In my Opinion, Beware of ServPro of Springfield!

After many many many attempts to bring Servpro of Springfield to live up to their promises. It has come to this point.  BEWARE OF SERVPRO.

We have contacted both the local servpro and the national servpro office to try and resolve these problems.  The video shows it all.  They simply just do not care. 

There slogan "Like it never happened"  should be "Like you never owned it"   They promised the world and delivered, shoddy.  Very Shoddy workmanship.  It's bad enough when you have a house fire. However it's a lot worse when  a company that you pay good money to takes what you had and gives you back less in a mess.  A lot less.  From materials, to workmanship to property damage both personal and home Servpro has it all covered.  They will mess it all up. 

Here is the link to the Video files.    Inside Video (8 meg wmf)    Outside Video (14 meg wmf)

A full resolution DVD is available as well.  mjones02@centurytel.net  For more information.

A lot of  folk have asked what about legal action.  We have visited with several legal authorities and the 11,000 amount is really to small for them to mess with.  

Some Pictures of what we were left with.  The Video shows just part of it. 

Look no ceiling texture after 5 trips out to fix ceilings.

Here too much ceiling texture globed up at return air

Look tape but no ceiling texture.

Paint peeled in less than a month after painting.

Nail pops. New dry wall... hum.

Replaced with small ladder and no trim

A sqaure was never used in restoring my perfect shelving.

Look out 1 inch long screws protruding all over the place.

Shelving was never nailed down and 3/4" gaps see daylight

Angle supports way out of plumb. Shameful.

You should see my 30 ties they ran through the washing machine.  Or my hiking boots.  The soles are brittle and are

coming apart.  300.00 worth of boots .  We still have other peoples clothes and shoes.  We have called Servpro

of Springfield many times to pick up these items.  Did I mention they lost my wife's wedding dress she came in

to identify it as her dress on 2 occasions and these were not her dress.  Servpro of Springfield told her You are

 welcome to look through the warehouse through all these other peoples stuff if you wish. 

They since have found her dress but have not returned it.

Again. Beware of Servpro.  Neither their local office or there national office could care less.  Download the videos you

won't believe what these people leave you with.

What Happened!

My house caught fire 02-06-2006 about 5:35 a.m. I was putting on my jeans getting ready for work when the door bell went off about 10 times as fast as the button could be pushed.  I went to the door and a man whom I have never met screamed your house is on fire get your family out. 

I ran out the door saw the flames and ran back inside getting everyone out of bed screaming.  The house is on fire Get up and GET OUT.  Once I had the family moving I grabbed my gity up and go cup and that held my keys, billfold, pen light, etc... Grabbed my work boots, my laptop and headed out the door and screamed CALL 911 wake the neighbors.  

I dropped my stuff in the front yard put on my boots and grabbed a hose. Each of the neighbors was out trying to get their hoses out all were frozen and plugged with ice... as the fire raged.  My spare drained hoses were at the base of the fire.  One neighbor got some hoses out of his garage and we just about had the fire contained when I saw flames in the attic... then the fire department showed up.  5 Trucks. 

They were wonderful. Once the house was not going to go up in flames and still smoking about 6 of them were in the house pulling stuff to the center of the rooms then tarping them.   It took a couple hours of spraying water and examining the house before they quit spraying water.    It was a scary morning.  Watching your home and belongs go can really get one down.  God is good to us.  Our house will take 3 to 4 months to restore to the shape it was in before the fire.  We were very blessed to have saved most of our belongings. 

The fire started in a trash can located outside of the house in a little privacy fence deck that contained 3 Rubbermaid large trash cans the kind you pull to the street.  Cause is not known for sure.  We had emptied those dumpsters less than 5 days before and didn't have anything really conclusive what caused the fire.  Grapefruit peelings were really the only thing that hit the possibles list. 

We hired a company called ServePro to handle the entire process, moving our stuff out, cleaning it up, storing it and once the house is rebuilt they move it back in.  They also take care of all the other things, winterizing, securing, cleanup, rebuilding, permits, removal of the roof, rafters, and some ceiling joists and part of the garage walls and siding and overhand.  They will then rebuild.  I have been promised the house will be as good or better than it was the day of the fire and will not be able to smell smoke.  Its a mess but we feel very fortunate it could have been so so so so so so much worse.   

We are living in my in-laws house while they are on a missions - vacation to Mexico for several months.   You know what is weird... they told me the house was only 5 minutes from being a total lost and the insulation R50 in the ceiling saved the structure from going up totally.

 

 

God is Good.  ServPro is good and less than one week they have the house being reframed!  PRAISE GOD!....but o what a mess!


