We were unhappy at first because when we scheduled the appointment we informed the company that we were very concerned we had raccoons under our house in the crawl space, and possibly chipmunk activity as well. We wanted the raccoons removed and prevented from returning. This was made very clear. One of us scheduled time off from work to meet Dave at our place. Dave arrived more or less on time, no problem. But upon inspection he found no evidence of access points where raccoons could get in, but did find droppings which he said could be dog or raccoon (no dogs could be under our house, so we know it confirmed our suspicions). But Dave could not tell if it was fresh or old droppings (based on the sounds we heard under the house, it was fresh). Ok, what are we going to do about it? Dave said their company can't really do raccoon removal, they focus mostly on mice, and that we're too far out from their office to check traps daily, etc. This was a surprise since we hired them specifically for this concern. Obviously, in the end, we just want the problem taken care of. Dave apologized and took our $125 check and left. He did spend a reasonable amount of time looking and sliding around under the house in the crawl space. For the records, there are some gaps that we know of, but were not aware raccoons could fit through them. Okay, so we were pretty upset and disappointed. Yes, it was helpful to have some level of verification for what we thought was going on, but not what we expected we were paying for. So I called ABES the next day and ended up speaking with Jeff, the owner. Jeff was very understanding, didn't make excuses other than that they do tend to defer the larger animal trapping/elimination during this part of the season. He offered to refund half our payment without me asking for it, which we felt was fair especially in light of his willingness to have a conversation about the challenges of the problem, recommendations and info about things we could do, and to send contact info for others who he felt may be able to help. So this is a mixed review. We called ABES because they service our area and had a good rating on Angie's List, and because we had briefly exchanged communications a few years ago about a different matter and that conversation made me think they (Jeff in particular) were very reasonable and professional people—trustworthy. So in light of the resolution of this issue and how Jeff handled it, I would still recommend them, but also recommend being EXTRA clear upfront about what you expect, and possibly ask to talk to Jeff directly if there is anything uncertain about the situation, or what you will get from a visit/inspection
Jason F.
