We had a fire in our home August 11, 2013. Watching our home and all we owned go up in smoke was emotionally and financially devastating. Little did we know that from there it just gets worse. Our insurance provider came out the day of the fire and assured us all would be ok. The insurance company assured us they would make us whole again. Our adjuster went through what was left and then explained how she had someone on her way to help remove the debris, clean anything they could and store it for us till our home was rebuilt. This is just something that the insurance company does when there is a complete loss and catastrophe such as this.
The little blonde lady that our adjuster said was on her way was as pleasant as a grandma with her first grandchild. Empathetic to our situation, soft spoken and understanding. She assured us that we were in good hands with Courtney (the insurance adjuster) and proceeded to tell us not to worry that her company (Integrity Contents) would clean anything salvageable and all our stuff would be well taken care of in her warehouse until our home was built. She informed us that she would document all the items that we had and give the insurance company a list, for us, with a value of our items.
Just a few hours after the fire I had to leave for an appointment, a guy by the name of Pete came up to my girlfriend while I was gone and asked her to sign a piece of paper stating it was ok to box up our stuff as the insurance company had requested. She signed the paper trusting what he said even though she was in complete shock since it was just a few hours after the fire began.
We received a book with scattered pictures that were of boxes already packed and pictures that we had to match up with the list of thousands of items. It was a mess. When we realized an iPod was missing and the list given with pricing was never really even researched we went to talk to the owner of Integrity Contents.
Although she seemed concerned something was missing she still adamantly believed that her employees did a good job. So we sat there and showed her that her numbers on several items were never even researched as she assured us would be done. In fact one of the books that they had was priced at $70.00 but as we showed her it was not even a book and furthermore could not have found this on Amazon because we looked it up and showed her. After about an hour the owner agreed that her employees did not do a very good job at all and said they dropped the ball. She then asked us to research all the items on the list.
So we hired people to help us do this and after several months of research came up with pricing about $150,000 more than what her company stated. We turned this into our insurance company, who was to say the least, shocked. Apparently according to Integrity contents you can buy Snap On roll a way tool boxes for $29 on Amazon.
After we redid all the work that the contents company, hired by the insurance adjuster, was supposed to do we are told we have pay Integrity Contents $55,000!!!
Absolutely not!!! We did not hire them!!
Integrity Contents assured us over and over that our stuff would all be held in her warehouse in its own area, so as not to confuse it with another claim they were working on. Integrity also rented two storage units by our house that had items from our backyard that had not been destroyed in the fire. We were told that one of the storage units was empty and if we needed to use it we could. We did not use it however after seeing the bill we realized that Integrity Contents had continued to pay on an empty unit for about 6 months that they included in their bill to us.
The bill also showed $390 a month for a 15 x 20 area in her warehouse were all of our stuff was to be stored. This is concerning since only about 3-5% of our belongings were salvageable. So holding on to completely burnt and chard items for over a year at $390 a month was also being charged to us. Not to mention the boxes, packing tape, and packing paper that we were charged to store trash.
Another issue that we brought up was the fact that Integrity Contents was charging $16,840.00 to pack our burnt items and an additional $3500 for a “supervisor” to watch them pack!!! We were even charged $75 for Integrity Contents to use their moving blankets on our stuff. This was a total of $22,000 to pack up, in new boxes, our burnt household items.
The cleaning fee is absurd. We were charged $5,700 to clean our items. Again a supervisor fee of $510 to watch a technician clean. Out two large moving trucks filled with what was left from the fire only ten boxes of items were cleaned. How could I be charged $5700 for ten boxes of glassware to be cleaned!
Next we are seeing a bill for $4904.00 to price all the items in the home. Well since they clearly did not look up the items and did not even know what most of the items were that they found after the fire I should say that $5,000 is overly excessive? In addition to that fee Integrity charged us yet another $2200 to type all this bogus information on a spreadsheet.
We were charged $390 a month for 14 months to store our stuff in Integrity Contents warehouse. This space was to be utilized by our belongings exclusively. However when our items were returned we received other people’s boxes of their belongings, including birth and death certificates, tax returns and other such person items. We also received other items that were not ours. The most disturbing of which was the fact that our items were in a box with other peoples items. This could only mean that they had our items mixed in with others while in Integrity Contents warehouse.
