SERVPRO

I called Servpro on the morning of August 28 and they told me that they required a $500 deposit since I told them that this service would not be covered by insurance. Their technicians arrived at my house that afternoon. They were in a real hurry and started to do the work while I was completing the paper work. There was no estimate offered for the work and I did not think to ask for one. I had used Servpro before for my church and their charge for that job was reasonable. I figured that the cost would be $300 - $400 based upon the charges for our church. They did a good job of removing the water and they treated the entire basement to prevent mold from forming. They left fans and a dehumidifier installed for 3 days to remove the humidity. The complaint I have is with the charging. They charged me $1,700 for what was 3 man hours of work and included rental of 6 fans and one dehumidifier for 3 days. The charge was about $350 per man hour by my calculations. I've emailed the owner twice who insists that this is a fair charge and she would not negotiate. Her last email made it pretty clear that if I did not pay the total amount immediately that she would sue me. She told me that Servpro charges by the task, not by the amount of time that their technicians spend, and so the amount of time that they take is for a job is not germane to their charge for the job. If you have smoke or water damage, they do a good job. My caution is to make sure you get a written estimate before they do any work. I think it would also be helpful if the loss was covered by insurance as your insurance company should insure that they won't over charge.