Chicago Water & Fire in Elmhurst Chicago Water & Fire in Elmhurst inflates customers bills to pay their business partners for referrals Elmhurst Illinois

When I had a water loss I called a plumber that I heard good things about. While he was addressing my plumbing he asked what I was going to do about all of the water that poured into my basement. I told him I was going to call my insurance company and let them handle it. He strongly encouraged me to call Chicago Water & Fire in Elmhurst. The plumber claimed that he works for them and swore up and down that they would take care of me. Little did I know he was being paid to direct me to them. 

I called Chicago Water & Fire later that night and mentioned how I had been directed to them. I found it odd that the plumber that directed me to them said he works with them, yet they didn't seem to know who the plumber was. I should have seen the warning signs then. There was no real relationship here amongst them and they were simply two companies just trying to gain business from each other. 

I had Chicago Water & Fire come out to help with my basement. They got to work putting equimpment in my and moving my stuff around. The guys sent out were polite up front but I am not sure how experienced they were. They were dragging all my stuff that was wet across the dry part of my basement. They didn't even put anything down to protect the area of my floor that didn't see any damage. I had to point this out to them and ask them if they would now be cleaning the areas they got wet. 

I asked upfront how much the clean up would cost and they told me over the phone I would get an estimate. Day 1 and 2 still no numbers proivded. Maybe because it was an insurance claim they figured they could charge me whatever they wanted to. My adjuster had shared that there was always a struggle to obtain documents to supoort what they were billing for. My adjuster gave me an idea of what my water damage clean up would cost and the final bill they were trying to submit way exceeded the insurance's estimate. I got the impression that my adjuster would have never have chosen Chicago Water & Fire to clean up my water damage and I don't think they will be referring them after this ordeal. 

Two times we had an apointment they were late and 1 time I had to even call to make sure they were even still coming since they had greatly surpased the time frame they were suposed to show up by. I had to leave week early both times so this was a huge inconvience. Some short cuts were taken when work had been performed as well.

I was not pleased with my experience and felt that the pricing was not justified.  When I shared my unhappiness with the communication and the inflated billing my concerns fell on deaf ears. 

I called the plumber that directed me to them to share my unhappiness with his referral. He didn't sound too happy with Chicago Water & Fire either and actually slipped by saying "Well they haven't paid me either". When I asked him what he was referring to he was back peddling. It then all stated to make sense. My plumber and Chicago Water & Fire never really had a relationship and my plumber was most likely receiving money to make sure he directed business their way. This is mostly likely the reason my bill was inflated, to pay for the referral. I went online to do some research and seen that they have ties plumbers which reinforces what I had already suspected, they pay for referrals!

Very displeased with this business practice and will not be referring their services.