Complaint: 11683921
I am rejecting this response because:Regardless of the well worded response from the business, there simply is no damage. Had I authorized the work, an unnecessary tear out of a bathroom would have taken place at Farmers expense. I have been in touch with Farmers and have intentions of returning the amount they have paid to settle a claim based on reported damages by Service Master. Further, my wife and I were told repeatedly by Manuel that we would never see a bill, that this was a service provided by Farmers, and that they pay the bill. I will not pay a bill based on what I believe to be Insurance fraud.Discontinue billing, issue an apology to us and Farmers.
Regards,
[redacted]
As it relates to complaint ID 11683921 we submit the following response to the customer. This is my second response to this complaint. To reiterate: ServiceMaster formerly apologized for making the mistake and invoicing the customer. ServiceMaster formerly apologized for any misunderstanding on this water loss that started out to be a Farmers insurance claim and then was stopped.ServiceMaster removed any invoice or billing regarding this claim.ServiceMaster has sent and issued clarification to Farmers Insurance adjuster related to this situation. During our initial visit and subsequent 2 visits to inspect the water damage we had moisture readings in the vinyl using a non penetrating moisture meter. The technician then went underneath the home and could not get close enough to the area of the pipe leak to test the back side of the sub floor. The only way for the technician to corroborate the moisture to the vinyl would have been to open the vinyl up in the living space. This should have been in his field notes. Again, there was no intention of misleading anyone in regards to this claim. I am sorry for the inconvenience on this claim. I as the owner have taken this as a training exercise to make sure we improve our communication and internal systems. Peter Miko
Complaint: 12794766
I am rejecting this response because:As far as I know, Peter has never been to the jobsite, so unfortunately he is in a position where his employees violated the law, whether he had knowledge of it or not, I have no idea. When I did my investigating, I pulled up a single board and saw the mold and ACTIVE water. Look closely at the picture labeled Kitchen 2 and you can see that the boards are wet. Even worse, you can see the wood chips, mixed with untested paint from when his workers drilled a hole in the wet toe-kick. Kitchen 3 is a horrible close up of the hole they made, I was attempting to take a picture of what was inside, but I was unable. The mold report I paid for has a much better picture of the mold growth on the exterior wall.I was contacted by Insight Environmental and they did request to come in and do tests......he was 2 minutes from my rental and I wasn't home, so I couldn't accommodate access (plus, I was never told about it by my landlord). I specifically asked the Insight tester if he was sent to test the mold. I am allergic to certain types of mold, and that's a big deal for me. He told me that he was only sent to test for asbestos and lead.....this is of course AFTER ServiceMaster employees uncovered mold, found water, and drilled holes in old paint.ServiceMaster Anytime set up "containment" on one of the two doors, but it didn't really contain the mold spores and mycotoxins, which resulted in me developing asthma. I did not have asthma at my last check up, this is a new problem I get to live with forever. Regards,
R[redacted]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 11683921, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
It's the right thing to do. Thank you ServiceMaster.
Regards,
[redacted]
As stated prior on this format via letter. I reduced the invoice to zero. I also apologized for not being as communicative as possible. State Farm asked us several times to go under home and inspect, take readings etc... They then after going back and forth denied the claim...
and asked our office to invoice the customer directly. We did not talk to the client or insured about this. I apologized for that to both parties. The insurance company on our end has told us now they are still looking at covering the loss. We spent several hours on site, meeting insurance company and generating a report. We did not commit fraud we exercised poor judgement in this case by not meeting insured and going over the situation. Unfortunately we got our direction from insurance company. I have copies of what I sent the customers agent (person who wrote letter)In my letter I gave my email and cell phone number to discuss further. Please send me an email to forward all info sent to Revdex.com.Thank you,
ServiceMaster responded to a call about water damage in kitchen at the rental home. The owner of the unit contacted us. We were asked to only deal with the owner and not the tenant. Upon getting onsite we determined that yes, there was a water damage but there was no...
