year to clean carpets and furniture and I still think they are excellent. It had started to mold and that is why we had them clean up. Nothing was a problem as far as the mold went, we got it all cleaned up and it did not get to the degree where it was dangerous. It was just beginning to mold. They had plenty of equipments, they put it in the utility room for three days, and it was nice and dry when they stopped. We used them because they were the first ones to answer and left a message that they would get back to us and they did. They got back to us rapidly. They were over here within twenty minutes after that. The machines were on and going. They really were very responsive. The wife is the one who deals with the insurance company and the husband is more in charge of different facets of some of the other things they do. They just work together very well. They took care of the first contact with the insurance company and all of it; we just had to follow up on it. We had a rainstorm here in July and they were working on several public buildings that had flooded off. So they know what they are doing. We bought carpets through them. They put it down beautifully and that is why we called them a year and a half later to clean the carpets and furniture in the house. I am planning to call them this summer for the carpets to be cleaned again.

They took so long in their attempts at restoration that the permit expired. Areas Best did not have the knowledge nor skills to complete even one area that they put their hands to. After nine long months of week after week with no workers on the job, and the owner blaming everyone but themselves for the delays, they flat out refused to continue working until we got more money from our insurance company. We had no options but to fire them because they had not finished one part of the project that we had already paid them for. The whole project should have taken less than four months to complete. we fired them on the 14th day of september 2009 and hired a licensed contractor who came in and had to repair their incomplete work attempts and complete the project. On Jan 21, 2009 I entered our church building to turn on the heat for the evening service. I discovered a broken water line from the kitchen hot water heater. It had burst sometime of Sun. afternoon so we had about 5" of water standing in our fellowship room, bathrooms and hallway. The heating and plumbing man recommended AREA'S BEST INC. carpet cleaning and restoration Co. to come and begin the clean up that was requested by our insurance co. They came running with a great display of equipment, workers and trucks. They had a great attitude of caring assured us that everything would be fine. In the 13 years that we have been with our insurance co. we have never made a claim so I had no idea of the procedure required to do so. The owner of Area's Best assured me they could handle it and obtain plenty of money to reconstruct the area. They assured us that it would be restored and brought up to a really extra ordinary area when finished. They assured us that we would be back in full use of our building by Easter Sunday. After the appraisals were given to the insurance adjuster and the first money was issued they demanded we give them a check for $61,000. We did so on good faith that they would complete the work as planed and pay the additional contractors ect. that were needed to do so. As soon as they received the money their attitude began to change, they no long would discuss their intentions for rebuilding, they would agree to meet me at the building and then not show up. They began making attempts to rebuild in every area of the building but would stop when they were not able to complete it for lack of skill. They blamed the inspectors for delays, the insurance adjustor, the city hall, and everyone they could think of for why they were not working on the building. This went on for months on end, week after week, the parishioners would go down to inspect the progress and see nothing changed. When I would inquire of the owners as to when they would have workers at our building she would get extremely upset and scream at me that we were harassing her company. When I finally talked with her husband and asked him when they were going to put workers on the project he told me that they were not going to do any further work until there was more money from the insurance company. There was no way that we would agree to give them more money when they had not completed one area of this project. We had no restrooms, no kitchen, no fellowship hall. The furnace room was incomplete with a 20 min fire rated door hung the wrong direction...the fire inspector had specified that it must be a 90 min. fire rated door. They had taken the door hardware off and placed it on the other side so the threshold was reversed, it was a total mess and compromised completely. It cost us nearly $900. to correct it. They built a closet wall over an electrical breaker box restricting the access door so that it could not be opened or closed. There were many other sorry things that they left unfinished, like doorways with no door frame for a door on the restroom. After we finally let them go we hired a fully licensed and qualified contractor who completed the project in the 3 remaining months of 2009. He reworked and corrected all of Area's Best's attempts plus he finished the project. We have been left with an outstanding bill for this work that should have been completed with the money allowed by our insurance company. AREA"S BEST INC. is only best at obtaining a lot of money from insurance companies and lining their own pockets with it. They will tell you that they can really get the money from your insurance company then they will take that money and you will find yourself paying someone else to get the work done.

Overall the job went well. When it came time to pay for services performed I could tell that the owner was very well versed in insurance scamming. He requested that we cash the insurance check and split it. Split it? are you kidding me? And leave me with a water damaged basement? He does good work, but just be careful when he starts to talk about insurance claims. I'm glad I didnt listen to him. I had someone else come in and finish a job that he started and didnt want to finish but wanted to get paid for it. Be aware.