SERVPRO: Is ServPro a Scam?
SERVPRO Fire & Water – Cleanup & RestorationTM claims that:
“Whether you need emergency restoration or top-to-bottom home cleaning following fire, water or mold damage, you can trust your local SERVPRO Franchise Professional to make your house feel like home again. Our goal is to help you regain control to make your damage ‘Like it never even happened.’” (Source: Servpro website)
However, the Internet contains numerous and widespread complaints that the franchised ServPro company inflicts more damage than it mitigates.
In fact, many consumers claim that they’ve been Servpro is a scam operation run by thieves.
(Also read: SERVPRO Franchise Complaints)
On the Serv-pro reviews website, ezakimak10 wrote:
Servpro are scam artists! I could write a book about servpro and all the unethical practices they use. Tripling the quote they give you; Stealing items from your home; putting liens on your home; refusing to send you a detailed bill; Their tactics are criminal like just to say the least. I have no idea how our system allows them to survive by taking advantage of helpless people and also insurance fraud at its best.
3233 wrote:
What a scam company…Water damage due to ice maker break…Serv Pro recommended by insurance co and they came. Set up fans for a week -kept saying it was still wet and tore out ceiling etc.Wanted to come back to replace and when I told them I had a carpenter the manager became belligerent…. The bill was way over the top , not dated and not itemized. Insurance is fighting them…Wouldn’t call them to clean up dog’s mess.
Sadpro wrote:
Servpro have numerous violations listed with the better business bureau. They are at best a load of con men, crooks and liars. Do not use their ineffective and impotent services.
made wrote:
long story short- dont use serv pro
the bill was ridiculous! THEY COMPLETELY LIED ABOUT THE HOURS AND JOBS! it was after our house almost burnt down in a fire. amyways now we have an ongoing battle against the 10,000 DOLLAR BILL!
underconstruction wrote:
ServPro of Decatur/Forsyth was hired by my insurance company. They over charged thousands of dollars for work that would never need to be performed. Submitted a second estimate and intentially over charged again. Damaged thousands of dollars worth of my property and to my home. Refuses to return calls, refuses to complete the job they were paid to do and refuses to return the remaineder of my personal property. ServPro employee’s even stole items from my home when they were here.
Have you dealt with SERVPRO Cleanup & Restoration?
Is SERVPRO a scam? Does SERVPRO overcharge, steal and do shoddy work as so many claim?
If not, why do you think they attract so many complaints?
Is the company or its franchise owners and employees the problem?
Please share a comment, opinion or insight below.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH SERVPRO? PLEASE SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
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Sounds to me like the competition is writing this sure you cant make every customer happy but i bet Servpro has done a better job than all of the competion out there. If all of this was true no insurance company would reccomend
Servpro but they do.
I work in the restoration industry servicing major insurance companies and devestated home and business owners. These services include but are not limited to fire, water, smoke, wind damages. Theft, crime scene clean up, natural disaster relief and many more. A motto we use frequently is “if it needs to be cleaned and you don’t want to do it…call us”.
The reason I felt obligated to comment on this post is because when dealing with such personal and often valuable possessions, emotions are high. Customers who have never experienced a loss, whether it be losing most of what they own or care in a fire or a small leak that has damaged their hardwood floors, don’t know what to expect. Some allow the professionals to do what needs to be done to handle their loss appropriately and quickly. Other customers (I would guesstimate the majority) either think they have won the lottery and have a blank check coming from their insurance company, or they don’t understand why their house may have to undergo minor or major demolition. In some cases demolition is required with the sole purpose of preventing further damage. Bottom line is no matter what industry you are in you will have dissatisfied customers. It is unfortunate consumers choose to crucify a nationwide franchise because of their local franchise dissapointed them. Again, in any industry your company is only as good as your employees or owners. I have witnessed competitors of mine do things I would never allow and I have seen others that have inspired me with new techniques or their top notch employees. My advice to any consumer looking for any restorative service is to research your LOCAL restoration companies, and keep in mind the decision on who restores your property is entirely your choice as a policy holder. Even if the insurance company refers a company you can at any time tell that company to get the hell of your property. Then call me :).
