An open letter to ServPro and Service Master of Erie, PA Both your companies have made what was already one of the worst things that have happened to us - so much worse. I didn't think that was possible. On December 10, 2024, we had a fire in the attic of our home. Our lives have been in chaos ever since. My husband and I are both in our 60s and legally blind. We are now in a waking nightmare made more hellish through your greed, carelessness and cavalier attitude toward our only home, sense of security and primary investment. One of you is no better than the other. You're both heartless, money grabbers. Service Master was first to treat us like cash cows and disposable people. You came into our fire-damaged home, assessed the damage, insisted you could restore it back to its previous condition. Instead, you: * Boarded up broken windows from the inside - thereby allowing for more water damage. * Brought a plumber in to fix our plumbing but they never checked for leaks - and there are. Now we have more water damage on top of the water damage from putting the fire out and from the windows not being properly boarded up. * You wasted 4 weeks hemming and hawing about your assessment and what needed to be done. * Charged us for 11 rugs to be cleaned plus cushioned furniture. We do not have 11 rugs but worse - none of the rugs were cleaned nor the furniture. In your defense, the other day, after our insurance company called you on this, you did come get five rugs and brought them back wrapped in plastic. I hope they are clean. Who knows. * Did not communicate with us or return phone calls. * You finally stated that our insurance company needed to come up with more money. We dropped you. In the hopes that not all restoration companies are crooks and liars - we then engaged ServPro. ServPro - you came on the scene, told us the job was not a problem, and we would be back in our home by April, May. Instead: * You tried to charge us $700 for "drone pictures" of our roof so your "architectural engineer "could get a birds-eye view of the damage. Luckily, my husband, a retired contractor/carpenter, who still has some usable vision, noticed there was no snow on the ground (February, Erie, PA) and a dilapidated garage that was on the property before we bought it was in plain sight. What you tried to pass off to us were 5-year-old Google Earth pictures. Nice attempting to grab some fast cash from visually impaired people. * Strung us along for 2-months as we waited for said "architectural engineer" to estimate the damage and cost for restoration of our roof. Our insurance adjuster and Service Master both agreed that only part of the roof need repair. Your guy insisted, after 2-months, that the whole roof was a total loss, the house is a total loss - and we should just take a pay-out from our insurance company because the house is not worth fixing. * They based this decision on digital photos the project manager took of the attic. The architectural engineer never set foot in our home or attic. Your company wasted 2-months of our lives only to drop the project because said "architectural engineer" felt it was not "worth it." * Two weeks before you dropped the project you came in and cleared out, packed up the rest of the contents of our home - knowing full well you were not going to do the job. * You charged us for this plus storage. * When we asked for our belongings back you brought them back with one of the dressers broken beyond repair and a smashed lamp. * You also brought us some other poor shmuck's belongings by mistake. We're not even sure we have all our belongings that you stored back to us. We cannot find the hardware to put beds back together, for instance. * The project manager then, off the record, advised us to take the insurance pay-out, patch the roof as best we can, and live with that. She declared that "You are both not young - the roof will probably hold up for the rest of your lives." Hmmm, I was sort of hoping to make it to my 80s. Aside from that - who would insure our home after that? And how would our children sell that mess after we are gone? Is this the advice you would give your own parents? You don't care. Thanks to both of you, Service Master and ServPro - our home is in worse shape then the day the fire in our attic first happened. Two other restoration companies have evaluated our home and the damage since you both left. They both agree the house is not total loss, the whole roof is not in need of replacement and the house can, in fact, be restored within the confines of our insurance policy. Nevertheless - the damage is worse and this is because of your heartless, greedy careless attitude toward us. We are still not able to live in our home and probably won't be able to until the summer. Our guide dogs and we will be living in a furnished rental until then - 5-miles away from our home and neighborhood. My husband is retired but I still work. This makes it harder for me to read more