KIWI SERVICES FLOOD CLEAN OUT RIP OFF CARROLTON Texas
I am an Ike casualty, took 4' of water. Called my carrier and they recomended Kiwi as one of many clean out companies. My neighbor had already hired them so I inquired of the supervisor on site, first mistake.
They wrote an estimate, gave me assurances and started work. All were young boys and none versed in what they they were doing. None had any type of safety gear available or on and were constantly cutting their hands on debris. The minute the supervisor left, they sat down. The boys ended up doing more dammage ( if that's possible ) by tearing out tubs, sinks, med cabinets etc. and none of which is covered by ins.
Next is the generators and blowers, kept running out of gas and no one comes to fill them up , sometimes for days!
Finally get them gone....and I get a bill, for near double what they wrote! I call them up and I get assurances, this will be made right blah, blah, blah.
Then they call, trying to collect the double bill ! I demand a itemized bill and they send one but not for double, but about 10% over. I ask about my uninsured dammages by KIWI and again, assurances that we'll work it out.
There is no contact from KIWI for some 2 months until I get a letter demanding payment and thretening my home with a lien. I call up there immediately and get more assurances that we'll work it out.
I found out today that they put a lien on my home on Jan. 12th but didn't send the demand letter until Jan. 29th.
Further investigation reveals that KIWI dammaged other homes, doubled other bills and put a lien on every customes home to the tune of 24 liens filed since 11/08 to date.
Kiwi hasn't a clue as what their doing and they are poor business people trying to exploit homeowners, however this dawg bites back and I fully intend to fry their a*s in a court of law!
Jim
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Jomama 08
Carrollton,Texas,
U.S.A.
I was there
#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Mon, April 20, 2009
I was one of the young ones In the Ike Clean Up/Disaster. I was sent to Houston right after the hurricane being guaranteed a comission of 250 dollars a day. When we got out there, into a specific town called shore acres, we were told to basically trash everything below the water line, and save anything that appeared valuable. This was a type of work we had all never done before. I truly did the best job I could to get the job done. A man named Sam was running the whole show along with a man named Norman. Norman instructed us to tear out your bath tubs, your kitchens, your drywall. We were supplied with crap tools for the job and even worse very little protection. Maybe a pair of gardening gloves, a hammer, and a wheel barrow. There were 2 crews working out in Shore Acres, one was led by a potthead named Matt, he would come in telling you your doing great work and truely give no further instruction. I was driven by being told there was money to be made here, and that I would make a killing if I stayed. After 1 month of working down in Shore Acres and dealing with more than furious customers I came back home due to a serious injury. I was told to pull bath tubs out of the houses, Alone. Then I got to one that was way too heavy for me to get out alone. I got it into the front yard and while dragging it to the curb something in my neck completely tore. Im still going to rehabilitation for this injury today. I am truely sorry for the experience you had with the company, and I hope you understand the workhorses(people like me and others who were not flood certified, just simply carpet cleaning technicians.) were just doing what we told by management. After the Ike aftermath I watched a few technicians stay for months. Some have lost their asses and their homes thanks to the "guaranteed pay" that never showed up. Let me also tell you a thing or two about the owner's of Kiwi. The day I first met them, they literally handed out all sorts of drugs to some of the employees. Vicadin, painkillers, all kinds of stuff we were not prescribed. So anyways, I would like to sincerely apologize. I busted my a$$ down there to do everything I could.
W.c.
Garland,Texas,
U.S.A.
Sad but True
#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, March 21, 2009
As a former contractor for kiwi, I know first hand about what this consumer is talking about. When I first was sent to the disaster site in a small communtity to help, there were a couple of young guys running the show. Most of us had never done work like this before, so yes we did make a lot of mistakes. We were not trained beforehand, and always had a limited amount of supplies and tools to do the work properly. See at kiwi there too cheap to buy the right stuff, or things that we need, and wanted us to buy it, and they would reimburse us when we turned in the reciept. Which they hardly ever did. I could not afford it anyway! I remember being told by one of my supervisors to make sure we pulled the sinks and the toilets and all that. In fact three of us went around to all the houses that were finished and pulled out all of the bathtubs, because we were told to do so by upper management. We had people working for us that had only been at kiwi for about a week or a couple of days, and did not know what they were doing. A lot of things had already been fubar by the time I got there. I did the best I could to get through it. It was overwhelming. A lot of the feedback I recieved from kiwi was get in there and get it done, and make sure you do the job right. They dont know anything. Like I said I had never done demolition and clean up proffesionially but they expected me to do so. All they care about is the money It makes a lot of since now why I have not been paid. They doubled everybodys bill so they could cover there losses. They never want to tell, or let anybody know what they are doing or whats going on, and just give stock answers like will work it out, or will look into it, or will take care of it. They think they are ubtouchable. I am sorry for what happened to you and everybody else down there.