Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  02/26/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On Wednesday night, November 22, 2023, a fire occurred in the apartment below mine. I notified my insurance company, Erie Insurance. They, in turn, contracted with Paul Davis Restoration of Western Pennsylvania to provide cleaning services, as well as assessing damage (and subsequent disposal) of most of the food items that I possessed at the time of the fire. In addition, I had to spend a night at an Airbnb while my apartment was being fumigated. I still haven't received a check from Erie Insurance because Paul Davis Restoration still hasn't released to them an itemized list of the items that were disposed of. I'm estimating that the cost of the disposed items, plus the cost of the Airbnb, is somewhere in the $550 to $650 range. Numerous calls to Paul Davis Restoration have yielded no results. Three months after the fire and I'm still waiting to be reimbursed. Any assistance that you could provide to facilitate this payment would be most appreciated. Thank you kindly.

  Business response

  02/29/2024

  The process for compiling the list of items that were considered non-salvageable on this job was not a complex one, but in this particular case, took longer than normal.  We had received maybe 2 phone calls from Mr. ****** that I can recall.  One phone call was to a project manager that was out on extended leave and unable to answer. The other was answered by another project manager when the call was received.  It was communicated to Mr. ****** at that time that the itemized list had been submitted to his adjuster just that week so that the adjuster could handle the reimbursement.  We thank Mr. ****** for his patience.

• Initial Complaint

  04/01/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We entered into a contract with Paul Davis in mid January for them to complete the mitigation, packout and cleaning of our contents. From the beginning we were told the rebuild could not begin until 10-12 weeks until after the demo was completed. We were told the demo would only take 4-5 hours. It ended up taking 3.5 weeks. The job was not completed appropriately- our contractor who we had to hire privately who went walked in to multiple things that should have been done during the demolition and were not. I went by the property multiple times a day and each time the workers were taking breaks. The heat was turned off by the company so baseboards could be removed and no alternative heat source was being used so another pipe burst two weeks ago after brand new drywall was installed. Paul Davis reached out and said they would go look at the property, I even gave them the new contractors phone number and there has been no contact with him or myself to remedy this situation. They received a letter from me a week ago, and I have yet to hear from any of them. They billed me $54,000 to pack out and clean out contents when the contents aren’t even worth that. I could have replaced every item in my entire home for the amount they charged. They billed us approximately $15,000 for the demo and there were multiple things they didn’t do properly and flat out told our contractor they weren’t going to do them. My neighbor witnessed them multiple times only being there for 2 hours some days. Attached is my letter to all parties involved at the company. It has been an absolutely terrible experience doing business with them and they took advantage of a very difficult situation. We will definitely never be doing business with them again, nor would we ever refer our friends and family to them. What they have done to us is an absolute disgrace.

  Business response

  04/19/2023

  Complaints about mitigation work posted to the BBB website on 4/1/23:
  1. Rebuild would take 10-12 weeks
  2. Demo would take 4-5 hours and it took 3.5 weeks
  3. Job was not done appropriately - more should have been done as part of the demolition
  4. Workers taking breaks
  5. Heat removed - pipe burst causing additional damages and they never contacted my
  contractor
  6. Sent a letter and haven’t received a response
  7. Billed $15k for demo and it wasn’t done properly
  8. Workers were on site sometimes only for a couple hours
  9. We took advantage of a difficult situation
  10. They billed $54k for contents packout and cleaning - all that content could have been
  replaced for that amount
  

