ComplaintsforBingham Restoration

• Initial Complaint

  09/20/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Water leak 8/18 behind the hot water heater in the wall that was adjacent to a bedroom. Called a plumber /they recommended Bingham Restoration since there was wet wood/carpet/drywall and possible mold already starting (our 106 temp days). Called BH and ********************* was the supervisor who came out and made the initial call/ they brought fans to pull moisture out of the room. He initally told us the carpet may need to come out but wasn't sure but the quote was $2000 half what they will charge the insurance company. (2 percent of what they estimate your house to be worth per Zillow) I didn't want to turn a claim into the insurance company, we wanted to pay for it out of pocket. On 9/5 they came and picked up their equipment and we asked the guys to go ahead and take the carpet since we both have mold allergies and take shots for them. After going back & forth he said it wasn't in the bid but agreed to take it out but the worker scraped my stainless steel washer all down the front. Plus my husband had his knee replaced & we were dealing with getting drywall fixed and painted and new carpet installed.I called Bingham's 9/12 to see if they could come back and look at the damage to the washer which had no scratches on it previously. The owner called me and said ****** will be back out to look at the damage. I tried to take pictures of the damage and send to the owner. I never heard from anyone until I called back again this morning 9/20/23. The owner tried to say they could only issue us $100 for the damage since they had already discounted the costs and that they originally weren't supposed to take the carpet out. I told him that wasn't acceptable it needed to be at least $300, and he got huffy and said that was ALL they could do. I said fine send me the $100 but I will file a claim with the BBB and he said well then forget it - I'M NOT SENDING YOU ANYTHING!!A poor way to do business and handle paying Customers in my opinion.

  

  Business response

  09/20/2023

  Greetings,

     Bingham Restoration is a Family Owned, **************************** providing water mitigation services in DFW *****.  On 8/18 we were called out to the above mentioned party to do a home inspection for water damage.  We applied substantial discounts on our initial bill and did the job for a fraction of what our competition charges.  

    In writing the scope of work and assessing costs we did quote $2000.00.   As the team was there for a monitor and or to pick up equipment the homeowners demanded that carpet be removed, that was NOT on the scope of work.  They said they refuse to be charged for it and said they demand it be customer satisfaction.   We waived several hundred dollars and proceeded to remove the carpet to please the homeowner.

     30 days,  or just shy of, 30 days later this "magical" damage to their appliance gets presented to me.  I have had our appliance repair contractor ***** the photos and he said it is absolutely not consistent with the carpet backing that would leave deep scratches in a particular pattern. This is not the case here....  It was at this time I was also informed by a party that I refuse to disclose, that this homeowner ******* and dimes every contractor that comes in their home. They say they are "not satisfied" with ANY work that folks perform on their home and after the fact try to raise issues.   After speaking with my management team that I rely on that reports to me,  the facts presented by the appliance repair team, the 30 days it took for the "mysterious" damage to be reported, (mind you several other contractors were likely in and out of the home"  I made the decision to offer a one time $100 check. Not accepting guilt, but to avoid having to spend time writing this message.  As the homeowner mentioned she was perfectly willing to take the money but also file a BBB complaint!  Why would I pay to be slandered?  Why would we do an extra $300 worth of work for free and pay them a $300 check?  

     From the time I made contact to collect payment, this homeowner has asked for discount, money, handouts, freebies, guilt trips about pricing.   We are a very transparent company.  We outlined a scope of work, priced accordingly, the homeowner signed our authorization, and we performed the work and I am proud when I review the documentation, it shows me that my team handled the job as expected, and to our standards.

      During the phone call today, the homeowner didn't want $100, then played games tossing around $200 and then said "let me get my husband" Whom chose to get on the phone and say "Listen hear young man, we want $300"  I'm an educated middle age business owner of a company that I built in Texas from the ground up by doing "the right thing"... I'm not a young man, and I don't take well to being patronized and bullied.  This is a gratuitous misuse of BBB Resources, and and attempt to slam a contractor with a stellar reputation, to get money back and get a free washing machine.  That will not be happening.  The lies and manipulation stop here.

     In the years that I have been in business I have taken a loss on a job at times just to please the homeowner, because referrals and doing the right thing is the "right way" to do business.   This is a con man bait and switch job from the start, I have engaged our corporate attorney and we plan to escalate this matter.  

