Harbor Termite and Pest Control

Review: My experience with Harbor Pest has been a disaster. I have contacted them to rectify the situation. Their response was to blame me for expecting a termite inspection and service to identify all termites and remove them, to make excuses, and further to claim that I told the inspector to make an incomplete inspection--which I did not. A customer has a reasonable expectation that a termite company will perform an inspection and remove all termites. This is not what happened. Unfortunately, this is only the first of my complains with Harbor.

Today, December 16, 2013 I learned that Harbor is claiming I did not pay for the service performed. This showed up in an escrow document where they are claiming I owe them a total amount of $1075.00. This includes a down payment of $212.00 on a check that has cleared the bank. I paid the full amount of $863.00 on November 1, 2013. However, Harbor must have lost or misfiled this check because it has not cleared the bank. Because I just learned of this today I stopped payment on the lost check tonight at an additional personal cost.

Below I will paste the letter I wrote to Harbor Pest.

December 5, 2013

[redacted] Office Manager

Harbor Pest Control

Dear Ms. [redacted]

On October 4, 2013, your pest inspector [redacted] came to [redacted] and did a termite inspection, I accepted Harbor’s bid for work, and the work was performed on October 23, 2013.

My goal in hiring Harbor Pest to complete this task was to treat the house for termites so that any and all the termites would be removed. Unfortunately, while this is what I paid Harbor for, this was not the result.

On November 26, 2013, less than five weeks later, [redacted] returned to my property and informed me that I had subterranean termites. Imagine my shock in finding that the job I had hired Harbor to do was not complete. This is hard to swallow and I was told treatment for this would cost an additional $550.

In addition, on this visit, [redacted] found many other instances of areas where termite repairs would be required before he would “sign off” on a termite inspection for escrow. I am writing you because it is clear [redacted] did not do a proper inspection for damage the first time and additionally, failed to organize a complete termite treatment—the first time. I am now faced with over $5000 in additional costs and the possible loss of a sale of my home because of Harbor Pest’s errors.

I have been a homeowner and landlord for over 25 years so I have had many opportunities to work with talented and competent contractors --and I have never had a problem. The situation has been extremely upsetting for my family and damaging to my escrow...Desired Settlement: Below I will paste the remainder of the letter I wrote to Harbor Pest.

...For these reasons, I am requesting Harbor Pest consider good customer and public relations and complete the termite treatment and the additional repairs [redacted] found at Harbor’s expense.

Business

Response:

Dear Ms.

[redacted]:

Review: I contacted Harbor Pest control and contracted with them to provide Termite tenting and insurance for a personal property around 2010. After the original inspection and tenting, they refused to provide any follow-up treatments when termite activity was detected, even by professionally contracted roofers in June 2013. The service associates refused to test the roof for infestation without having the roofers return at my expense. The service associate refused to check the attic space as he could not fit. A complaint was left with the service technician without a response. A complaint was then left with their customer service desk without a response. I was contacted to re-new with them for another year, and a follow-up complaint was delivered to their customer service representative Aug 20th that got the response... 'We'll get back to you in one or two days'. I followed up again Aug 29th, and received my first phone call from [redacted], who explained her VP is out of town, and proceeded to lecture me why everything the service technician did was right, and I am wrong as a home owner to expect their employees to check for termite activity. Her last note was to let me know that my policy expired one day prior on Aug 28th, and chastised me that I should not have commented that one of their employees was too large to inspect my attic or roof. The company advertises comprehensive termite coverage, but does not come through. Their field representatives and customer service desk upsell that all incidents are not under warranty unless you pay upcharges for additional treatments. After a few years as a customer, every service call for active infestations were always met with a "that's not covered". I always had to treat infestations myself with Home Depot bought supplies. Home owners be weary.Desired Settlement: This company advertises termite coverage, but does not come through, so I'm asking for a refund of my last year's dues. They have never treated my home since the original tenting even when called to the property and seeing visible signs of activity. Even if I do not receive a refund, maybe this can forewarn other customers they may be treated as a nuisance rather than a policy holder.

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted], Revdex.com Representative:

Although disappointed that my team and I have not come through for the customer, I do feel that the customer's Desired Settlement is reasonable. As requested by the customer under the Desired Settlement portion of their complaint, I put a check in the mail for a refund of the customer's last year's dues. Attached to this email is a copy of the check and my letter, which accompanied the check.

I am disappointed that we did not come through for this customer. My team and I are committed to learn from this experience so that we are able to improve our service and customer relations in order to meet the Pest and Termite Control needs of our customers.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need anything else from me. Thank you for your help resolving this complaint.

Sincerely,

[redacted] Owner