Proud Franchisee
Our maintenance guy broke a water valve in the bathroom of our nearly new theatre and a lot of water poured out before it could be shut off. We asked our business manager to call a local carpet cleaning company to extract the water and the name they pulled out of their hat was SevPro. The only thing needed was water extraction but they proceeded to extract the water, clean the carpet, treat everything with chemicals, bring in huge dehumidifiers and run up a bill of $14,000. Yes, keep in mind that this building is a movie theatre with projector exhaust fans that exchange the building air 4 times a day and large air conditioning systems (an air conditioner is basically a large dehumidifier) that were running at all hours the building was open. They never asked for permission to perform any services more than water extraction, and after submitting their bill of $14,000, they increased it to $19,500 and encouraged us to submit everything to our insurer since “they always cover and pay for this stuff”. Well, we haven’t submitted anything to our insurer and they tell us they’re being inundated by huge ServPro bills for questionable services. I’d prefer to pay my attorney to fight these people and expose their illegal business tactics. My suggestion is to NEVER call them. This company is training their franchisees to take advantage of the vulnerability of insurance companies and many more problems will occur until a legislator takes this problem on.
This plant manager can not send correct person to fix a leak in roof, always finding some ridiculous excuse. I called five times and he has failed to hire proper people to fix my new roof. This company did sloppy work and did not good job when it came to roof.
Dave… You mean you had them come and you didn’t even ask for a quote or info on what had to be done? Also – most commercial buildings have AC systems… you didn’t want the carpets flooded from bathroom cleaned? Jeez… I think I’m safer watching bootleg movies on the internet!!!
After a kitchen fire, I specifically requested to keep certain cabinetry
not badly damaged for my workshop and they disposed of them. Some cabinetry wasn’t damaged and ripped out. No asking permission for anything,
Blinds were ripped out breaking the clips and left in my garage.
When I looked for my egg cooker that was a cabinet with plastic containers which were undamaged, it wasn’t in the bag for the items of that cabinet. I took a picture of the open cabinet after fire showing the cooker and plastic wear in fine shape.
When confronted, they wanted me to take a polygraph for a $20 egg
cooker I couldn’t find after the stress of the kitchen fire and being burned trying to put it out! OUTRAGEOUS!
Totally insensitive, with an unconscionable attitude towards people!
Bill $12,000. Their attitude? You got your insurance money. Don’t Complain!
Keith Thompson/Servpro of Bellaire, SERVPRO of Galveston Island/Lake Jackson came to SE Michigan after a flood in August 2014. I had the misfortune of hiring him to clean my basement which had sewer and rain water up to the ceiling. His company did not power wash the floors and walls, just put antimicrobal on the walls, turned the fans on an left. The walls and floors were all slimy. When he came to pick up the fans I asked him when he was going to power wash the walls and floors he told me “I lost the tip to my power washer”. I hired the Servpro company that did my neighbors house to finish the job. Mr Thompson had the audicity to charge my credit card, FOUR MONTHS LATER, $1,500. I NEVER RECEIVED AN INVOICE FROM HIM. STAY AWAY FROM KEITH THOMPSON
I Would never use Serv-pro again, and would never recommend company to a friend or neighbor, or even an enemy for that matter. Very sloppy job, stuff missing from home after evacuation, items broken in home!!! Company was very negative about replacing or giving compensation for nasty job done in home. Serv-pro is a scam. charges were outrageous, Over $6000.00 for less than 12 hours work, (2 people) And job was sloppy, nasty, and incomplete. I think they they just sat around and did basically nothing, except take property that did not belong to them, and break computer attachment. turned off power to media for 9 days and did not even apologize for it. I had no phone messages, favorite DVR recordings, or internet for 9 days while out of home.
Servpro is a piece of work. I scheduled a service with them and they called me the morning of the service to say they had emergencies all weekend and would not be able to come. My husband had taken off his job and they asked if they could reschedule. I asked how do we guarantee that we wont have this issue on the re-schedule and the response, we don’t know. Candace and Priscilla a real piece of work.
The problem in a flood is that drying systems used by many franchises are inefficient, but ” easy ” to globalize. System which multiply the cost of the repair or even generate later problems and whose energy cost is enormous in comparison with other systems. But the major problem is the delay of weeks or months for drying a building when you can do it in only 5 days. For example: The increased of compensations, more days for a return to normality in your home, your business closed more days… etc.
