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California 12/99-E1 (TE2-28). I was (embarrassingly) a Terminix Pest Department Manager. After three years of working extremely hard servicing my customers and giving 120%, I was promoted to manager. I quickly realized my grave mistake. I will never in my life find another business so poorly run. From technicians, office assistants, sales reps, inspectors, you name it, NO ONE GOT TRAINED PROPERLY!!! A 30-day training program set up for new techs was completed in two days (to save $$$) with all new techs, which was all too common. You could barely go through the front office, very rarely could anyone of them answer a question without putting you on hold for 5-10-15 minutes or longer. Only if you were lucky could you get the right answer!!! You might even be able to set an appointment for service, have the time the techs were late or never showed. The tech hardly knew how to properly treat a home. Most did a half A$$ job anyway. Some techs even hung tickets (I am sure you are not surprised). They never had adequate materials or equipment. Many, many times I tried to order equipment and materials only to be “denied due to cost overruns.” I would think, “cost overruns”? Customers pay for service, I will never have anything good to say about the sorry management. I am embarrassed to even be a former employee. I am embarrassed for all of their customers, because they are not aware of what’s going on.
California 12/99-E1 (TE2-27). I am so sorry to have heard about all your troubles with Terminix. I worked for them administratively for six years. I can wholeheartedly believe that you got the run-around not only from the SPCB and Charlie Peterson, but the Terminix entourage of attorneys as well. Terminix would never admit it, but they are sort of like a “good ole boys” network--and Lonnie Anderson is just one of many of their answer men. He is a very intelligent individual but has to work within the guidelines that the State of California gives him and cover the big “T”’s butt as well. Terminix, in my estimate, counts on the fact that the average consumer doesn’t have the funds to keep up long and costly litigation, and more times than not, that’s how they are able to keep on going. In reference to Lee Zusman, he holds the Operator’s license for the entire state of California for Terminix, so you can well imagine that it’s in his best interest to be on any panel that makes the company appear more professional. Are you aware that the minimum profit percentage for any branch in California is 25% -- more than most companies (this is a monthly profit margin I’m referring to). So the branch I worked in had an annual budget projection of 5 million dollars -- in one branch!!! Big money for a minimal amount of time spent doing either pest control work or termite inspections. Terminix’s unspoken law is five to six inspections per day, and their training is about three to four months and then they are thrust out into the field to sell. If something is wrong with an inspection, it is normal procedure to have the branch manager go out and inspect for himself, the theory being that they’ve been in the business long enough to know what is correct and what is not. Then it is discussed with the regional manager and sent to corporate in Memphis. If it is found that Terminix is at fault, MOST branches will submit a claim to RISC management. Lonnie Anderson also will inspect and report his findings to Memphis as well. Terminix has been shut down four or five days once before in the early 90’s for many different infractions; but most of the time if the State of California gets involved, they just slap the hell out of Terminix with a fine, and the branch manager just disappears either by being demoted or transferred, supporting your theory. By the way, unless the laws of California have changed since the summer of this year, the SPCB holds all termite reports filed from every pest control company in the state for three years, not two. Until recently, you could walk to the board and see stacks of reports everywhere ceiling high!! They have started using a high-speed scanner instead of microfiche to copy the reports. I’m sure this doesn’t help you much; but as a consumer, you have the right to request restitution. Hopefully at some point, the government will be able to stop Terminix’s attorneys from playing the paper game.
? 12/99-EG1 (TE2-26). I am a former branch manager. You may or may not be aware of a soil and ground water contamination at a TI in 1989 in Pennsylvania. I am not certain what the DEP conferred upon TI in the amount of fines, but do know that the ventilation system in the building where TI was located had to be cleaned. Additionally, the parking lot at the rear of the location had to be dug up to a depth of approximately 3 fee and removed for incineration. The chemicals in the soil consisted of deldrin, chlordane, aldrin, as well as numerous other chemicals whose names I do not recall at the moment.
Kentucky 12/99-E3 (TE2-25). I used to be a termite tech for about a year treating houses using Dursban TC. I had been having bad headaches for the past four months, then one day I was working and started to feel sick and dizzy. I couldn’t focus on anything. I ended up in the emergency room! I received the antidote for Dursban and ended up in intensive care for four days. Now I have migraine headaches and complete numbness in my left arm. I have seen many doctors, and they all say the same thing, that it was caused by Dursban. Now I am on disability and still see two doctors. I am now taking four different types of medication (28 pills a day) from this stuff! It has affected my central nervous system in many ways, the doctors say! I have had a workers comp lawsuit going on about this matter since 1996. They “Terminix and TruGreen Lab” say that Dursban could not be the cause of my disabilities!
