Pennsylvania - 3/00. I have had an on-going battle with Terminix from the day we signed up with them.  They first told us for every person we referred to Terminix, we would have our next year’s maintenance fee waived.  We referred two people and never got credit, until I ranted and raved about it.  It was quite a battle.  Recently, we were doing some home renovation and ripped out a floor. Under the floor, we found termite damage; so I called them to come out and re-treat the area before the new floor was installed.  I had a two-day window to accomplish this.  I was told they were all booked. I explained it was an emergency, but to no avail.  They refused to come out. I’ve had it with Terminix!!!  I will not be renewing my maintenance contract with them ever again!!
Update (6/00): Terminix never did come out, although about two weeks after my barrage of letters to them, they called to schedule to come out.  I never called them back. I did receive a refund of my yearly maintenance contract fee (which I had paid prior to my having a problem).  The refund came after five letters of demand. I guess they were sick of hearing from me.

Tennessee - 3/00. We have had a problem with bugs since we moved into our newly-built house, and we hired Terminix to exterminate our bug problem.  During the first year, we had a wonderful technician named Ben who kept our home virtually bug free. However, when Ben quit, we got stuck with a new technician, Lucy. The service was poor; because she would often be weeks late for the monthly treatment, and the measures taken were ineffective.  During this time our house became infested with mice. She would not do anything about the mice after repeated requests.  After repeated phone calls for another technician, we finally got another one to help us with the mice problem. Once when we were away for the weekend in October 1998, Lucy left a message on Friday saying that she would be at our house that Saturday morning, two weeks after her “regular time.” As a result, we were billed for that month’s “non-service.”  Repeated complaints were ignored, and they made it difficult to contact them by phone.  Terminix’s web site ignored our e-mailed complaints. The final straw was when a new technician came to exterminate the new infestation of what we found out later to be pharaoh ants. Pharaoh ants are different from other ants in that their colonies will divide if you spray the visible ant trails, which is what this technician did. We finally had enough of this mess; and after no service for seven weeks, we canceled our service. The first thing the customer representative asked us was if we could prepay the remainder of our pest control contract. I told him, “What contract?  That contract expired in 1998 and we have been month to month, at least this month.”  We now do the pest control ourselves, except for termite control. We put ant bait out for four weeks to kill the ants, glue traps for the mice, and ant dust for the other ants.  We are using the heavy-duty do-it-yourself pest control spray every so often. We have saved ourselves over $300 a year on non-pest control service and we have better control of pests.

Rhode Island - 3/00. We used Terminix in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and our pest population INCREASED exponentially!!  We had a few ants prior to their service, following we had ants everywhere.  Their solution, just spray and bill.  I couldn’t wait to end our contract (I believe a one year contract).  In fact, I told my wife to call them and ask them not to return.

Florida - 3/00. Terminix bought out Action Exterminators, with whom I had a termite treatment contract.  Three years later, my tenant reported termite problems. I called Terminix four times, and they finally performed an inspection.  They documented minor damage and stated it was pre-existing.  They declined to honor their repair responsibility. Not taking it that easily, I quoted my Action Exterminator contract and sent the local Terminix agent my objection.  They conceded and performed the repair (all of about $35). Just this last November, I received my annual renewal notice.  It increased from $182 last year to $600 this year. Does this sound like an auto insurance agency punishing you for claiming a fender bender? Twice, I e-mailed Terminix.  Twice, the e-mail “bot” replied that I would be contacted with 48 hours. Never has Terminix contacted me. Since my contract didn’t expire until February 2000, I decided to get one last inspection before letting my contract lapse.  I phoned the 800 number in January and got nothing but attitude.  They use a phone number to access information.  Well, having rented my house three years ago, I couldn’t remember it.  The lady on the other end of the line took my current phone number and property address, but I never got an inspection. Not only is Terminix uncommitted to any service, I doubt any subsidiary of ServiceMaster is either. I’ll not do business with any of them.

Georgia - 3/00. Recently, my husband discovered termites in our home.  We called Terminix for an inspection and signed an agreement to have our home treated.  They were scheduled to come out at 9:00 a.m. By 11:00, we had not heard from them.  I called their office and was told their phone system was down and they could only receive faxes. I faxed them a strongly-worded letter and asked them to call me within 30 minutes. I decided to go onto the Internet to get the number for the corporate office and found your web site.  Thank goodness!!  After reading the horror stories of other folks, I immediately faxed a letter to Terminix canceling.  Thanks for helping me save a fortune!!!

Texas - 3/00. Just the other day, I sent Terminix an e-mail complaining about one of their companies. I have used them twice.  The first and second times, I invited them to spray my home.  The third time, they claim to have sprayed my home and have billed me for it.  The problem is that I did not authorize them to come to my home, nor was anyone here.  I was out of town.  When I returned, I found a notice claiming they had come to my house to spray.  The job I had them doing is inside my home. If the work is inside my home and no one was home, what are they trying to bill me for?  As I said, I did not invite them here, so why would they show up? I do not intend to pay for a service I did not receive or authorize.  I have not received a response from them yet.