Ten years ago ServPro came to my house because my hot water heater had “dropped its bottom” and some 40 gallons of water had seeped under the door and got part of one room of carpet wet. My insurance company told me to call ServPro, and two employees came out, took a $250.00 deposit, spent under two hours at my home. They went downstairs, and without my permission, immediately tore up ALL of my downstairs carpet. Put ten huge fans down, and said they would return in three days to get the fans and finish up.
Well, after three days of these very noisy fans running, I called and left a message, when are you guys coming to get the fans?! Same after five, seven and nine days. Never a call back to me. On the 10th day I again called and left a message that the fans were now outside my house, on the curb, and I sure hope that the garbage men don’t haul them away. Within 20 minutes a ServPro truck stopped by and picked up the fans.
No other work was done, except tearing up my carpet, again without my knowledge or permission, and I still received a bill for an additional $1900.00. I called to discuss it with the manager, and he told me either pay the bill, or they would put a mechanic’s lien on my house. I told him that I couldn’t pay such a ridiculous bill, for less than two hours “work,” and for tearing out my carpet without my permission. So, they did put a lien on my house, at 8% interest, which ballooned to over $6,000 over the decade. I finally decided to counter sue ServPro, because I did not want to leave my house to my heirs with a lien on it, besides the fact that the whole monetary charges from ServPro were ridiculous.
I am so happy to report that we went to court today, and ServPro was ordered to remove the lien, at their expense, plus pay me a large sum of money (to cover attorney fees). I can only encourage others to do the same (sue these bastards!).
ServPro doesn’t care about all of these negative comments. Insurance companies are still recommending them (why, I don’t know). They come into your house in a crisis situation, and take advantage of you, as well as your insurance company. Sue, people! And call your insurance company and tell them to stop using ServPro. If you don’t, ServPro will continue their immoral business dealings, and continue to hurt innocent consumers, maybe your friends in the future.
My insurance company had Servpro come to my home after major water damage to my home. They took everything but my clothing. When time came to bring back my belongings they only returned about half. All of living room furnishings were missing. My family Bible is among the items they took and never returned. I called the main office in Tennessee and was offered NOTHING..
I WILL NEVER EVER AGAIN LET THAT #@%#× COMPANY, SERVPRO INTO MY HOME!!!!
Over the last year we too have suffered a tremendous loss of our personal property.
Servpro Project Manager knew that our personal property was unsalvageable or could not be replaced . Notwithstanding, they stored over 300 boxes including photographs, business and related books and records as well as our furniture, home accessories and clothing for over 6 months.
Not to invoke additional pain and suffering, We should file a “Class Action Lawsuit”
I believe together, we will take back our power..
Our insurance company referred us to Servpro for remediation services as well.
As someone with experience with ServPro I can say that a lot of these peoples problems stem from the frantic pace by which a local franchise can become inundated with fire/water losses simultaneously. Compound the numerous jobs with a small crew of mostly inexperienced workers, due to the high turnover rate of unskilled labor in 2016 America, dissatisfaction is bound to occur. While this is no excuse for the low quality of services rendered it is an exact reason why. As a homeowner it is your duty to be diligent in the affairs of your home and to never trust the advice of someone who stands to profit from your misfortune.
We had a sewer backup in our basement in mid July 2015. My husband found ServPro online and called them to get a free quote as advertised. Someone from ServPro showed up next day. He pried the sheetrock off one wall saying he needed to take snaps of the damage. He pulled one fan off his truck and turned it on and my husband told him to stop that because we needed a quote before proceeding. The ServPro man didn’t take the fan even tho’ he was told we didn’t want him to leave it. We subsequently found that several possessions ( several bags of books & the family Xmas tree) that we had bagged to prevent contamination were missing.
Over the next 4 days my husband tried to reach ServPro repeatedly to come and get their fan. No response. ServPro only showed up on 7/21 after this incident to get the fan when my husband told ServPro that he was putting the fan out for trash pickup.
