Awful customer service. Called office to speak with Mike Bruebaker after he was referred by another appraiser who was booked. Left voice mail and also went on line to fill request. Immediately I was contacted by the office receptionist with the following reply. 'The fee will be $650.00 and 7 to 10 business days to complete. Please advise. Thanks' I then asked when the next available time would be and she replied 'Hello, Once you give us the go ahead, the appraiser will give you a call and set the appointment with you.' I then called and asked more information as I was looking to at least talk to an appraiser to get a sense of their customer service and how they approach the appraising process as often companies have a different approach / philosophy. She told me I needed to pay $650 in advance. I then reminded her that I left a voice mail for Mr. Bruebaker and I had reservations on paying before having at least talked to an appraiser. She then told me that they 'hadn't screwed anybody over yet.' I then said I wanted to speak to an appraiser. I then received two voice mails from an appraiser. I finally caught him on the phone and I asked a series of standard questions one of them being "what sets you apart from the other appraisals companies." He then paused and sighed as if I was a nuisance and he said technology. Once I heard that I was delighted thinking they had proprietary software or data analysis and asked him to please expound. He then said computers and laughed out loud. After a few additional comments from both of us, I told him I sensed he was inconvenienced and that I would take my business elsewhere and he then promptly said he sensed a bit of an attitude on my part. Upon hearing that I hung up. If asking a little more information before committing $650 on appraising one the biggest assets I have is having an "attitude" well then pardon me. I wasn't calling to make an appointment to have a plumber come rooter route my plumbing. What flippant disregard and such rudeness to the consumer only asking questions to rightly vet a company who could potentially make a huge impact on a major life transaction. Poor customer service skills and awful communication skills both on-line and on the phone. I ended up getting another appraiser who didn't require full payment up-front and who kindly explained their point of difference with the competition in terms of subscribing to multiple sources of secondary data and doing their due diligence in providing a detailed fair market assessment report. I will tell my mortgage lender and realtor, both being in the top tier of their respective fields, of the poor customer experience from Bruebaker & Associates. They lost my respect and ultimately business. read more