We suspected we had rats in the basement, and called for help.
Without setting a single trap the person who visited loaded the inside of our house with poison, on two separate visits. He said that if the rats died inside the house, the smell would only last 3 days to 1 week at the most.
Wrong.
Our basement has smelled like dead rats for over a month.
Other members from the company have acknowledged that using poison in the house before setting traps was absolutely the wrong thing to do. They said "rule number 1 is don't use poison in the house". Well, they broke their own rule #1.
They have visited multiple times to try and alleviate the odor with chemicals, but let me tell you NOTHING got rid of the dead rat smell.
They also set traps, but only after the rats were already dead.
We have a finished basement which is usually the main area for our kids to play and for our entertainment room. We have not been able to use our basement for over a month.
Unless we tear out walls, we are going to have dead rats in our house forever.
We spend nearly $400 for this "service".
- Approximate cost of services:
- $350.00
- Company Response
John,
We are happy to hear that the advanced rat infestation you were experiencing has been resolved. Please let us know if activity persists and we will gladly continue to follow up like we have at no additional cost.
As far as the smell is concerned we would like to mention a couple of things about your case.
The smell was evident during our first visit and before we applied any treatment. This was pointed out to your partner and yourself and was a result of your attempt to deal with the rat problem by poisoning rats on your own. As you told us, you had started poisoning them the week prior to our arrival for the service.
Two days after our treatment was applied you notified us that the dead rodent smell was getting worse.
The rodenticides we use do not kill within two days as per product labels. It takes a minimum of 5 days for the products to kill rodents after a lethal dose has been consumed, as per product label specifications. A lethal dose can take multiple feeding to be delivered. We have communicated these label specifications to you in detail-repeatedly. Not to mention that bad smells associated with flesh decomposition usually start 24 hours after death.Unfortunately, we should not have taken responsibility for third party products or "techniques". John, these are the dangers of poisoning rats indoors on your own.
You are correct, it is not company policy to poison rats indoors and we avoid it unless it is absolutely necessary or the only solution available at the time. The only way for us to have effectively placed snap traps during our first visit would have been by removing the makeshift hatch to you drop ceiling which your partner explicitly refused. In retrospect, we should have been more insistent and far less accommodating to your requests, for your and our benefit.
Also, even though we advised you not to block any entry points on your own until the extermination process was complete, you deemed necessary to block the main rat entry point immediately after our first service and against our advice.
In the spirit of committed customer service, by which we conduct our business, we have been in continuous contact with both you and your partner and have conducted dozens of customer service calls, several followup visits, at no additional cost, and have proposed several solutions for odor removal at again no additional cost, which you have refused.
If the rat activity returns please notify us. We would be happy to return, readdress the issue and honor our warranty.
Thank you