SERVPRO of South Orange County

Working with Serv Pro of Orange County was one of the worst vendor experiences of my life. They were horrible at every thing they did. The owner and his daughter met with us the day after the fire and tried to sell us on using them for the entire restoration of the house. They were incredibly smarmy and smug through the entire conversation. They have the compassion of a satisfied reptile. Securing the house: * They left the doors wide open after their first day boxing up items from the house -- literally wide open. They even propped open the storm door. * They let water leak into the house from the water main for over a week. they didn't address it until I complained to the insurance company. * Their patch to the roof allowed rain to get in and they didn't address the leak until we complained. Salvaging contents: * If I had paid for this service directly rather than the insurance company, I would have sued them. * Their selection of what was recoverable and what was not was completely random. Pieces of furniture that were no where near the fire were deemed to be ruined but items that were in the room with the fire were considered OK. * The adjuster asked them for a list of contents in our attic so that he could include it in our settlement. They left off most of the contents which would have caused us to lose a couple thousand dollars in our settlement if I had not caught the error. * They were unable to produce a list of what they took from the house for weeks after the fire. I had to raise the issue to the insurance adjuster before they would send us anything. * Almost nothing was cleaned when it was returned to us. * When they returned our belongings they gave us items that belonged to other people. Preparing the house for repair * Their demo work was mostly ok. The crew that did that was incredibly detailed and polite. * The crew that sprayed sealant on the parts of the house that remained after the demo incredibly careless. Children could have done a better job. They ruined a set of interior doors we were trying to save and sprayed sealant on our front door and walk way. * They were unable to clean or mitigate the damage to our attached garage though they were paid to do it. They made it seem impossible. However the company we paid to repair the house had no problem doing so and acted like it was an easy task. I tried to get them fired from the job but the insurance adjuster wouldn’t let me. Ultimately, I was only able to get the scope of their work limited to the minimum a restoration company had to complete.

They were quick, and very good. They came out to give me an estimate. The carpet didn't come out clean completely because it was very bad, but I expected that and they told me that. I would use them again.

They were very good. They cleaned by basement up. They were right on time. I called them on Thursday and they immediately managed to be out there fixing my problem. And the next thing I know, at six o'clock that night, they had a crew in there because the water has been sitting in my carpeting for about 3 or 4 days. I had another company and they came but when I try to get them back in to take out the padding, they were giving me the runarounds. So when I called Serv Pro, they had to fly in at six o'clock that night and they came back the next day, that was Friday, and they started working and they left the machines running all week end to dry up my carpeting and they came back Monday. They were very, very efficient and I would highly recommend them.

He gave an estimate that was significantly higher than others. He also claimed that damage was more severe than what other remediation companies stated (he was one of four that came in )

Cut bottoms of walls out on 3 sides in living room. Removed insulation - set up 3 machines to dry out area. Machines were left sitting in my house for a week after they were turned off. When Bob Osborn, person in charge returned, he brought along Mike Oven's, who worked for Servpro, but was also an independent contractor. Because the original price did not include replacing the cut out walls or painting, Bob gave us an estimate for that part of the job. He suggested that his partner, Mike could do the job for less money, but would be working independently and Bob guarenteed his work. We were assured that Mike would do the job correctly. Mike Oven's sent 2 others workers to do the job, which had many errors, so Mike had to come back and fix them. All in all, the walls looked ok. We were also looking for wood flooring in our living room and dining room - so Mike, who had experience in this area gave us an estimate. We hired him thinking he would put down the floors because he said HE WOULD BE DOING THE WORK, but again, he sent 2 young guys who did not do the job right. After a month of having the floors, they started to buckle. Bob and Mike both came to look at them and said it was moisture. He charged approximately $6,000 for labor and material. But, In fact, the materials charged for were never applied. Didn't level out the concrete floor and didn't apply a correct moisture barrier. Our floor was concrete and leveling and moisture barrier is VERY important. Bob, from Servpro acted as if we had a leak, which we did not. He blamed it all on Mike at the end. When in fact, if it wasn't for Bob suggesting his Servpro co-worker, we would have never known who Mike Oven's was. After months of going back and forth, having the floor removed, walking on concrete for months, we finally took Mike Oven's to court. After almost 1 year we finally won our case in court. It took awhile after that to collect the money. Serpro comes to your house acting all proffessional, then passes off other workers who are incompetent. I would never use Serpro again, nor would I use Mike Oven's, who is rude, never returns calls, just takes your money and dissapears. Be warned - do your homework before hiring anyone!

We had some flooding damage from Hurricane Irene. The day after the storm we phoned ServPro to get an estimate/inspection for cleanup. First, before any inspection, they wanted my credit card number over the phone. I refused to give it. They then stated that there would be a $200 charge to come and inspect/estimate the job. In fairness, this would be deducted from the cost of the job if we accepted their estimate. Fortunately, they treated us like crap even before we had a chance to do business with them, so we went elsewhere.

Excellent.