Terminix

At the beginning of April 2023, I discovered bed bugs on my bed sheets, along with blood and feces stains. As a result, and after doing some research I ended up calling Terminix for help with eradicating these pests. A technician came out to my residence on April 13th and performed an inspection and found that my home had a heavy infestation and felt that 5 service treatments would be enough to eradicate the bugs. They charged me $1400 and with the interest I ended up with a total bill of $1533 financed through SMAC. One of the primary reasons I decided to use Terminix was the fact that they have a Nix Guarantee which states as follows:

The Nix Pest Guarantee means that you can relax knowing we’ll nix

your bed bug problem, and keep it nixed. And if bed bugs come

back within 6 months, so will we – at no additional cost to you.1

The footnote states that, “If you see evidence of bed bugs in your home within 6 months of your initial treatment date, Terminix will perform an inspection and provide any necessary treatment at no extra cost. 6-month guarantee only available for single-family dwelling units. Limitations apply. See Plan for details.”

I happen to live in a single-family dwelling as indicated in the papers I signed initially giving Terminix authorization to perform their service. Also, nowhere in my contract, Bed Bug Service Agreement, nor in the Nix Guarantee, can I find it stated anywhere that due to a heavy infestation or having to perform more than X amount of service treatments that the Nix Guarantee is or will be null and void.

My first treatment was performed at the end of the month of April around the 27th and then approximately every two weeks thereafter until the total of 5 treatments had been completed. Therefore, the 5th treatment was performed sometime around the end of June.

In addition to the Nix Guarantee, Terminix on its website shows consumers what to expect from their bed bug treatment. In order the steps they show are: (1) Thorough bed bug inspection; (2) Keep your bed; (3) Install bed bug intercept devices; and (4) Follow-up bed bug inspections. As for step 1, although they did provide an inspection it wasn’t what I would call thorough as the technician didn’t inspect inside my hall closet where bed bugs could have easily been hiding, nor the dining room area or kitchen. Moving on to step 2, they did provide mattress encasements, but as for steps 3 and 4 no bed bug intercept devices were ever installed—I ended up purchasing bed bug traps for my and my roommate’s bed—

nor was there ever a follow-up inspection after the 5th service treatment. Instead of scheduling a follow-up, the technician that came out for the 5th treatment simply asked us if we’d seen any bed bugs. I stated that I didn’t think I had seen any, but my roommate stated that he did see some. However, no follow-up was ever scheduled. I will mention at this point that on the day the technician came out with our mattress covers he stated that since we have air mattresses that we would not be required to zip lock the covers as we would need to partially unzip them in order to fill our mattresses with air every so often. But he did advise us not to remove the covers as that would void our warranty. And to date we have not removed those covers. This indicated to us that we definitely were covered under the Nix Guarantee.

Then sometime around the first of August 2023, the bed bugs were back. I found evidence on my mattress cover, being feces, blood stains and a few bed bugs as well. The next day I called Terminix corporate and was told that I was definitely covered under the Nix Guarantee and that they would be in touch with the local office to have someone give me a call to schedule an inspection. When I never got a call, I decided to go to the local office and speak to someone in person. I was met by an employee there by the name of Bryan who advised that they do not honor the Nix Guarantee and was the reason I was written up for a heavy infestation and 5 service treatments. He was very convincing; however, I didn’t have a copy of my Service Agreement at the time and still had some doubts. Therefore, not only did I call the corporate office on numerous occasions but also engaged a corporate employee by the name of Kathy in a chat who advised that I did have the guarantee and that it was in their system. One gentleman that I spoke with at corporate even advised that it was all documented in their system as well, and assured me that even if the local office personnel were to try to put this off until after the 6-month period from the time of my initial treatment they would not be able to get away with it. I finally got a representative at corporate to escalate this to the next level and was eventually contacted by Dionna Tyler who advised me that she was waiting for a response and would be in touch. Nevertheless, I never heard back from her and the next time I called corporate I spoke with a representative by the name of Bob Evans who sent me a copy of my Bed Bug Service Agreement, which I was never given initially, and I was now being told that I did not have the Nix Guarantee because of the fact that I was written for a heavy infestation and 5 service treatments. Again, however, I need to remind you that nowhere in the Nix Guarantee, nor in my Service Agreement, is it stated that a heavy infestation and X number of service treatments voids the Nix Guarantee.

I am appalled that a company such as Terminix, with a reputation to uphold would advertise a bed bug Nix Guarantee in order to entice consumers to select them for service and then thumb their noses at those very consumers who try to get them to honor it when the time comes. There’s no place in the business community for companies who resort to such tactics as this is blatant misrepresentation, false advertising and in plain and simple terms a scam. This company should be shut down for such tactics and that is what I would like to see happen.

There are only a few ways Terminix can make this right with me at this point; (1) is to honor their Nix Guarantee, come back out to my residence, perform a thorough inspection this time and nix my bed bug problem with how ever many service treatments are needed; or (2) give me a full refund of the amount I’ve paid SMAC to date which will allow me to have a reputable and reliable company nix my bed bug problem.