     I work wonders with smoothing over tough situations but I will not be conned into giving countless money out,  first it will be a washing machine, next it will be something else. Its very obvious with this customer that it will never end.

     Bingham Restoration will pursue no other interaction on the matter and we are saddened that there are people out there that attempt to defraud contractors, especially those that have a stellar reputation for being fair, honest, transparent, and well priced.

   

  Thank you for your time,

   

  ******************************

  Co Owner

  Bingham Restoration

  Customer response

  09/21/2023

  Complaint: 20631210
  
  I was only given a short amount of space to log my complaint before so I will elaborate.  

  I am rejecting this response because: All that BH did was bring their equipment - the plumber removed all the drywall and installation and fixed the leak - and $2000 is a hefty amount for drying machines and spraying their mold killer. I don't appreciate him twisting the facts that I demanded they take out the carpet - ****** initially told us that the carpet may need to come out depending on the drying of it.  I asked him several times, okay but that will be all included in your bid. He assured me it would be.  I asked will the amount be less than  $2000.00 and he him-hauled around and said, probably not.  The last day I asked them to take the carpet too.  I didn't demand it. I have very bad allergies to mold and felt it best to have it removed.  The young man said, I'll have to call my supervisor. he replied that it wasn't in the bid.  It was our understanding that it was.  I told him FINE don't take it then and I'll have the carpet people remove it, he said, NO we will take it out.  I watched them rub up against the clothes washer as he dropped it several times. drop it and pick the cut edge up of the carpet and rub the washer 3 times.  I didn't make it up.  I didn't realize that they had severely scratched it with the carpet.

  The reason time passed is because of my husband's knee replacement and dealing with  several other repairman.  When I discovered the scratches, I had the other repair people go thru the front door not the back door to avoid any more damage to the washer.   I told the  owner for BH that I would try and take pictures and send to him but it was a little difficult to get decent pictures of the washer.  He assured me that ****** would come out and check it out that day or the next day and he didn't do either. I don't appreciate being accused of trying to nickel and dime the contractors.  And no can logicaly look at the pictures and say that they didn't do the damage from the carpet. That's a blatant lie on his part and assumption.  I've never had to deal with such an unprofessional contractor' in my life.
  
  Regards,
  
  ***** (*****************

• Initial Complaint

  07/14/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Bingham Restoration Company refused to accept the "Total Fixed Price: $2,250 Out of Pocket". Instead, we were threatened by the owner of the company, ***************************, that we must file a claim with the insurance company or be faced with a lien being placed on our property.

  

  Business response

  07/21/2023

  Greetings,

     This is very disheartening to read.  This complaint is very inaccurate and filled with false information.  As the Managing Partner / ** Owner of the Dallas ****** of Bingham Restoration I am proud to say that we operate as a "Family ****** Christian Based **mpany"  Mr. and Mrs. **** have been out to take advantage of us and have lied and mislead everything in regards to the financials regarding the contractual work on their home.

      We are very different than most restoration companies, we don't commission our employees that inspect or "sell" jobs for us.  This leads to greed and misconduct, so we have always avoided this practice.  Furthermore, we do not incentivize our employees on a job going cash pay or insurance, this also protects us, our clients, and most importantly our reputation.

     Mr. and Mrs. **** called their plumber in the middle of the night stating their was a waterfall coming from their attic area, when in fact it was a very low level leak.  I received an emergency dispatch at 2 AM in the morning and spoke with both of the above mentioned homeowners in the middle of the night.  The following morning was a Saturday, and we proceeded to inspect the job.  During inspection we make it very clear to our homeowners that they can choose to go cash pay or insurance.  If they choose a cash pay option... it is substantially less than what we would bill insurance because we are not floating the costs for months waiting on insurance to pay, we also have a fraction of the paperwork to do, we don't have to build an invoice in Xactimate, which is expensive and time consuming.  Among many other reasons.  Ms. **** is correct we did give the above mentioned price if she chose cash pay.  The homeowners both chose to open an Allstate claim.  We let them know that once we go insurance, that is the route we go.  

