Servpro of Jefferson City

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/30) */
Contact Name and Title: *** ***, Owner
Contact Phone: (XXX) XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: ***@servprojeffersoncity.com
The customer is correct that we looked at her property on July 2, but after that point I would like to
respond to her accusationsWhen we looked at the home, the problem had not been fixedThe water entered the home through a drain and the line had not been clearedThe homeowner was leaving on vacation the next day and was not going to have the problem fixed until after she returnedShe would not allow the drying work of removing structure items until after the problem was fixed
She did not return from vacation until July and have the problem fixed and we were at her home on July to remove the structure items that needed to be removedAs she stated, we left dehumidifiers in an effort to minimize secondary damage caused by evaporationAs stated above, she did not allow any other materials to be removed at that time
The customer did not have a problem with the service until she discovered that she had a $5,limit on her insurance policy and then she started looking for ways to avoid paying her billShe first tried to avoid paying the bill by stating that she never received a written estimate so she was not responsibleWhen that did not work, she began looking for other ways to avoid payingOur office worked extensively with her to answer each and every one of her questions but she did not like the answers so she refused to listen
As far as contacting a "reputable" company, there are two other companies in the Jefferson City area that have been in business for many years and she never chose either of those
As far as the visit on 10/2/I did discover that there was extraction on the estimate that should not have been there but there were no other charges that were "slightly inflated"In an effort to settle the account that day and move on with life, I agreed to not charge her for the dehumidifiers that we placed on day even though I was justified in charging for them as she got the benefit of using themShe was also complaining about the amount of equipment that we used so I lowered that even though again we used IICRC standards and was completely justifiedShe agreed that I was overly fair but when it came time to pay the reduced amount that was well below the amount she owed, she still would not pay and said she would pay the $the next day and would call me in the morningShe never called and instead tried to get out of paying even the reduced bill by sending a check for $stating it was paid in full
At that point I decided to take the matter to small claims court so I sent a letter stating the same and after she did not pay, we filed our suit
This is simply a case of a customer who received the services and then found out that she purchased insurance that had lower limits than she thought so she is now doing everything she can to avoid paying the billI personally visited her home and went through the bill and tried to be more than fair with her to settle it without legal actionI offered to not even charge for equipment that was properly used but even that was not enough to satisfy this customerIn my opinion, she wants me to lower my bill enough so that her limited coverage from her insurance company will pay for new carpet, drywall, paint etcBasically she wants her mistake of purchasing insurance with such a low limit to be someone else's problem