Chem-free Organic Pest & Lawn Svc

Went very well. Professional service. It was costly, but was in line with estimates provided on the web.

As a company, they were pretty good, and I have only one complaint, but it is a really, really serious one. In general, Chem-Free was effective, responsive, and cost-effective. However, at least some of their agents are dangerously ignorant about their own products, as my story will attest: Our landlord hired Chem-Free to treat the house we lived in for the first time in 2010. They showed up promptly, were professional in their interactions, treated the property and left--and their treatments worked as well as any others. So that was all good. The day after, both my roommate and I menstruated early and our cats got really sick. Since the pest control was the only thing that had happened recently that all four of us could be responding to, we asked Chem-Free to only treat the outside from here on out. Chem-Free did very nicely and attentively listen to our complaints, and assure us that neither early menstruation or cat illness could possibly be a side effect of their "all natural" "chemical free" treatment. But to their credit, they still listened and did as we asked. I was (at the time) happy to assume that by some bizarre coincidence all four of use were uniquely sensitive to some additive or another. I didn't really care, since they agreed not to treat the inside of our house any longer. We stuck with them for five years and I don't regret it, but here is the thing: When I finally got around to asking what their "chemical free" pesticide was made of, they told me it was a combination of pennyroyal extract and rosemary extract, and that was when I got *mad*. Because here are two things that I know, that apparently Chem-Free does not know (or didn't know in 2015 when this conversation took place), and there is *no excuse* for their ignorance: 1. Pennyroyal extract is a powerful natural abortificant. Tried-and-true methods for inducing miscarriage include drinking pennyroyal tea, and putting pennyroyal extract on your skin. So, I believe Chem-Free is exactly why my roommate and I both early menstruated the day after treatment. Further, I believe that if either of us had been pregnant, we wouldn't have been any more. That Chem-Free seemed unaware of this possibility, and could be treating the inside of homes of pregnant people without warning them of this danger, makes me deeply upset. 2. Rosemary extract, in high concentration, is poisonous to cats. (That's why in olden times, some folks kept feral cats off the property by planting rosemary hedges.) So Chem-Free's leaving high concentrations of rosemary extract in our house is, I believe, exactly why our two cats got sick the next day. And they both recovered quickly, but still, the fact that Chem-Free may be treating the inside of homes of cat-owners without warning them of this possible danger makes me really mad. I'm actually pretty happy overall with Chem-Free and their service, and I think if you're not pregnant or planning to be pregnant, and you don't have cats, they're a great option. I'm not really trying to talk anyone out of using them. It's just I was just looking at their website (because my apt is considering hiring new pest control, so I was checking out options), and noticed that *none of this* is mentioned anywhere on the website, which in retrospect I find deeply concerning. I think people (especially pregnant people and cat owners) really do need to be aware of this before they hire this company, and sadly, based on my own experience, I don't trust this company to inform you, so I'm taking that on myself. Finally to clarify the "yes, would hire again" above: I probably would, if I weren't a cat owner or a pregnant person. But first, before I hired them, I'd quiz them about the substances in their treatments (which--extracts are naturally derived chemicals, so frankly I find their description of "chemical free" to be completely erroneous; it doesn't have to be a synthetic chemical to be a chemical) and make my own evaluation of their safety for me and my family. Because based on the one, single agent I talked to in 2015 (and maybe they aren't all that bad), I don't trust their evaluation.

They always come out if I ask them to come out.

Chen-Free was really easy to work with, and the initial meeting was relaxed with no high pressure sales techniques. The rep provided lots of information, and once I hired them the work was done quickly and professionally.

They did good work but they were a little on the costly side.

We're very pleased. The entire experience was professional and punctual. They assessed our property (inside and out), than sent a tech to perform the service. Both the assessor and the tech were terrific and my wife and I really appreciated that they explained everything they were doing. (We used a competitor of Chem-Free the previous year and they couldn't be bothered to let us know exactly what we were getting for the $200+ we were spending.) So far, the service seems to be effective, but we'll update our feedback if necessary.

We had a stubborn ant infestation in our horse barn and Alita was able to get it taken care of in a few sessions. They also do periodic treatments in and around the house and it has really made a difference. Would highly recommend them.

