United Water Restoration Group, Inc.- Tampa

We had a leak in our hall closet that also sent water into the living room. We called the plumber in from ARS and he came in and said there was mold damage and everything in the bathroom had to be pulled out, but he knew a company that could do it. He went out to his truck and called these people-United Water Restoration and said they would be here right away and they could help. They came and said there was a lot of damage but it would be fine because our homeowners insurance would take care of it and they would handle everything. They had us sign a paper and told us if we didn't do it right away the insurance would not pay and we would be stuck with a huge bill. Of course we signed. They immediately hooked up these very loud, hot machines to "dry everything out". They said the machines could only be on for 3 days and after that time the damage would be assessed. They left these machines on for 8 days and said if we turned them off, our Homeowners insurance again would not pay for them. Our insurance company said they were running a scam. The plumber just happens to know somebody and goes out to his truck to help us out and call them. He gets a kickback and although he did nothing for us except look at our problem, he charged us $79.00 too.
When we tried to contact United Water Restoration, we could never get ahold of them. When we did, the guy came out to the house and got very nasty with us and told us if you unhook the machines we would be responsible for everything. It now had been 6 days!.They were loud and hot and ran 24 hours per day. We kept calling them to try to find out possible repairs, but never got a phone call back!
Finally we called our insurance company and got a man who helped us and told us we did not have to keep them on and called United Water Restoration and told them to come get their machines! They were going to give an estimate to the insurance company as to how much it would cost to fix everything, but our insurance company already knew about them and sent them a letter telling them that they would be paid for what they did and no more. They never gave us an estimate nor did they give the insurance company an estimate. They sent the insurance company a bill for the machines and the work they did and the insurance company paid them almost $9000.00 for those days and told them they would not authorize them to do any repairs. The insurance company told us we could use anybody we wanted to. Now they have sent us a couple of threatening letters wanting $500.00 to settle this. $500.00 for what? We had our lawyer look at this and he has said, they got paid for the services they performed and got paid good money, end of story. So, two days ago we got a letter claiming to be from a collection agency, but you see, this company changes their name all the time trying to fool you. There were some other reviews on here that said the same thing, but now are gone. THey have been United Reconstruction Group, United Water Restoration and now they are American Profit Recovery. Just when someone says something bad about them, they change their name1 You need to be aware of these people because they are really bad and have done to this many other people. They are claiming we broke our contract with them because we decided not to use them, when in fact, our insurance company was the one who said emphatically no!  DO NOT USE THEM FOR ANY REASON!
We have no idea how much damage there was as we didn't see any mold and in our opinion, those machines should have been taken out of there after three days and not left on to get more money! Nobody should have to pay for work that wasn't done, nor did we get any kind of estimate on any kind of work. Now they keep trying to scare us into paying them MORE money claiming to be a collection agency and want to settle for $500.00. Imagine that!
They provided an itemized list of what they were going to do to the insurance company and got paid for what they did. Our insurance company said they would not consent to any contract  with them for reconstruction services, assignment of benefits, direct payment authorization and hold harmless agreement signed by us. They also got this letter.  It was a horrible experience when we were most vulnerable.

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Majority of appointments scheduled were delayed or missed without notice.  Missed work waiting for crew a number of times as they were late or didn't arrive on time or with the right tools.  Someone was watching the services performed and the crew wanted to do the right thing but the supervisor told them to remove damaged material not the required 2ft above damaged area.   Appliances were not removed and the mold spread all over the back of the fridge and up the walls.   When they put up the plastic to treat for mold the plastic came down 30 minutes later and contaminated the whole house.  Stayed in hotel for 17 days. 
Every conversation is an excuse or an empty apology with no action. Continued requests for status updates go now where.
Reviewed the water restoration invoices they submitted to insurance were incorrect. We have pictures of everything and they claim the equipment was onsite and billable.   Onsite, in use and used correctly are all different.  Billed even if equipment is onsite but NOT in use.  So essentially this is insurance fraud and they have continued to submit more invoices to insurance for work already performed.  Which was partially due to their negligence.
It is now middle of January and I still do not have a kitchen.  The water restoration side of the company and the reconstruction side of the company continue to point fingers at each other and now they suggest I hire someone else to restore the kitchen.

On 23JUL14. United Water Restoration Group, Inc. responded to our telephone call straight away and did a tremendous job clearing the 3 inches of water out of the apartment, as well as the wet carpet and pad and tiles. Ryan Jones and assistant worked well into the night and kept the blowers and dehumidifying equipment going for 5 days. We were so pleased with Ryan's professionalism that we signed on to have United Reconstruction Group, Inc. to do the restoration work, thinking they were the same company. Big mistake. They are not.

So much frustration with this job that I do not know where to begin. During the wait to start reconstruction I took on prep work to get on with feeling some sense of accomplishment. We were back and forth with United on pricing estimates, each time theirs over and above the amount of settlement paid by insurance company. We finally agreed to a quote just to get United out of our life.

