Pro Tech Pest Control

Unsatisfactory Service, Non authorized Charge on my Credit Card.In early July 2013, I hired PROTECH an extermination company to treat bedbug in one of my building because one of the tenants upon leaving made a claim that there were bedbugs in her mattress while living there. Prior to Mr. [redacted] treatment, I had a visual inspection done which did not reveal any real infestation.Mr. [redacted] of PROTECH told me that the treatment would cost $1075.00 and if additional treatments were to take place, the charge would be 50% less. On July 12 2013, two PROTECH technicians went to the property to treat the place. As a responsible owner, I decided to be present at that time (thank god). The two reps were there for less than two hours. They were all done. I have indicated to Mr. [redacted] that I did not think his guys did anything since they were there for a very short period of time. He did not answer anything to my remark. He proceeded by asking me to give him my credit card number so that he can charge me for the service. In September, his crew returned to the property to proceed with another treatment. I was not there at that point, therefore, I don't know if they even went there, what they did and how long they were there for. The only thing I know the problem was never resolved since the tenants were still complaining about the bedbug issue. Ever since Mr. [redacted] has been insisting on getting paid a second time even though the problem was never resolved. In December after sending Mr. [redacted] an email indicating to him that I did not feel comfortable paying him a second time for a job that was not done, he went without my authorization charge my [redacted] for $389.00 which was the amount of the bill for the treatment of 2 apartments. I called [redacted] and dispute the charge. Ever since he has been fighting [redacted] trying to get paid a second time for a job that was not done. As a result of this issue, I got sued by one of the tenants and ended up losing $1700.00 in rent. I ended up having to hire another company to resolve the problem which cost me another $2500.00 on top of the lost rent that I incurred due to his incompetency. The manager of the new company that I hired told me that they need a minimum of 3 hours per apartment for the treatment while the technicians from Protech were there for less than 2 hours to treat the 3 apartments. That's when I realized that I got ripped off by Mr. [redacted]. The first day the other Company went there for the treatment, I could not believe the level infestation that was on the second floor of the building. It looks like that there were never any treatment done to the building. Contrarily to the new company, Mr. [redacted] never game me a report regarding the treatment. After that treatment, there have not been any complaints and the tenants are claiming that things are normal and they can sleep at night.Judging by his behavior Mr. [redacted] has absolutely no work ethic. He is insisting in getting paid for a job that was not done properly. Desired SettlementI am requesting that Mr. [redacted] reimburse me the amount of $1,075.00. I am also requesting that he reimburses me for the amount of $1700.00 of loss rent due to the lousy job that he did.Business Response To whom it may concern & good morning, We were hired by Mr. [redacted] to resolve a bed bug problem in a three family apartment building that he owns in Worcester, MA. The terms for our service are we perform an initial cleanout, followed by an inspection 30 days after. When we perform the inspection we determine if there is going to be a need for a follow up treatment. In the event a follow up is needed, we perform that service for half of the cost of the cleanout price. In this case the cleanout price was $1,075.00. The retreatment cost would be $537.50. We will re inspect 30 days after any follow up treatment and perform follow up treatments as needed. It is typical to have at least two treatments and in some cases there can be three.In this case when the initial cleanout was performed not all of the tenants were 100% prepared and the mattress encasements that are supposed to be placed on the mattresses were not available from the tenants. Mr. [redacted] is incorrect in his statement that we were there for 90 minutes, we were actually there for 3 hours. Mr. [redacted] showed up to make sure we had access to the apartments and then left.Fast forward to the inspection after the cleanout. Our inspection showed that there was still evidence on the 2nd & 3rd floor apartments. The activity was far less, however we recommended a follow up treatment. The tenants also had not purchased their mattress encasements and had taken plastic and wrapped the mattress with it and secured them with duct tape. We informed Mr. [redacted] of this and informed him this will create additional harborage areas and make the situation worse. It took Mr. [redacted] approximately two months to set up the follow up service with us. This obviously allowed the bed bug population to grow. A insp.s performed 30 days after the 2nd treatment and evidence was found in a recliner on the 3rd floor, which the tenant said he was going to discard. Evidence was also found in the bedrooms of the second floor bedrooms were the plastic was still covering the mattresses. The 1st floor tenant refused to have there apartment treated. They indicated they did not want service and had no issues with bed bugs. Mr. [redacted] was charged $359.00 for the service of the 2nd & 3rd floors.After the second inspection Mr. [redacted] would not respond to phone or e mail messages requesting to set up a date for another treatment and to pay for the 2nd treatment. After 90 days of no response from Mr. [redacted] we charged his credit card the $359.00 in addition to the late fees of $30.00.In early January Mr. [redacted] finally contacted us to schedule the 3rd treatment for the property. The treatment was scheduled for January 8th. On January 7th we were informed by our credit card processor that Mr. [redacted] was disputing the charges for the second treatment. At this time we called him to let him know we were not going to the property until the dispute was resolved.Mr. [redacted] has indicated that he hired another company to provide the treatment in place of us on January 8th. This is not possible. State regulations require that pest management companies provide written notice no less that 48 hours before services can be rendered. In this case another company is not allowed to fill in. Also his request to pay him for his lost rent is ludicrous. It is reasonable to think that the tenant did not want to pay rent, however Mr. [redacted]'s slow response to his tenants needs are reason enough to hold back rent. We in no way can be held responsible for his renal loss.I thank you for this opportunity to provide our side of the story. If there are any further questions you may contact my office at XXX-XXX-XXXX or by the e mail address that this complaint was sent to.Thank You [redacted]Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)First of all, Mr. [redacted] statement that they were there for 3 hours is totally false. I was there on that day. He scheduled the appointment for 12:00pm. At around 1:15pm they were all done treating three apartments while the new company needed 3 1/2 hours per apartment. Mr. [redacted] will not accept the fact that he did a lousy job which resulted in me losing rent money. The same he never responded when I told him from the beginning that his workers were there for a very short time. I guarantee that there were not there for three hours. I went back to work that day which was an indication that they did not spend 3 hours. Had they spent 3 hours there is no way I would have been able to go back to work since I work an hour away. This would have meant that they left at 3pm which means I would have got to work at 4:00pm which does not make any sense since I usually work until 5:30. I was at work at around 2pm and made a phone call to give Mr. [redacted] my credit card number since I did not want to use my cell phone to do. I have proof of the phone call.Regarding his statement of the tenants not having the mattress encase, the second time he claimed that he returned for the second treatment, they had their mattress encasement. His statement on the last sentence of his 3rd paragraph is a total lie. He never informed me that the tenants had duct tapes on the plastic wrap. This is the first time I heard this.His fourth paragraph is also inaccurate; it did not take me two months to setup a follow-up. Mr. [redacted] had been twice there applying his treatment, I was under the impression that he had done his job. Who would not have thought so after paying $1,075.00 to a company to take care of a problem? I was under the impression that the problem was resolved.His fifth paragraph is also inaccurate; he was pushing to get paid $359.00 for a job that was not done to a satisfactory level. I had indicated to him many times that I did not want to pay a dime more until I was absolutely sure that the treatment was effective.His sixth paragraph he made it sound that I was out of the loop or was not involved at all. That's totally wrong. Scheduling a treatment in a 3 family can sometimes be challenging as you have to work around the 3 tenants schedule as they all work. Regarding the 1st floor he claimed refusing the treatment, that's totally inaccurate, he and I knew that there were no problem or bedbug activities on the 1st floor. Prior to Mr. [redacted] treatment, I had hired a company to come for a visual inspection, they did not find anything there; besides, there was ever any complaints from them. I had the first floor treated as a measure of precaution. Mr. [redacted] is talking about a 3rd treatment. I truly believe that there was not going to be any resolution with this. He would never give any warranty on his work; his business model is to make sure that he comes back because he knows that he will get paid every time he comes back. He's blaming me and the tenants for his failure to deliver. What kind of business would never give warranty on his performance? Without some kind of warranty it is like having a blank check. The worst is he went without my consent and charged my credit card which is why I disputed the charge. If Mr. [redacted] was a professional, he would have understood my reason as a customer my reluctance at not willing to pay a second time. His focus would have been on my satisfaction. When I called him in December to schedule a third treatment in January 8th, I clearly told him that one of the tenants was holding rent. He did not show any concerns, his focus was more on getting paid the second time and getting ready to charge again a third time for his incompetent work. At that point, I just did not want to argue with him, I just decided to hire another company which has done a great job at taking care of the problem.Mr. [redacted] is very deceptive in his business practice.He got paid $1,075.00 for nothingHe insists on getting paid a second time for a job that was not done. He went and charged my credit card without my authorization.He would never give warranty on his work.He never gave a report of what was done contrarily to the other company.For all these reasons, I disagree with his side of the story. He has a clever way of portraying others as the ones at fault while refusing to admit his wrong doing. That's not a way to conduct business. Customer's satisfaction should come first. The truth of the matter is he got paid for a job that he did not do. I had to pay another company to take care of the problem. He can use all the excuses he wants, the bottom line, he did not do his job.Best Regards,Final Business Response Good Morning [redacted], After reading the response from Mr. [redacted] it is clear that he did not understand how the process for bed bug elimination works. In his letter he indicates having a warranty, unfortunately there is NO warranty when it comes to bed bugs. Here at Pro-Tech we provide an initial cleanout followed by an inspection after 30 days. Depending on the inspection, we will perform another treatment as needed. The process continues till the bed bugs have been eliminated. It is very common to perform two treatments in perfect conditions and obviously when conditions are not met it can continue. Our agreement with Mr. [redacted] was to perform the cleanout on July 12th at a cost of $1,075.00. On that day the tenants on the second and third floor were not properly prepared and did not purchase their mattress encasements for us to install.In regards to the second scheduled treatment. That treatment was performed on September 6th. Almost two months after the initial cleanout as well as a month after the inspection. This delay in the schedule can allow for the bed bug population to continue to grow. Also on that treatment day the 1st floor tenant did not want their apartment treated and the 2nd and 3rd floors were the only ones serviced. Again the apartments were not 100% prepared and the proper mattress encasements were not available. The tenant chose to rap the mattresses in plastic secured with duct tape. This is obviously not acceptable and promotes further areas for bed bugs to harborage. Mr. [redacted] was made aware of theses deficiencies. We the performed an inspection of the second and third floor apartments 30 days after the second treatment. Mr. [redacted] was billed a prorated invoice of $359.00 for the second application, since the 1st floor did not want their unit treated. Mr. [redacted] indicated that he would forward a check at this time. We informed him a third treatment was going to be necessary. Unfortunately after many calls and e mails Mr. [redacted] would not respond or pay for the second treatment. Our terms for late payments are $10.00 monthly. After trying to contact Mr. [redacted] for over 90 days we charged his credit card the $359.00 plus late fees. this was done on December 10th. On December 11th Mr. [redacted] contacted us to schedule the third application. The third application should have been performed in the first week of October. This delay was without question allowed the population to continue to grow. Mr. [redacted] scheduled the third application for January 8th. On January 7th we were informed by merchant services that Mr. [redacted] was disputing the credit card charge made on December 12th. We informed Mr. [redacted] that due to his actions we would not perform the third application till he cleared up the dispute. He claims that he went ahead with another company for the January 8th treatment. This I find to be untruthful. State of Massachusetts regulations require all pest management companies to inform tenants of applications no less than 48 hours before treatment. Using our notices is not acceptable since different materials and methods may be used. I am formally requesting a copy of the work receipt provided on January 8th to Mr. [redacted]. Furthermore Mr. [redacted] states his difficulty in scheduling the treatments. I do not see how he feels that it is our responsibility for his tenants lack of cooperation or the lack of urgency to keep this process on track. A copy of the work receipt may be e mailed to [redacted]m or faxed to XXX-XXX-XXXX. I hope this information is helpful in your efforts to resolve this issue. Final Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)Mr. [redacted] can blame the tenants as much as he can for the failure to deliver on the job. When I hired his company to resolve the problem, I did not expect after 6 months to be dealing with the same issue. 1) He is still not addressing the fact that his crew was there for less 3 hours to treat 3 apartments when the other company needed more than 3 hours per apartment.2) He's still not addressing the question, that he never gave me a report of the treatment. Without a report, how can I go after the uncooperative tenants? He is just making all kind of claims and accusations instead admitting that he did a lousy job. The other company I hired sent me a detail report of what was done. I guaranty that they did absolutely nothing and he got paid. Now he's trying to blame me, blame the tenant for not cooperating.3) He can't give any proof where I authorized him to charge my American Express card for $359.00. He keeps talking about everything else except the real issue or the core issue of the problem.If Mr. [redacted] was a real professional with work ethic, here is what he would have done, if what he's saying about the tenant is the truth, he should have immediately informed me of the unpreparedness of the tenant. Instead he proceeded to do the job because he knows may not be effective. His attitude is to keep charging the client over and over again for failure to deliver which is why he can't give any warranty.He also mentioned that State Regulations requires 48 hours. I am not even sure why he's bringing this in here, other than to confuse people so that the main core of the issue can be ignored. The January appointment was already scheduled and the tenants were ready, he decided not to show up or not calling me back because I dispute the unauthorized charge. When I called the other company they were ready, so were the tenants, we proceeded to do the treatment. As indicated in my previous report, it was more important for Mr. [redacted] to get paid again for the incompetent job than satisfying the need of the customer.He's also claiming that he charged my card after 90 days not getting any response from me. I have several emails communications where I stated that I did not feel comfortable paying a second time for a treatment that was not effective. One should ask how does Mr. [redacted] feels about himself charging a second time and was ready to charge a third time for a job that was not done right the first time in the first place. Is that work ethic, is that good customer service? Doing in less than 3 hours a job that requires 9 hours? Not giving the customer a report of what was done? Charging the customer's credit card without his authorization?Best Regards,[redacted]

We contracted Protech for [redacted] to treat building for mice. They came in a few days, approximately September 8, 2013. They treated entire building and said it would take a week or 2. First floor tenant said that the mice were still there. We called and they came again. The third and fourth floor said that the mice also were still there. We called again. The first floor refused to pay rent because of mice and had to be evicted. This was a loss of about [redacted] The fourth floor also moved out because of mice, That has been a loss of [redacted].They were excellent tenants. I told the owner about the problems but they never seemed to do the job. I will also report this to the state licencing board. I feel they are not qualified to do job. I have treated the building with the same bait, only in larger quantities and have finally got rid of mice so tenants are not complaining. I just received another bill for [redacted] I do not feel I should pay this as they never fulfilled contract in a professional manner.I had to do the job myself. Also the bait packs used were less than a tea spoon, I have proof and tenants have witnessed. This was not enough to bait more than one mouse. Thank you for your help in this matter,Sincerely[redacted]XXXXXDesired SettlementI paid [redacted] to a licensed company and lost two tenants costing me over [redacted] I feel I should at least get the [redacted] back for work that was not done properly. This also can be verified by the the Worcester Board of Health. I also invested over [redacted] in bait.Business Response To Whom It May Concern,I have reviewed Mr. [redacted]'s claim against the [redacted] that is owed for treatment for mice at his rental property. Mr. [redacted] hired us last year for services rendered on September 16th of 2013. This service contained a six month warranty. When Mr. [redacted] called in in the first week of March 2014, I was away in the hospital undergoing treatment for an illness. My representative at the time did not check the warranty status for this treatment. Mr. [redacted] still had nine days left on his warranty and should not have been charged for this service. I apologize for the confusion. The invoice has been deleted from our system and he has no balance. Sincerely, [redacted]