Complaint Review: Serv-Pro Of Freehold NJ - Freehold New Jersey

We recently enlisted the services of Serv-Pro of Freehold, NJ to clean our home after we experienced a furnace blow-back, which deposited soot and oil residue through out the entire house. After rejecting the first company recommended by our insurance company I asked my agent if I could use Serv-Pro. He said yes they are one of our approved vendors. I called their office and met with John Maughan the owner of the franchise and expressed my concerns with the other company and why I did not want them in my home. He assured me that I would be completely satisfied with his crew who would handling everything professionally and I would be amazed at how great of a job they would do. This could not have been farther from the truth. The next day the crew showed up and began working. I instructed them as to what I wanted them to do and what I wanted them NOT to touch. It was translated to the crew via their foremen, as I believe most of them didn't speak or understand English. I personally have no problem with this and at that point I still felt confident that they were there to help. After their first day of cleaning I noticed approx. 9 or 10 bags of trash outside lined up against my fence. I was told by the supervisor that they have their own dumpster and they would take everything away. The crew came back on Monday and continued to clean. Accumulating even more bags Signs started to appear that afternoon that they were not as good as I was told they were. The tracked in mud and dirt through out the entire house mainly the kitchen, which was completely covered in mud. We washed the floor and had to vacuum all the rugs. The next day the proceed with their cleaning and leave our home in a somewhat similar state as the day before. I get a call from work from my wife

Telling me that she fired them on the spot via their supervisor. I asked her why. She said it didn't seem right to her that there were so many bags of trash being accumulated from a job that we were told by both our adjustor and the John Maughan wasn't really that bad. Upon opening some of the bags my wife found personal photographs of our son, our nephew our dogs, personal items my son made in nursery school. Medication that exceeded $300 for one of our dogs, broken knick-knacks, medical papers, personal items and the list went on and on. I came home from work and took 25 bags of "Trash" into my garage. After I went trough the contents of the bags. I found numerous personal items that were not even damaged. A brand new motorcycle tank bag that was never even mounted on which was hanging in-between the beams in my basement costing over $300 now ruined because it was thrown in a bag with dirty rags and cleaning solvents. I found personal items such as articles of my wife's clothing, medical bills for our son, medicade papers, (he is a special needs child and documentation is extremely critical to maintain his services, some of my son's toys, tools, some of my wife's collectables and some of the empty boxes of the same collectables, Christmas ornaments, books, just to name some of the 150 or so items I recovered. My insurance adjustor was appalled and said that they should know better knowing it was an insurance case that all items needed to be reviewed by him, not just thrown in the trash. The items I found in the trash that really frosted me the most were several beer cans, which still had an odor of beer. Obviously drunk by the cleaning crew. The real kicker was when I found an American flag that was given to me by an old friend who carried it with him during World War II. It was torn and thrown in the garbage like an old rag. Being a retired veteran this completely send=t me over the edge. When I spoke to John Maughan and informed him of what I had found his comments were "what would you like me to do about it" I told him I definitely didn't want his crew back on my property and that I was told by my insurance adjustor that he never called the adjustor as he had claimed and that if he wanted to be paid I would need to sign a certificate of satisfaction. I told him he was definitely not getting that from me. He said well if I'm not getting paid them what am I talking to you for and hung up. The more I look through my house the more stuff I find broken or missing. Various model railroad pieces, which are irreplaceable, have been broken and were intentionaly hidden from view. These pieces were too big and too noticeable to just throw in one of the trash bags. I found a radio which hadn't been used in at least two years on the shelf with one of the knobs broken off, a box of cell phones which we had been accumulating to donate to an organization who give them out to battered women is missing, several packages containing small stocking stuffer Christmas presents were found in the trash. They ripped out "Some" of the insulation in the basement, which I was told is common practice in a situation like this, but left the majority of it behind. It is clearly apparent that their crew just threw things in the garbage hap hardly for God knows what reasons. My wife also informed me that they dumped their dirty buckets of cleaning solution down the bathtub drain and didnt even bother to rinse the tub out. Many people arent aware that you CAN NOT just dump anything you want down a drain when you have a septic system. The solvents and solutions can cause irreplaceable harm to the enzymes in the system that break down the waste. Such an action can potentially lead to a system failure. When my expressed hr anger with what they were doing they completely ignored her. By this time it was too late the damage was already done.

All Serv-Pro of Freehold succeeded in doing was make a bad situation extremely worse. I would have much rather cleaned the entire house by myself. At least I know I would not have disrespected my own property and I definitely would have done a much better job.

What ever you do DO NOT!!! Hire these people to come into your home and clean it when youre open and vulnerable. If you do you need to A: learn Spanish and B: watch their every move like a hawk, which is impossible. John Maughan and his field supervisor fell it isn't necessary to do that so they leave obviously incompetent people in your home with no supervision.

I have to make one thing perfectly clear in that our insurance adjustor has been nothing but helpful and concerned for us during our ordeal and he and his company NJ Manufactures in no way shape or form condone such behavior. Thank God we have them for an insurance company

Brian

Jackson, New Jersey

U.S.A.