Restoration Professionals, Inc.

Please accept the attached documents as the response from Restoration Professionals.Thank you

I am rejecting this response because:
-First the dehumidifier that was not properly hooked up did pull a significant amount of moisture from the airAs I have explained, it then puddled on the floor below the unit away from the area that had very minimal water intrusion just behind the baseboards along the wall in a cornerAs the puddle sat the water slowly seeped in the cracks between the boards of the floating floorIf you are familiar with floating floors they have a type of padding on the back which held the water in place thus causing the floor to become rotten from the bottomThis was not visible to the naked eyeI would like to stress that when the equipment was removed the water was still under the floor not from the intrusion but from the equiptment and was causing damage to my floorI have witnesses and a professional home inspector that can verify this informationThe area in which the water sat was not a small area either and since boards are staggered when installed it required a large area to be removedI did call the main number listed for the company promptly and I thought this issue was resolved until this recent invoice. -At no time did I state that the floor was being replacedThe floor was new in the home and was not even a year old with practically no wearI can provide proof of this. -The company states they offered me a sizable discountThey offered me a $discount for the dehumidifier charges which if I read correctly they later stated they did not charge me for malfunctioning equipment which was the dehumidifierTheir accounts of the incident lack integrityI do not feel as though $is a sizable discount considering the amount of the bill or the damage to my floor. -Yes I did refer to their employee as a member of HRPlease see attached e mail communication where her job title includes Financial & Human Resources ManagerI also asked her if she was the person in charge of human resources during our phone conversation in which she stated she was. -I did record my conversation with what I was told was the ownerI did so after the lack of professionalism with the other employee I had spoken to and the lack of ethics by the technicianDuring our conversation he was notified he was being recordedHe also became very rude criticizing that I was trying to get out of paying my bill and was laughingThis is not the way a business professional handles a customer dispute. -Last, I take offense to the statement that I am trying to get something for freeI pride myself in being financially secure and responsibleI also take pride in the fact I try to use local business when I am in need of servicesI have always paid all bills that I oweIn this instance I do not agree with the charges for the previous stated reasonsWhen I hired this company I fully expected to pay for my service had it been satisfactoryI have used water remedial services in the past for a much more significant fee and paid that with no issue what so ever because the work was done to satisfactionI find it appalling this company would go after my integrity during this disputeTheir lack of professionalism is what has led us to this point

The customer can dispute the amount of water all day long. We have science and known conversation rates, not to mention decades of experience in the business. The dehumidifier simply could not put gallons of water into her subfloor in the amount of time it was sitting there. Now if the dehumidifier were tampered with or if her renter moved it and something else happened, perhaps. But neither us nor Tania were able to observe what was happening in those 24 hours. And because she refused our company the opportunity to investigate the damage and what caused it, all we have to go off of is her word and the word of a competing contractor trying to get her business.The customer can take offense to whatever she would like to. The bottom-line is that she is looking for something free. Her own words betray her intent. What amount, other than nothing, was the customer willing to pay? You’ll notice she only complains about the size of the discount and doesn’t state what she’d actually be willing to pay. We did not charge her for the return trip to her house to fix the equipment. We did not charge her for monitoring the equipment additional days. We did not charge her for the equipment at all. The only charge was the emergency response fee and our technician's initial time at her house, where he did additional work not described thus far. Her initial starting point in negotiating was that she would pay nothing and we’d be grateful that she doesn’t sue us for “damaging” her floor. We have asked for and been denied a copy of the phone recordings she claims she has.  In closing, we are only asking to be fairly compensated for the time put into this job.

