BELFOR USA Group Inc

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They were awful. I want to warn people. They're awful to the point where we got stuff stolen from us. We ended up not even having them finish the job. They were terrible. Our insurance company recommended them, so we assumed we didn't have anything to worry about with them. They're affordable. They came in and assured us it was going to take no longer than a week. He made sure if we had any problems, to call him or his boss. It's was just hook, line and sinker. It made us feel like, "Oh my gosh, this man is going to go above and beyond." The way they operate, they put a big padlock on your door so that they can come in and out. I was a little weary about that, but my husband was not. The nice part about it is you didn't have to be home for them to come and do the work. You had two hour windows when someone was going to come. It seemed like it actually made things convenient. The problem was no communication, absolutely zero. They would just show up. They wouldn't tell me when they were coming. I'm a stay at home mom with three kids, so we're home all day. I'd go out in the morning, thinking they would show up and do the work then, but I would come home at like 3:00 p.m. and they had just gotten there. Then I'd have to leave, because the stuff they were doing, I couldn't have my kids in the house. Basically, that went on and we were very frustrated. So they put up the dry wall. They were here for an hour or two and then not come for another day. It was a slow process to get minimal stuff done. One guy came to do the drywall and I talked to him and said, "Hey, what time are you coming tomorrow?" and he said the same time. That was the day he got there at 2:00 or 3:00, so he did not do what he said he was going to do at all. I came back home probably around 5:00. I walked in my home and basically the main floor of my house was covered in dust. It wasn't a little bit of dust. It was someone had to work to get my house this dirty. I put the baby down and was instantly floored. I didn't know what to do. There was no way I was cooking dinner for my family in there. It was a disaster. I called my husband, and he got dinner and came home. We put the kids to bed and basically spent all night trying to get our home clean.Everything was covered, you name it -- baby toys, a laptop. I could go on and on because the experience was just so ridiculous. It looked unbelievable and we were so distracted by the mess. I did end up calling the sales rep who told me to call him if there were any problems. I thought he'd call me back within an hour, because it was ridiculous. But I didn't hear from him. We called the manager and he said he'd get somewhere out here to clean it. They would say these things, but they didn't do any of it. That never happened again and they never offered to send someone out here to clean again. We called the insurance company and they told us we could not stop using them. I think stole from my jewelry and just got out of here as fast as possible. He didn't clean up his tracks. I'm pretty sure he might have gotten fired, because we did tell him that some stuff was missing. But they did nothing to replace the jewelry and it was irreplaceable, like diamond earrings and a necklace from my grandmother. On top of it, the work he had done had to be completely redone. Every step of the way, the drywall had to be replaced because it was crocked. Someone came and painted the ceiling and did a horrible job. They got paint on parts that weren't needing to be painted. Everything had to be done twice. Finally, the last straw for us, the guy was putting our cabinets back on and there was about an inch gap between the wall and the cabinet. I told him the cabinet fits right against the wall and he said, no, there was a piece of trim that should cover this. I told him no, we painted our kitchen before, and the cabinet was against the wall. He basically ignored me and said they'd put a trim over it. My father-in-law came out later that day, and was able to fit a whole finger between the wall and the cabinet, and he said that wasn't right. What happened is that when they pulled the cabinets off, is that that cabinet has been losing up, so instead of just tightening up that cabinet so that it fit flushed to the wall, he would have put a piece of trim on it, so that means our cabinet would have been tilted and probably eventually fallen off the wall. It was a nightmare. So we ended up stopping having them come back in our house after that. We didn't care at that point what happened with insurance. This was four months ago and they were supposed to come back and cut us a check for the work we ended up doing ourselves -- the final painting, putting trim and molding up, all that stuff we ended up doing ourselves. They called a few months ago and wanted my husband to sign off on the work. My husband said no, because they never finished the work or sent the paperwork they were supposed to send us. For two or three days, this women from the office called. She hung up on my husband. They still have not sent us the paperwork. I think they just decided to walk away from dealing with it, which means that we don't get our money that we were supposed to get. Our insurance company, USAA, is a very well thought of insurance company but were the ones recommending these people. It was unbelievable. They were awful. The guy who told me to call him anytime, it took him four or five days before I heard from him. He left a message and I was so blown away about how nonchalant and rude he was. It was apparent at that point that he was going to be of no help. I couldn't get a hold of his boss, who he told me to call.

