Business ProfileforServiceMaster Restoration of Montgomery, Frederick, Howard, Prince Georges, & Washington Counties

On 9/20/2022 I met w/ Austin Browne at our apartment to get an estimate for moving our belongings (furniture, electronics, household goods, clothing, etc) following a catastrophic flood in our apartment. The Mont County Fire Marshal deemed our apartment uninhabitable & we were forced to move into a hotel. Mr. Browne took photos of the contents of the apartment, measured all the rooms to come up w/ blueprints of the apartment & said he would provide an estimate to Travelers (our renter's insurance company). Mr. Browne also explained that their company did not handle artwork, antiques, & electronics and they used a company by the name of Prism. Both myself and Cameron *********** our insurance adjuster, had the impression that Prism was a subcontractor for Service Master & their costs would be included in the Service Master cost estimate. The initial estimate of $29,755.91 was approved by Traveler's. Mr. Livingston did mention that the prices quoted by Service Master were higher than other companies he has worked with in the past. Service Master came & packed up our apartment $ moved items into storage $ for cleaning. While contractors were working on repairing the damage to the apartment, Mr. Livingston received two invoices from Prism for a total of $10,746.56 ($7,678.00 for electronics and $3,068.56 for artwork). To his surprise (and mine) the work to be done by Prism was not included in the Service Master numbers. For the next 3 weeks, Cameron ********** and myself attempted to contact Austin Browne via telephone and email to get clarification on this discrepancy. I finally called the operator to ask if Mr. Browne had left the company and was informed he was on paternity leave. While I am all for companies allowing employees to take time off for the birth of a child, Mr. Browne was negligent in not having an out of office reply on his emails stating "I am out of the office until xx/xx/2022. In my absence please contact John Doe at ." Also on his voice mail he failed to leave a message that he was on extended leave and who to contact in his absence. I was referred to Mr. Browne's supervisor (Doug M)and left a voice mail message, but never heard back from him. Several days after his return to the office, Mr. Browne contacted me and we discussed the issue with the Prism estimate. He admitted that he failed to communicate that Prism was not a subcontractor, however, he made no offer to try an mitigate the high costs. Once the repairs on the apartment were completed, I contacted Mr. Browne to set up a time to schedule the pack back & I also contacted Prism to see when they could deliver our electronics and paintings. They informed me that their policy was to not return any property until payment had been received in full. Mr. Livingston confirmed that a check had been mailed to them more than a week before. My husband and I agreed to pay the full $10,746.56 to Prism, so they would release our property and Mr. Livingston agreed to stop the check to Prism and reimburse us. The check we got from Traveler's was for only $8,619.51, $2,127.05 less than we paid. The reason he explained is our benefits had been maxed out. My husband & I cancelled the last two days of Service Master coming to the house to help unpack boxes and coming to the hotel to help us move all or our belongings in an effort to save on costs. To our surprised, the final invoice submitted by Service Master did not show a reduction in cost, but showed a 25% increase, for a total of $35,941.67. This included additional man hours that were never requested or approved by either myself or our insurance adjuster. Since the amount of the final Service Master invoice was above the limit covered by our policy, Service Master sent us a bill for the difference of $1,159.98. This bill was sent via email and received on 11/21/2022. To add insult to injury, the Billing Department for Service Master Restoration called 2 DAYS later (the day before Thanksgiving) hounding us for payment. As a result of the excessive charges from both Service Master and Prism, our insurance company will not be able to reimburse us one penny for the $4,186.36 in losses we experienced from the flood.