ServiceMaster By Cantu
Fraud

ServiceMaster by Cantu (specifically Mike Kyle) misrepresented ServiceMaster by improperly supervising and charging for work that I did not authorize and by removing items my deceased sisters (Cynthia) home that I did not authorize and in fact instructed him not remove.

Mike Kyle explained to my father that he thought the remediation of Cindys house would not cost more than $15k. But he told Joe Applewhite (Kemper Insurance Adjuster) that it would cost over $25k. Ultimately the work rose to a final total cost $39,284.07. Cindy bought the house in 2005 and had it renovated on the inside with additional work (I think) on the outside as well. The house sold for about $142k (in Feb. 2008) and is about 1192 square feet in area; with two bedrooms and two baths. That means that ServiceMaster by Cantu charged 27% of the total sales price for the house for cleaning, painting the interior walls, replacing carpet (three rooms), decontaminating the interior and the HVAC system and associated duct work (via an ozone blower), disposing of the carpet, couch, and bedroom mattress and box springs, and moving the remaining contents into a POD (and backyard shed) and ultimately into a Public Storage unit.

All that, and more per two invoices, for a house that had minor blood damage and smelled bad due to my sister's body decomposing for maybe 4 days and dog excrement that her dogs deposited in the house during that 4 day period. Keep in mind the house had been renovated less than two years before. Mike Kyle underestimated by about 160% the original dollar figure ($15k) he told my father would be the maximum cost to remediate Cindys house; final figure was over $39,000. He underestimated by about 56% the initial estimate ($25096.36) he gave Kemper Insurances Joe Applewhite. The percent increase from the initial invoice ($25096.36) to the final figure ($39,284.07) is over 56%. This to me is gross misrepresentation of the true cost associated with the clean up. I was completely at the mercy of Mike Kyle in deciding how to proceed in getting Cindys house cleaned so that it could be sold.

The ServiceMaster by Cantu attorney explained that the POD (storage container) charges on the second invoice are incorrect. Someone representing ServiceMaster by Cantu also told me that the toilet charge on the second invoice is also incorrect because Kemper would pay for that since it is part of the dwelling. Well, this just makes me wonder what else on the two invoices is incorrect. The invoices are very detailed, but it is difficult to determine what work was actually done and when it was done. Even the ServiceMaster by Cantu atorney, in my initial phone conversation with her, said the invoices were confusing. For example, in the first invoice ServiceMaster by Cantu refers to a 20 foot storage container and in the second invoice they refer to a 16 foot container. I was only aware of a single storage container (POD) ever being used.invoice number one refers to wet carpet in the living room, but the living room is all tile. There are 14 references in the first invoice to tear out wet carpet pad, cut/bag Category 3 water. At any time when I was at Cindys house there was never any indication of water damage. On the page 23 of the first invoice there is a reference to water extraction and remediation and a total charge of $3905.84. On the second invoice, page 8, there is reference to water extraction and remediation again and a total charge of $5889.50. Again why is there a reference to water extraction and remediation at all; there was never any water damage to begin with.

In my mind ServiceMaster by Cantu is attempting to either collect money for services they didnt provide or for services they were not authorized to provide. Also, I dont understand how a remediation effort can remediate a house without removing the contents that have been contaminated unless all the contents are left in the house during cleaning which per Mike Kyle would re-contaminate the house because the great majority of content items needed to be cleaned individually and separately from the house. So the contents were removed, (except for the piano, piano bench, and paintings) at the recommendation of Mike Kyle into a POD. The paintings were rapped up at Mike Kyles direction and left in the house at my direction. The paintings and other items (two lawn chairs and one set of side patio outdoor furniture) were ultimately removed from the house (garage and side porch) in spite of my direction to not remove those items. I contend that I could be held accountable for the cost of moving the contents from the POD to the Public Storage unit once the remediation was completed.

ServiceMaster is incorrectly billing me. I think, at most, I should only be responsible for the cost of moving the personal property items from the POD to the Public Storage unit. My position is that handling of the personal property in order to properly clean the house is part of the over all remediation and it does not make sense to separate the two. The first invoice of two invoices refers to content manipulation ($944.52). So why is content manipulation not referenced on the second invoice when indeed there was content manipulation? If Kemper Insurance was willing to pay $23,686.26 (with me paying a $1410.00 deductible) why wouldnt they be willing to pay the second invoice? The real answer, in my opinion, is that Kemper thinks that ServiceMaster by Cantu is overcharging. They have been paid for the cleaning of the house and part of that effort was moving the house contents around in order to properly clean or remediate the house. ServiceMaster is trying to charge me about $13.6k for moving the contents of an 1192 square foot house into a POD and then into Public Storage unit. They reach this $13.6k figure by tacking on things like evaluation, packing and inventory ($2110.68), content evaluation and supervision ($2235.00), and then ($3912.00) for the actual labor to move the contents; for boxes, packing paper and tape ($794.64), and 40 hours to move the contents from the POD into Public Storage unit ($1304.00). I mean the POD contents were already packed in the POD does it really take one man week to unload a POD into the Public Storage. ServiceMaster is saying that about 36% of their remediation effort was due solely to moving the content around, supervising moving and evaluating and inventorying the content. Actually they charged $944.52 on the initial invoice so really 39% of ServiceMaster by Cantu work was for moving stuff around. $15132.23 for just moving stuff around that seems outrageousand that is why Kemper refused to pay the second invoice, in my opinion.

Company: ServiceMaster By Cantu
Country: USA
State: Texas
City: Buda
Address: 777 W. Go Forth
Phone: 8772684334

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