We were told that kitchen cabinets were on back order and the job was delayed; when we first met with United we were told that United provides wooden cabinets and they were in stock if we went with theirs. They brought out a sample door for us to see, the quality was good so we went with theirs. We were initially told that they would provide tile and grout samples for us to see, saving us the hassle of shopping (this was part of the enticement to sign on with them, that they would take care of everything, even representing us to the insurance company if need be to cover things the insurance estimator did not include on claim). At the stressful time of the flood, this was very comforting. It turned out that they did not help with that, could but that we would have to pay United the supplemental work costs and hope that the insurance company would reimburse us. We chose not to pursue that, again just wanting United out of our life.

On 24SEP United Reconstruction began the work. Over the course of interaction with United we grew less and less confident that we were going to end the job well. We chose to have our plumber come and remove the hot water heater, and not have United reset it. When I presented this to United, as well as the other line items I had completed during the wait to start, that these needed to be deducted from the quote because they were no longer required, they agreed but they would not agree to deduct their overhead and profit (which is 50% of each line item cost). So, for example, they deducted $422.50, their cost to detach and reset HWH but we still had to pay United $211.25 their overhead and profit. When I asked Josh why he informed me that I do not know how it is done. Josh is very good at talking over, above, long and hard to push the customer to frustration. I never met Josh, do not want to, phone calls were enough to know customer satisfaction is not their priority. I did not take well to having him laugh at some of my concerns.

To end the relationship appropriately, Josh called and asked that I get the final payment to them so that they could meet their quarterly numbers. I told him that I did not want to see United again, so he said I could leave the (hefty) check under the doormat and that he would pick it up. The doormat?? The check was mailed.

Plenty more I could share but working with United put me off to the point of being ill. I care not to revisit this ordeal in any way further.

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SERVICES PROVIDED BY RYAN THE TECHNICIAN, WERE VERY PROMPT ( SAME DAY AS THE INITIAL CALL), DONE CORRECTLY ( ALLOWED FOR A COMPLETE DRYING TIME AND MOLD REMOVAL); AND DONE IN A PROFESSIONAL AND FRIENDLY MANNER. I'M VERY SATISFIED WITH THE WORK THAT WAS DONE AND WOULD DEFINITELY USE THEM AGAIN.

Ryan, the technician came out the same day that he was called. It took him into the evening to finish most of the clean up.
1) His work included the sucking up of all water on the floor as well as applying antiseptic on to the floor areas where there was mold build up.
2) He also removed all of the drywall that was along the base of the stand that the air conditioning unit sits on. Its height is about two and a half to three feet high Mold had built up on some of the areas of this dry wall. He also sucked up all water and mold from under the stand and applied antiseptic to the area as well..
3) He brought in to the garage two large fans and one large dehumidifier. He let these run for almost 48 hours (two days) to totally dry out the garage.
Ryan did a thorough job and I really appreciated it. Unfortunately, I still had one more thing to do. I needed new drywall installed back on the base of the stand. United Water Restoration recommended Tim Thornton Cabinetry, Inc., which I used.

The experience was awful. They did a lot more damage then they needed to I thought. They tried to dry out floors that couldn't be dried, and really needed to be replaced . They also damaged the walls more than they needed to while pulling up baseboards. Also they tried to collect money form me after my insurance negotiated a lower price, which they are not suppose to do.

In answer to companies response: My floors are wooden not tile. They could not be dried out, they had to be replaced. Furthermore, the company did try to get me to pay the difference between the negotiated price with the insurance company and what was left over.

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United Water Restoration Group, Inc did not put any holes in the walls or anything. There were just some laminates extracted. They were very responsive and very polite. The young man that came in was very professional. He was here everyday off and on 3 days in a row. He was coming in, checking to see if the equipment was working and making sure that things were working the way it should. He was very attentive and very professional. They were here within an hour when the contractor that referred them called. They were great and was kind of like a one-stop shop.

They were excellent.  It is a family-run operation and every one of them that we dealt with was great.  They called back when I called them, they came on time, and they did the work perfectly.  I checked other places and I would give their price an A.  I can’t say anything negative about them; I was very impressed.  I would highly recommend them to anyone.

This company is a scam! We had a leak from our shower valve and called a plumber from Roto Rooter to fix it. As soon as he arrived he gave us this companies card and said "they will take care of you". After I called them they responded within an hour and told us we had to have them hook up fans to dry out the walls and prevent mold from growing and that if we didn't our insurance company would determine us to be neglectful and deny our claim. They also gave me the same story about insurance covering anything and that they would never bill me! Glad I didn't fall for it! After checking with my insurance company my adjuster told me that we would of been paying out of pocket for it and it would of been pointless since they approved for drywall replacement. They never gave me an estimate either, the tech just said its all covered by your insurance company and used scare tactics to get our business! Check your resources before signing any contract with any company, sorry about what happened to the guy below.