Another issue was that fact that we were charged for someone to bring back all of our burnt and broken items and charged for someone to unpack all of this and place it where it needed to go. However since Integrity just dropped all of this stuff in our garage before our house was even built there was no one unpacking and putting anything away. Our stuff was place in a garage with no roof so that anything salvaged would be subject to rain and other outdoor elements along with theft and such and we still had to pay to dispose of all of this trash. We were charged $800 for this unpacking of boxes that never happened. Furthermore we were charged an additional $2659 to have 4 men unload the truck for ten hours a day for two days. This did not transpire either. They unloaded all to the garage area in one day.
Since Integrity had taken pictures of our loss we compared it with some of the big items that we returned to us. Items that were not broken when taken were returned broken and one imperticular shelf was completely destroyed to the point we had the movers just lay it out in the front area to be picked up by bulk trash services.
The day of the fire Integrity brought along another company that was to clean our salvageable clothing. Again we did not hire these people and thought they were with Integrity Contents Company and they charged us another $11,000 to try and clean unsalvageable clothing.
All of this totaled about $55,000 which was then taken from our insurance claim money to make us whole again. Not only did we not hire them but never would have allowed people to take our trash and charge us for it. When the insurance company brought them aboard we figured it was something that the insurance company wanted in order to document our loss by a third party or even perhaps when you have a total loss it is somehitng your policy covers. Never in a million years would I have thought we were going to have to pay for this service. Now I see why they didn’t mind paying them to take our burnt and unsalvageable items even though the insurance company stated it was a complete loss and our policy went to limits on everything.
In addition to this complete scam we had hired Hudson Douglas Public Adjusters to help us through the claim. We didn’t realize that we had to give them an additional $5500 for the services rendered by Integrity Contents. As they were supposed to look out for our best interest they too allowed this gross negligence to go on.
So we went to limits on our contents portion of the claim yet out of that money to make us whole we were made to pay $55,000 to a company we did not hire, who stole our stuff and charged us to box up trash and another $5500 to a company to allow them to do this to us.
Lastly I would like to warn people of using Integrity Contents Company, not only did their employees steal from us but we still have yet to receive back our laptops and several other boxes of things that were taken by Integrity. They broke items that were not broken prior to them taking them, completely lied about value and researching our items, and gave us other people’s belongings.
$60,000 to remove trash and bring it back to us is outrageous and absurd. That money was for us to replace items that we lost in the fire. That is why we have insurance not so the insurance adjuster can bring their friends in to make money off our loss.
Integrity Contents Services Reviews
We had a fire in our home August 11, 2013. Watching our home and all we owned go up in smoke was emotionally and financially devastating. Little did we know that from there it just gets worse. Our insurance provider came out the day of the fire and assured us all would be ok. The insurance company assured us they would make us whole again. Our adjuster went through what was left and then explained how she had someone on her way to help remove the debris, clean anything they could and store it for us till our home was rebuilt. This is just something that the insurance company does when there is a complete loss and catastrophe such as this.
The little blonde lady that our adjuster said was on her way was as pleasant as a grandma with her first grandchild. Empathetic to our situation, soft spoken and understanding. She assured us that we were in good hands with Courtney (the insurance adjuster) and proceeded to tell us not to worry that her company (Integrity Contents) would clean anything salvageable and all our stuff would be well taken care of in her warehouse until our home was built. She informed us that she would document all the items that we had and give the insurance company a list, for us, with a value of our items.
Just a few hours after the fire I had to leave for an appointment, a guy by the name of Pete came up to my girlfriend while I was gone and asked her to sign a piece of paper stating it was ok to box up our stuff as the insurance company had requested. She signed the paper trusting what he said even though she was in complete shock since it was just a few hours after the fire began.
We received a book with scattered pictures that were of boxes already packed and pictures that we had to match up with the list of thousands of items. It was a mess. When we realized an iPod was missing and the list given with pricing was never really even researched we went to talk to the owner of Integrity Contents.
Although she seemed concerned something was missing she still adamantly believed that her employees did a good job. So we sat there and showed her that her numbers on several items were never even researched as she assured us would be done. In fact one of the books that they had was priced at $70.00 but as we showed her it was not even a book and furthermore could not have found this on Amazon because we looked it up and showed her. After about an hour the owner agreed that her employees did not do a very good job at all and said they dropped the ball. She then asked us to research all the items on the list.
So we hired people to help us do this and after several months of research came up with pricing about $150,000 more than what her company stated. We turned this into our insurance company, who was to say the least, shocked. Apparently according to Integrity contents you can buy Snap On roll a way tool boxes for $29 on Amazon.
After we redid all the work that the contents company, hired by the insurance adjuster, was supposed to do we are told we have pay Integrity Contents $55,000!!!