Missouri 12/99-E1 (TE2-24). I am a pest control technician for Terminix and am appalled at what my employer is doing here. I have always had pride in my job and made sure that customers were taken care of on my route area. I am sure Terminix is not alone as far as this stuff goes. I have been thinking about starting a franchise of my own (not a Terminix one), and this is just what I needed to give me a boost to do it and to provide excellent service and no lies. It’s a shame that there are some rotten apples working for us; and for this, if it matters, I apologize for. My best advice to give anyone when dealing with any termite and pest control company is to get a second opinion before signing anything, and READ THE CONTRACT!
Web mistress note: My advice to anyone working for Terminix who plans to go forth on his or her own is to read your employment contract, which I believe contains a non-compete clause. Terminix has sued former employees for violation of the non-compete agreement.
Update. I was a Terminix employee for over three and one-half years and saw customer after customer get ripped off on Sentricon. The care and maintenance of the stations was supposed to be kept with fresh wood in it; but on many occasions after following behind fellow employees and supervisors, I found the station to be in pathetic shape. Sometimes, I would find stations that had no wood left in them because the termites had eaten all the wood and moved on. Bait tubes getting moldy in the ground after you bait a station, which in turn drives the colony away from the station. I have seen chemical treatment where the applicator had no clue as to the rate of termiticide going into the ground other than counting to 12. I never remember them ever calibrating the equipment, which is what you are told to do to ensure proper amounts of chemical in the ground.
The things that have gone on with this company that I have seen were if they destroyed or damaged something, it was to deny it to the fullest extent, even when they knew they had done wrong. I was instructed by my branch manager to do so after a customer of mine filed a complaint on damages done to her carpet from years of baseboard jockeying of chemical in her home. She was in the process of suing Terminix and, therefore, was one of my reasons for leaving the company, to take a less-paying job, and also the hell I went through with them when my grandmother passed and I was gone for a week and a half. Upon my return, I got griped at for being gone too long. I also found a stack of customer invoices from the whole month still sitting in my box untouched. I was told to get it done; and if I had to, to work 12-hour days. Soon after, I found another job with a four-day work week; and still, after 35 days since my leaving, I have yet to receive my final check. I contacted the Department of Labor regarding this; they contacted Terminix; and they proceeded to lie again, telling them they would mail my check out Wednesday. It’s four days past that day of mailing, and I have still not gotten my check. I only live 40 minutes from their office, so I guess they must be sending it snail mail. All I want is to be done with them; and, yet, they keep wanting to play games, like they always do with customers and employees alike.
Tennessee 12/99-E1 (TE2-23). The pest control company I worked for was bought out by Terminix last year. Hardly any of the 100 employees stayed with Terminix. One reason was that Terminix has such a reputation of being a “hit and run” type of company. Their philosophy is get the check and then forget about the customer. They are the biggest crooks in the business and are allowed to get away with so much. Being part of ServiceMaster, you would think they would be more responsible since ServiceMaster is a business based on “Christian” values. As for their policy on repairs, each branch is allocated x amount of dollars for repairs each year. When the branch runs out of repair money, that’s it. It’s cheaper for them to go to court if anybody goes that far. I could tell you a lot more, but it would take forever to type it.
Virginia 12/99-E3 (TE2-22). In my ongoing dealings with Terminix customers, I meet with negative regard for the company for the majority of my work. By the time I get to the customer’s home, that customer has been exhausted of his, or her, benefit of doubt. I take pride in my work and am pleased with a customer’s satisfaction. I do my best to gain the trust of these people, but many times I have finished my work, only to look back to the face of a person that seems to say “good riddance.” I also do my best to put myself in that person’s shoes, in that they have had to deal with a swarm of termites in their kitchen, or bedroom, or living room, and so on. To add insult to injury, given the troups of inspectors and salesmen and even area managers, the customer has been run through so many lines of well... BS.., how could they be overjoyed to see the carpenter pull up, ready to do the repairs. Understandably, they aren’t. Your web site has adequately covered the proper adjectives regarding the common Terminix representative: irresponsible, neglectful, careless, and I’ll throw one in: conniving. To be honest, I side with the customer, because of what I have learned and watched regarding the salesmen and representatives that deal with these people before me. Of course, Terminix does not (my opinion) have the presence of mind (or maybe it’s that careless facet) to (even) warn the carpenters, who are the last employees to address a claim, that the customer is irate. So many times, I have met with customers who are downright surly. The truth is, most customers will settle down, given a few hours of my work. Usually, I leave a job with pretty good sentiments to and from the customer. We carpenters are the low men on the totem pole, of employees, but we really are a good bunch too. On the whole, we are underpaid for what is asked of us. Much of our work goes outside the job description of a carpenter, and more than some of our details are hazardous. Consider a severely damaged carrying beam, or a damaged wall that is supporting a second floor, and so on.
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