Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/26/2024

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On July 16, 2024, Leading Edge Restoration technicians began cleaning out my mom's basement which had been slightly flooded by heavy rains. They immediately set up dehumidifiers and multiple fans to remove moisture from the affected areas, and began cutting out the wet carpet from all 6 rooms that had it. After a week of work the basement was mostly dry and in decent condition to have carpeting replaced at a later date after more cleanup & repairs. At that time, the lead worker told my mom and I that the $10,000 deposit that she had given them on July 16th was sufficient to cover the costs of their services because the damages were not as bad as initially estimated. Last week I began to receive notifications from Leading Edge (LE) that an additional $920 is due, but we knew nothing about this. When I asked the secretary of LE about it, she said the lead worker doesn't "make up" the bills. So the big question is; why did he lie to a 90 yr old homeowner about the bill being square (paid) when he was not authorized to do so? He was there every day and supervised the work, so he knows exactly what was done, including the mistakes that were made by LE staff which were: 1) a faulty dehumidifier was leaking water and caused further flooding in the basement kitchen, 2) too many fans were daisy-chained together and tripped a circuit that they could not find the correct circuit switch lever for, and therefore instead of simply using another circuit with fewer fans plugged in to it, they used a 220v distribution panel and charged us $287 for that mistake of theirs, 3) they folded up an ornate area rug next to the leaking dehumidifier instead of taking it outside & that rug was further soaked with excessive water unnecessarily and subsequently hung over a stepladder in the hot sun which has damaged that rug, 4) I had to request them to remove the baseboards from a storage room that showed excessive moisture per their instruments, so they did not do a thorough job overall.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/26/2024

  The disputed amount is NOT $10,000, it's $920.77 because we agreed to the initial deposit of $10k. We were told this deposit was sufficient to cover their expenses in cleaning out the basement, but the additional charges of $920.77 showed up a month later. 

  it's Not an advertising issue, it's additional charges after being told the bill was paid.

  my cellphone # is ************

  ***********************

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/27/2024

  This morning I received an email from the secretary of Leading Edge wherein they now claim that the final invoice showing the additional $920 owed was sent on Aug 7th, which contradicts the earlier claim that it was sent on Aug 2nd. I can not find a record of ANY emails received from them on either date; not in any of the spam, trash, nor inbox files. My request for them to provide info on when that invoice was received and viewed (as they had done for the original deposit & contract) was ignored without explanation. My assertion is that I had not seen that additional invoice until Aug 16, but Leading Edge is trying to say that it was sent much earlier. Regardless, it still doesn't address the elephant in the room: we were told that the initial deposit of $10k was sufficient to cover all expenditures by the man who was leading the work crew here. We didn't know otherwise until this additional invoice was "made up" and presented on Aug 16th.

  I'm no expert with technology, but it appears to me the Leading Edge is falsifying dates as to when the additional invoice was sent. They need to back away from any further requests for $, or at least have the courage to call my mom (Who is paying the bills for her own house repairs) and explain why she was lied to, and apologize for that.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/11/2024

  He signed a contract that said do not exceed $20,000.00.  He wrote a check for our work.  It was more than $10,000.  After many discussions, we decided to write it off.  We sent him an email about this.  The owner has been reaching out to him for a month and he has not answered any of our phone calls.  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/11/2024

  Here is the insurance direction of payment/ authorization form (7/16/24),  initial receipt/invoice (7/16/24-says do not exceed 20k), Final invoice after services were rendered (8/2/24), forgiven/paid in full invoice (9/6/24), my email to him forgiving the debt (9/6/24), and our communications log. 

  
  

      **************** claims "someone" from our business told him he was already "'paid in full" after he received his final invoice. We tried reaching out several times to understand when or who told him that. He would not respond to our calls.  Had **************** answered his phone, none of this would have transpired.

     We had internal discussions and decided it was best for customer relations to just write it off. 

     Please reach out if you need any further documentations. We have all documentations. 

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/11/2024

  the company's response contains the following errors and omissions;

  error #1)   I wrote no checks to the company

  error #2)   I did respond to the company; I asked the secretary for specific info to clarify what was going on, and my requests were not answered appropriately

  Huge omission: why were we lied to from the work leader about the initial $10k being sufficient to cover the repairs/cleanout?

  other omissions: company failed to acknowledge that they made mistakes that they charged us extra for

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/11/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me despite the errors and omissions that I specified. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************