"water" present since it was determined the damage happened some time before the call. Due to the age of the home and the length of time since the water damage likely happened we did the following: 1. Set up a barrier with zipper made of plastic to separate the kitchen and the rest of the home. This was mainly done to control reduce our drying zone. 2. We set up a dehumidifier in kitchen to reduce the moisture levels but not disturb any building materials. 3. Recommended and environmental testing company to come out and test the construction materials for asbestos, lead and mold. The testing was authorized by the insurance company but the tenant or someone did not cooperate with them and they were not able to get inside to test. We were not going to do anything additional with a tenant on site and cannot do the work without the testing results. The tenant called and demanded an air scrubber and made claims of mold, etc... that made us very uneasy of taking direction from a person who is not our customer. We asked him to reach out to landlord and if he had any health concerns or wanted to move to work with his contracted party the landlord.With a lot of communications and attempts to get our dehumidifier we did and noticed the tenant had removed building materials and was using a heat lamp on what appears to be secondary damage to the flooring. Again, we did what we were legally and ethically allowed to do. This whole issue is between the landlord and tenant. We still have no facts about the situation as it relates to his complaints of possible mold etc... This person has contacted every agency and I have sent off no less than 5 different letters etc... to these groups. This fight between land lord and tenant has become my issue that I have no way of solving.
Thank you for your information in regarding to the issue
with D[redacted].
We were called out by Farmers Insurance. We are a preferred vendor and do a lot of
work annually for them. As part of
working for them we are asked to work under certain rules...
and
requirements. So in this case Mr.
R[redacted] calling Farmers created the action of ServiceMaster coming to his
home. Mr. R[redacted] signed the work
authorization and was given our initial paperwork. Once we are on the job we are only allowed to do inspections and
minor mitigation actions. In this case
the technician found wet material and made some assumptions. We would not have gone to the extreme
outlined in Mr. R[redacted]’s complaint without Farmers adjuster approval based on
photos, diagrams, moisture meter readings and in most cases a physical
inspection. Once the claim was pulled
back we were left dealing directly with a client that did not want our service.
Regardless of our response, we did make a mistake. The adjuster asked us to send him an estimate
of what it would take in our opinion based on our first inspection to mitigate
the damage. Our project manager in the
office produced this, sent it too adjuster and then turned one of the
estimates, into an invoice. Mr.
R[redacted] has every right to be upset on that matter. For that, I am sorry.
Insurance work can be tricky to deal with because of the way
the carriers control the claim and create price lists and processes. In reference to the complaint about
ServiceMaster’s in his area rushing in to do work, there are as many as 3
ServiceMaster franchises in that market so I cannot speak to that
accusation. I have been the owner for 23 years for
ServiceMaster Anytime and have been in some tough situations but we always try to do right thing for the client. In this case we have no issue pulling back
the invoice and apologizing for any inconvenience or misunderstandings.
Complaint: 11683921
I am rejecting this response because:Regardless of the well worded response from the business, there simply is no damage. Had I authorized the work, an unnecessary tear out of a bathroom would have taken place at Farmers expense. I have been in touch with Farmers and have intentions of returning the amount they have paid to settle a claim based on reported damages by Service Master. Further, my wife and I were told repeatedly by Manuel that we would never see a bill, that this was a service provided by Farmers, and that they pay the bill. I will not pay a bill based on what I believe to be Insurance fraud.Discontinue billing, issue an apology to us and Farmers.
Regards,
[redacted]
As it relates to complaint ID 11683921 we submit the following response to the customer. This is my second response to this complaint. To reiterate: ServiceMaster formerly apologized for making the mistake and invoicing the customer. ServiceMaster formerly apologized for any misunderstanding on this water loss that started out to be a Farmers insurance claim and then was stopped.ServiceMaster removed any invoice or billing regarding this claim.ServiceMaster has sent and issued clarification to Farmers Insurance adjuster related to this situation. During our initial visit and subsequent 2 visits to inspect the water damage we had moisture readings in the vinyl using a non penetrating moisture meter. The technician then went underneath the home and could not get close enough to the area of the pipe leak to test the back side of the sub floor. The only way for the technician to corroborate the moisture to the vinyl would have been to open the vinyl up in the living space. This should have been in his field notes. Again, there was no intention of misleading anyone in regards to this claim. I am sorry for the inconvenience on this claim. I as the owner have taken this as a training exercise to make sure we improve our communication and internal systems. Peter Miko
Complaint: 12794766
I am rejecting this response because:As far as I know, Peter has never been to the jobsite, so unfortunately he is in a position where his employees violated the law, whether he had knowledge of it or not, I have no idea. When I did my investigating, I pulled up a single board and saw the mold and ACTIVE water. Look closely at the picture labeled Kitchen 2 and you can see that the boards are wet. Even worse, you can see the wood chips, mixed with untested paint from when his workers drilled a hole in the wet toe-kick. Kitchen 3 is a horrible close up of the hole they made, I was attempting to take a picture of what was inside, but I was unable. The mold report I paid for has a much better picture of the mold growth on the exterior wall.I was contacted by Insight Environmental and they did request to come in and do tests......he was 2 minutes from my rental and I wasn't home, so I couldn't accommodate access (plus, I was never told about it by my landlord). I specifically asked the Insight tester if he was sent to test the mold. I am allergic to certain types of mold, and that's a big deal for me. He told me that he was only sent to test for asbestos and lead.....this is of course AFTER ServiceMaster employees uncovered mold, found water, and drilled holes in old paint.ServiceMaster Anytime set up "containment" on one of the two doors, but it didn't really contain the mold spores and mycotoxins, which resulted in me developing asthma. I did not have asthma at my last check up, this is a new problem I get to live with forever. Regards,
R[redacted]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 11683921, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
It's the right thing to do. Thank you ServiceMaster.
