|
Arizona - 9/07. I worked for Terminix for about 5 years. All they do is steal from customers and employees, from local to regional to corporate. They make up false stops so they don't get in trouble with the structural pest control commission. When I was on vacation, all my stops were done with my name on the tickets and license number. I tried to get this resolved internally, but all I got was dirty looks and lies from management. The day I contacted the SPCC, I was fired the next day. Even after I asked to be anonymous. Turns out the director of the SPCC used to work for Terminix. In AZ all you need is 3200 hours of experience to get your business Linc and after working there for 6 years I was turned down because I didn't have the minimum experience. Do the math. It doesn’t make sense, but since they knew I told on them, they delayed the process and turned me down. The sentricon system is all crap. Nothing works unless the system is done right and checked properly. The problem is they get so many people working on it because they can’t keep workers happy that the system falls under and you just wasted your money. Also, they claim to get rid of the termite colony. How can they prove it? Next time you get termites, they will just say that is a new colony. How can you know? All their management are losers who can’t think for themselves and when they do, they get fired. Terminix taught me a lot of things -- how to trick people to sign the contract and then forget about them. IF you need service in your home, hire a little guy to do your service. They will take care of you better and treat you like a friend. With Terminix, you’re just an account number.
? - 9/07. I took over a branch that had several thousand dollars owed to a contractor that had been taking care of the termite damage claims. Nearly $100,000. The previous branch manager made all the bonuses because of low expenses, no wonder. I had to lay off people to cover it. I was told to deny most all future termite damage claims if there was no "live" activity in order to cut costs. When I refused, I was given a warning that if I didn't meet my budgeted profit, I would be terminated and forced to repay re-location costs. I won't bash my employees, because I had several great people there, only a few bad apples. My Terminix career didn't last long and I quit after making the winter "trip." I am proud of how we treated most of our customers, but wish I could go back and do something for those customers that I denied their claims. Carla - please don't focus so much on those branch employeess outside of Memphis, it is the threats made by regional managers to make budget that causes the problems, a ripple effect. I was lucky and got out, but I do miss the hard-working folks at my branch. Never thought before applying for that job that I would have the regrets I do now.
Mobile, Alabama - 8/22/07. I was fired last week after six LONG months with Terminix as a pest tech. I was going to quit, but they beat me to the punch. Just as well. I really got disgusted when they ran out of a lot of the most commonly used products and told me to just make do with what I had. That was pretty much the last straw for me. I told a few customers that I would have to come back the next month to do the inside because we were out of certain chemicals. One customer was so irate she called Memphis and complained. I had a few terse words with my manager about it, and that seemed to seal my fate.
Tennessee - 7/07. I worked for Tru Green before coming to Terminix. I must say they are both money-driven companies, not about customers at all. We as employees must do over 200 stops a month or money is taken from us. And most customers don't understand that if they move, cancel, agreement expires, or dies, another percent is taken from our paychecks. Terminix has never taught me how to do pest control. I worked spraying poison chemicals for 4 months before sending me to a 1 week class. Our office constantly fights, branch manager and secretaries stab each other in the back daily. Salesmen are instructed to tell you whatever they have to to get the sale. Service Master is about selling not pest control or lawn care. The longer I work there, the more decrease in my pay. Our office scheduler has grudges and purposely put cancels on our pay from customers that never canceled to hurt our paychecks, and the company still won't do anything about or refund our money. Nice to see I could find a place to vent. I'm going elsewhere fast.
Quincy, Illinois - 6/07. I worked for Terminix here in Quincy for a little over a year and HATED every minute of it! The Branch Manager and Data Entry Clerk hated each other passionately and were scared to death of each other! She dressed in jeans and polo or t-shirt and he dressed in grubby shorts and t-shirt unless a higher up was to make an appearance. It really made for a pleasant, "businesslike" atmosphere when a customer walked in the door! I did everything in my power to get laid off so that I could draw unemployment until I found another job and succeeded wholeheartedly. I was ecstatic beyond belief and found the job of my dreams in less than two months! I now no longer have to answer the phone and listen constantly to customer complaints about the lazy pest control techs or lying termite control salesmen and that alone is enough to make this girl jump in the air and clap her hands!!!! WOOHOO!!! Eric, Brenda, Will and Chris.....you deserve each other!!!!! In my opinion liars, cheaters, brown nosers, and backstabbers go hand in hand!