We never received a quote. We never heard from ServPro until we were notified that certified letter from them had arrived demanding payment of more than $1300 for services rendered. That’s 19 months after the fact. What’s that about??
We contacted our insurance agent who got hold of ServPro and demanded to see the signed service contract.
The 3 sheet contract they faxed him is mostly blank except for the wrong dates on it but each sheet shows a customer signature. Those are not our signatures. We never signed anything with ServPro; we never agreed to have that company do work for us and we would never, ever agree to a contract like that.
This feels like a scam to us. Don’t call these people for a free quote or let them into your home or I’m sure you’ll regret it.
I saw first hand the dealings of ser Pro ,people need to do their homework. I worked for a franchise for 8 months and the place was a joke .
DO NOT USE THEM!
I am Soldier that came home from a long deployment from a war zone. While I was gone my sump pump quit and flooded my basement making a huge mess and causing horrific levels of mold. Called Servpro, they told me it would cost about $8500.00. I paid them half, about $4200.00 and they did about 2 weeks of work, said they were done. When I told them I will have a post mold test done they paused and then said and my house should pass.
Good thing I had it tested because it still had mold. They refused to work with the testing company to resolve this. They wanted to have their own mold test company come and retest my house. I told them NO I want an unbiased company test my house. Servpro went ahead anyway and got their tester and entered my house while I was not at home, went inside my house and tested it. They arrogantly ignored my demand to not come to my house with their own mold test company (criminal trespass???). Then later sent me a bill for almost another $4500.00.
I had another mold removal company come and they worked with the mold testing company I called company and they resolved the mold in my house and will have a 5 year guarantee. BTW, it was a few thousand dollars less than Servpro. Now it seems it will cost me more than 10 times as much as I paid them to take them to court to litigate this case just to get back what paid them.
Here is Servpro’s pattern of how they perform the perfect legal scam:
1. Launch an attractive professional advertising blitz;
2. A disaster or horrific mishap will happen and someone who is very vulnerable, overwhelmed, stressed and emotionally week at that moment will call Servpro;
3. They perform at the lowest and cheapest level, lie and mislead the customer, and take them for as much money as possible, and sometimes pilfer customers property;
4. If a customer takes them to court, Servpro will use their corporate legal team and vast resources to drain people of their hard earned money (retirement accounts college funds, healthcare, children expenses, food), and valuable resources. Because they know how much it will cost a consumer to take them to court so they use their limitless resources to fight common vulnerable people to drain (and punish us for taking on a big entity) until we can no longer fight and win a case in court;
5. Then move on to the next victim.
Just as it was legal to kill Jewish people in Germany during WWII, Servpro seems to be the perfect legal scam against a vulnerable people, and I wonder if these laws weren’t wrote by lobbyists and put in place politicians to protect these corporate scams like Servpro. THIS NEEDS TO STOP!!!!
Their slogan is “as if it never happened.” Their slogan is false. It was no better than as if it never happened. If you don’t even know that airing out means opening all windows, take that slogan off the trucks. I knew more about the procedure they came to do than they did. The supervisor told a whopper too to avoid doing extra work that would have probably helped the situation.
You folks are an unfortunate few who have had problems with Servpro. I used to work for a Servpro and I am now a property manager and I use Servpro for all water and fire related problems and many other situations because regardless which franchise I get, they all perform the same professional services I have come to expect and all for about the same cost depending on the size of the jobs of course. I won’t use another company.
If you have trouble with SERVPRO report them to the Contractor State Licensing Board in whatever State they are located. They will lose their contractor licenses and be put out of business. These people prey off the misfortune of others. And should be dealt with appropriately.
