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Northeast 9/01-E1 (TE6-70). I recently quit working at Terminix; and after reading this web page, I couldn’t feel any better about my decision. Every employee complaint hits the nail right on the head; but in all actuality, it’s gotten worse, and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon. Here’s the employment that was MY nightmare.
First, I was lied to during the interview. I was told I would make around $35k for a full year, and I figured that wasn’t bad. I'm just a kid in the middle of college, and doing that kind of work for six months for that money didn't sound so bad. Of course, I found out there are only about 2-3 of the 28 techs who actually eclipse that mark in a given year (which is hard to determine since they lose 15-20 techs a year). I was also told I'd need to work one Saturday a month, and during the summer months might have to work up to 9 hours. During my few months with Terminix, I worked every Saturday; and I worked over 12 hours almost half the time. This was of course done so I could get my inordinate number of stops done in a day (and I still had some unserviced.)
Secondly, Terminix gave me a route that was 50 miles away from the branch office because it was "closer" to my home. This would have been fine and dandy, but I still had to report to the branch office once, twice, and sometimes three times a day. That takes about 3½ hours out of my day on occasion, but I'm still supposed to complete 15-20 stops a day. That’s not a problem though, I don't mind working until 1 a.m. just to get back to my draw salary.
We were fortunate enough to have the regional manager come in and tell us all how bad of a job we were doing by not completing our routes every month. That was BS for us to say doing 15-20 stops a day wasn't possible everyday. We were lazy, we didn't care, this all being said to us by the most slovenly dressed, ill-mannered man, who, when he was in our office, spent more time playing around on AOL than dealing with any problems. He also informed us that we will be getting all the pesticides we needed and that was a guarantee. So how'd that turn out? Well, how do most Terminix guarantees turn out?
To the people reading this who complain about the techs though, I wouldn't pin the blame on them. Techs get a workload that’s basically impossible to complete. Sometimes they get tickets that need them to be in four different cities between 8-10 a.m. That’s just not possible, and it’s not their fault; but you still get an earful from the managers regardless. Terminix management basically straight out told me to go to the starts first (because that gets Terminix the money) and leave Sentricon traps last. And that’s what techs do. Techs get around $5 for a stop for Sentricon. And, of course, Terminix makes the $2,200 or so a year off it. Techs are forced to look out for themselves because nobody else is going to.
I don't know how many surprised customers I saw when I told them what was in the Sentricon stations.. WOOD.. it’s just WOOD. There’s no pesticide in there, it’s just by golly gosh darn wood! They don’t bait the stations until they find termites; and if your house hasn't been looked into in over three months, it’s too late anyway and you just blew the 2 grand you spent on the service and now you ALSO get to repair your house.
Finally, I wasn't the least bit surprised to see the majority of my customers were elderly people. Ones who haven’t seen a bug or rodent in their house for over a year but are signed up for both pest and termite contracts. I know they're being scammed first hand because I went to a house where our "inspector" (hidden name for SALESMAN) told the lady he would sign her up for a one-time deal to get rid of a wasps nest above her bedroom. After doing so, I looked at the contract. She was also signed up for carpenter ants and termites for two years apiece... a total of $5k... and she knew NOTHING ABOUT IT. It made my teeth cringe, and it was also the last straw.
I could go on with a hundred other things that went wrong in the last five months, but I'm sure everyone else has already posted it already.
I didn't need anything more, but this young person's letter might give others an even better appreciation for the web site at: http://members.tripod.com/tornado2000/simplecon.html.
Pennsylvania 8/01-G1 (TE6-69). I am an employee of this company, and you’re right. They do sell false hopes, and no set prices. It’s a shame. There’s even a branch manager that was fired from Orkin for stealing money. I can’t believe they made him branch manager, let alone even hired him.
Tennessee 7/01-E1 (TE6-68). I was an “executive services” employee for the home office in Memphis for a short period of time. Gosh, the horror stories I could tell you! When customers wrote or called in to Cantu, they thought the complaint was going to his desk; however, he never even saw them. I handled them with three other people. Terminix, in fact, sent me a gag order as I was in touch with past customers that had millions of dollars worth of damages that the “bastards” at Terminix denied!! They need to be put out of business. Terminix is nothing but a SCAM!!!