     We did an excellent job on the home and completed the job per the ***** guidelines and took the Allstate claim number from the homeowner (Clearly showing the homeowners intention of going through insurance) and we built an Xactimate invoice, and sent it through multiple billing assets and off to our collection department that works with insurance carriers.

     Over the next few days Ms. **** called one of my employees overs 11 times in one day going in circles about wanting to get the owners phone number and talking at length about various questions she already had the answers to.  I instructed this employee to block Ms. **** and her phone number.

     Weeks later, I get a notice from our billing department that Ms. **** cancelled her Allstate claim because Allstate denied and said claim was closed by insured.  Because this was an insurance job from the start we have to make very expensive trip charges every day (other than Sunday) to the home to monitor and document readings, we have to pay an estimator to bill the job in Xactimate, we have to pay a percentage to our admin department, we have to pay our collections department.  Taking the cash pay settlement at this time would be a gross loss, it would have cost me thousands of dollars to even do this job vs making any profit at all.

    This doesn't stop here, Ms **** called me over and over and over saying we want to give you a cash pay price and be done, when I explained she said that is not ok with her but then kept going in circles trying to tell me she will send a check and our bill is done.  This is not her decision to make.  She chose to go insurance, she chose to let us bill insurance, she failed to let us know she canceled the insurance claim, she let us float over $5000 in costs with no intentions of paying the proper bill.  I talked to her about a cash settlement without insurance but it was more than she was willing to agree to and it was much less than our original invoice.

    She had her insurance sales agent call me personally to try to bully me, I had to respectfully end that call after I tried to calm it down with kindness, she herself called me over and over until it became harrassment.

    Finally, I get a call from her Allstate adjuster... I am directly quoting her own Allstate Adjuster  "Good morning ****, wow, its been a gem of a day,  Ms. **** Claim number ********  phew!!! she's called me 16 times already and it isn't even noon yet where I am at, and I'm the adjuster for tons of different cases, send me your bill lets handle this and be done."   

    She then is ghost calling our dispatch line harassing our dispatchers and trying to manipulate them into giving my very personal information out as though she is an attorney, we have caller ID we knew it was her and blocked her company wide and referred her to our attorney.

  Myself, my employees, my dispatch department, her **************** her Allstate adjuster, we have all been harassed by ***** **** and its time to put this to an end.

  Allstate found our bill acceptable, its over her deductible amount.  Its time to stop the mud throwing and harassment and move on.  Nobody demanded that she go through insurance, we just offered a higher cash settlement to cover our admin and billing fees that added up when we billed it as an insurance job so her claims are false and misleading.

  Ms. ****, I wish you the best, I'm sorry this ended this way. I tried everything in my power to work this out with you, you made it clear you had the money but you just wanted to argue the points here and we are done arguing.

  Our legal counsel will handle from here.

   

  Respectfully,

  ******************************

  Managing ********* ** Owner

  Bingham Restoration Dallas

  Customer response

  07/23/2023

  Complaint: 20315500
  
  I am rejecting this response because:  

  Dear Better Business Bureau Representative: 
  
  If Bingham Restoration Company and ***************************, honored the quote provided to us and accepted the Total Fixed Price: $2,250 Out of Pocket, we would not have had to file this complaint.  Now, *************************** wants to talk about irrelevant miniscule issues (the phone calls, the business is family owned, hes a ********** that are all immaterial as to why we are really here in this chaos that he orchestrated today. He is not being truthful, telling a bunch of lies, all in an effort to control the narrative.  Before I say more, please note:  ALLSTATE REFUSED TO PAY the outrageous claim of $7,052.84. 
  
  Please,let us focus on the real and relevant issue:                                                                           
  Why did he refuse to allow us to pay $2,250 that was quoted to us?
  Why did this company place (what we believe to be) is an invalid lien) on our property?
  
  I will answer both questions:  1) greed and an attempt to defraud the insurance company and 2) to coerce and intimidate people into filing insurance claims.  **** stands to ALWAYS collect more money that way.  And he is very forthcoming about it in the statement included in the email with the quote:  Note:  If this job was to go insurance the price will definitely increase because we would charge them for everything we do.     
  
  Nevertheless, after contacting Allstate initially, we were advised of the amount of our deductible ($4,038),and was told to get estimates on the cost of repairs.  We were told to figure out what the most cost effective choice for us would be and let them know how we wanted to proceed.  After getting those estimates,we chose to pay out of pocket.
  
