RESTORATION & BUILDING SVC

Towards the end of February 2012 my finished basement suffered water damage from an overly saturated ground. I called Restoration Building Services (RBS) in Phoenix, OR, mainly because they were the company who was always advertising their services. I explained that the carpet was wet and that the drywall was decaying and would like to have someone go out and make an assessment of the damages. RBS promised that they would call our renters to arrange an appointment and that the assessment would? a) be free of charge b) they would call me (the owner) with an estimate before they did ANYTHING and c) the renters do not have permission to sign off. I was assured that RBS would act accordingly and that they dealt with rental situations all the time. After two days of not receiving a call from RBS I had to call them? only to find out that ?. RBS showed up, unannounced that first day, ripped out wall and carpet samples and left dehumidifiers/blowers at the rental?. And then failed to call me. I found out later that the renter felt forced into signing a document presented her when they arrived. RBS, I found out, had changed its name to Restoration Services by Horizon during this time. I decided to cut them a little slack and decided that maybe there was some miscommunication that week because of the recent changes. I finally received the estimate/assessment after two more days and spoke to the project manager who implied that I needed to find a subcontractor to fix the damage outside that lead to the interior leak. Hmmmm?. Isn?t that what YOUR job is, I thought? I decided to call my insurance company for advice. They explained that the damage wasn?t covered under our policy but that I should call Belfor in Central Point, OR (THE BEST DECISION EVER!!!! I?ll write a good review for them! ) BUT WAIT- THERE?S MORE?. Horizon (formerly RBS) sent me the official bill. The initial visit was not free- it was somewhere around $150. They charged me for daily visits to the house where they said they were checking on the status in addition to the daily rental fee of 2 blowers? the total was more than $750. I admit, at this point I was pretty irritated and after ignoring their calls for a couple of weeks, I finally spoke to the project manager who knocked the initial $150 assessment fee off. Better than nothing but I wasn?t exactly thrilled seeing how they messed up on the three conditions I wrote about above. AND GET THIS- THERE IS STILL EVEN MORE!!! When I was finally over licking my wounds, I decided to pay them (not entirely mature on my part but I wanted to get even somehow- 3 months after the service). I called them, unknowingly, after office hours on a weekend. The lady who answered the phone explained that it was after hours but that she?d get the after-hours manager to take our credit card payment. The manager took all my credit card info. The next Friday, I receive a call from one of their account managers in Portland, I think, asking us if we received the bill they sent the week before? WHAT?!?!?!?! Where is my private, credit card information? FOR ALL I KNOW the ?Manager? stole the info and was going on an IKEA shopping spree!!! ?Um? I made a payment on Sunday?, I told her and explained what took place. ?Hm,? she said. ?Well. Okay. I should be able to figure out who the manager on duty was based on this info. I?ll give you a call back to let you know what I found out.? She was finally able to resolve the problem and found that the manager forgot about taking my payment, and left the info at home in his office- but not to worry- my card information is safe and secure. Yeah, right. I?ll believe it when I don?t see any charges from the neighborhood strip club on my bill. HOWEVER, I WILL say this- While RBS or Restoration Services by Horizon, or whatever, was not too well organized, and I do still feel I was totally snowballed, everyone I dealt with was nice and friendly. Yeah- they were probably smiling all the way to the bank.