Put it this way -- the legal department sent me a letter to “keep my mouth shut or else.” I have been contacted by [name withheld] a reporter for Dateline* in NY and given her much info and names. I have tons of horror stories, deaths, illnesses. Terminix trains their employees to lie and the guarantees they give are not worth anything under any condition, and never have I heard of the techs EVER using the proper chemicals. They are trained to water them down to almost nothing!! The customer service employees are told to tell customers looking for refund checks that they are in the mail and when they never arrive, “Sorry, but the first one hasn’t been returned, so we cannot issue another one.” The only checks I ever saw go out were the ones I personally hand carried to get signed, and I would take them home with me and put them in the mail so they were not to be intercepted!
Web mistress note: I was also in contact with the same Dateline reporter and provided her with a wealth of information and contacts. Just as 60 Minutes dropped their story of ServiceMaster suing me after they scheduled a week for on-camera interviews, Dateline has chosen to put the information about Terminix “on the back burner.” Since these cases are both newsworthy and in the public’s best interests to know, is the media protecting the interests of Terminix and ServiceMaster or are they afraid of something?
Pennsylvania 6/01-E1 (TE6-67). I am a former Terminix employee who came up through the ranks, starting as a termite treater and then pest control tech, and then eventually service manager. I know for a fact certain Terminix branches in western Pennsylvania knowingly had uncertified/non-registered techs running routes and falsely putting the service manager’s name and certification numbers on the paperwork. I could go on for days. I left the company four years ago because I saw that “customer service” was long gone and buying up every small company to increase customer base was more important. And then there’s Sentricon! What a farce!
South Carolina 5/01-G1 (TE6-66). I was an employee of Terminix for three years...now have my own (albeit small) pest company. The procedures we followed at my branch were absurd to say the least.
Georgia 5/01-G1 (TE6-65). I am not at all surprised. Being a former employee, I have seen Joe Finney, at the time a manager for a branch of Terminix in Marietta, GA, offer customers $100 and play down their damages without having any idea as to the extent thereof. Obviously being in a position to criticize, I can nevertheless swear to it that they were anything but “service” oriented. The unspoken motto was “sales will bring them in the front door and service will send them out the back.” It is a numbers game with this particular institution; and as long as there was some net gain at the end of the year, that was all they cared about to put it mildly.
Arkansas 4/01-E1 (TE6-64). Could some of this be catching up with Terminix? I work as a partner doing termite repair for Terminix. Well, I did. We had to drop them from our client list. What could be the reason a small-town carpenter would drop a National account from their client list? They don’t pay!
When you begin work with Terminix, you are told checks are paid three weeks after you turn in your bill. Well, first it was four weeks waiting, then up to nine weeks. We told the folks we would no longer do business with them, but they blamed the delay on an ice storm. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, we agreed to do a job about 75 miles away from our homes. The original agreement was that they would pay one carpenter for driving each way and pay for fuel used. (They were too cheap to put us up for the night, which should have set off bells and sirens; but we wanted to do the right thing and gave them one more chance.) That was four months ago, and we still have not received our check. BTW, travel time was not allowed; and fuel will not be paid for IF we ever get our check. Perhaps they should not contract work they can’t afford to pay for.
There must be financial problems at Terminix for something like this to be going on.
? 5/01-E1 (TE6-63). I, too, am an ex-Terminix employee. I read every single letter from the ex and current employees, and it all sounded like a broken record. My first day with Terminix, I rode with another new guy who had experience with another company. We went to two houses. He showed me how to treat for general pests. The rest of the day, he sat in the truck while I bluffed my way through the rest of the day’s work. That was all the training I ever received.
As for complaints about pay, all true. They rip you off any and every way imaginable. I worked 12-hour days, six days a week for years. My reward? Being denied health and dental benefits when I needed them most. Wife pregnant? Sorry. Improper paper work. Dental insurance files lost in the mail? Tough luck.
As for customer service? The customer be DAMNED! Chemicals were rationed to the point you were basically spraying water. A customer with termites? Those aren’t termites! They only LOOK like termites! Termite damage? It was there before we came on the scene and therefore isn’t our responsibility! The contract clearly states live termites MUST be found before we approve damage repairs. (Of course, the termites were disturbed and left when initially discovered). Bottom line? Greenbacks. Every branch manager is paid a yearly bonus that’s a percentage of that branch’s fiscal year profit, generally 10%. Oftentimes, this yearly bonus would equal or exceed their 40-50K salary. This scheme gives great incentive to the branch manager to keep wages, chemical and repair costs to an absolute minimum. Every dollar NOT paid out is money in his pocket.
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