I am rejecting this response because: I have no problem paying for charges that are appropriate.  This isn’t a money issue.  This is an issue with padding a bill and up-charging and lying about the hours that were actually worked at our job site.  Every time we have a conversation or email response from this group the information has changed.  Read both responses, they have completely different information. In response to the hourly charges. I was told I was getting a free estimate by Nick.  Some companies charge for this initial visit.  You can’t include that in billed hours.  When Nick came out on the 12th, it was not 4 hours of work on site that day.  I have Ring Cameras and a home monitoring system that documented when they came and when they left.   Nick didn’t come out to my property on the 16th. No one did, they texted me about coming out and then asked if they could come out on the 17th instead and were here for less then an hour picking up fans.   When I spoke to them about the number of hours that we were being billed for, I was told I was being charged for driving to and from their office, and ‘maybe traffic.’  It wasn’t their fault that their office was located in St. Paul and that the internet listed them 3 minutes from my house.  The bid lacks consistency and accuracy.  I shouldn’t be charged for them putting a bid together, or traffic.  I should be charged for the hours of work they actually performed at my house.

In response to the complaint you received from [redacted], we submit the following information: In June 2017, Ms. [redacted] submitted a very similar complaint to Angie’s List under the name of Ms. [redacted]. Attached is a copy of our response to that claim. Ms. [redacted] (aka Ms. [redacted])...

previously disputed the charges incurred based on workmanship. Ms. [redacted] asserted that her billing should be reduced based on allegations that her carpet pad was removed and disposed of unnecessarily. Ms. [redacted] stated that she believed the purpose of the carpet pad was to act as a sponge to catch the water so the pad didn’t need to be removed. We followed the appropriate course of action as recommended by the IICRC in removing the pad to prevent future microbial growth.  As Ms. [redacted]’s revised complaint states, Restoration Professionals arrived “promptly” to her property. Restoration Professionals performed the work in a timely, efficient manner. Ms. [redacted] was not over charged for labor incurred and was not charged for ten hours of drive time as she is asserting. She was charged under a time/material basis to keep the costs low. Ms. [redacted] states that she was quoted approximately $1,500 at the onset of the claim when Restoration Professionals arrived at her property. She did not dispute this amount at that time and approved our company facilitating mitigation services. The final invoice was $1,595.18.  Ms. [redacted] was charged for the services received under our Value Restoration Pricing guidelines. We use this pricing for claims that become the sole responsibility of the property owner. Restoration Professionals waived applicable trip charges for every trip made to her property and included only one trip charge on the invoice. Additionally, Restoration Professionals offered a 10% discount of $159.52 which is more than simply waiving the $95 trip charge.  Restoration Professionals stands by our invoice and wishes to collect the remaining balance due.

The customer in this case explains the context of the dispute accurately, namely that she did have water in one of her rental units, that our company was brought out to dry the affected area, and that one piece of our equipment did not function as intended. That is all accurate. Where she veers into...

fiction is what happened afterwards. For starters, our unit would not physically be able to add the amount of water described by the customer to her floor. Those dehumidifiers simply do not convert moisture at that rate. A malfunctioning dehumidifier cannot cause “extensive damage” to a home in 24 hours. Most likely (and this is what she was told at the time) the additional water under the floor came in with the rest of the rains. We were unable to find out for sure as she did not inform us of this issue in a timely manner and did not allow us to come out and inspect. Also, her renter signed our billed as the job being complete. Ask yourself for a moment the following: if I hire a company to come out and dry up water, even as a renter would you let them pick up their equipment and sign a bill if there were a large puddle remaining? Frankly, there is no evidence that this additional water loss has anything to do with our company. Secondly, the customer mentioned to our employee not to worry about the floor as it was being replaced anyways. I will leave the obvious connection here up to you. Lastly, the customer was offered a sizable discount for her trouble as well as for the equipment not functioning as it should. The customer has refused to resolve this dispute, has threatened lawsuits and even claimed to record telephone conversations without our knowledge. She was abusive and dismissive of our Finance Manager (whom she keeps referring to as HR) and Tania even spoke with the owner, Ed, over the phone. We have always done everything in our power to make sure our customers are happy and well taken care of. And while there was one malfunctioning piece of equipment, we did not charge her for it. We feel that we provided the service, offered a discount for the one issue encountered and have attempted to negotiate in good faith. Tania is looking for something free.