Business ProfileforLake City Restoration

My pressure tank failed in the middle of the night causing water to cover my floors and carpets. I called LCR the very next morning and they sent out a technician to take a look. They spent about an hour using a machine to **** up some of the water and another 2 hours bringing in dehumidifiers and fans and setting them up. The next day they came for about 30 minutes to an hour to check on the job, same thing the following day and then on the 4th day they came back for about 1 hour to get their fans and dehumidifiers. Totalling about 5 hours on the entire project. During the entire project, I had no idea how much this would cost. Upon receiving a bill for $4,400 I was taken back and requested someone to reach out to go over the details of my bill. I received an Xactimate estimate used to deal with insurance companies which I found odd as this was not an insurance claim. Additionally the estimate had less than $5 of material cost and the remainder was all labor. This was even more shocking as they only had about 5 hours physically in my home. I reached out two additional times in which they finally responded with an email that was very demeaning explaining that if I was poor or couldn't afford it, they would be willing to help discount the bill. I then asked again to receive a phone call as I only wanted to discuss the details of the invoice for clarity. Again, no response. I have since paid my bill in full but wanted to leave a review in hopes other consumers would not make the same mistake I did. I would NOT recommend this company or it's services.

This review is by the owner/operator of ****************************** (***), which is a direct competitor in part due to Lake City Restoration (LCR) also handling emergency roof damage repairs.  Lake City Restoration has done work directly FOR ************ ******* *********, and also in one instance on the same home.  In one instance, ************ ******* ********* entered into contract with a homeowner who Lake City Restoration was already in a contract with.  ****************************** managed to convince the homeowner to pay 100% of the overhead and profit to ***, removing rightful payment for work to LCR.  In a later instance, *** contracted LCR to dry out a structure that was water damaged due to *** not securing a roof prior to a rain event.  *** offered to provide service for *** and their client for a mere $500, which once work was completed, *** failed to pay.

On August 28, 2024 at 1:33 PM, Mr. ***** called and asked to speak with an employee of ***.  It was determined at that time that Mr. ******* intentions in calling was to recruit away an employee of ***'s.  When the answering agent refused to transfer the call, Mr. ***** shifted to attempting to "collaborate" on future work.  The *** agent told Mr. ***** that we were not interested in working with *** due to past experiences.  Mr. ***** was off-put by the response.  He then continued to attempt to contact the *** employee outside of direct contact through ***.  

On September 10, 2024, Mr. ******* mother called us to respond to her son's home for a water loss that occurred in his basement.  LCR was unaware of the connection between the initial caller ***** ***** and her son Mr. ******  Mr. ***** was not available at the time of initial response, and had LCR senior staff had known who the customer actually was would have likely turned down services.  Mr. ***** did subsequently sign an Authorization to **************** and Direction of Payment document on September 14, 2024, three days after initial response and work had been started.  

The technician assigned to Mr. ******* restoration has had regular contact with Mr. ****** sometimes on a daily basis since work was started through completion.  Mr. ***** attempted several times during and after work was completed at his home to recruit the technician, offering to hire at a salary above what the technician is currently making.  Mr. ***** also used his contact with the technician to again attempt to recruit the first *** employee referenced in his August 28, 2024 phone call.  Mr. ***** also attempted to convince the technician to pressure for the work being done be discounted, claiming that he did not want to use insurance to cover his loss.

As is customary in emergency water damage restoration, an initial estimate of cost is generated once work is complete. *** uses Xactimate as its estimating software, which Mr. ***** is fully aware of as they work with the same software.  Mr. ***** was provided our estimate, produced by using Xactimate, drying logs and a detailed report on precisely what work was performed at Mr. ******* residence.  

Mr. ***** received an invoice for payment on September 19, 2024, to which he immediately responded to claiming that the estimate was unfair and based on insurance pricing, not consumer pricing.  LCR responded via email to Mr. ***** explaining that the pricing used is standard and customary, regardless of whether it is an insurance claim or not.  On September 20, 2024 and September 26, 2024, Mr. ***** again demanded a phone call, while still actively communicating with the technician assigned to his loss, all while continuing to recruit the technician and applying pressure to have his invoice reduced.  On September 30, 2024, *** sent Mr. ***** an email offering to discount services if he was financially unable to pay his bill, as LCR often does work for un-insured and under-insured customers. Mr. ***** did not respond to this email, and instead kept in contact with the technician, continuing to pressure the technician to get his bill reduced while still actively recruiting.  

On October 4, 2024, Mr. ***** sent his final email, accusing LCR of charging him "insurance pricing" while simultaneously praising the technician he was actively recruiting and the estimator who wrote the estimate, whom is the other *** employee he was attempting to recruit away.  

LCR staff and employees have attempted to handle Mr. ******* loss and restoration with the same standard of quality that we would for any customer, even a customer who we've had a negative business experience with in the past.

Mr. ***** did make payment for the full invoice amount on October 4, 2024, and then followed up with this review.

Full documentation of phone calls, emails, invoices and estimates are available upon request.