Working with Allphase for our flooded basement was an absolute trainwreck from start to finish.
From the very beginning, we were clear on several occasions that we had to pay for this cleanup out-of-pocket since we submitted an insurance claim less than a month ago for the previous flood.
Josh explained that although they can't ever provide an official estimate, he has been doing this for 10 years and thought the cleanup would for sure be between $2,000 - $3,000. He showed me where they put new line items into their system on a tablet and explained that moving forward, they would do their best to share what the added cost might be for any new jobs his team would recommend.
For the first 2 days of our cleanup (Thursday & Friday), Josh and his team told us that we simply needed baseboards, and carpet padding taken out. They were certain there was no sewage backup (what they call level 3). Josh and another team member put fans and dehumidifiers in the basement to dry it out, and said after a few days of 'dry checks', they would come by to pick up the equipment.
Saturday morning, we got a surprise call from a completely different crew with Allphase, asking if they could come over in 30 minutes to tear out 2 feet of our drywall. To this point, Josh had told me this would only need to be done if the drywall tested at a certain moisture level during a dry check. We were surprised and confused as to why they were coming for drywall removal since we weren't sure how this could be determined when a crew wasn't on-site.
When the team arrived, neither Josh nor Omar were part of the crew for drywall removal. I asked how they could determine it was sewer backup. The team leader of this group said he didn't know, that he just came to the house to do the task assigned by Allphase. I asked what drywall removal would add to the cost of the restoration, and he said he had no idea, and that I needed to talk to Omar (the manager and first Allphase rep to visit the property).
Omar said he didn't know what Josh was talking about. That's not what the tablets are for, and nobody can give me a ballpark estimate on what the drywall tear-down will cost. He was defensive and said I probably confused Josh with someone else in his crew. He also mentioned an insurance claim multiple times which we had reiterated to both him and Josh on separate occasions that we didn't have the luxury of due to the previous flood.
At this point, the on-site crew is already cutting down walls so I reluctantly don't ask them to stop, since I'm not a professional and unfortunately have to trust their recommendation if the flooding was sewer water or not, regardless of how they 'discovered' it.
As the drywall removal crew left, there were several heavy bags of drywall and nails in our driveway, blocking in both my car and my wife's. I asked if the crew would be removing the trash, and the leader said another crew would be coming back to get it. Ridiculous, but I ended up moving all of the debris to our tree lawn for bulk pickup since we do in fact need to leave the house sometimes.
Going into next week, the crew that was supposed to come out to do a 'dry check' did not show up on 3 different occasions. Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. Each time, we received automated texts, saying the crew would be at our house during a specific time frame. Each time, we changed our busy schedule to be home for the crew, and each time, they never showed up without any explanation.
It's a shame that people in our community have to go through the trauma of a flooded basement. I've now experienced 2 floods in 2 months and both times the most traumatic experience was not the flood, but dealing with a restoration company. Allphase was just as deceitful as RotoRooter, but they were exponentially more disorganized. I'll never use ANY restoration company again thanks to this experience, and will absolutely not recommend Allphase to my worst enemies.
Thanks for taking my wife and I for a ride. read more