I have the habit of yelping when I am extremely disgruntled or extremely pleased with a business. Today, I am EXTREMELY disgruntled.
I live in a condominium complex that has used Bon Pest Control for far too long. Our buildings were tented for termites in 2004 and we contracted with Bon to do quarterly spraying around the perimeter and in the underground garage. I guess at some point they actually may have been doing the work, but about two years ago when I joined the board and started handling some homeowners' association issues I began picking up the Bon invoices left on our porch. A some point it dawned on me that they couldn't possibly have access to the garage because the intercom code that showed on the invoice hadn't been used for at least a year. The property manager called them to update the access information and reiterate that the interior perimeter of the garage needed to be sprayed quarterly along with the outer building.
Finally, after another year of continuous invoices, but nobody really seeing the spraying getting done, my husband started noticing a proliferation of bugs around the building and in the garage. Not swarms, but just more than usual. Then in April or May there was all out ant infestation in several units moving from the back of the building forward. There hadn't been so much as a stray ant in the building for 6 years.
I called Bon and discovered, they'd just stopped coming altogether about six months prior. They sent a "technician" out. I met him and walked everywhere with him. He insisted he had come and sprayed regularly, but admitted he had NEVER sprayed the garage. He then advised me to call Bon quarterly rather than have him automatically show up. This way I could set a specific appointment and walk through again. I said that would be fine and I'd give them a call in 3 months.
Fast forward to last week. I received several checks to sign from our property management and lo and behold there was one from Bon! Supposedly they came in October. I called, calmly enough on Monday, to let them know that as far as I knew no one came, they could not have had access to our garage, and someone needed to come out and meet me for a once over spray before I paid this invoice. The gentleman said he'd talk to the technician and get back to me.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, MONDAY...all tick by and no return call. So I called again and talked to a woman who said she did talk to the technician and he most certainly did come and spray in October. I told her that wasn't possible because he wouldn't have had access. She said an older, Black gentleman let the technician in the gated perimeter and walked around with him and yes, he most certainly sprayed the garage. Again, I told her he could not possibly have sprayed the garage as it has separate access and can't be entered from the outer perimeter without a code. She insists she has a code and smugly says, "Is it 421?" I, as smugly, answer, "It hasn't been 421 in over 2 years." She said an employee named Ana from the property management gave her that code (which is a total lie, because that VERY old code preceded the property management we use now). I go on to tell her, I am sure Ana did contact her at some point, but not with that code and in any case, Ana hasn't worked at the property management company for nearly 2 years.
Finally she agrees to send out the technician again because I said I refused to pay until the technician came out and showed me the gentleman who let him in and verified the garage had been done.
After that conversation, I called the owner who I suspected the technician was talking about. This owner verified he'd let the technician in, but that as far as he knew, only the outside was done. He also said he absolutely did not walk around to check where the spraying was done - in the garage or anywhere else.
I'm keeping the do-over appointment, but only because I don't want to drag the HOA to small claims court. I figure I'll have the technician spray the garage area, pay the bill and cancel all service. I'm sick of wondering if we'll have another ant infestation because unreliable, untruthful, lazy Bon may or may not live up to their contract to spray our buildings, but they are always sure to send us the invoices.
The real pests at Bon are not the insects. read more