In July, I had a hail claim. USAA sent out their own adjuster and cut me a check based on that estimate. About 40% of the estimate amount was for minor damages I was planning to ignore like a few dings in the garage door, some dinged window screens, a replacement mailbox...a lot of things that were not very damaged but considered hail casualties. My biggest concern was the roof and gutters, so I contracted with CBR right away. I was referred by my best friend's child, who was employed by CBR at the time.
I gave the initial check paying for the bulk of the work, and the work began in August. It went pretty well. I did notice that when they replaced a skylight, they didn't actually connect the tube, so there was no light coming in. Had to get gaslit about how easy it is to forget to connect a skylight. Ultimately, it was fixed, but not before having to deal with some accountability allergy. It wasn't an apology as much as excuses, which is tacky...but, cool.
After handing over the first check, the billing activity at CBR was decided by divination or something, because since August I have been asking, and asking, and asking to see final billing numbers, and to see the supplement CBR allegedly filed with USAA for some things missing from the initial estimate. I never saw any of these things. Instead, I was regularly hounded by CBR and asked if I had gotten a supplement check from my insurance yet. I repeatedly said no, and that I haven't even seen that a supplement was filed with USAA at all. CBR SWORE they filed a supplement but would never send me any proof whatsoever that they actually sent a supplement to USAA. They gaslit me so hard, that I believed they DID file a supplement and that USAA were the ones dropping the ball.
I literally opened an insurance commission claim because these roofers had me so convinced that they had filed this paperwork. The insurance commission looks into it, of course, and they say they have no evidence that CBR ever filed a supplement at all.
I am pissed off and embarrassed to the core at this point that I wasted the insurance commission's time. Meanwhile, it's January, and I am STILL getting asked if I have received the supplement check yet, and I am STILL telling CBR to share the supplement info they claim to have submitted, because nobody but them believes it exists.
I finally get a response from Stacey at CBR. She sent an estimate and an invoice. Immediately I notice, the invoice is $8k-$9k more than insurance paid me for the work. Confused, I said "okay, you need to show me the supplement paperwork that accounts for this $8k difference."
What did they show me? The ORIGINAL estimate from USAA. The estimate which was about 40% work that CBR DID NOT DO. They billed me for the whole amount of the original estimate without going through the line items to check off the work/amounts they actually performed. Twice, I had to go over each estimate line item CBR worked on, highlight it, put it into a spreadsheet and send it to them because clearly CBR's billing team is not equipped for the task. I hope CBR has my correct mailing address for my W2, since I have to join their staff and help, periodically.
They don't like that they are not getting the whole estimate worth of funds, despite not doing the whole estimate worth of work, and there is no supplement to justify receiving $8k-$9k more than what is estimated.
The worst part is that my friend's daughter was laid off in the autumn season, and now they have the audacity to call her, who does NOT WORK THERE ANYMORE to deal with this claim.
Still no evidence of any supplemental information sent to USAA, and they are still trying to send me an invoice for $8k more than the estimate with no backup.
A line item on the invoice CBR provided is legitimately: "overhead and profit". Yes, I'm sure USAA will find that description adequate enough to send you $8k...Christ on a cracker...
I have been in accounting for over sixteen years, 3 of those years working in insurance, and I have never seen billing run so poorly.