April 2014, a tree fell on my house. I was in shock. This damage was significant - Tree came through roof, and wall and totaled my laundry room, and knocked exterior walls off the foundation.
I got a referral for Sam Simko owner of Simcor. Initially Sam was all sweet and totally about taking care of everything to help me. He said I didn't need to worry about anything. He would work with the insurance company. He would work with the contractors to ensure the work was done correctly. I hate to say it, but I believed him. I backed him up when my insurance company did not want to work with him. I totally thought he was on my side.
I signed his contract and paid him a $1000 check which was my insurance deductible. (That too was a joke). Part of his contract is to sign over the checks in their entirety within 3 days of receiving them from the insurance company. The Insurance company makes the check out to you and only you. So you have to meet with him or his wife and actually sign the check over to them so that they can cash it. That should have been flag #1 for me, but I never had anything like this happen to me, so I didn't think much of it initially.
Sam pressured me to move into a hotel because the insurance company would pay for it even though I really didn't want to. I have 3 big dogs and living in a hotel was just a total hassel. But Sam said this would make the work on the repairs go a lot faster, so I did. I ended up staying in the hotel for 4 months! It would have been longer, but I just refused to stay in the hotel any longer.
The total insurance payout was about $53K. When I signed over the last big check to Sam, that is when I started having big problems. He insulted me numerous times, calling me dumb and stupid. He refused to do things that were listed on the insurance quote. And he received money from the insurance company for work he simply did not do and for materials that he did not replace, instead reused my old materials. He left heaps of debris on my deck, in my flowerbeds, and in my garage. I tallied up the list of things that he did not do that he got paid for and it was approx. $15K. The work was shoddy and I had to have some of the work redone as it wasn't done correctly. I could go on and on.
After he gets the money from the insurance company and you, then he stops investing in your job. And he blantantly does not do specific work that is itemized on the insurance company quote. And this puts you (me, the person who the insurance company wrote the checks out to) in a position where they took money and signed it over to a contractor who knows he is not going to do the work. The way he works this process, you don't realize that you are participating in a fraudulent activity, until it is too late. The checks are already signed over to him, the work is not done or done very poorly. You can't go back to the insurance company because they may want part of their money back. It is a nightmare!!
End of the day, I withheld the last insurance depreciation check. (Which is the only thing that I had control to do) When I did that, he literally threatened me via texts, vme, and emails. He was a total bully, using scare tactics to try to get me to give him the last check. Then he sued me. I am still going through the legal process with him and it has been 1.5 years.
I havent tallied up the total of what I have spent in attorney fees yet, but it is easily double what the last insurance depreciation check was for.
Sam is not looking out for his client's best interest. Whatever you do, DO NOT sign his contract. DO NOT use him for any services. He is not trustworthy. He is the worst kind of con artist who preys on people who have been put in a horrible situations and just makes them worse.
He collected $53K for the job and paid out approx $20K for materials and labor and pocketed the rest. And again, he is suing me.
SimcorFirst Reviews
April 2014, a tree fell on my house. I was in shock. This damage was significant - Tree came through roof, and wall and totaled my laundry room, and knocked exterior walls off the foundation.
I got a referral for Sam Simko owner of Simcor. Initially Sam was all sweet and totally about taking care of everything to help me. He said I didn't need to worry about anything. He would work with the insurance company. He would work with the contractors to ensure the work was done correctly. I hate to say it, but I believed him. I backed him up when my insurance company did not want to work with him. I totally thought he was on my side.
I signed his contract and paid him a $1000 check which was my insurance deductible. (That too was a joke). Part of his contract is to sign over the checks in their entirety within 3 days of receiving them from the insurance company. The Insurance company makes the check out to you and only you. So you have to meet with him or his wife and actually sign the check over to them so that they can cash it. That should have been flag #1 for me, but I never had anything like this happen to me, so I didn't think much of it initially.
Sam pressured me to move into a hotel because the insurance company would pay for it even though I really didn't want to. I have 3 big dogs and living in a hotel was just a total hassel. But Sam said this would make the work on the repairs go a lot faster, so I did. I ended up staying in the hotel for 4 months! It would have been longer, but I just refused to stay in the hotel any longer.
The total insurance payout was about $53K. When I signed over the last big check to Sam, that is when I started having big problems. He insulted me numerous times, calling me dumb and stupid. He refused to do things that were listed on the insurance quote. And he received money from the insurance company for work he simply did not do and for materials that he did not replace, instead reused my old materials. He left heaps of debris on my deck, in my flowerbeds, and in my garage. I tallied up the list of things that he did not do that he got paid for and it was approx. $15K. The work was shoddy and I had to have some of the work redone as it wasn't done correctly. I could go on and on.
After he gets the money from the insurance company and you, then he stops investing in your job. And he blantantly does not do specific work that is itemized on the insurance company quote. And this puts you (me, the person who the insurance company wrote the checks out to) in a position where they took money and signed it over to a contractor who knows he is not going to do the work. The way he works this process, you don't realize that you are participating in a fraudulent activity, until it is too late. The checks are already signed over to him, the work is not done or done very poorly. You can't go back to the insurance company because they may want part of their money back. It is a nightmare!!
End of the day, I withheld the last insurance depreciation check. (Which is the only thing that I had control to do) When I did that, he literally threatened me via texts, vme, and emails. He was a total bully, using scare tactics to try to get me to give him the last check. Then he sued me. I am still going through the legal process with him and it has been 1.5 years.
I havent tallied up the total of what I have spent in attorney fees yet, but it is easily double what the last insurance depreciation check was for.
Sam is not looking out for his client's best interest. Whatever you do, DO NOT sign his contract. DO NOT use him for any services. He is not trustworthy. He is the worst kind of con artist who preys on people who have been put in a horrible situations and just makes them worse.
He collected $53K for the job and paid out approx $20K for materials and labor and pocketed the rest. And again, he is suing me.