How to avoid scams – Orange County Pest Control Pest Control Scams

When you have a pest control problem in your home, you want it taken care of as soon as possible. Your first impulse is to call a pest control service, and schedule an inspection and treatment. Unless you have used the service before with good results, you should first consider a few things to avoid some common pest control scams. Get Recommendations Most good pest control company’s prices are similar. I know when I am looking for a service of any kind I seldom uses the cheapest guy. I have found in my lifetime that cheap usually means cheap service. That price is being used to get customers rather than the company trying to sell me on their superior service is important to me. You may want to talk to a couple of different companies before taking any action including asking friends and neighbors for their recommendations. Check Out the Company Homeowners should check out the company before hiring them Check if the company is a licensed pest control company. In California a pest control company working on you home needs a Structural Pest Control License. You can google California Structural Pest Control Board and look up the companies license. If its work on your landscaping, like gophers and ground squirrels, you have to go to the Department of Pesticide Regulation site to check out their license. Get a written estimate of the work needed and costs before doing any work so you can compare their services with others you may be looking at. Red Flags Avoid using any companies that show red flags when you are looking into using their services. Some of these include: 1. Use high pressure sales tactics or have unusually low prices or sales. 2. When someone comes to your door to sell you a pest control service, it’s important to know that they have to have a Structural Pest Control License. Tell them to wait, go to your computer or cell, look up Structural Pest Control Board, go to license look up and find out if that person has a license. 3. Unlicensed person identifying pests inside or outside your home. IDENTIFYING PESTS IN, OUTSIDE OR AROUND YOUR HOME, by law must carry their license at all times so ask for it? 4. All cities require door to door salespeople to register with the city. They should carry a badge or card from the city to show they have register and paid their fees. This is done to prevent scammers from taking advantage of the people within the city. 5. Don’t use companies who have more than a few unresolved customer complaints recorded. Good pest control companies can’t please everyone no matter how hard they try. If I am looking at a company to do work for me I want to know how they handled customer’s complaints. If the company bashes a customer’s complaint, or doesn’t respond to a complaint, I cross them off my list. 6. Pest Control Companies that have 100’s of reviews and no complaints are a red flag for me. It’s pretty much impossible now days to not run across someone you can’t please. Common Pest Control Scams Scams involving licensed technicians: It’s not uncommon for pest control companies to send out a technician with a valid license on an initial call to write up the order, then send another technician (without a license) to do the actual application. Check the Structural Pest Control Boards website. It will list the License employees of that company. 2. Unsolicited inspections: If someone knocks on your door and tries to sell you a pest control service expect to have them tell you of the free inspection, how they will beat anyone’s price. They will also point out problems. Remember to ask for their license, if they say they don’t need one to sell send them away. You’re dealing with an integrity issue of that company. 3. A common scam is to show up unannounced, pretend to inspect for pests and sneakily stage evidence of an infestation to convince homeowners that they need their services. Remember that a License is needed to identify pests, recommend a service and spray any chemicals. I wouldn’t even consider using someone I didn’t call out. This scam is also used to distract you so a second person can get in your home to rob you. BEWARE! 4. Permanent contracts: Ask about the cancelation policy of the company. The legitimate companies will have a 30 day written notice in their contract. Just pay for the last service, send the written notice in and that’s it. The high pressure companies will hide a cancellation fee in their contracts. That can range from $100 to $150 dollars or even more. Don’t go for those service agreements. Hopefully the information provided here will give you some guidance when looking for a pest control service. David Wheeler, David Wheeler Pest Control