Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/30/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore 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.

  Dear (Better Business Bureau Representative),
  I would like to lodge a formal complaint against ServPro of Greensburg.
  On 8/23/23, Servpro of Greensburg came to remediate mold from a wall in our laundry room. During their work several mistakes were made. Matt, the person that sold us the job convinced us not to use a third party for testing even though it was a conflict of interest. He stated he would agitate areas when testing and demonstrated to us how he would do so. When he came to do the testing, he did not agitate any areas or anything else that he demonstrated that he would do. He set the sampler up and left the room and when asked why he did not agitate he stated that he does not always agitate when sampling.
  Matt said that they will use a knife to remove the affected dry wall. The crew that was sent to our home used power tools instead of what we were told.
  Matt said that they will contain the whole area including the HVAC room and part of the family room. The crew did not contain the HVAC and did not ask for it to be shut down. I, the homeowner noticed this and asked if I should shut the system down and they said yes. This was after their work has already begun.
  There was no pretesting of mold to see the levels and the type of mold that they would be dealing with.
  The crew did not contain the entire area and left books and other valuables on shelfing inside the containment instead of covering it. We did not expect them to go over that far as it was not part of the job, so we did not move that stuff. It was explained prior to the job that things would be covered and contained. Also, they were using a power saw to cut through the wall between laundry room (contaminated area) and family room outside of the containment into the affected area causing a breach in the containment. I witnessed this and asked about the containment and was told by one of your crew that “It’s OK.”
  The crew asked me about corner boards that needed to be removed. I asked why and they explained why, and she said it was ok to remove them. They did not remove them or remove the moldy drywall behind them, and because of this we had to have a crew return on another date.
  They used 2 industrial fans to dry affected area, which never should have been used. The contained area secured by blue painter’s tape fell shortly after they left causing a containment breach as well as now blowing any remaining mold that may have been left, which was unknown at the time, through our family room and onto our belongings as well as blowing it through other parts of the house.
  On the first day of the remediation there was a musty smell in the master closet and entryway when the work was in progress noticed by myself, guest, and my husband. We could smell a chemical smell from antimicrobial.
  They were to remove the sink cabinet and left it in the laundry room.
  I called Matt to tell him the containment is falling shortly after the crew left. He told me that the crew removed and killed the mold. He reiterated that he was confident the test would come back negative. Also, that the containment was only up to shrink the drying area. When the first crew left they instructed me to leave everything as is and leave the HVAC system off. Matt said that as well to leave everything as is. It will be ok. We trusted your company knew what you were doing and followed your instructions. Also, after the call Matt should have sent someone back to our home to be certain that everything is properly maintained and secure.
  Matt was to return on August 25th to remove equipment and do the post testing. The office called and cancelled due to more workload due to the storm that went through the area.
  Crew plugged equipment into 1 circuit that could not handle the load and tripped. They should have verified that everything was working prior to leaving the job site.
  My husband called the office about the breaker issue, and they told him to go into the contained area and unplugged one of the fans that usually fixes the problem. They should have sent someone to do this. The crew was not wearing PPE. We were told that it was their choice to wear PPE, but if they are choosing to not wear PPE that shows that they do not care about their own health which shows that they are not concerned of the safety of the home or homeowners. My husband asked them about the containment area open to the family room since day one and they told me “It’s only there to shrink the drying area.” Since we now know that there was mold and Matt admitted it, the containment should have been left up. Since the mold was not gone it resulted in the mold spreading into the family room and HVAC system over an extended period.
  On August 28, Matt admitted that the crew failed on several parts of the remediation this included not removing the drywall that had mold on it as well as the trim boards that the crew said they had to remove. He came in and removed equipment, and we showed him the containment area breaches and the moldy drywall that was not removed. Matt said the containment was only to shrink the drying area and he is confident the test results would come back negative. He said, "leave it as is, and that it will be ok." We also asked him about the HVAC room not contained he said he would look at the pictures taken and let us know. He said he would get back to us on that issue and never did. Also, my husband asked him if he should wait to do the testing until the remediations were complete. He said “No, I’m testing now. “He said he would retest after the remediation was completed. When asked about that later that same day, he said he never said that. When my husband and I both said he did, and I asked to record the conversations moving forward he dropped out of our case and was going to refer us to his boss.