I’m a former Manager of SERVPRO Of South Saratoga for 6 years this franchise is the most shady franchise of them all not only do that pad the invoices/ estimate at completion of jobs to squeeze ever penny they can rather it is right or wrong most of the time wrong .They are under staffed and hire people’s off the street and pay them under the table not even pay them minimum wage and treat them like shit. Half of their techs couldn’t pass a drug test If giving on the spot.Not only do the tech steal medication out of customers medicine cabinet and out of bed room some of them double back to homes they done work in and entry thru unlocked doors that the know customers is on vacation and trust them to do services.Even the guys that they hire off of the street steal from customers home ,credit cards ,children’s pig banks ,customers liquor and even eat customers food .Most of the guys that they hire off the street can not past a back ground check or a drug test and a few had outstanding warrants while working for SERVPRO Of Southern Saratoga But the owner didn’t care as long as he got a check from the insurance companies.There was many customers complains for some of these action that i as a manager i cleaned up because of the relationship i had with the customers and the respect..I spoke about this matter to the team and it was swiped under the rugs .Some customers was putted off by owner hoping the matters at hand will go away but it was not right and i kept my mouth shut afraid of losing my job because i got a family to feed .But i not longer work for this shady ass company.And no i wasn’t fire i quite because this company treated it employers like shit .When i first started work for this company i moved up quick to management because I’m a hard and loyal worker and we ha d a staff 12 good hard working soldiers and we was family but of course the owner shitted on everyone because of his greed and shady ness and now there is on 5 techs left and all but one is new hire and 2 of them is thinking about leaving as i type this.
A sump pump malfunction resulted in my two offices and shop getting about a half inch of water, more than enough to make a big mess. Servpro was called into clean up the mess. Big mistake!
Servpro’s method involves removing the baseboard and boring holes through the drywall so air can be blown in to aid the drying process. In the process of moving furniture in one office to get to the walls, they knocked a computer off a desk and left it dangling IN THE WATER from some cables. While moving the electronics bench in our shop, they nearly knocked a $2000 piece of test equipment to the floor. It was sheer luck that I happened to walk in there when this was about to happen and intervened.
While removing baseboard in the second office, the drywall was torn up, which will ultimately require remediation. That should not have happened. Things were haphazardly strewn about and the baseboard pieces, all but one being reusable, were tossed into piles with no markings to indicate from where the pieces were removed.
After the drying was finished, the manager handed me the invoice, and at that time, informed me they don’t repair drywall or reinstall baseboard—we’d have to hire a contractor to do that. Also, they didn’t clean a piece of carpeting that had been soaked, requiring us to hire a carpet cleaning service.
Two months after this fiasco, our shop remains unusable due to the disorganized mess the Servpro people made of it. Nothing they moved was put back of course, which means we have to basically rebuild the shop. Needless to say, we are very unhappy with this state of affairs and recommended to our insurer that Servpro’s bill not be paid until we have fully restored the space and have made it 100 percent usable again.
As someone else posted, I wouldn’t recommend these people to clean up dog pop. I can’t say with any conviction if Servpro is a scam operation, but I will say their motto “Like it never even happened.” is abject bulls**t. Our offices and shop are proof of that!
BEWARE they are SCAMMERS. What was already a stressful time in my life having to leave my home Servpro made it a hundred times more stressful. They are very unprofessional they will charge up the bill without telling you what they are doing in your own house. I have hundreds of emails going back and forth with the owner Dion and his unprofessional nasty sister that runs the office Julie. They put charges on their invoices for services never performed. I had to go through the whole invoice and send them 5 pages of services listed that they never did. A 2 week job turned into a nightmare that took them over 2 months to finish. I have never ever dealt with such an unprofessional company. After they acknowledged discrepancies on their invoice and I had to hold their payment from the insurance company until they send a revised one those scammers put a lien on the house for nonpayment meanwhile I was asking for over 2 weeks for a revised invoice and supporting invoices that they didn’t want to send over. The reason they didn’t want to send it over is because they are SCAMMERS charging for services never performed and the only way they were able to do this lean (online) was because they have their company in other states. Again they are scammers. Their lein held no weight in nyc. They are a nightmare. I have emails backing up everything. I am warning people save yourself the stress from these scammers. You will regret hireing this company. The only reason they are acknowledged is because the owner Dion goes to natural disaster sites. Not because of their work here. Please save yourself the headache and stress. Also, they will damage your personal property and make it seem like they are not liable you have to fight them to replace your damaged property. Did I almost forget they will charge for triple the machines that they had at your property. Good thing I always took pictures and the scammers had no choice but to acknowledge that they put that in as a “mistake”. It wasn’t a mistake it’s them trying to get over as with all the other “mistakes” for services never performed. This doesn’t even sum up the nightmare I have dealt with this company. I stopped communicating with them over the phone and have everything in emails because they are liers and scammers. They don’t follow state guidelines and their workers aren’t licensed. I have proof backing up all my claims against this company.