  The cost of the repair to the ceiling was $1,089 which included insulation.  This sum added to their quote of $2,250 plus the cost of the water heater (WHICH WAS NOT COVERED BY ALLSTATE) is less than the deductible.
  
  The breakdown below shows the comparison between the two.  The out of pocketcost is less than the deductible.  WHY WE WOULD FILE AN INSURANCE CLAIM?  
  
  DEDUCTIBLE:                                      $4,038
  OUT OF POCKET                                 $2,250
  Cost we paid for repairs                        $1,089
  TOTAL (LESS THAN DEDUCTIBLE)    $3,339

  If we add the new water heater that we purchased (that the insurance does not cover), we still spent less than the deductible. The Project Manager *********************, clearly states in his email that provides the quote, he says Let me know what you decide to do. They were advised they we needed to consult with Allstate which is what we did.  There was no need to make that comment, if the company already knew it was going to be an insurance claim.  Another one of ******************************* lies.  We communicated our choice to Allstate with no issues.  However, when we advised the company that we would pay the out of pocket option that is when all sorts of terrible things started to happen. We were threatened with a lien, foreclosure and a demand to proceed with an insurance claim or face losing our home.    
  
  I also want to advise that we are not the only consumers that have had had a problem with Bingham Restoration Company.  Please look that the BBB review online dated 4/27/2023.  They are referred to as BIG scammers and fraudsters. I have been told that there is a complaint with the ************************ on them as well.  Not only do they have complaints against them in the DFW area, but there are multiple complaints that have been filed against them in ****** and ****, *******.    
  
  I dont know what *************************** expects us to do.  If Allstate will not pay him over $7,000 for this unreasonable and ridiculous claim, what on earth makes him think he can collect that kind of money from us?  Had this self-proclaimed ********** honored the quote provided to us, we would not be doing this. I want to close by saying that this is the same self-proclaimed ********* that has shown how egregious, unethical,corrupt, and villainous he really is.  Hes the same self-proclaimed ********* that would over charge Allstate with a claim for $7,052.84, for what he described as a low level leak, and finally, the same self-proclaimed ********* that an Allstate Representative referred to as JUST EVIL after she had a conversation with him. She said he made the hair stand up on the back of her neck!  
  
  Regards,
  
  ******* & *******************

  

  Business response

  08/22/2023

  To Whom This May *********************   At this point I'm not going to argue religion and spirituality in a BBB complaint.  Bingham Restoration Dallas has hundreds, of homeowners, plumbing company owners, and well respected individuals that will stand by us, our name, and our ethics.  

     From the start, everything with the Tall family has been manipulation, twisting of arms, dishonesty, and an attempt to bait and switch.  With this being said I will break down our process. A process that has been explained to the Tall family several times.  The tall family agreed to not pay our cash pay price which would have been a bill satisfied from the start, they requested to go through insurance.  We honored the request.

     When a client chooses to go through insurance, it requires a much lengthier process, daily monitoring of the jobsite, meaning we have to make substantially more trips out to the home, that cost the company money, we have to also bill everything in detail through Xactimate which we pay an estimator or ****** to do.  We further have to pay a fee to our payment tracking team to track and collect payment and "Negotiate" with insurance. Finally, track payment.

     When a client goes through insurance, the contractor floats thousands of dollars and typically doesn't see payment for **** weeks following the last day on the jobsite.   We as an ethical organization have the option to agree to take whatever "settlement" we negotiate with an insurance carrier as "paid in full" and the homeowner is free and clear once they forward the funds to satisfy the settlement. Most of my competition in the restoration industry will pressure their homeowners to pay above and beyond and will force them to abide by the contract they signed, just to make extra money.  We at Bingham Restoration are in the customer service business and we do right by our homeowners.

     This is the first time in my career in this industry of many years that a homeowner has played God and judged my religion.  This is a moot point.  Bingham Restoration is asking the homeowner to abide by the agreement made with the insurance company, close this claim out, and we all go our own way.

