Orkin Pest Control

unknown

I have absolutely no problem with the chemicals or the way they get rid of the termites, but Orkin Pest Control's business practice is extremely deceptive.  The technician came out and told me the cost for service would be $2200 but that I could split it in half.  They had a complicated contract.  A few weeks later I got a payment book in my mail and it showed the price should only $1700.  The man had told me $500 extra and expected me to pay it.  That extra $500 was supposed to be for two more treatments IF I had re-infestations.  There was no mention of this.  He just expected me to pay it to him.  I told them I wanted my money back, but it took six weeks to get my refund.  I will not be using this company again and I have told everyone I know to stay away from them!

They are courteous and do a good job with any problem with insects.

We used them for a while and stopped because it was getting too expensive. They were supposed to do some work under our crawlspace but they messed up the crawlspace. They did a good job overall.

When I contacted Orkin I thought I was getting an Orkin man from our town because of the local phone number (Casey, IL), but the call was directed to a city (Terre Haute, IN). I knew I had termites because they had been coming out in the house. Orkin came and inspected the house and gave an estimate of $3000.00. I contracted to spray for termites and fungus. I had been sprayed about ten years ago and the price was a little higher than what I had payed at that time. OK, you're saying if I had someone spray before how come I've having to spray again. . .I even had them come every year and inspect. Well, that was a local company and they told me that it wasn't unusual to have to spray again after ten years. With this local company I waited about 3 weeks for them to come. I called several times to see what the problem was and had an excuse every time. Finally got fed up with them and called a well known, bigger company -- Orkin. I thought I would get better service and wouldn't have to spray again in a few years. I even got a contract to spray inside. Although I didn't realize they were to come every month for the price of $71.00 until I was signing the paper. The guy from Orkin didn't tell me the details of that contract at all. My fault for not looking over the contract.
They came and did the work promptly and I thought they did a good job at the time.  I'm not sure how long it was, probably a couple of weeks,  I notice the grass close to the door that went to the crawl space that goings under the house was turning yellow.  Then died.  And even today there is no grass growing there-7 months later!  When I contacted the manager of the office he came out to look and said he took pictures.  I wasn't home at the time and told him to call me about it.  I never heard anything until I called about other problems.  Then he told me that it wasn't even close to the door they used to go under the house and anyway I had other spots in the yard that were dead.  Well I did have some spots in the yard--it was spring, everyone has those.  But this was different.  It was about 5 foot across and was about 3 foot from the door they used.  I spoke to one of he guys that came later and he told me that it was probably a spill from what they used to kill the fungus.  But the manager would never admit to it.  So now I still have the dead spot but at least it is behind the house.  Even though it has been months there is no sign of anything starting to grow there.

The dead spot in the yard was just one of the many things that went wrong. 

The experience that the lady I work for, Mary, was terrible!  I not going to list all the problems she had but will highlight them.  To start the inspector didn't even go under her house.  Just looked in the door and told her she had fungus along with the termites.  She did have termites.  We knew that.  Fungus?  Not sure.  They went to her other property and then gave her a estimate of $8000.00 for both properties.  She signed the contract and they were to come to spray within a few days.  They did come and started but they had to leave early because of another spray job.  Would be back the next day.  But they didn't come.  They were also to come to my house because I called because of swarming termites a few days prior to that.  They didn't show up at my house either.  And that is how the whole spray job went.  Never knew when they would be there and how long they might stay.  Mary was also told that she would have to pull up the carpet so they could drill holes in the concrete because the apartment was built on a slab.  The next spray guy came and said "No, you don't have to".  Then the next guy said she had to!  HUH!   When I tried to contact the head office about all the problems I was directed to the office in Terre Haute every time.  I didn't want to talk to the manager at the Terre Haute office.  I tried that and at first when I talked to him, he seemed concerned.  An act!  As time went on I found out how he really was. 

There is a lot I have left out of this whole thing. I don't have the time or energy to tell everything. 

With all the problems Mary and I did not want anything to do with the inspector.  He had lied to us and we were done with him.  When talking to the manager of the office he told me that wasn't a problem that the inspector would not contact us again.  Within a day or two he called Mary and wanted to know what the problem was.  I then called the manager and he told me that he would talk to the inspector again and assured me that he would not bother us ever again.  Once again the inspector called  Mary to see if he could pick up the check for the job.  This was the second time he called when he wasn't suppose to.  Mary had just got the bill the  day before when the inspector called to pick it up but the Terre Haute office knew that she was going to mail it out as soon as she got it.  By this time I was really mad and called the Terre Haute office and talked to the office manager once again.  Well, he told me that he just couldn't control his men all the time.  He said that sometimes, as with his teenage son, he had to tell him things again and he was trying to tell me that is how it was with the inspector.  HUH!  I told him that this guy isn't a teenager and is not a son but an employee!  Mary was afraid to leave the house thinking that the inspector was waiting for her because he let her know when he called that he was in town.  That made me so mad that they frighten her like this.  And I told the Terre Haute manager this.  But I think that he knew that the inspector was trying to pick up the check.
Also I was to get $100 for referring Mary to Orkin.  I finally got it last month after contacting the main office.  They told me the Terre Haute office had never done the paper work on it.  Also when it is time for our inspection I will contact the main office to get someone from another branch.  We don't want anything to do with the Terre Haute office ever again!
I hope this helps and nobody has to go through what we did.

We were really pleased.  I have asthma, so I worry about pest control sprays.  The green product killed all of the crickets and spiders, and I haven't had a problem with living since.  We are really happy with them.  I would recommend them.  When we called them, they came right out.