Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Public Notice: We're Watching, and We Know What's Going On

A couple of weeks ago, I caught wind of a story about a mold inspection that two of our team members did. It was only one of several they had done last month. What made it unique, however, is that instead of having to convince the property owner that they needed to take proper action for their mold problem, they had to convince this one that there was no mold problem.

This customer, an elderly woman, had already been told by a different company that she had a mold problem in the crawl space beneath her house after they had done a visual inspection of the area.  Fortunately, she was smart enough to get a second opinion. Following the recommendation of someone she trusted, she called us. When our technicians did a thorough inspection, they concluded that there was no evidence of mold growth.



The people who had performed the initial inspection had this customer pretty frightened. According to the customer, she had even been told that she had toxic, black mold. That's a pretty serious assumption.

One of our technicians showed her the photos that they took of the supposedly mold infested area; there was no visible sign of mold. Our technician also told her that if the previous inspector had actually seen any microbial growth at all, there would have been no way to determine the type of mold it was (if it even was mold) without proper laboratory testing.

The customer later called our office and asked again if it was possible that our technicians were mistaken. That's how much worry the initial inspector had caused this lady; she was terrified that her home was in danger. Our customer service representative reassured the customer, and by the end of the conversation, she was satisfied that there was no need to worry.

This demonstrates that even though unscrupulous companies sometimes try to frighten people into paying for unnecessary services, someone is always watching. In this case, I'm glad that "someone" was ServiceMaster by Cornerstone. Take note, all you scammers out there: We know what's going on, and we're still watching.