  Matt said he would remove the sink cabinet that was later confirmed to have toxic mold on it before he ran his tests, and he did not. This cabinet was in the laundry room with and should have been removed when they were done on the first day of remediation. Instead, it was left in the room with the fans blowing on it into the family room and HVAC system. Since we know now that there is mold still in there, and Matt had admitted it. The containment needed to be left up. Since the mold was not gone, this resulted in spreading through our house over an extended period which was unnecessary and is unacceptable.
  Matt showed my husband the error code on the dehumidifier that it was not running.
  Matt proceeded with the testing and told my husband the lab would send the results to me.
  Matt removed all equipment before the test results were back from the lab and Matt said it was safe to turn the HVAC system back on.
  Matt sent a second crew to finish the remediation.
  Jim, the owner and a helper came to finish the remediation and did not set up any containment but removed the containment that was in the way to work on the removal of the contaminated dry wall and worked on removal of moldy drywall outside the containment area, and removed the sink cabinet, and the remaining containment, and did not leave the air scrubber to clean the air after the remediation. This equipment should have been in use continuously until the test came back negative. Jim said it was ok to turn the HVAC system on when he left. My husband also told Jim about the HVAC room, which was not contained, and he said he would check the pictures. We still have not heard if that was looked at or confirmed that it was not contained. He also said the lab results would be sent to us, but they were not sent.
  After all the mistakes my husband asked if Jim would honor a third-party result and he said yes. My husband hired a third party to run tests in laundry and family room.
  On Sept 1st, 2023, the results came back from the 3rd party with results of toxic mold in laundry and family room late that night after 9 Pm.
  On Sept 5th, 2023, Jim called my husband to have a crew come clean to remove the remainder of the mold. Jim told me the test from downstairs was positive for mold, which was why you were sending the crew. However, he never said it was toxic mold. Jim also said the rest of the test were negative. My husband called Jim back to cancel because we wanted to see the test results and not just hear it from Jim to know what they really are and what rooms before agreeing to allow you to come back to our home and risk causing more damage. Jim told my husband that he was sending him the results earlier but did not get them for weeks later.
  On Sept 7th, 2023, we scheduled to have the rest of the house tested because Jim would not send us the results of the tests that he had until our bill was paid. We had not paid because the job was not done.
  My husband called the office to get the results and pictures for the insurance company and he was referred to Jim. Jim told my husband that he needed to settle the bill before he would send anything even the job is not finished, and the damage is already done.
  My husband told Jim he was reluctant to have ServPro finish when all these mistakes were made.
  My husband called to talk to Marylou, the other owner and explained the situation and told her that Jim did not tell him that there were two toxic molds in the house. Jim must have known as he said that our basement was positive for mold. The third-party testing came back that there were two toxic molds in our downstairs so Jim must have known that there were two toxic molds. At the time, we could only assume since Jim didn’t show us the test results, that the third party and his testing were similar. The third-party testing showed that there were two toxic molds downstairs.
  When Jim was at our house, he said that we could have third party testing done, and that Jim would honor results and follow the recommendations. To date he has not stood by your words and honoring this promise.
  ServoPro made a lot of mistakes was negligence and caused more damage to our home. We had to have a third party to do more testing throughout our entire home and this is when we found out that toxic mold was spread through our entire house.
  The crew was responsible for verifying the equipment was working properly prior to leaving the work site and they did not.
  Knowing now all the mistakes that Servpro made they cannot be trusted to complete the remediation. ServPro has been very reluctant to remedy the damages that they have caused to our house and have been very slow to respond to cover the damages. We are paying a mortgage and utilities on a house we cannot live in.
  Sincerely,
  ******* * ***** ********** 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/15/2023

  We have some new information involving our complaint against Servpro of Greensburg.  Because they have been uncooperative we had to keep searching other avenues to have our house taken care of as soon as possible.  We could not come up with $110,000 as was on the estimate ourselves so we kept searching in hopes to handle the problem in a timely manner.  This is critical to handle promptly and with the colder months ahead of us we were told that would lead to additional problems.
  
  We finally found **** *** ** ********** and have hired them to start the job on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 as we could not wait any longer.  Their estimate for cleaning of the house, it's contents, the HVAC system and duct work is much lower than the original estimate we received.  The amount we were given is a rough estimate of $22,866.44 for remediation only.  Also because of the damage done to our entire downstairs other costs of repair are needed.  He gave us a rough guess of $10,000.
  
  At this time we do not have the estimate in front of us but it can be provided later.
  
  Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.  We appreciate it.
  
  ******* *** ***** **********