The fire went up the wall of the garage into the attic and burnt up most of the rafters and framing

Well its been 2 weeks since we moved into my in-laws house while they do missions work and vacation in Mexico.

The fire investigator came out and asked a lot of questions. One of the first 5 questions was "did you have any citrus peelings in the trash?"... that was the only thing that hit the list of possible fire starters. We don't know the cause for sure but 2 independent fire investigators ask the same questions and said yep that would do it. "So tear up those grapefruits and let the garbage disposal eat them!!!!!!. Again we don't know for sure that was the cause we just know it started in the trash dumpster area. The trash was emptied 4 days before and the 3 curb dumpsters were kept in a privacy fenced in area along the garage wall.

2 days later we spent a day going through a charred wet nasty stinky pile of things that they considered damaged. These things were up in the attic. The insurance company basically said itemize that pile of stuff as close as possible and we did. We took a rake and dragged out about 5 items laid them out on a 3x3 piece of cardboard and took a hi resolution snapshot of them and then itemized each item as per our instructions. We still are remembering things that were burnt up that we didn't get a chance to rake out of the debris. Most of the items are keep sakes and seasonal things. We were given the job to lookup the 500 plus items and get a close to market value price for each one..... (this is a major hassle but we are finding out that most of the items we evaluated the day of the rake out we under bid by quite a bit)...so in this case it means a more accurate reimbursement or replacement of our items.

Our home church Pastor and Youth Pastor came out and stayed with us for a couple of hours during the fire and then handed out some McDonalds gift cards. They came in handy! In fact I have ate more at McDonalds this past 3 weeks then in 6 months! Central AOG Outpost 6 gave us a Wal-Mart Gift card and we have used the tar out that getting the simple things we don't think about each day. Even moving into a fully furnished home there were lots of things we take for granted that fill our drawers and shelves and file cabinets with that we just take for granted that they will be there...... My wife Julie said she was thankful but was so sick of going to Wal-Mart to get stuff... (a blessing to have this ability) but what a hassle.

The first week the house was closed up and personal property taken away and cleaned and stored. The next thing was the insulation was sucked out. The roof, rafters garage wall ceiling joists in the garage and overhangs were all removed and put in a huge dumpster. The good electrical wire was cut back to point and a temporary power pole was set. 10 men worked on the house for several days and put up new walls in the garage, ceiling joists in the garage and new Rafters in all the house. Only a few smoked boards were left to be sealed and painted. The water was turned back on and we found frozen broken pipes in the ceiling in the basement...more water damage. The ceilings are all spotted or warped and nail pops all over the place. The carpets were pulled upstairs and everything in the house has been wiped and cleaned to remove the smoke. Then a smoke bomb was set off to remove any more smoke molecules....

The neighbors were paid 1100.00 for the siding replacement on our side of their house. The plumbers repaired the leaks, got the water back on, the electricians are working over there today...the power drop to the house was never turned off...so one electrician was close to getting fried today so he found out....never trust a conductor , never, never never never always check it. A lesson he has learned again. I am thankful he wasn't hurt. The Electric company was blaming the contractor who tore out the garage wall........ o how human we are...

At this time we are getting tired of living in someone else's house! WAAAAAHHHH! We are blessed. We know we are. We are thankful. Yes we are! God is good all the time!

The calls of support were tremendous. Most asked if they could do something. Many just did things without asking most of those were past fire victims (grin)..... We are blessed to have Christian friends and family who would come to the aid if asked. (Its nice not having to ask) Even the insurance company has been fabulous. We are Blessed!

More to come as the repairs take over....

April 8th, 2006

Well a lull in the building has taken place.  Now we are impatiently not understanding why no one shows up to work on the house.  In a 3 week period only one full days work was completed and 2 other days of 3 hours each.  Not my idea of a  house restore in process.  So after being a nice guy...the work needs to be done.  Let's get it done guys.  Phone calls are now made daily.  Inquiring.  Some repairs must be made over and over and over.  Take a look at the pictures.  Lot of things are done right and I have a list that needs done.  Please keep us in your Prayers.  Sometimes we don't understand why they would come in and replace all the carpets in the house and still have the ceilings and walls to texture and paint....  this one made my sinful nature rise and get angry.  The dumpster that sat on the drive for 2 months made the driveway and the garage floor sink 3" difference now.... a few other things...but it's coming along.

 

We are going over today to mow and clean up the yard.

Well.  Bottom line is Beware of ServPro.  We have a bid from a local contractor to fix what Servpro promised to fix but messed it up.  ServPro

is not interested in living up to their promises.