My water heater began to leak on Friday September 25, 2020. I called my extended warranty, and they did not send someone out to repair it until Tuesday September 29, 2020. During those 5 days, water was leaking inside my garage. After the plumbing company replaced the water heater, they advised me that there was damage done to the platform that holds the water heater and also the wall behind it that connects to the inside of my home. They also told me that extended warranties do not cover damage, only the failed appliance and that I would have to call my home owner's insurance about the damage.
The plumbing company referred Bingham Restoration to assess the damage. The gentleman doing the estimate had to come inside to see if there was damage to the other side of the wall. At this time, he saw that I have a small child. He told me that the water stuck inside my walls would cause mold that would hurt my son if I did not take care of it immediately. After taking to my insurance company, Statefarm, I found out that I had a $1760 deductible. I am a new mom and like everyone, things have been tough for me throughout this pandemic. $1760 was not in my budget so I thanked the gentleman for the estimate and told him I did not want to move forward at this time.
The next morning, he called me and began to use scare tactics. He said that if I left the damage untreated, my son would become very sick. Again, I declined because I could not afford it. He kept calling and calling until finally he offered to take $1000 off my deductible. I could afford that and I agreed to get the work done.
The Bingham Restoration workers cut a hole in my wall and put fans in my garage to dry the water. They said they would be back in 2 days, but they left them there 6 days total. After finally picking up their fans, they said their work was done and that they were sending another company, Radco, to do the garage restoration. The manager of Radco, Noel, said she needed to collect my deductible. I paid Radco the $760 in cash. They repaired the hole in the wall and painted the garage walls.
Once Radco was finished, I thought this was the end of my water heater fiasco. I was wrong. Alissa from Bingham Restoration called me and told me that I owed the $1760 deductible. I told her that's not the agreement I made and I already paid it to Radco. She insisted I still owed $1760. Now Bingham Restoration is sending me threatening letters from their lawyer, Ehmke Law, demanding payment. It was at this time that I checked with Statefarm to see what was paid out on this claim. Bingham charged $5381.64 for their work. This included extra charges for working on weekends and afterhours. They chose the days and times to work, not me. So not only did they charge my insurance company an outrageous fee, they still wanted to scam me out of $1760.00.
To summarize, they used my child to scare me into getting work done and pressured me by calling me numerous times a day until I finally said yes. They made me a deal and then did not stick by it and are now trying to scare me again by using their lawyers to threaten me. I paid my deductible as agreed, so please stop calling and emailing me. read more