  OUR RESPONSE TO THE COMPLAINT:
  1. Correct, this was explained to her due to our reconstruction department being busy with
  work already scheduled out. Telling her this up front was being honest. We did this so
  she had ample time to procure the services of another contractor if she desired to. She
  chose to go that route. We weren’t going to tell her something untrue that sounded
  better just to sell the job.
  2. This is simply not true. We would never state a job this size would only take 4-5 hours to
  complete. However, multiple factors were at play from the very beginning of this job that
  added delays and prevented us from being able to complete the job quickly. All of which
  were communicated to the customer regularly to keep her in the loop.
  3. This is not true and it was explained to the customer why we had to conduct our work in
  a specific manner. This is all tied to what insurance companies are willing to pay for as
  part of certain phases of the job. Our work is unique in that it doesn’t follow the typical
  process of a remodel job. The customer doesn’t accept this even though it was
  explained to her over the phone.
  4. Breaks are a regular part of any job. I can’t speak to this being an actual problem since
  it could be tied to the customer’s opinion that our workers shouldn’t be taking breaks.
  The fact that she drove by on certain occasions and the workers happened to be taking
  a break could be a coincidence.
  5. This did occur but the cause was never determined. However, the customer didn’t even
  inform us of this issue initially. We found pictures posted on social media and took a
  proactive approach to reach out to the customer to inspect and see what had happened.
  The customer gave us her contractor’s phone number to coordinate with. The
  customer’s contractor informed us, when we got in touch with him, that the additional
  damages were already resolved by him and that he believed that the cause of the issue
  may have been from something other than the work we conducted. He assured us that
  all damages were taken care of by him and that any cost associated with the additional
  work he conducted was covered by the insurance carrier. He told us that we did not
  need to go out to the property to inspect.
  6. The customer made it known to us that a complaint was going to be made with the BBB.
  We were waiting for this to come through before responding.
  7. Work was completed properly. See response to complaint #3. In addition, all of our
  pricing is based upon an agreed pricing database used by all the insurance carriers and
  is acceptable and fair for the work we complete.
  8. There were some days where our crew was only onsite for a few hours. This was
  directly tied to the fact that our company was inundated with a very high volume of jobs
  due to a catastrophic freeze event known as Winter Storm Elliott. From the outset, we
  explained to the customer that due to the high volume of jobs we had received prior to
  hers, it would be difficult to get her job done quickly. We made it very clear, similar to the
  timeframe we shared for reconstruction work, that if she could find someone else to do
  the work for her sooner and faster then she should go ahead and do it. The customer
  insisted that we do the work so we obliged and did what we could with the resources we
  had during a catastrophic freeze event. It’s important to understand that there wasn’t
  one reputable contractor throughout the country, much less in our area, that wasn’t
  directly affected by the winter storm and that wasn’t struggling to help people the best
  they could.
  9. This is not true. We don’t “take advantage” of any of our customers. We have their best
  interests in mind when doing a job for them. Sometimes it’s misunderstood and
  perceived to be something that it is not. We care about our customers and value the
  trust they put in us to make a disaster in their lives more bearable. Anyone in this
  industry worth their salt knows that you won’t last if you don’t actually care about the
  customers you work for.
  10. We use a third party pricing database that is agreed upon between the restoration
  contractors and the insurance companies. This price database is updated monthly based
  off the economy and zip code to which the customer lives. The invoice is generated per
  box packed and cleaned and per type of item packed and cleaned and is relative to
  being a cost savings to the insurance company for restoring vs. replacing. If the
  customer preferred to have items replaced instead of cleaned then that conversation
  could have taken place between her and the insurance company prior to the work being
  commenced. In most cases, the insurance company would not pay a customer to
  replace what is considered a "cleanable" item. The invoice is consistent with all inventory
  and was not over billed.
  

   

  Customer response

  04/22/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  The demolition process was not at all communicated to me regularly. I received more information from my neighbor than I did from Dylan. It took me texting him to find out why things weren’t done that should have been done. Attached is the text from Mike, an employee of Paul Davis, where he told me the demo should only take 4-5 hours. I have no reason to make that up or share something that “is simply not true” 

  The issue with the lead and asbestos testing was never acknowledged but also see the attached text from Dylan, a Paul Davis employee,  on 2/10 stating he was scheduling the testing-which was over 2 weeks after he called me on 1/25 telling me he ordered that day. 
  
  The calls with State Farm are recorded- I am sure I can retrieve a copy of two separate conversations I had with two different adjusters who EACH told me ( on separate occasions) that they had given Paul Davis written approval to do whatever mitigation work needed to be done- this contradicts her #3 statement. There was work they did not want to do, and they flat out told my contractor that. I previously stated this in my initial letter. 
  

  The cause of the second burst pipe was known, and disclosed to State Farm, as well as Paul Davis. Again those calls are recorded so I am sure if needed, I can provide them. The cause was directly due to the fact that heat in the home was turned off by Paul Davis/Reno Brothers when the baseboards were pulled out of the home. When Luke called me he told me he was going to take a look at the house and reach out to the contractor. It was a week before my contractor heard from him and he never went to see the property. Again, far from acceptable communication. Of course the damages were taken care of because immediately our contractor came pulled the ceiling down, dried it out and replaced the ceiling and called the adjuster himself. State Farm covered the expenses- but this was not something that should have ever happened, much less had to be turned into my insurance company for them to pay for. 

  Workers taking breaks has nothing to do with my “personal opinion” that they shouldn’t be taking breaks. There were excessive breaks taken for only being there a short amount of time, that isn’t my opinion. That’s facts that I personally witnessed as well as several neighbors who called and texted me throughout the day. 

  As far as the contents- we hired a company who we thought we could trust. It is not mine or my husbands job to determine what can be replaced for less than what it would cost to clean and store something, that’s why we hired a restoration company. We have countless items that we have to replace because of the water that they sat in for so long - that the company removed from the home to clean.  Tools, TV’s, game systems and other electronics- all items that were literally soaking wet and/or sitting in water and the restoration company billed State Farm to clean and store. Those are items that are ruined- if they work, there is no guarantee for how long. Why would we pay for them to be cleaned and stored when they will cost less to replace? In addition our daughters mattress was in a room with black mold for weeks- I wouldn’t put my dog on that, I certainly won’t be bringing that back into my house. So we have multiple items that were already billed for cleaning and storage, when we will have to submit invoices to State Farm for them to be re-purchased. We should not have had to say “ tools and electronics that sat in water will be trashed” I expect a professional company to say that. Our adjuster Marvina was shocked when she saw the invoice and I explained all this to her, especially about the mattress. She said absolutely not that should not come back into the house. 
  

  This is why I feel we were taken advantage of. The company has been in business long enough to know what the right thing to do was- and we do not at all believe they did right by us.  State Farm will literally be paying for a big chunk of items twice, and that is beyond wrong. 
  

  Regards,
  ********* *****

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