Scott Tracy Enterprises

Predatory business practices and misleading estimate.
In early October 2017 my mother had a small fire in her garage. On her behalf I contacted ServePro - West Orange, Wekiva, Apopka to come out, evaluate needed clean up and provide an estimate. I was not able to meet with Mike T from ServePro while he was at my mother's home. Mr. T compiled an estimate of $9,712.72 and sent it to our insurance company. I spoke to the insurance company adjuster, and he stated that they would not pay for the amount that ServePro estimated.

RESPONSE:The written estimate was emailed to the adjuster and Mr. (son of the property owner) on 10/17/2017 at 5:20pm, the estimate that was sent clearly shows the price of the air scrubbers being $120.00 each per day (see attachment 1).
Servpro uses a program called Xactimate for our estimating that is standard in the restoration industry, most insurance carriers require us to use this program and has standard pricing as well.

Within a couple days of Mr. T's initial visit the cleaning crew showed up at my mother's door wanting to start with the clean up. The insurance company did not approve the clean up, so my mother told them to go away. Mr. T was aggressive towards the adjustor that came out to the house and wanted to begin the cleaning prior to the insurance company approving it.

RESPONSE: Servpro's only goal was to get the soot cleaned up as quickly as possible because the homeowner is elderly with health issues and she stated that she would not leave her home even though there was unhealthy soot in the home. Our goal was purely to assist the homeowner avoid any health complications due to the soot particulate and odor. We honored their request to not start the cleaning.

ServePro did leave 2 "air scrubbers" at the house and upon one conversation with Mr/ T, he stated that the costs of those "air scrubbers" would be capped at ten days at $60/day each. That would be $1,200.00 plus (2) filters at $141.93 totalling $1,341.93. At some point the insurance company contacted ServePro, or ServePro contacted the insurance company and sent them an invoice for $2,541.93. That is $1,200.00 more than the estimate written by Mr. T.

RESPONSE: Two air scrubbers were placed on 10/13/2017 to help remove soot particulate and odor while waiting for insurance company approval on the cleaning. Our original estimate/billing submitted to Mr. by email reflect $120.00 a day per air scrubber not $60. Our crew arrived on 10/18/2017 to start the mitigation but were told not to start the job by the homeowner. We were told to wait for the insurance carrier approval. After 34 days waiting, we called Mr. to find out what was going on. Mr. told us to come pick up equipment. We scheduled the pickup of the air scrubbers on 11/16/2017. They were in place for 34 days (again, this was based upon the homeowners health concerns). Servpro had no idea at the start of the job that the wait time for getting approval for this work would take as long as it did.
Servpro received a call from the adjuster requesting a final invoice for work we had done to-date, at that time Servpro advised the adjuster that we had not completed the cleaning of the structure at the request of the property owner and that the only charges we had were for the two air scrubbers and the filter changes. We advised the adjuster that the air scrubbers were in place for 34 days but would cap the charges at 10 days each. The adjuster agreed, we submitted the invoice to the carrier and the invoice was paid (see attachment 2).

First Mr. T tried to pressure us to have the work done prior to the insurance company approval, then he arbitrarily added $1,200.00 to the invoice. I questioned Mr. T about the invoice and his response was "It is an adjustment from the first all encompassing estimate that included cleaning.". Mr. T misrepresented himself and ServePro just to get another $1,200.00, rather than wait for the insurance companies approval to do the work.

RESPONSE: Again, our first estimate sent to Mr. reflects $120 a day not $60 a day.

When I continuously questioned Mr. T about the over billing his response was "*** I'm done with this. I wrote the first estimate before the passage of time in the estimate.". This is unacceptable and unprofessional.

RESPONSE: There was no over billing. Our bill to the insurance carrier reflects 2 air scrubbers for 10 days at $120 per day just as the initial estimate does.

My advice to anyone needing the services of ServePro is: Don't sign or agree to have work done until your insurance company approves the costs. If we had, then we would have been out of pocket several thousands of dollars. Secondly get a second or third estimate from a reputable company. I do have a thread of emails supporting everything that I have posted here.

RESPONSE: Servpro only charged for the air scrubbers placed in the home as approved by Mr.. We did not over charge for these as is reflected in our initial estimate and subsequent billing. In addition, the adjuster at the insurance company did not question our billing. In addition, our air scrubbers were in the house for 34 days even though we only charged for 10 days. The adjuster thought that was very reasonable.

I will NEVER use ServePro - West Orange, Apopka, Wekiva. They were nice at the beginning, then changed their tune when the insurance company pushed back on their estimate. I hope that anyone who considers using this company due their due diligence and work directly with their insurance company before any work is done in their home. Do not let a high pressure sales rep decide to do anything without your insurance companies approval.

RESPONSE: Again, Mr. was given all the paperwork and estimates (pricing included) ahead of time and prior to the air scrubbers being placed. I do not understand his claim that we did anything wrong when he knew what we would be charging?

Extra Detailed Info
Date of last interaction with business: 01/16/2018