ComplaintsforGeorgia Water & Fire Restoration

• Initial Complaint

  04/23/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This company was hired by my home owners insurance in 2017 to rebuild my home after a fire. We moved back into the home in 2018. Weve had constant plumbing leaks coming from the bathroom on occasions. Both times Georgia Water and Fire sent a plumbing out to fix the issue. It was never fixed properly. The last month the same area is leaking again. I called Georgia Water and Fire and they told me we were outside of our warranty. The issue was never fixed to begin with. Also, we have to have the new AC unit fixed due to faulty wiring by the contractor when it was installed. I dont feel that we should be responsible for faulty workmanship on the plumbing that was never fixed. When I called the business the office manager told me she would have someone call me and then she hung up on me. A month has gone by and still no call.

  

  Business response

  06/01/2023

  BBB, 

  Please find a copy of our Formal Response attached along with documentation to support that has been sent via Fedex.

   

  Thank you,

   

  Georgia Water & Fire Restoration

  Customer response

  06/02/2023

   
  Complaint: 19971602
  
  I am rejecting this response because: this is the same issue we were having while under your warranty time period and if the issue and home had been rebuilt correctly we would not have this problem for a third time. We will not be hiring anyone on our behalf to send you proof of your inadequate repair. Please contact myself or ********************* immediately to have someone come out at your expense or we will move forward with our attempt to get this resolved. 
  

  ****** ************
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

  

  Business response

  06/13/2023

  Customer:****** & *******************************
  
  Thank you for reaching out with regards to the repairs we completed on 7/6/2018 on your home for your Allstate fire repair claim #: 0445848954.  Please note this letter (as well as posted last time and the one sent via ****** is to serve as our formal written response as per the GA Right To Repair Act guidelines to be provided within 30 days of the customers initial correspondence.   The GA Right To Repair Act is clear to state that any customer filing a complaint must provide the contractor with expert reports that describe the nature and cause of the defect (s), including inspections, photographs or videos.  Please consider this our written request again for the required documentation listed above as we have not been presented with this documentation to date.   We are requesting specific documentation to support the claim that the plumbing your home was defective prior to the end of your agreed warranty period as stated in your initial letter.  The contractual agreement you signed through the Alacrity/Allstate preferred vendor program clearly stated you had a (1) year material warranty and (3) year workmanship warranty that was active the day of the signed certificate of completion. The certificate of completion was signed by you on 07/06/2018 and a copy can be provided to you upon request. Please mail the required documentation listed above dated prior to your warranty expiration so that GA Water & Fire Restoration can review.
  
  GA Water & Fire Restoration inspected your plumbing concerns on several occasions (with your participation and presence) as documented in the detailed Allstate claim file notes.  It was determined during each of those 
  inspections that no leak in the active plumbing existed. In an effort to provide you exceptional customer service GA ******************** & Fire Restoration paid an independent plumber to inspect the home on August 7, 2020.  We previously attached a copy of the expert plumbing report with this letter that clearly states there was no leaks or issues found with the plumbing system.  Please note your signature on page two of the expert evaluation. Since this inspection, GA Water & Fire Restoration has not been made aware (nor inspected) any plumbing related issues in the home.   ** Water & Fire Restoration fully intends to provide Allstate, the Better Business Bureau, the Georgia ****************************** and our legal counsel with the honest and accurate information related to the services provided in your home.
  
  
  Thank you
  
  
  ***************************
  General Manager
  GA Water & Fire Restoration
  Office:**************
  Cell:**************
  Email:**********************************************************************

• Initial Complaint

  09/08/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The consumer had insurance with State Farm, State Farm sent the business out to do the work to repair a kitchen after a fire. The work has not been finished. The consumer wants the money refunded.

  

  Business response

  09/23/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/09/14) */ Contact Name and Title: Stephen ****** Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX Contact Email: *******@georgiawaterandfire.com Mr. ******* is correct that we have an active claim with his mother (Rosetta ******** who owns the home we are working on. The claim was sent to us from State Farm as we are a highly regarded preferred contractor on their repair program. The claim was sent to us in March of 2019 and is currently still in production as a result of Mr. ******* and his actions on the claim. The delay for completion is not the result of GA Water & Fire Restoration or any of its employees. Mr. ******* has been very difficult to work with throughout the duration of the repairs and has disappeared for weeks/months at a time while being non-responsive during those periods. He has stopped worked on the home numerous times for no valid reason and has purposely made every attempt to make sure the repairs do not get completed. When it became apparent that Mr. ******* was delaying the work on the home on purpose we had no choice but to get a third party involved to try and help. State Farm partners with a third party customer service company (Alacrity Solutions) and we reached out to them to see if they could assist. Since that time Mr. ******* has shown repeatedly that he has some reason (unsure of the motive) for making sure his repairs do not progress. I do not want to be accusatory as to his motive but my concern is that it is related to the final balance he owes on the claim when complete. We have 8 pages of documented attempted phone calls, emails sent, text messages sent, and dialogue with the other parties involved showing our efforts to help this customer. The customer has continued to not make material selections when asked to do so (for months), continued to not respond to calls, emails, or texts and disappear for long periods of time, continued to change his mind and/or be dishonest about items discussed prior to the repairs, etc to delay the claim. If BBB would like I would be happy to write out a date detailed report of all the delays from the customer (with actual dates) to show the delays caused by the insured. I have all of this saved it would just take me some time to prepare so I would need longer than the 16th of this month. In good faith I will provide you (one of many) an example of what Mr. ******* continues to do to delay this claim on purpose. On April 7th Mr. ******* informed us that the brick on the outside of the home was cracking and he felt it was related to the repairs inside the home and somehow our fault. We explained to him several times that these cracks are no way related to our repairs inside the home but he insisted and stopped all work on the home. We had to get State Farm involved and have a licensed engineer inspect the home and provide a report. During this the home sat empty with no repairs ongoing as Mr. ******* was demanding nothing be done until we accepted "responsibility" for the brick damage. The 3rd party independent engineer's report finally came back and it clearly stated and proved the brick damages had nothing to do with GA Water & Fire Restoration. State Farm then made it clear to the customer we were not responsible and would not be held liable. I would be happy to provide this information as well for the BBB file if needed. In closing GA Water & Fire Restoration can not provide a refund for all the work that has been completed on this home. The estimate for repairs is 110,899.26 over approximately $85,000 of which has been completed in full. The insurance company uses an estimating software called Xactimate which line items every single item in the estimate so we would be happy to walk this estimate in detail with a BBB representative and calculate the totals for the exact work that is done. If the insured wants to keep the funds for the final items we could add those up as well and adjust his contract to reflect only the work we have completed to date. This would be more than fine with us considering our concerns with the final payment and the continued issues with the customer. We would be happy to meet Alacrity Services, State Farm, Mr. *******, and BBB to walk the estimate and verify room by room all of the items that have been completed and agree on the new contract total. We in fact offered this option over a year ago (when we realized the insured had intent to never allow us to complete the work) but the insured and State Farm asked us to please continue and help the customer (in a conference call on July 28, 2020). The next item that is currently scheduled on the home is the kitchen cabinets being delivered and installed. We could install these cabinets, stop the repairs, adjust the bill for the work we completed, and he can keep the rest of the insurance funds to complete the remaining items himself. Thank you for all your help on this claim. Please let me know if any further action is needed or if someone would like to meet at the home as I am happy to do so. Have a great afternoon. Stephen ****** General Manager GA Water & Fire Restoration (XXX) XXX-XXXX

*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. ↩