I was overseeing the work for my parents. You need someone who can watch out for the customer to make sure that they do the job correctly. I actually had them rip out the work because the contractor that they hired did wrong. This happened twice but their price was fair.

We had several different types of repairs required following a residential break-in and burglary in September, 2012. The major damage was to our hardwood floors which were deeply scratched by a safe being dragged through the house. There was also damaged doors, broken locks, drywall damage, painting, etc. Our insurance company recommended Belfor as a preferred restoration vendor. We started out with a couple of knowledgeable, responsive individuals and felt comfortable signing a contract for approximately $15,000 worth of repair work. However, it seemed once the contract was signed, everything started to fall apart. First, the project supervisor disappeared. It turned out that he left the company and no one notified us, nor returned calls for several weeks. The next guy got "removed" by his company for doing such a poor job. We finally ended up with a third individual who was nice enough, but basically only responded when we initiated contact (sometimes several contacts). We went back and forth on repair or replacement of the hardwood floor. We finally opted for total replacement after the second company wouldn't guarantee that the floor could be repaired adequately. This process took weeks! Then we had to wrangle over the quality of product to get a comparable floor to what we had previously. Finally we reached an agreement and the work was scheduled. This problem was not with the insurance as one might think, but with the lack of responsiveness and understanding on the part of Belfor as to what we required. The sub company hired by Belfor to replace the floor was on the other end of the metro area from us. They would wander in at 10, 11, 12 and complain that they had to travel so far. Then they would half heartedly do some work and leave about 3 or 4. Every day they would arrive without some necessary tool, and end up borrowing ours. The first day they proceeded to remove the existing floor. We had installed this flooring ourselves and told everyone (our insurance adjuster, the contractor, the sub supervisor) that it was GLUED DOWN and would be hard to remove. Well imagine the surprise when they discovered that they would have to replace the subfloor!! THAT WAS NOT PART OF THE BID. It took several hours of angst and considerably more money (paid by our insurance) to add this work. It also added additional days! If I had not been able to supervise the workers, it would have been a nightmare. The contractor never once showed up during the work, not did he call and check with us to see how it was going. I ended up calling the sub supervisor myself to get problems rectified. They had to redo several items - trim cut to not match the angle of the floor, cabinet trim that was removed suddenly not fitting any more, missing piece of wood under the edge of the dishwasher, etc. All of the appliances had to be removed, but when it came time to replace the gas stove and hook it up, they informed me that they would hook it back up only as a favor - that they really should not being doing that. Not a word previously about it being a problem, and no effort to get the proper people on the schedule. During this time, we had a second repair done by another sub. The walk door into our shop had been damaged during the break-in and needed to be replaced. The gentleman who did this replacement left the sill off the ground so it gives every time you step on it. Obviously, not the correct installation placement nor a satisfactory job! Belfor did offer to have the work redone - however by that time we had no confidence that it would be any better the next time. By this time, we decided that we did not want this contractor doing any of the additional items on the original work order. We were not satisfied with the work that was being done, nor the level of (non) supervision though we had originally been promised that the supervisor would be on site daily. We negotiated a change order removing the additional items - once again I did substantial work to ensure that the numbers came out correctly! The next kicker was when the work was finally done, and Belfor sent our insurance company the final accounting - for the total amount including the items removed by the change order. If I had not been copied on an email exchange by our insurance company, our insurance would have approved an amount inflated by several thousand dollars! Finally, we waited patiently for the bill since our insurance company had paid us, and we needed to pay Belfor. We signed the final Certificate of Completion in May, 2013 - 8 months following the break-in, No bill in June, July, August...... Finally came on August 28, dated on the letter July 2. What a shoddy way to run a business, but very consistent with the quality we received throughout the entire process! I would certainly never recommend the company to anyone. Don't use them - even if you receive a recommendation through your insurance company! Having a robbery leaves you violated enough - you don't need to also be abused by the company fixing the damage!