Quarantine Journals - contractors

If you have been seduced by the idea of a company that can handle both your water mitigation and reconstruction in one seamless process, I am here to inform you that Dry Force is not the company you are looking for.  

I was told when we started working with Dry Force that one person would be able to help manage our claim, advocate for us with insurance, and ensure that working through our water damage and rebuild would be as smooth and pleasant as possible.  I dealt with multiple folks on the water mitigation company, and though it did not bother me that there was not really one point of contact for me during this process, I was most certainly looking forward to having a Project Manager assigned to our reconstruction project.  

Nine days ago, a Project Manager was assigned to our case. His name was Chris. He came out and took a look around the house, and then he called me with some vague and uncertain details on how he thought we might move forward with the rebuild.  He didn't seem to have much information.  The phone call was not confidence inspiring and I was told we would wait for the Water Mitigation side to pick up the equipment to finalize his recommendations for insurance.

Water Mitigation picked up the equipment Saturday night.  I had yet another helpful and thorough conversation with the manager on that side, as well as a more in-depth conversation with the first manager I had spoken to a week ago about how to proceed and what to expect of the Reconstruction side.  I expressed my concerns about the conversation I had had with the PM.  I was told I would receive a phone call from Reconstruction first thing Monday morning so we could all get on the same page.  I waited all day for that call. It did not come.

Tuesday morning, I called Dry Force and asked for a phone call from the Manager of the Reconstruction Department to contact me.  I was told he was in a meeting, but that he would call me in a couple of hours.  That phone call also did not happen.

Tuesday evening, I called again, but the office was already closed. I left a message stating that I would like someone, our PM or the manager to get in contact with me. I still had not heard anything by midday Wednesday, so I called again and asked to speak with the Manager of Reconstruction.  They transferred me and he answered th phone.  I explained my frustration at the fact that Water Mitigation had picked up their equipment on SATURDAY and it was now WEDNESDAY and I still had not heard a word from Reconstruction at this point.  These are days passing that I have holes in my walls and wet, rotted cabinetry, and cannot be in my home.  Why was it taking this long to even have a discussion about starting the reconstruction? What was going on?

The manager I spoke with, Bryan, apologized for the delay and said he took responsibility for it.  He asked me what they could do to earn our business and make it right, and I told him that all I wanted was to push forward with confidence, get the bathroom put back together, and move back into our house.  He said he would get in contact with Chris and have him contact me ASAP, hopefully within the hour. I pushed a conference call back to wait for this phone call, which did not come until nearly 3 hours later, during said call.  I called him back at 5, and it went to voicemail.  I told him I was eager to get this going and to please call me ASAP.  That was Wednesday at 5PM.  I did not hear back from Chris until Friday morning.

On Friday morning, Chris called and said that "Unfortunately, Dry Force would not be able to "produce [our] claim."  When I pressed for more details, he said that he had none.  "The managers told me to tell you that we cannot produce this project for you." I pointed out that I had now been sitting here waiting for his callback over a week at this point, and now that he was finally calling me back, it was to say that they weren't going to do the project?  They wasted over a week of our time and pushed back our turnkey timeline a FULL WEEK because they couldn't return a phone call.  He repeated the same line.

After our phone call, I called the manager, Bryan, and asked him why it was that they could no longer work on our project.  I wanted to hear what he had to say before I shared my experience.  Bryan explained that the job was too small for it to make sense for them to take it on, and that he was acting "in [my] best interests" to get us set up with another contractor because it was what was "best for [us]." I also asked him why he had the PM call to "explain" this to me when the PM didn't actually seem to know WHY they were refusing the job or have any information other than "the managers told me to."  

Bryan's tone was aggressive and condescending.  I asked him why it took over a week to determine the size of the job, especially given the thorough Water Damage Reports AND Chris' evaluation performed over a week ago.  I asked him why he had someone, who seemed to have zero information on what was going on, call to tell me they weren't interested in the job?  He told me that he could tell I was "very, very upset" and that he was sure I "had [my] own side of the story" but that he "wasn't sure he had any answers that would satisfy [me]."  I suspect he is correct in that, since he does not seem to have any answers to offer at all.

Dry Force's Reconstruction Division seems to be an unprofessional, disorganized operation that has no respect for their client's time or circumstance.  My family wants to go home, and the neglect of Dry Force's Reconstruction Division has added a full week onto our displacement timeline, at the very least.  I'm not sure what portion of how the manager handled this was "earning our business" or "making things right," but I am sure of one thing: The Reconstruction Division of Dry Force doesn't seem to care about their clients and that sentiment goes all the way up to the top.

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In the past 48 hours, I have contractors tell me:

"Ask your husband and let me know," despite the fact that I have been their only point of contact. 

"You should have your dad look over the documents for you."

"You sound tired," when I called out a contractor for not returning my phone calls for days.

"You seem very upset," when I calmly asked a manager for an explanation of why no one was communicating with me.

And, most confusingly, "I am a veteran, ma'am!" when I mentioned that pointing out my perceived mental state was not actually an answer to my question.

I'm just curious how many times ANY of the men I know have had someone suggest they hand over the big, heavy paperwork to their daddy?