Regards,
[redacted]
As stated prior on this format via letter. I reduced the invoice to zero. I also apologized for not being as communicative as possible. State Farm asked us several times to go under home and inspect, take readings etc... They then after going back and forth denied the claim...
and asked our office to invoice the customer directly. We did not talk to the client or insured about this. I apologized for that to both parties. The insurance company on our end has told us now they are still looking at covering the loss. We spent several hours on site, meeting insurance company and generating a report. We did not commit fraud we exercised poor judgement in this case by not meeting insured and going over the situation. Unfortunately we got our direction from insurance company. I have copies of what I sent the customers agent (person who wrote letter)In my letter I gave my email and cell phone number to discuss further. Please send me an email to forward all info sent to Revdex.com.Thank you,
ServiceMaster responded to a call about water damage in kitchen at the rental home. The owner of the unit contacted us. We were asked to only deal with the owner and not the tenant. Upon getting onsite we determined that yes, there was a water damage but there was no...
"water" present since it was determined the damage happened some time before the call. Due to the age of the home and the length of time since the water damage likely happened we did the following: 1. Set up a barrier with zipper made of plastic to separate the kitchen and the rest of the home. This was mainly done to control reduce our drying zone. 2. We set up a dehumidifier in kitchen to reduce the moisture levels but not disturb any building materials. 3. Recommended and environmental testing company to come out and test the construction materials for asbestos, lead and mold. The testing was authorized by the insurance company but the tenant or someone did not cooperate with them and they were not able to get inside to test. We were not going to do anything additional with a tenant on site and cannot do the work without the testing results. The tenant called and demanded an air scrubber and made claims of mold, etc... that made us very uneasy of taking direction from a person who is not our customer. We asked him to reach out to landlord and if he had any health concerns or wanted to move to work with his contracted party the landlord.With a lot of communications and attempts to get our dehumidifier we did and noticed the tenant had removed building materials and was using a heat lamp on what appears to be secondary damage to the flooring. Again, we did what we were legally and ethically allowed to do. This whole issue is between the landlord and tenant. We still have no facts about the situation as it relates to his complaints of possible mold etc... This person has contacted every agency and I have sent off no less than 5 different letters etc... to these groups. This fight between land lord and tenant has become my issue that I have no way of solving.
Thank you for your information in regarding to the issue
with D[redacted].
We were called out by Farmers Insurance. We are a preferred vendor and do a lot of
work annually for them. As part of
working for them we are asked to work under certain rules...
and
requirements. So in this case Mr.
R[redacted] calling Farmers created the action of ServiceMaster coming to his
home. Mr. R[redacted] signed the work
authorization and was given our initial paperwork. Once we are on the job we are only allowed to do inspections and
minor mitigation actions. In this case
the technician found wet material and made some assumptions. We would not have gone to the extreme
outlined in Mr. R[redacted]’s complaint without Farmers adjuster approval based on
photos, diagrams, moisture meter readings and in most cases a physical
inspection. Once the claim was pulled
back we were left dealing directly with a client that did not want our service.
Regardless of our response, we did make a mistake. The adjuster asked us to send him an estimate
of what it would take in our opinion based on our first inspection to mitigate
the damage. Our project manager in the
office produced this, sent it too adjuster and then turned one of the
estimates, into an invoice. Mr.
R[redacted] has every right to be upset on that matter. For that, I am sorry.
Insurance work can be tricky to deal with because of the way
the carriers control the claim and create price lists and processes. In reference to the complaint about
ServiceMaster’s in his area rushing in to do work, there are as many as 3
ServiceMaster franchises in that market so I cannot speak to that
accusation. I have been the owner for 23 years for
ServiceMaster Anytime and have been in some tough situations but we always try to do right thing for the client. In this case we have no issue pulling back
the invoice and apologizing for any inconvenience or misunderstandings.
Thank you,
[redacted]