CRITTER CONTROL OF GRI

Came when they said they would, did what they said they would. Not cheap but did a good job.

Critter Control was able to come and inspect the problem and make an estimate the same day I called, which was great as I was in a hurry. The birds I wanted them to remove appeared to be the source of bedbugs (or something closely related) near the fireplace inside the house that needed exterminating. The same 3 workers came to do the job 3 days after the inspection. They completed the job in several hours on one of the hottest days of the summer. The crew leader, Mark, seemed very knowledgeable, took extra time to consult with me on the bedbug part of the problem, and took a few pictures of the roof for me while he was up there, all of which I appreciated. (It turns out they could have done the bug exterminating as well, but I'd already contracted another company to do it.) My experience with their staff and the work they did was all very positive.

But I do wonder about their charges. Because of the bedbugs, I was a bit desperate and agreed to their $169 dollar inspection/estimating fee, but in retrospect that seems a little unreasonable. If they had taken at least part of it off the cost of the work I ended up hiring them to do, I'd feel better about it--but in my experience this isn't standard practice among contractors and exterminators. (I did bring this up later with the company and they explained they needed to charge this to cover the costs of driving around to various inspection sites, etc.)

The cost of the job was also much higher than I expected, largely because they said they needed to rent a bucket truck to safely get workers up to my 3-story roof. It's an old house, and they didn't feel they could count on my chimney to be stable enough to let them do the sweeping and capping work necessary. Fair enough, I certainly don't want anyone getting hurt on the job. But the bucket truck rental ended up accounting for $600 of the $1207 work fee, which was a hard pill to swallow, and in the end I'm not completely convinced it was necessary. They didn't actually put a ladder up during the inspection to check it out and when they finally got up there in the bucket, the chimney seemed to be in reasonable shape, and there was even an anchor on the roof they could have tied into. Might have saved $600. (Ouch.)

So, to sum up: I think Critter Control does high-quality work and their staff is knowledgeable, prompt, and professional. But I have a lingering sour taste about some of their charges. If I'd been less desperate and had more time, I would have done more shopping around before hiring them.

I called Critter Control and that same week they were able to fit me into there schedule. They came out and cleaned the birds out of my gutters and patch up t he area the birds were living in. And it only took about an hour.

THEY CAME IN, SET TRAPS AROUND THE HOUSE, AND EVEN PUT TRAPS IN THE ATTIC. AFTER THAT, THEY MADE A FOLLOW-UP VISIT FOR NO CHARGE JUST TO SEE IF WE WERE HAPPY.

THEY RUN THEIR COMPANY LIKE CLOCKWORK BECAUSE THEY ARE ALWAYS ON TIME AND THEY GET THE JOB DONE. THEY DO A VERY GOOD JOB WITH THE CHEMICALS. THEY ARE A WELL KNOWN COMPANY IN THIS AREA AND I LIKE THAT.