It's unfortunate that I have to write this review, but given the experience my partner and I had, it's best we inform others on what to look out for when hiring this business.
Back in November 2023, there was water damage in our 200 sq/ft master bedroom/master bathroom and we were referred to SOS by our plumber. Initially, everything was great with SOS and we spoke with Cisco and his wife on the first night. They said they would help us through this whole process with our insurance claim and pictured it rainbows and butterflies for us.
SOS was very confident with working with insurance companies. We worked closely with Oscar. SOS was very persistent that additional demo and asbestos testing needed to be done to our bedroom and bathroom. SOS mentioned an abatement company needing to do testing and demoing of the area. Our insurance company left it very clear they would not be covering abatement or additional demoing that was outside the scope of work they were covering. We left it very clear to SOS to please follow the insurance's lead with regards to what work needed to be done. SOS convinced us to move forward with the abatement because regardless demoing needed to be done and that our insurance would have to cover. Once again, we left it very clear to SOS to please only follow the lead from the insurance company (as we did not want to be paying anything that the insurance would not be covering). Fast forward, we received an $8,000 invoice from the abatement company (United Environmental) stating our insurance company was not covering. We were never once in contact with the abatement company as SOS took lead in instructing them on the work that needed to be done. Cisco told us to contact the owners of UE to start a payment plan while we got an attorney or insurance team to review if they would be reimbursing us because the company needed payment for work that was done at our property. Mind you, at this point SOS had completely stopped following up with us on this claim as they had already been paid out for their work by our insurance.
The most upsetting part about this entire process is that we did not receive a single cent to help restore our home to its pre-loss conditions(it still remains this way). However, SOS received $5,084 for packout (moving a few items from our room to our garage) and $1,853 for mitigation (they were initially charging the insurance $4,473). In total, SOS received close to $7000 for work that in no way worked in our favor. After carefully reviewing the packout invoice that SOS had sent to our insurance company, I noticed there was a lot of false information provided that we had not known about and they got payout for. Also, their invoices are very confusing and hard to read. I have now been trying to get in contact with them to get someone to explain the invoice to me line-by-line and they keep responding to me via email that my packout invoice is attached. They are continuing to avoid this conversation I'm trying to have with them. PLEASE read/request detailed invoices, detailed quotes of work needed done whether with SOS or any vendor they send to your home. PLEASE always be present through any work they do at your home as you do not want any faulty information included in their invoices. From the bottom of my heart I do not want anyone falling victim to such a scam.
We pretty much helped payout SOS, while in return they left us with an $8k invoice from a company we did not choose to hire in the first place. We had good faith in SOS which is why we chose to move forward with their suggested vendors. We've now been placed on a financial hardship because we can not only not afford to pay the $8k, but now there might be a lien placed on our home because we cannot afford to pay for this bill because we can barely afford to reconstruct our bedroom and bathroom as it is currently left demolished and in absolute no use. I've already reached out to Cisco and his response to me was "when it comes down to the abatement please discuss that with United Environmental." In other words, "you're on your own."
I understand some people may have had good experiences with this business, but for those who are considering hiring them, PLEASE inform yourselves first before accepting any help from them. Do not let them convince you about any work needed done on your home unless you know for a fact you're covered. PLEASE also know what insurance company you have because this business got too confident in getting us help and in return left us worse than what we started (words from our attorney and public adjuster). We could have been better off not hiring them in the first place if it meant receiving only $1000 from our insurance company rather than receiving an $8000 bill from a company we know zero about. Yes, this is one of the few bad reviews of many good ones, but this won't be the last one and you don't want to be the next one. read more