If I could give them 0 stars, I would. Here is an excerpt of the letter that I sent our adjuster…read more Just stay away.
Just a recap of our concerns in regards to the workmanship of The Steam Team with the water remediation:
1). While removing the flooring in the 1/2 bath, the toilet began to leak, which their employee tried to fix. It is not fixed and we are down a toilet for our family of 4, and have been without our only downstairs toilet since.
2). They minimally covered up our furniture when performing the water remediation. My countertops, peloton and other surfaces were covered in concrete/ drywall dust, in addition, we have a cloth couch that has white dust marks all over it and will either need to be replaced or professionally cleaned
3). Jon had to remove at least 3 screws that were left behind from the floor removal. I believe these were for the thresholds where the flooring type changed. In addition, we have a sharp metal nail-like object sticking up in the middle of our kitchen floor/ concrete slab. We have it blocked off so no one will be hurt from it. With that said, my husband did cut his foot one night, we just don't know where it occurred.
4). On Monday evening, when the water mediation team was packing up their belongings, my husband witnessed and heard a conversation between one of their workers and what we assumed to be a manager that was concerning. The worker had his speaker on and the manager's tone with them was condescending, very patrizoning and the manager came off as a bully. This is concerning as it seems that The Steam Team has a toxic workplace issue.
On Friday, March 28th at 12:16pm, I received a very rushed phone call from Jeff Lester from the Steam Team confirming tour intentions to go with USAA's contractor and they were the company appointed to do so. This call lasted 4 minutes, it was very rushed and left me feeling unsure about our decision to use USAA's recommended contractors as he couldn't answer any questions and he just kept saying that someone will be contacting me on Monday. He followed this up with an email which didn't provide any clear next steps, for me as a homeowner.
On Thursday, April 3, afterhours, I submitted a request for the work to begin on April 7th via the portal and put a comment that no one has reached out to me.
I received a phone call on Friday April 4th at 8:26am from Dan Branscom. The conversation was concerning. This is what I know and what I am concerned with:
1). He stated that they have submitted an estimate for the work to USAA, without a site visit or conversation with me or my husband. He could not provide me the estimate for the work till Tuesday April 7 when I asked for a copy. I asked him if he or USAA has received back the cost reimbursement from the facility in Florida for our existing flooring and he didn't answer my question yes or no.
2). I asked why they would put in an estimate for the work to be done before walking through the house or speaking with a homeowner, as the plumbers needed to cut through more drywall to do the re-route. When I asked if that was in the estimate, he couldn't answer me. I also mentioned the issue regarding the toilet and that they will not be installing any plumbing fixtures as only my plumber will be doing this work, and that those funds need to be paid to me, which would affect the "estimate" provided to USAA. I proceeded to bring up other concerns that will affect their estimate and could not be obtained from pictures.
3) When asked about choices in flooring and paint, he stated they "will try" to match what I want. I asked if there was a catalog or a specific store/ warehouse that I could go to obtain samples from, he indicated that there was not one. (THIS IS A HUGE CONCERN). I was not provided clear direction on where to get samples, where to pick out material or generally the whole process. He didn't seem to have any details and honestly, came off as he didn't know what he was doing.
4). When asked about the delivery of the POD, if this was something they would coordinate or is it USAA's responsibility. He said, "yeah, insurance companies like to do that, but there are pros and cons to that, we will take good care of your belongings". I mentioned to him that our house is packed to the gills, there is no way our belongings can be shifted from one room to another. He did not indicate if they were indeed going to order a POD or when it will be here.
5). I was told they were down 2 project managers, which leads me to believe they do not have the capacity to take on my small job.