Absolutely not!!! We did not hire them!!
Integrity Contents assured us over and over that our stuff would all be held in her warehouse in its own area, so as not to confuse it with another claim they were working on. Integrity also rented two storage units by our house that had items from our backyard that had not been destroyed in the fire. We were told that one of the storage units was empty and if we needed to use it we could. We did not use it however after seeing the bill we realized that Integrity Contents had continued to pay on an empty unit for about 6 months that they included in their bill to us.
The bill also showed $390 a month for a 15 x 20 area in her warehouse were all of our stuff was to be stored. This is concerning since only about 3-5% of our belongings were salvageable. So holding on to completely burnt and chard items for over a year at $390 a month was also being charged to us. Not to mention the boxes, packing tape, and packing paper that we were charged to store trash.
Another issue that we brought up was the fact that Integrity Contents was charging $16,840.00 to pack our burnt items and an additional $3500 for a “supervisor” to watch them pack!!! We were even charged $75 for Integrity Contents to use their moving blankets on our stuff. This was a total of $22,000 to pack up, in new boxes, our burnt household items.
The cleaning fee is absurd. We were charged $5,700 to clean our items. Again a supervisor fee of $510 to watch a technician clean. Out two large moving trucks filled with what was left from the fire only ten boxes of items were cleaned. How could I be charged $5700 for ten boxes of glassware to be cleaned!
Next we are seeing a bill for $4904.00 to price all the items in the home. Well since they clearly did not look up the items and did not even know what most of the items were that they found after the fire I should say that $5,000 is overly excessive? In addition to that fee Integrity charged us yet another $2200 to type all this bogus information on a spreadsheet.
We were charged $390 a month for 14 months to store our stuff in Integrity Contents warehouse. This space was to be utilized by our belongings exclusively. However when our items were returned we received other people’s boxes of their belongings, including birth and death certificates, tax returns and other such person items. We also received other items that were not ours. The most disturbing of which was the fact that our items were in a box with other peoples items. This could only mean that they had our items mixed in with others while in Integrity Contents warehouse.
Another issue was that fact that we were charged for someone to bring back all of our burnt and broken items and charged for someone to unpack all of this and place it where it needed to go. However since Integrity just dropped all of this stuff in our garage before our house was even built there was no one unpacking and putting anything away. Our stuff was place in a garage with no roof so that anything salvaged would be subject to rain and other outdoor elements along with theft and such and we still had to pay to dispose of all of this trash. We were charged $800 for this unpacking of boxes that never happened. Furthermore we were charged an additional $2659 to have 4 men unload the truck for ten hours a day for two days. This did not transpire either. They unloaded all to the garage area in one day.
Since Integrity had taken pictures of our loss we compared it with some of the big items that we returned to us. Items that were not broken when taken were returned broken and one imperticular shelf was completely destroyed to the point we had the movers just lay it out in the front area to be picked up by bulk trash services.
The day of the fire Integrity brought along another company that was to clean our salvageable clothing. Again we did not hire these people and thought they were with Integrity Contents Company and they charged us another $11,000 to try and clean unsalvageable clothing.
All of this totaled about $55,000 which was then taken from our insurance claim money to make us whole again. Not only did we not hire them but never would have allowed people to take our trash and charge us for it. When the insurance company brought them aboard we figured it was something that the insurance company wanted in order to document our loss by a third party or even perhaps when you have a total loss it is somehitng your policy covers. Never in a million years would I have thought we were going to have to pay for this service. Now I see why they didn’t mind paying them to take our burnt and unsalvageable items even though the insurance company stated it was a complete loss and our policy went to limits on everything.
In addition to this complete scam we had hired Hudson Douglas Public Adjusters to help us through the claim. We didn’t realize that we had to give them an additional $5500 for the services rendered by Integrity Contents. As they were supposed to look out for our best interest they too allowed this gross negligence to go on.
So we went to limits on our contents portion of the claim yet out of that money to make us whole we were made to pay $55,000 to a company we did not hire, who stole our stuff and charged us to box up trash and another $5500 to a company to allow them to do this to us.
Lastly I would like to warn people of using Integrity Contents Company, not only did their employees steal from us but we still have yet to receive back our laptops and several other boxes of things that were taken by Integrity. They broke items that were not broken prior to them taking them, completely lied about value and researching our items, and gave us other people’s belongings.
$60,000 to remove trash and bring it back to us is outrageous and absurd. That money was for us to replace items that we lost in the fire. That is why we have insurance not so the insurance adjuster can bring their friends in to make money off our loss.