Michael P.
01/04/2022 12:00:00 SA
I contacted ASAP Restoration knowing I had a small leak in my upstairs bathtub drainage pipe. I was fairly confident that the leak was new and not an emergency, but I wanted it investigated / fixed ASAP. When I asked for their availability over the phone, they told me they were not busy and could come out same-day; however, they didn't volunteer that same-day service was considered an emergency and would thus add an automatic surcharge of $170.60.
They were very prompt to begin the mitigation phase which constituted taking moisture readings, drying out the area, and demolitioning the wall -- Within 4 days of contacting them, I was able to hire a plumber to fix the issue; however, this is where the fast-paced ASAP or emergency service ended.
They took 2 weeks to generate an estimate for the restoration phase; however, once that estimate was finalized, I was told that the restoration phase would not be scheduled until after I paid 100% of the mitigation costs and at least 50% of the restoration costs. I anticipated this; so during the two weeks of waiting to finalize the estimate, I was able to coral my insurance into paying promptly so they could begin work ASAP; however, this is when they volunteered that they were 3 weeks behind on restoration work.
At this point, I was starting to get unhappy, but ultimately I knew the great resignation of 2021 was to blame. I patiently waited, but after two weeks of zero communication from them and 2021 turkey day just a week away, I took the opportunity to reach out by e-mail for a status check, and I heard crickets.
After some really annoying phone, email, and text message tag games, I was finally able to confirm the bad news that the original 3 week estimate was not going to happen. At this point, the best answer I got was simply to keep waiting.
Another 2 weeks went by without any communication from them, it was now the first week of December, and I felt I needed to amp things up. I eventually got a call back 3 days later confirming there were 9 customers in front of me despite already waiting 4 weeks. I was offered a full refund, but they promised my work would be started no later than the last week of December. I decided to continue to wait because I did not want to repeat this with another company.
3 weeks passed and it was now the final week of December. I still had no communication from them, so I reached out and surprisingly was told their guy would start Dec. 29th.
On Dec. 28th I get a call from their guy; he wants to come by and look at what needs to be done because he needs to know what supplies to buy. The second he walks in the door and sees the work, he starts to gripe and complain that its a lot of work and he isn't sure he wants to do it. He wants to call his boss and verify the money is in the project because he was only getting paid $800 and they've been wrong on their estimates before.
Of course, I try to stay calm and just entertain the guy. I asked if he knew such and such or so and so, but his response was he never heard of them before. He only deals with ____. By this point, I'm not sure whom to believe, but he proceeds to tell me that my home isn't ready for him to work and that I need to remove all the furniture. I told him that was not the way things were discussed when the estimate was created, but that I'd also speak to the main office to confirm because otherwise we'd have a bigger problem to resolve first.
After he left, I eventually contacted the office and started raising holy hell. Basically it boiled down to them hiring a sub-contractor that they didn't know very well and it was put forth that his behavior was not acceptable. I don't know the full outcome, but when they showed up the next day, they had two workers in tow and neither of them were the person I met the day prior.
All-in-all, the work eventually took two people two days and was completed satisfactorily; however, I'd have to think long and hard about doing business with them in the future or even recommending them. The 9-10 weeks of waiting might not have been their fault, but the lack of communication or concern for my situation once they got paid and I was put on a waiting list was very disrespectful. They knowingly didn't communicate the emergency surcharge for same-day service among other things like charging $176 to remove and replace a ceiling fan when in reality they know their guys just take 20 seconds to unscrew the fan shroud and paint around it. They seemingly hire sub-contractors to do the restoration work, which isn't all that uncommon, but ultimately what I didn't appreciate was being put into a situation of letting someone into my home that essentially didn't know anyone that I had been communicating with and seemingly didn't care about anyone or anything except himself, his work load, and his pay. I'm glad that ASAP turned things around in this particular situation, but I doubt I would be able to recommend them.