Terminix

There is one frustrating part. Some headquarters office scheduled for the tech and told the tech where to go, like what region he would be servicing, what area, etc. on certain days. And they give him very little notice, which means he gives me very little notice. And he would text me and say, "Hey, I just found out I'm coming your way tomorrow." And that's just not enough notice. It's hard for me to change on a day's notice and make sure I'm there to take care of things. And it's not his doing. I've told him before, "That's not enough notice for me. Can you reschedule?" And he would have to contact whoever does the scheduling. But, again, they wouldn't tell him until a day or two before he was supposed to be here. That will be helpful to get more notice from them.

Other than that, it will be the middle of the month or a couple of weeks after a treatment and I'll see an unusual bug. I'll have a question or maybe something that needs treated, and I'll take a picture of the bug or just text him the question mid-month, even though it's not time for him to come out and treat the house, and he'll do everything he can to answer my question and get it taken care of.

One other thing that has been a thorn is that, over the last few years at least, they make the appointment somewhere else. It's not made by the local Terminix guy or by me. Nobody even consults me. I just get a Terminix guy that shows up and says, "Well, you were scheduled." I say, "Well, I don't know who scheduled me." There was a time or two when I've held a line and just said, "I don't have time for this right now," just to make them come back. That's not good customer relations. Whoever makes the appointment should at least call and say, "Does next Monday or next month suit you?"

The scheduling and the billing are quarterly, so I can easily cancel or reschedule. That's helpful to have, to be able to manage online or call in-person. They're also really great about calling to let people know that they're on their way, which I appreciate as well since I'm rarely home. However, the cost is a little pricey and I'm gonna stop because it worked up until recently. In the past, when they came in, we didn't see ants afterwards until the next installment. Whereas this year, we've seen ants in-between the different treatments. We've had to call them back and apply additional treatments.

He has been with Terminix for a long time and it's rare for technicians to stay with a company, so, that's telling. We've had a couple of other technicians, who were fine, but Darnell goes above and beyond to make sure that we're taken care of. There's the typical maintenance on the perimeter of the house and he would come and make sure that that would be taken care of. Then he would check in with us on our next application if he needs to come back in and re-treat anything. This house is an old house and there were tenants in the basement who created some of the pest issues with ants, spiders, and roaches. When we moved in, it was a mess. But since we used Terminix, it's been great. We have a couple of spiders, which is totally normal, then we have ants specifically in the spring. And that's about it. Whatever they do, it prevents the issues.

I live in a housing development and I've been having to fight roaches. I've been wanting the stuff kept out because I don't want them. The new guy put quite a bit of bait up on the top of my cabinet. He put it around my ice box and in my bathroom. He told me, "You think it's going to be worse because you're going to see more for the first few days." Sure enough, I did. But they then fizzled out. I told him the other day on the phone, "The bait you put out, they didn't eat all of it." He said they won't eat it and that he'd put some more bait out for me and that's what he's supposed to do today. I want some bait left out at all times. We haven't been seeing any roaches. I was really pleased with this guy. He acts like he cared and he understood and I felt like I got my money's worth. My only thing with Terminix was I recommended them to my son and they gave him a lot higher price than what I'm paying. He called in and it was way over $100.

Since it was obviously expensive, I chose financed. I asked couple of times how much my monthly would be, agent said finance would call me. He said I would get the contract that I signed on my email but I didn't get it that day so the next day I asked again for it, didn't get again until the following day. When I saw the contract my monthly would be around $400 so I said I would just pay it off since there’s additional charge for finance.

Now the agent said I would have to get the first billing statement first before I can pay it off which I don't understand why but oh well. On 8/31 they put baits in our house and sealed entry and exit points. The technician said he would be back to do the attic but he never did. I told the agent, he said he would follow up, never heard about it.

I messaged him again last week, haven’t heard back. We caught one big rat using OUR OWN bait from Amazon on 9/4 and since then we’ve never seen any signs of a rat, no droppings anywhere; not even one. Our house also got fumigated on 9/9. It was good until the tent was removed. After the tent was removed, the electrical wires around the house were hanging loose. Socal gas told us we would need to get an electrician to fix it. More money to spend. I feel like we paid so much for catching 1 rat and for the services that was either incomplete or caused us more money to fix.

The scheduling over the next couple weeks was a nightmare, requiring a number of calls and multiple appointments to accomplish. Once the techs came though and everything was finally done with the patching portion of the service though, I asked what we were going to do about the squirrels that were already up there - he said "What squirrels?" I shared Dan's evaluation, so he set a couple of rat traps and we set up a day and time for him to check them. That day came and went. I called and was told that I wasn't on the schedule for that day- I was on for the following week. On 8/4/22 the technician arrives and checks the traps- no squirrels. When I asked, he said he saw no evidence of there ever being squirrels in my attic and asked who told me there were. I said "Dan **". He frowned and said there had been a number of complaints regarding Dan, but there was nothing we could do about it because he was no longer with the company.

After he left, I called and asked to speak with a manager. I was told the issue would be escalated and the branch manager would return my call in 24-48 hours. I waited. I called again. Yes, we see the note, not sure why no one called. Again an escalation, this time to the district manager. Expect a call in 24-48 hours. Repeat two days later with escalation to the regional manager. “Please hold.” When they got back on the line, I was told that they had the regional manager’s secretary pull him out of a meeting and that he would be calling me as soon as the meeting was over. I waited – no call. I call. Again. Yes, we see the notes. They would try the branch manager. Sigh.

I finally get a call from the service manager (not the branch, district, or regional manager) the next day. I explain everything. When I got to the part about the regional manager being pulled out of a meeting, he chuckled and said that’s impossible. The regional manager works from home and doesn’t have a secretary. He apologized and asked to come out to my property and take a look for himself. I said honestly, I just want a refund. He said he understood but please give him a chance to make it right. He arrives and after checking out the attic he says that he saw two small piles of squirrel droppings but there was no way to know how long they had been there and who told me I had squirrels? OMG. I tell him about Dan – and he chuckled. He just shook his head and laughed about his employee lying to me. WOW.

At this point, I tell him I want a refund and I no longer want Terminix at my property, ever. He says he understands and that he would be in touch with his manager and call me the following day. He calls as promised and tells me that as far as his manager is concerned, they provided me a service which I paid for. There will be no refund. He would rather fix it by providing me better service in the future. I said that is unacceptable and I feel at least a partial refund was warranted because the service I received was nowhere near satisfactory, not to mention the original service I was purchasing (the removal of the squirrels) was not performed since obviously there were no squirrels. He said he would speak with his manager again - he would call me Monday (it was Friday afternoon at that point). That was the last I heard from him. After reading the other reviews posted, my hopes are not high this will end well.

Original Review: I was told to wait a month between sprays with no progress. Unfortunately they can not get rid of the bed bugs and will not issue a refund. Please be advised if you don't have 3,000 to waste you will better off finding another company.