I can not express how SATISFIED I am with SERVPRO. I have used them on several occasions in several different states. The franchises i had were on site within 1-2 hours. They in detail have explained needed services. They explained to me what and how they will restore materials.
They explained what they couldn’t save and why they couldn’t save the materials. They perform knuckle busting, long enduring and tiring work. They dealt with my insurance directly confirming coverage and provided an initial and final estimate. If any changes a rises they made sure to bring them to my insurance and my attention immediately. I would not want to do the work they do. The Staff are kind and courteous and I would recommend them to family and friends. Each and every time they prove to me they’re worth every dollar.
I Give SERVPRO a 5 Star Rating.
A class action lawsuit against Servpro and American Family Insurance seems to be necessary in bringing Justice to the fraudulent activities of both companies. I caught Servpro’s fraudulent invoicing for over $3000. It seems apparent after reading all these Fraudulent activities and stories of Servpro’s conduct that Justice needs to be served.
Many of the allegations in quotes above are absolutely true since I had the same experience yesterday when they quoted me a ridiculously high price for water mitigation in my basement of $6500 for a job that would require no more than $1500 tops. The job entailed sucking up water from a 1200 sq ft carpet area and having blowers set up for a couple of days to dry it. And they did this after finding out that my insurance company had a maximum limit of $5000 on my policy.
I had the misfortune of calling Servpro in the early summer of 2015 to help us cleanup after a 4 foot of water flood in our basement from a broken boiler pipe. My husband called them from a tv ad and never checked them out as he was feeling ill. We were both well along in years and hadnt the strengtht to watch all their horrendous behavior while they were in action.They were in constant motion what with filling up garbage bags which they put into dumpsters along with parts of paneling that they destroyed unneccesarily,important papers, broken valuables. I demanded that they removed all the bags from dumpster and put all future ones in my yard for me to check out,as they worked. I sat in my driveway for almost a week doing so and i found that they had caused us irreparable damage in their haste to get paid and leave. They threw out important dry papers from basement desks containing our professional materials. I was an educator and my husband a sales promotion manager. They threw out dry legal documents too by turning onre desk upside down and dumping all contents in the dumpster,including marriage licenses birth certificates and old family photos. Finacial records,educational grants, marketng straregies were all unsaved and treated as garbage, It took me 3 weeks to salvage them into readable and viable products we had kept throughou ta fifty year lifetime in this home.. They tossed out bookshelves and the standards the held them on all the basement walls.On worker asked me if he could have a new purse that I had not yet taken out of the box,so he could give it to his wofe.I had a 2 pge list to give the boss on the job containg things to be corrected and things to be done, He refused to read it and sat in his truck making sexist remarks and laughing. Sometimes the drove the dumpster away and came back in the morning filled with stuff from another job that they worked on before coming midmorning and leaving under cover of darkness, I still have the list that I made for him that he refused to read. My husband was in bed having just gotten home from rehab after heart surgery at 84 years old and was agitated to see them walk past with things the belonged to us. We had to hire a home attendant due to this all causing his health to decline,. He passed away in Sept two months later,still worrying about the things they destroyed or misplaced from our home, I didnt sue but I should have. This is what I am now writing in hopes that it spare someonelse from having their life destroyed but a disrespectful,
dishonest bunch of theives, Marylin Sperling
Call me if you need any info or other reason to check the veracity of this letter, My son is a NYC attorney
Servpro of winston-Salem, north- complete scam artist with adjusters and other companies involved. TOTALLY emptied my two story home to bare walls and floor for a grease fire that did
No structural damage. Never discussed what was going to be done. Came home to empty house then found out adjuster submitted ludicrous damage claim ; Servpro and Dimill ent hired by them submitted claims to do unnecessary work. Everything I owned was taken. No recourse than to spend tens of thousands of dollars to fight them in court.NEVER HIRE THEM AND NEVER ALLOW THEM IN YOUR HOUSE WITHOUT YOU BEING PRESENT
ServPro is a terrible value to say the least. Their workers are beholden to managers a that don’t show up, so they stand around waiting for instructions that rarely come. We got an itemized estimate of around 5200. We decided to hire them, but on the first day, I removed wet flooring from two rooms, as their guys removed one. After the job, their bill rose to 6700, but they would not itemize it. There were also items on the estimate that were never done (didn’t need to be done, such as remove and reattach water heater, remove ductwork), but the lack of itemization on the final bill makes it hard to dispute the charges. In the end, they took a week to finish one day’s work, charged $6700 for about 30 man-hours of work (that’s over $200 per hour), charged for things that were never even attempted, and failed to achieve their own guidelines of “getting everything clean and dry in three days to prevent mold.”
