BELFOR Property Restoration

* Initial response was excellent.  A package was given to us by the Project Manager (PM). The PM was kind and empathetic; however, nothing was written down by the PM.
* Although PM was nice to work with, he rarely took notes, especially during the walk-through when we decided what was to be cleaned -- a very important step.
* Extremely poor communication throughout the process.
* Our house burned on June 1st, and it was to be move-in ready by Oct. 31.  There is still work to be completed, although we are required to move back in by the 31st of January, 2013.
* The house sat for many weeks without any work completed -- the longest period was seven weeks.  
* Although we did make changes that required specific draft drawings, we never received any drawings that were accurate.  In fact, all changes made were never accurately drawn-up.  This is an important point, as a simple voiced description cannot accurately represent measurements, etc.  The door was constantly opened for mistakes to be made because we were never given drawings with measurements, etc. to sign-off.
* Our clothing was never inventoried before it went to the clothing cleaning contractor; this was a huge problem as the insurance company was never given a list for reimbursement.  We lost money because we had to compile a list from our memory.
* The items taken for cleaning were also never formally inventoried.  We were never given an estimate for cleaning costs and never given a formal explanatory inventory.  After receiving a general inventory of items cleaned -- again without us having a chance to say we did or did not want items cleaned -- the value of the items was around $200.  The cleaning bill was $1500!   
* There were several accounts of using low quality materials and labor during replacement.  All items were supposed to be replaced for like value, and it was evident Belfor wanted to pad their pockets.  
* When mistakes were made (of which there were many), Belfor employees were defensive and accusatory to home owner.  Rather than agreeing that mistakes were made, Belfor argued about those mistakes.  Home owner had to fight for every mistake to be remedied.  The statement, "The customer is always right," was never used by Belfor.
* We never received any formal paperwork for credits on work orders or credits to the Insurance Adjuster's Worksheet after several requests.  We are still waiting for that information.
* Despite going to the General Manager three months before the project was completed with a list of serious complaints, we only received one email with a formal apology.  The remaining three months, the GM was an equally poor communicator.  We were met with threats that were unfounded legally, and treated very poorly.
* We are supposed to be moving back into our home tomorrow.  The home looks very good; however, this is because homeowner was on-site on an almost daily basis noting that mistakes were made and had to be remedied.  
* Because it has been eight months since we have lived in our home, we have decided that retaining a lawyer to argue our case would not be worth the time, cost, or most importantly, the stress.  We have gone through our original contract and found a number of cases where the contract was broken by Belfor.  The most important of these is the original move-in date of Oct. 31, 2012.  We were supposed to receive notice of a change in move-in date with a formal required signature.  Although that date has changed a number of times, we have never been presented with such a notice.  
* We take making this complaint very seriously; we do not want to tarnish the reputation of any company unduly.  The problem here is that we lost almost all of our personal belongings and our home on June 1st.  We had excellent insurance (Farmer's) and an excellent experience working through our case with Farmer's.  The rebuilding process, though, has been emotionally draining, and at points exhausting because of our poor experience working with Belfor.  We understand that as the largest international restoration company in the world, Belfor has a very good reputation; even so, the Boise local office has put a huge blemish on the company reputation.
* Our loss should have been an opportunity for Belfor to make a life-long customer; rather, we have, and will continue to tell people of our poor experience.  We hope that through this review, Belfor will take the opportunity to re-assess their business practices concerning integrity, honesty, ethics, customer service, and labor.  It is obvious that the local office is both poorly managed and overextended.  The management of any company trickles down to its employees.  Thus, if the management is poor and lackadaisical, the employees and contractors will usually carry that attitude.  We feel that getting our house back to its once beautiful state, has been unnecessarily difficult.