We moved into our house last year, in July 2014.  It was a newly built house, and the sod had just been laid, and a sprinkler system installed, with pop-up sprinklers in the back, and underground soakers in the front ? as is standard in our new community.  In the fall, we contacted Chem-Free Lawn Services (owned and operated by ABC Home and Commercial Services) to provide us with weed control in our lawn.  Chem-Free came out, did a complete assessment of our lawn, including running our sprinklers in the front and back to measure the water output for additional recommendations. Based on this assessment, we signed up with Chem-Free for their ?Turf Enrichment Program?, which only includes natural fertilizers, weed control, disease control, and insect control. 
Around February of this year, 2015, a man from ABC (the parent company), came to our door and asked if we had sprinklers in the front of our house, we said yes and asked ?why??? He advised us that he had just aerated the entire front lawn and damaged the soaker sprinkler system through the entire front.  Now, this person never once knocked on our door to let us know he was performing this service, nor had we asked for, contracted for, or paid for this service.  He advised us that he?d have to tell his supervisor what happened. 
ABC then came out a few weeks later, and tried to ?fix? the sprinkler system, after digging up the yard during rains and making a mess of the front lawn, he advised that it was too damaged to fix, and they?d have to just replace the entire sprinkler system.  We weren?t happy, but we were cordial and as long as they fixed what they damaged, we were willing to work with them.  Finally they came out and dug up and replaced all the soaker lines.  This left large trenches of mud/dirt throughout our entire front yard including the new sprinkler tubes exposed through the yard ? our lawn, which was less than a year old.
In March, we contacted them and spoke with their landscaping department, Alma, and were advised that they would take care of it, and that they were so sorry.  We asked them to replace the sod and they agreed.  I received an the following email ?Dear Mrs. Galiardi, I have scheduled you for 4/1/2015 for us to install sod in the trenched areas and bury the exposed drip irrigation. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you. Alma Acosta?.
A week or so following, a person showed up from ABC (the same person who aerated our lawn causing all the damage). He had another person with him who was shoveling dirt out of the back of their truck.  While the other person was doing this, he advised that they ?could? put down strips of sod in the trenched places, but that it would just dry up and die, and that it was much
better to put down topsoil, and as long as we watered it, it would look just like ?new?.  Since they obviously planned to do this anyway, since they showed up with soil only and no sod, and since he advised that it would look like new, we agreed, again giving them a chance to fix the problem.  In April, we received a bill for $409.19 charging us for the topsoil. (After 2 requests, they finally got this straightened out and stopped billing this to our account).   
A couple weeks went by, and the yard still looked horrible, neighbors asking us ?what happened to your lawn??.  In May, we called and again talked to Alma.  She agreed that sod in the entire front lawn would be replaced at their cost, and that we were on the schedule for the first week of June.  We have not seen or heard from them since.  So, they aerated our lawn (a service which we never requested), without telling us about it ahead of time, when they had already done a sprinkler assessment and knew we had soaker sprinklers in the front, tried to ?band-aid? the problem several times, and I guess finally gave up. It should also be noted that the front yard is full of weeds, so they aren?t even fulfilling the contracted services we actually did pay them for?weed control.

I do a quarterly service at about $70. They are usually very prompt and pretty thorough. The service was good-satisfactory.

They charge 250 bucks a year and I think it is fine. The quality of their work is phenomenal. We have them on a calendar thing. They show up when they are supposed to. Their professionalism is fine. We would use them again in the future. We do not intend on changing.

I've been very pleased with the people I have has service my various contacts over the past 2 years.  Michael Keifer has been especially helpful.  He's very knowledgeable about what his company can do and can't do (I also keep asking for a magic bullet for those dang mosquitoes).

We started the service for both bug and lawn in the beginning of April. We were told that the lawn should start to improve over the next few months. Fast forward to August, now we're being told the lawn is bad due to compaction and we'd have to do something about it in the spring. They started service in the spring and didn't point this out to me. The soil has always been hard. We've had to use a pick axe to dig into the soil to plant flowers and do other work in the yard, so it's always been this way. But now they point it out 4 months later and telling me I should have done this in the spring. When I talked to the manager about it, he suggested maybe it wasn't that way previously. If I'm already going to get push back on this, I'm done trying to work with this provider to get results, and this was already after I agreed to try to work with them not to cancel. So flush that money down the toilet.
The bug service has also has been a waste of money too. I'm constantly killing all kinds of bugs in the house nearly daily. Certainly has not been worth it.
Update June 2015 - we started doing our own bug treatment with DE powder after all this from HEB, and that has been FAR more effective at controlling bugs than what they used.
My last bug and lawn service was very good, but they don't service this part of Texas.

Have been using them for years.  Always does a good job.

The provider offers to treat both inside and outside the house on every visit, but only treats inside if you report seeing live insects. I hired them 3 months ago and no longer see crawling bugs in the house (that's good) but still have active ant mounds in my yard. On the first monthly retreatment the tech did not call to confirm arrival and I missed him. I was nearby (walking the dogs) and expecting his call. $70 per month to scatter some ant bait (that isn't working anyway) seems pretty expensive to me.

was going to have them treat our lawn, but cancelled (they kindly
refunded) after looking into the products used which are CHEMICALS.
definitely not "chem-free". I'd prefer heavy duty vinegar and clove oil
etc to the herbicides, which is why I called them in the first place.
Get a new name.

They weren't 100% organic, they did their best to be organic, they did their best to correct issues in the lawn, I thought they tried. I just had to call them, and they would come out to deal with different issues. The price did seem expensive. I thought it was pricey.

I've been using this provider for 16 years and have always had good service.  It is very easy to reschedule if their computer generated time doesn't work for my schedule.  They also send the same technician each time (allowing for some slight turnover of staff) and for most of the time I've had two different technicians.  Always prompt arrival and minimal disruption while they are here.  Technicians are very polite and attentive to wearing foot coverings while in the house.

Perfect!

unknown

On time and complete all work timely.

It always goes well since we have been using them to do do two different homes for the past 8 to 10 years.

Great!  They were punctual and did a nice, high quality job.

They were friendly and knowledgeable.

They are fine.