California - 3/00. I am a mortgage broker and have been dealing in home loans for over 20 years.  I also teach Real Estate Finance classes and have since 1985.  I come across all types of termite companies in my deals, and my own aunt used Terminix to handle her termite reports and needs.  I had warned her about using them in our area, because most of my well-known realtors don’t use them; but she said that she had used them before, and it would be fine.  As it turned out, it was not okay.  They had inspected her home and charged her for additional spraying, etc., to keep her home up. When she went to sell her home, she was given a clean bill of health on her report.  When the new buyers used their own reputable inspector, there was major damage that had not been told to her by Terminix.  She ended up having to pay to have the work done for the new buyers on the sale of her home.  Needless to say, she was very upset and disappointed that everything had not been disclosed to her up front.  It was not a good experience for her. To this day, she says she’ll never use them or their services again!

Nevada - 3/00. I was a long time monthly pest control customer of Terminix in Florida and was very satisfied with their services.  I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, and signed up with their monthly pest control service here. For the first year, all went well and I really liked the technician. After a year, the technician informed me that Terminix was going to put a meter in his truck which would show when he was stopped and for how long. As he told me, “If I am getting all of my work done on time and my customers are happy, why should this be necessary?” The next month, he was gone... quit in protest. That’s when my nightmare began.  I no longer had a set date for service. They would show up at my door without calling to schedule an appointment.  I never saw the same technician twice.  One technician even asked me how to do the service! My complaints to the main office resulted in the following explanation, “We are trying to hire someone full time for your route. Until that happens, people will have to fill in whenever they can.”  This continued for nine months. In March 1999, I had to go out of town for a month.  I called the main office and asked that my service be suspended until my return.  One month later, I returned home to find a bunch of notices on my front door saying that they were there for service and I wasn’t home.  Now I was really angry, because those notices were like a red flag that I wasn’t home.  I called the main office, expressed my extreme displeasure, and asked that my service be resumed.  Two months later, I called again since no technician had called to schedule an appointment or even showed up at my door.  An appointment was scheduled for Friday morning.  Well, they never called and never showed up, so I called the main office.  Gee, they had a record of my appointment but hadn’t given it to a technician.  They said, “We will come next week.”  I said, “Show up today or you are fired.” I am now a very happy Orkin customer.  Believe it or not, they tried to make me pay for the month that I was out of town.  I finally called corporate headquarters and threatened to sue them if they didn’t back off from their demands for payment.  See, I saved all of the door hanger things saying that the service wasn’t done.

New Jersey - 3/00. We have pursued Terminix in the NJ courts for six years. We purchased our home in 1991 and after two years found out that the house had extensive damage and infestation.  Terminix had re-treated multiple times, repaired the damage two times (approx. $10,000), and pumped 300 gallons of pesticides into the home.  We reached a point of receiving a low response from Terminix; therefore, we pursued them legally. After the information was collected through discovery, we learned that:  1) Terminix had produced two separate inspection reports (one was used for settlement showing limited damage vs. the real story!); 2) Terminix had never fully treated the home (even after numerous re-treatments); and 3) the chemicals used were recalled by the manufacturer (EPA concerns) and Terminix was the exclusive distributor of these chemicals. We have refused to allow more chemicals to be pumped into our family’s home and are pursuing this with the intent to get out of the home.  At this point, we cannot sell the house due to the problem. We now have a home without value, potential health issues, costly legal expenses, six years of time, and a termite problem that has never really been addressed!  We have been delayed by Terminix through legal maneuvering, but we have won a court ruling that we are entitled to a jury trial based on several incidents of fraud. It appears we’re headed to court within the next six months.

Alabama - 3/00. I have had Terminix treating my home and business for about ten years. The last two to three years, I have had problems with termites at the office. They swarm more than once every year in my waiting area. Terminix says there is nothing wrong (this is normal??), but they have had to make repairs due to termite damage more than once.  Most recently, when they were called to do repairs, my son, having knowledge of construction, noticed the workmanship was substandard and asked if they had pulled a permit and had an inspection. Their reply was they did not need one (local law says they do!!); and that if I wanted them to pull down what they had already done so that the inspector could see the framing, that I would have to pay for the extra work.  I told them it was not my fault they performed illegal work, and that I would call the local inspection office, which I did.  The next day, I found out that Terminix ran to the inspections office that day to pull the permit, and then said they had it all along.  Terminix then showed us the permit, went ahead with the work, and did not call for the inspection, which they were supposed to do before finishing the wall. I now am looking at taking legal action. By the way, they did this knowing I wanted an inspection and knowing I was going to pursue the problem.  Guess they don’t care what you want or what is legal.