Short story: Company I hired screwed me over. I let it go until recently. I have a chance to really fvck them over. Skip to the part in bold at the bottom to vote on if I should do it or not.
Long story: I'm actually too nice of a guy, and as a result, it's easy to attempt to take advantage of me until I identify that, at which point, I can be vicious. I can be a sore loser but a brutal winner.
Nearly two years ago, I hired a company to uninstall a washer/dryer unit in a rental property. I made sure they were insured, read their reviews, etc. The two employees called me when they showed up, and I gave them the temporary code to get in all of the doors. Even though amateurs know this when working on/near water pipes, they neglected to turn the water off. I received a call where the guy was frantic. He had clipped a water pipe, was holding up towels trying to close the break, but water was flooding my place. I called the on-site property manager to come assist and turn the water off. But both floors were pretty flooded causing all types of damage.
The technician called me back after things settled, apologized, and thanked me for being cool about it. He said most people would be swearing and yelling at him. But mistakes happen. I knew it was going to be a pain in the ass for my tenants and a substantial investment of time for me, but yelling at the guy would have accomplished nothing. He assured me they were insured and that their insurance company would handle it.
That company hired a clean-up company to assist. The clean-up company was poor; they moved all of the downstairs furniture to set up industrial fans. Days later, when I was told the tenants could move back in, the furniture was still piled in a corner. Worse, yet another pipe had been broken. Each of those two companies blamed the other.
After nearly two months of non-response from the insurance company, I went to the original company. They admitted fault, apologized for their insurance company, said they were also not getting a response, and said they would be getting a new one moving forward.
Eventually, their insurance company denied the claim saying the damage was due to inadequate building material or age of the building. The building, at the time of the incident, was about eight years old. The material used was standard CPVC piping that was confirmed to be perfectly fine but two other plumbers. The insurance company didn't even see the piping or have knowledge of those things and just proceeded out of habit and denied the claim. I have voicemails and texts from the technician and managing member of the company accepting responsibility for the damage and saying they will pay.
The original company then changed their tune, said they weren't paying for the damages, and that I owed them money for the company they hired (without my approval and without notifying me) to remedy the damages. Of course, I told them to eat a dick. I am out $10k+ for hotels for my tenants, replacing a ruined split-duct heating/cooling unit, new stove top, not charging my tenants electricity for 18 months, paying to have the pipe fixed, a new couch, and other damages.
At the time, my brother had recently passed away, I was traveling non-stop, and I didn't have the energy to fight it in court.
Fast forward to a few months ago. I contacted the original company and told them I was litigating. I contacted the state insurance commissioner to file a complaint against the insurer for denying a claim based on no knowledge of what they claimed (inadequate material and/or age). Suddenly, their insurance company said they had a new agent working on it. The new company, in pre-litigation court resolution attempts, still claim they aren't liable for the damages and that their insurer is going to pay for it (which makes no sense). Their insurer has agreed to pay me $10.8k, but I am still putting the original company through shit in court on purpose, as they are unethical pieces of shit.
Yesterday, I discovered something fun. Even though they have a ton of recent online reviews and are very much still in business, they have let their state business registration expire a few days ago. In other words, I can now legally register a business under their name, which makes their website, reviews, marketing, etc. useless. Do I really fvck them up and register a business under their name?
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