       Just as all restoration companies do, we invoiced our bill, and negotiated with the insurance carrier and settled for substantially less.  At this time $4038.00 is the less deductible, which is due.  The carrier has paid the additional amount, ***** Law/OCS is sending the homeowner a lien waiver and a breakdown.  We will NOT be adjusting any invoicing for obvious reasons, instead we will send notice that we will take the settlement amount as paid in full, as promised.  The homeowner will get a lien waiver, a settlement acceptance letter, stating once the $4038 is received and has cleared the bank, the lien will be removed, the balance to us will be zero dollars, and we can close this file out.

  Thank you!

  ******************************

  Managing Partner/ Owner

  Bingham Restoration

  Customer response

  08/22/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

  However, I want to respond to ***************************** comments:  I am shocked that he doesnt want to discuss religion.  Lets be clear. HE IS THE ONE THAT BROUGHT IT UP!  And. If what he states in the 2nd paragraph of his most recent response were true, why did he place the lien on our property?  ********************* had not even had an opportunity to negotiate with him or pay the claim.  I will advise once again the facts of the matter:  Had he accepted the offer that was provided to us, the Total Fixed Price: $2,250 Out of Pocket, we simply would not here.  I have both a personal check as well as a cashiers check that would have satisfied the payment for the service. However, he refused to accept it due to his efforts, not ours, to defraud the insurance company of $7,052.84, which they refused to pay. 
  
  We agree to pay the deductible in the amount of $4,038 from the claim that we were forced to file with *************************** with the understanding that no further action will be taken against us for additional sums of money, and the lien that has been placed against our property will be removed.  Payment will be made in accordance with what is outlined in the response to the Better Business Bureau.  

  Regards,
  

  ******* & *******************

• Initial Complaint

  08/24/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 6/6/22, Bingham restoration did work in my kitchen as a result of a slab leak. They broke my granite countertop and I have text messages from one of their managers acknowledging this and saying they will replace it. They also price gauged me and have never supplied me with an invoice.I have tried to reach *************************** (Managing Partner of the DFW location) on several occasions. He will not return my call.I want them to cover the cost of replacing the countertop and the cost of me having to hire another contractor to finish my kitchen repairs.I will upload the timeline of events that I documented along the way.

  

  Business response

  09/04/2022

  Response to Complaint,

   

      Bingham Restoration - ***** strives to provide the best in the industry when it comes to quality of work, communication, and backing our homeowners with 5 star service.  We are a ********* based, family owned business that implements this in our ethics and day to day operations.

     Regarding this complaint.  Bingham Restoration was authorized by the above mentioned homeowner with a written work authorization that outlines that we are contracted to do "Water Mitigation Only."  We guide our homeowners on 2 routes to go, cash pay, or filing an insurance claim. This is determined by the deductible amount as we want the least out of pocket costs for our homeowners.  The employees of Bingham Restoration are not on a commission structure, the company chose this route to make sure that every job is treated with due diligence the same way we would handle a family member and their home. When our work is complete we let the homeowner know that it is again, their choice on whom they chose for reconstruction.

   Bingham Restoration does not dismiss the frustration behind this complaint, the unfortunate situation here is that the homeowner had a $5,000 water loss coverage cap on their policy.  Our work authorization outlines these things.

       Bingham Restoration was contracted by the above mentioned homeowner, to do "water mitigation only" which is what we did.  Our goal is to remove the wet material that can run the risk of microbial growth, dry the structure to 15% RH with our drying equipment and then spray a plant based anti-microbial.  All of these mentioned items were performed on this jobsite.

      This complaint unfortunately was files in an attempt to tarnish our good name when the frustration should be with the insurance company and the agent that wrote the policy.  We understand that most homeowners do not expect to encounter a loss due to water, but policy caps and policy limits are clearly outlined on the declarations page when obtaining new insurance.

       At this point in time, Bingham Restoration performed the water mitigation that was the contracted work, and will not be paying 10's of thousands of dollars that insurance is refusing to pay to complete a reconstruction that is outside of the scope of work that was signed off on by the homeowner.  As a reputable contractor, we would lose thousands of dollars on every job if we fulfilled demands such as this one.

     In closing, we sympathize with this situation, but this is not a Bingham Restoration issue, this is an issue that needs to be addressed with the homeowners insurance company, and sales agent that wrote the insurance policy.

   

        With full respect,

   

           ******************************

           Managing Partner

    Bingham Restoration

*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. ↩