Pest Management Services, Inc.

Review: On August 29, 2013 the homeowner, an elderly woman, called PMSI to have squirrels removed from the side wall/doorway entrance to a garage apartment. The squirrel nest was visible through a tennis ball sized hole and easily reachable by hand or tool. The inspector, [redacted], who came to look at the job, presented the homeowner with one work order for a price of $600 to run 16' of leaf defier (plastic siding) under the back roofline of the garage and a second work order for an addtional $1,150 (we believe the homeowner read it to be $150). The workorders listed rental of a squirrel trap for 3 days, 2 pieces of 16' siding, flush the apartment attic (no squirrels were located here) and seal a vent inside the attic of the main house (no squirrels were located here). It is unclear why 2 separate workorders were generated and work was included that was not requested. Over a period of 2 weeks the technicians visited the house sporadically to check the trap. Since the trap was located outside of the apartment and within feet of [redacted] park, one racoon was secured and removed during this time. Also during this 2 week period, the technicians came on 4 separate occasions - usually to check the empty trap and once to install 2 pieces of 12' siding along the side roofline of the garage and 1 piece of black stripping along the front roofline of the garage. On September 3rd, the homeowners check for $1,750 was cashed by PMSI and by September 9th several items on the workorder still had yet to be completed. On September 10, the homeowners family became aware that PMSI had charged the elderly homeowner $1,750 to install 4 pieces of plastic stripping/siding and provide four 5 minute visits to check the traps. The homeowners family felt that this outragous amount for minimal materials and services rendered was not only unreasonable, but boardered on predatory practices to the elderly homeowner. On September 11, a family member contacted [redacted] at PMSI to dispute that the homeowner did not need a majority of the services sold to her and that the costs associated were inflated and criminal to someone on a fixed income. The homeowner clearly had been taken advantage of. The family member requested that **. [redacted] provide detailed information regarding cost of materials and cost of labor for each item listed on the work order and **. [redacted] indicated "we don't really do it that way". He was unable and unwilling to produce concrete itemization of the expeditures. The family member pressed for an estimate of the remaining uncompleted work, which was then reluctantly valued at $400. The family member requested immediate termination of the contract and a refund of the remaining unfinished work estimated at $400. **. [redacted] indicated that the contract could not be broken and the homeowner would not receive any sort of refund since the check had been cashed. During that very phone call, a PMSI technician arrived to the home, unscheduled, when the homeowner was not on the premises. The family member then had to make a snap decision whether to have the work completed since monies had been paid, or send the technician away at the risk of not getting the refund and having an unfinished job.Desired Settlement: The homeowners family has since had an opportunity to research a more accurate assessment of what should have been proposed to the homeowner in order to remove the squirrel from the wall. They also researched what would have been fair and reasonable charges for the services proposed by PMSI and found the following through multiple unrelated sources "A professional might charge an initial fee of $100 to $250 for an evaluation/inspection. The cost is often rolled into the total price of squirrel removal. Squirrel removal is estimated based on the number of animals that need removal, how much clean-up and the number of service trips, which can run $45 to $85 per visit. In most cases squirrel control should cost $500 or less. " At this time the homeowner feels that a fair and reasonable charge to remove the squirrel from the outside wall of the garage would have been more in the price range of $500 - $750. The homeowner payed 3 times the reasonable amount by being sold materials and services that were not necessary to complete what should have been a very simple job. The homeowner is requesting a refund of $1,000 by PMSI. If PMSI is unwilling to reimburse the homeowner, the family will request a full investigation into predatory and unethical practices.

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because: