Last week I called to have a portion of…
Last week I called to have a portion of my patio (6ft. X 8ft.) sprayed for ants. I called them because they were a family owned business and I assumed I would get better service for a fair price than I would get from a chain like Orkin. They were quick to respond.
I asked the tech for a price and he told me he couldn't give me one without seeing the job. He said they normally charge $375 to spray an entire foundation. He told me he knew it would be less than that and that he would take care of me. He suggested that he also spray around the gazebo that sits next to the patio. I said I didn't think it needed it, but we could discuss at the appointment. He said he would be there around 9:00-9:30 the next morning, but he had a job first that he wasn't sure how long would take and that he would call or text me to tell me when he was on his way so I could meet him there.
At noon the next day I still hadn't heard from him so I called to see when he would be coming. Much to my surprise he had already been there and left. He told me he sprayed the entire patio (which I didn't ask he do that) which is 20' by 12'. He sprayed around the gazebo (18' X 12'), which we agreed we would discuss. He told me he gave me a great deal of only $300.
I told him I thought that was high and that if I knew he was going to charge that much for such a small area I wouldn't have had them do the job. He admitted he was supposed to call and said he forgot. He told me what a great job he did and that it was fair.
I called the company to complain. The owner called me back and offered me only $50 off. While I understand there is a trip charge for these things, I was only willing to pay $175, which seemed more than fair for a 20 minute job (that is how long they said it took on the invoice) and a small amount of chemical (the slip said they used 1/4 of a gallon).
So if retail price on the chemical was $100 for the quart they used, that means they billed me $600 and hour for the job.
They were deceitful in saying they would call me to meet them at the job, did more than I asked them to do, and insulted my intelligence when trying to justify the price of the service.
I will never use them again. You shouldn't either.
Barry Clairmont, CPA