On the night of September 7, I contacted 24/7 Flood Response via the phone. Their online ad, as well as their Yellow Pages ad, advertises that they respond within 60-90 minutes of a phone call. The advertisement is misleading, as the potential customer has to try and convince the company of their situation before they will come out to the site.
The crawl space of my sister's home was severely flooded with water. She was out of town at that time so my brother and I were taking care of the place. The person I talked to stated that if the problem is minor - then they would not send out a person until the morning time. I had told her (I think her name was 'Julie') the details of the situation, including the dimensions of the crawl space. The leak had been occurring for some time, and there was a LOT, A LOT of water down in the crawl space. I told Jody that I do not think this situation can wait until the morning, but she said that most problems can wait until the morning. So I scheduled for someone to come in the next morning.
Second phone call: One hour later, I decided that indeed I think someone needs to come out right away to assess and to repair the problem. I called the company again, and I spent 20 minutes trying to convince the person on the other line...I talked to Jody, and I had to beg to please send someone out to the property. My first complaint is that this company advertises a 24-7 response time. However, you have to convince someone to come out to help you if it is in the night time. Jody's tone and voice were not courteous, and she offered no alternatives other than 'wait until morning'. After more pleading, I was able to convince Jody to send someone out.
If your company works on a conditional basis of when you come out to do repairs, then advertising you are 24-7 is misleading. As it turns out, the problem was a major one that needed to have work started on it right away, not as if the work can wait until the morning. The contractor Tom who came out estimated 10,000 gallons of water in the crawl space, that would require at least a week of worktime to repair. And he did start on the work right away that night. If the repair were minor, then he would have waited until morning.
It is frustrating that I, a customer, had to spend 30 minutes (10 minutes on the first call, 20 minutes on the second call) trying to convince the company that indeed it IS a major problem that needs to be looked at right away!
Unfortunately, there was another incident with Jody. A few days ater, I was away at a work conference out of town, and thus I left contact numbers of other persons to contact. I made sure to inform the company to reach my brother, as he is in town on those days. While I was still out of town, I received two voicemails from the company. One in particular was truly disturbing.
Jody's voicemail in trying to reach me was truly unprofessional, and I felt that it was verbal harassment. Her exact words on the voice message were "You better call us. You better call us NOW..." in a threatening,disrespectful manner. This company's customer service was so ill-mannered, and her attitude towards customers so dismal that I, a usually easygoing customer, became so upset as to write this note to the Better Business Bureau.
Last item that I would like to log as a complaint is that Tom (or Tim?) of the company had been careless during pumping out the water from the crawl space. He needed a pail/bucket, and he grabbed the first bucket he saw in the backyard and started pouring out its contents into the ground. The bucket was outside, and it was used to store used motor oil that will later be turned into recycling center. Unfortunately, Tom dunked out half the contents of the pail before looking to see that it was used oil in it. I have digital pictures attached. This resulted in a messy oil spill in my back yard!
To resolve the problem, I would appreciate it if the company issue a written apology for its employees' behavior and voice mail, as well as repair the area damaged by the spilled oil. You may do so by putting sand over the damagd area.
I look forward to the BBB's assistance and a resolution to my problem. If you have any questions, please contact me
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