New York - 6/07. I too work for Terminix and feel sorry for the customers. Their termite baiting system is fraud; many of the baits that replace the original baits have no chemicals to kill the termites. It just feeds them.
Springfield, Missouri - 6/07. I worked for Terminix from June 04 until April 07. In that time, I was one of their top dogs in the top 5% of their sales people. They lie, cheat, and steal from their customers and employees. Upon leaving the company, they owed me $9145.38 in commissions that were completed, they then deducted $2000.00 for a future draw that I did not receive. I gave them a two weeks notice and was promised by my manager, Jack Crider, that I would get paid on all pending work that was not completed in April. Now the company refuses to pay me the $4000 in commission and mileage that I sold the last two weeks that I was there. If I had known this, I could have saved myself alot of time and money. They had me driving between 300 and 400 miles a day for two weeks, and I sold about $14,000 in work that I am not getting paid for now. I am turning this over to my attorney, but he doesn’t see much that we can do because of their arbitration policy. This policy also affects all their customers if they would just read their contracts before they sign them.
? - 3/07. I am soon to be an "ex-employee" of Terminix and will be sending you an e-mail within a month or so. I will also be open for any questions about what I've seen there. If you didn't hear, the latest thing Terminix is doing is a thing called TIPS, which consists of inspecting your house; and IF no termite activity is seen and only two spots of "old damage" is noted, then they will sell you the guarantee against future damage and infestations without even treating the home with chemicals or installing bait stations. They will repair all "new damage" done after the contract starts unless that damage was "hidden" in an unaccessible place and shown to be "old damage."
Terminix has started (last year in 2006) using Advance instead of Sentricon, which IS a better station, BUT ... they promised many of the customers ACTIVE chemicals instead of "just a piece of wood." Well, the word came down two weeks ago that we are NOT to put the active ingredient into the station this year unless activity is noticed. Instead, we are to put a capsule with just some flavoring into the stations because this is cheaper than the active ingredient.
Tennessee - 3/07. I've just recently resigned from my position in the TN call center as a Supervisor. I wrote a several page complaint to the company's CEO, HR and other departments about the unfair treatment of the employees. The call center was a babysitter’s job. We never have solutions to problems for the customers. All we do all day, 24/7, is send messages to the local branch. We are what I call a glorified answering service. We are to keep you happy while you are on the phone (baby sit the customer). We are not provided the training that we need to be successful. We were forced to take calls when the call volume increases, and several of my peers were wrote up for not doing so. The level of accountability is unnatural. I could go on and on and on. Maybe I'll get up the nerve to send you a copy of the letter that I sent. I had to leave. I loved the people that I work with, but the conditions were not professional. For a company that says that they Honor GOD in all they do. It makes me wonder who their god is? I feel better now that I have found your site. I now know that I'm not alone. I thought that this was a company that I would be able to stay with for years. I hope with the sale of the company things will be better for all customers and employees alike.
Massachusetts - 3/07. Wow, I worked for Terminix, role played for days the sales pitch. What a rotten company. Here I was taught to lie to the customer, ruthlessly lie to elderly, to the person who couldn’t make the mortgage. This is the sales pitch: “Hello, Mrs. Smith, we spoke last night. I’m here to do your pest inspection as well as termite inspection. Today I'll be going around the outside of your home and later I'll get inside in your basement. You're welcome to come along with me if you'd like,” (as I'd motion with a wave inviting her). At the end, I’d check off everything, make it look like a mess, and tell them I see a lot of conducive conditions, scare them about their #1 investment, your home, and you couldn’t afford $2,000? Let me call my boss. Oh, you can’t afford $1700, let me call him back, I’d hate to see your #1 investment go. Okay, Mrs. Smith, we can do it for $1200 today. Oh, you still can’t afford that? I don’t feel right leaving your home. I’ll put the Sentricon system in your yard, oh no, free of charge! and come back in 2 weeks. The termites were attracted to these systems, cause termites are out in the woods. I’d pull out the system and show them termites in their face to scare them, and we’d get the customer that way.
|
