Apex Pest Control

This morning, we received a message from our answering service stating that Ms [redacted] had called the previous day complaining that her service had not been doneThe message stated that the technician had put the ticket in the front door, sat in his truck for a while and leftPrior to calling Ms ***, I checked with the route technician who had done the service (the regular technician was out sick) to see if anything out of the ordinary had happened during her service and he said “No” (this technician has been with the company for years and receives glowing compliments from his customers) He said when he arrived at the house, he placed our service ticket on the front door, treated the foundation with Termidor using a one gallon hand can, treated the front and back yard areas with his power sprayer, and then checked the eaves/windows/doorways for webs Three trips were made around her home When leaving, he reached back over the fence and placed the open lock back through the hasp so that the gate was secured (prior to our arrival the lock had been left open and removed from the hasp so that we would have access to the back yard) He went back to his truck, finished his paperwork for the [redacted] account and then checked the map to see where his next account was He was on site for minutes (a GPS device in the truck confirms this) A typical residential service takes 15-minutes I asked the tech if he made contact with the customer during the service and he said “No” (there is a note on the account, per Ms ***’s request, do not ring bell or knock) Our technicians are trained to make contact with the customer upon arrival to let the customer know we are there to do the service and to check and see how everything is on the interior Ms [redacted] previously requested that we do not make contact upon arrival Around 9:AM I called Ms [redacted] to follow up on her complaint Ms [redacted] told me: “the technician never did the service He put the tag in the door, sat in his truck for a while and then leftHe never went in the back yard He never did anything.” I informed Ms [redacted] that the tech had indeed gone in the back yard, in fact he had placed the lock back in the hasp when he left Ms [redacted] then said she keeps her blinds closed on her windows but had seen a shadow go by a rear window (this is confirmed in her complaint) I asked her if he didn’t do the service, why would he be in the back yard?? Her reply was “he wanted to see what the yard looked like so he could convince his boss that he did the work” ???? And relocking the gate was part of his elaborate charade ?????? I informed Ms [redacted] that we would not be charging her for the work we had done Ms [redacted] is not the first customer to believe a back yard was not treated In most situation I would quickly have the technician return to the property and redo the service but I was greatly concerned that Ms [redacted] thought our technician was a crook and dishonest and questioned the integrity of our companyThis is not the relationship I want with our customers I reluctantly set an appointment for her regular technician to return on Monday to do the service againWhen I got off the phone my office staff informed me that this is not the first time that Ms [redacted] has made claims that the service was not done Later in the day when I returned from lunch, my office manager (Tami) told me that Ms [redacted] had called again and was making allegations that our technician is a con artist and he has everyone duped I instructed her to call Ms [redacted] and inform her that she needed to find another pest control company as we would not be servicing her account anymore Ms [redacted] became irate with her and told her we couldn’t cancel her account Tami informed her that she should have no problem finding a new company that could fit her needs Her claim that the spray doesn’t dry in ten minutes!! It quite often does, even on degree days Per State guidelines, we try to keep applications to concrete areas to a minimum My guess is Ms [redacted] did not realize we were on her property until we were sweeping the webs (“saw a shadow”) At that time, she saw us return to the truck, do some paperwork and leave Thus, no service was performed Allegations like this are the primary reason we try to make contact with our customers at every service Ms [redacted] has asked that we do not try and make contact We have not charged Ms ***’s account a dime for the recent work we did on her property I did choose to terminate our service with her as I will not subject my employees to abusive, unfounded attacks