I just left Servpro after noticing reoccurring incidents and poor management.
Like someone else mentioned, do your research but you can’t always find everything. They like to upsell, A LOT. A customer had a fridge leak into the basement bath ceiling and they had painting the entire basement ceiling (600+ sq.ft) and almost all of the basement walls (500+ sq. ft.) on the estimate. The stain on the basement ceiling could have been covered with an average size sock (it was almost that shape). Since the ceiling wasn’t painted I was able to easily cover the damage with spray Kilz in seconds.
She had bought the house 2 years prior and the walls were immaculate. She asked if she had it painted and I told her no, she was actually worried I might get in trouble in which I replied ” I don’t care, this is ridiculous”.
There were other incidents of brow beating, barging in and starting very early in the morning even for retired people. There’s so much money built on its crazy and they really do tell people that insurance is paying for it so why worry. There have been other comments about emotions running high with customers due to whatever happened in the first place but when I started we were 3 months out from when the damage occurred so I believe that the original emotions have calmed.
The one exception was one job where a single female’s home was broken into. My supervisor let himself in unannounced through the same door that was broken into originally (the back Basement door) which really freaked her out. The longer I was there the more I noticed.
I put my notice in after a death in the family where my supervisor asked when my last day would be. I said I would let him know by Friday. Thursday morning he asked if I could work the following week. I told him I was going to but not anymore and ended it there. Then they held my last check hostage until they got the folder with the paperwork for my last job. They went out of their way to make sure no one else inside ever saw the paperwork.
I’m glad to be doing something else, I really hated going in after just a short while.
I need help!! For those of you that have sued Servpro how did you get a lawyer to take your case? I have proof ( I have pictures, emails, witnesses and even the insurance companies notes and their pictures, about being overcharged, work not done, items stolen from us, extra damage done to my home and much more). I’ve been trying to get help for over a year and a half and I’m still stuck without a working kitchen. Now they have sicked a collections agency on us saying we owe them more money!! We’ve already given them more than we were supposed to because we were desperate to get our lives and home back to normal. They took our money and knew we couldn’t protect ourselves ( we are both disabled and on disability) and they have gotten away with it and done this to a lot of people in our area. The local insurance companies are still recommending them to unsuspecting customers. We can’t get any help at all from anyone not even the police
I engaged ServPro of Southwest Portland to handle mold removal into a half-bathroom size of 22 square feet, but the experience quickly became a nightmare of inflated charges and unfulfilled promises. After receiving an estimate, they sent the final bill to my insurance, which totaled nearly triple the agreed amount. However, even the insurance company refused to pay due to discrepancies between the invoice and the actual scope of work performed.
Despite only servicing a small area—specifically the floor-level half-bathroom, which is 22 square feet including the sink and toilet—ServPro billed us for work supposedly done upstairs hours and living room, which was never touched. This false charge, coupled with their failure to align the invoice with the work scope, led to a shockingly inflated bill that didn’t match the services performed in my condo (measuring 2¾ ft wide by 8 ft long).
When questioned, ServPro showed no willingness to correct the discrepancies. Instead, they issued a lien notice over $11, 000 while continuing to be unresponsive. Even after directly communicating with them, there was no resolution, leaving us with no choice but to consider legal action.
Conclusion:
ServPro of SW Portland’s dishonest billing practices and lack of accountability are deeply troubling. I urge anyone considering their services to think twice, as they failed to meet even basic standards of transparency and service quality. Their misleading practices caused undue stress and significant financial strain.