I told Todd this which he thought was strange as we had checked our mattress during this time to look for bugs and never found any. He came home that night and found a bug crawling across our sheet!!! We captured it in a plastic bag and Todd found one more on our wall. We called a pest-control company (which shall remain nameless in this blog) and told them that we think we have bed bugs and they sent out a representative the next morning. The inspector (who's name was also Todd) told Todd on the phone that if we saw bed bugs that we should get rid of our mattress immediately. Todd and I wrapped several sheets around our mattress and box springs and carried them out, in the rain, and set them in the trailer. Inspector Todd comes in, looks at our samples for a few seconds and says, "I've seen bed bugs bigger than these before but yes you have them". Then he walks into our closet while starting to explain what his company will do and what prep-work we have to do. He tells us that we should treat the entire upper floor and the prep work that we must do which is extensive.
Basically we have to empty, bag and seal all items in closets (bedroom and linen), dressers, bedding and curtains. Vacuum everything especially around baseboards and pull all large furniture away from the wall. He also mentioned to us that each time we vacuum we should throw out the bag (because after the treatment we need to vacuum at least twice a day). I said that we have a Dyson bagless vacuum and he told us to clean it out with bleach, get rid of the filter and bag it. I asked if we should buy a vacuum that uses bags and he said "yes". He gave us the estimate for the upper floor and said that the technician would come the next day (Friday) to spray. So after he left, Todd went to work and I went to Costco and bought an Oreck vacuum, 200 clear plastic garbage bags, and 2 air mattresses. Came home and started bagging everything. I didn't realize how long this would actually take! I started with Bryson's room and it took over 3 hours for just his things! I called the company and asked what I should do with toys and the lady who answered told me to bag and remove as many as possible but that they can work around large objects. So I bagged every single toy, book, knick knack etc.
We were supposed to go to a Sounder's pre-season game that evening and it was apparent that I would not be able to go as I had only accomplished Bryson's room and just started on Jaden's room. I encouraged Todd to continue to take the boys though as it would be easier to pack things up if the boys were out of the house. I was bummed though that I would be missing family time at the game:(
Basically, Todd and I worked throughout the night bagging everything and I even had to call my boss and tell her that I couldn't work for my co-teacher that day--we had swapped days earlier. We didn't send the boys to school, instead had my dad come and pick them up. We scrubbed them in the shower and put on freshly washed and dried clothes and quickly got them out of the house (without even coats) so as to not contaminate my dad's house. Todd and I continued to work bagging and bringing all our items into the garage and vacuuming and cleaning right up until the techs came at 3pm. We were absolutely exhausted from cleaning and packing everything and both of us only got about 2-3 hours sleep (in our basement!). We were also pretty upset because we found a couple bugs on our main floor, so we bagged all curtains, pillows, blankets and even some couch cushions.
The next 2 days (the weekend) was hell as well, since we left the windows open hoping to freeze the bugs and had to vacuum several times a day in a 40 degree house! We also slept out in my car in an air mattress for 2 nights while the boys spent the night at my dad and then their grandparent's next door. Family offered to have us spend the night too, but we felt safer staying close to home since the windows were wide open! Sunday evening we spent over 4 hours at a laundry mat washing clothes and bedding for us.
Monday, I had been planning on taking Jaden skiing (which is why I had switched days with my coworker) and pretty much thought we wouldn't be able to make it, but I decided to try anyway. It was not easy but I managed to find all of our ski stuff in the garage and I was so happy I did. Jaden and I had a wonderful mother-son day:)
On Tuesday, Gramps calls and says that he found a bug at his house. He brings it over and as much as I really didn't want to admit it, it looked the exact same as the bugs we found. It was so depressing to hear that they had spread to their house too! Gramps called to pest-control company and an inspector was sent the next day. The inspector examined Gramps sample of bugs and told him that they were not bed bugs, they were carpet beetles!
Carpet beetles are basically not a big deal and aren't hard to get rid of at all. All that must be done is to move as much furniture as possible away from the wall and vacuum often before and after treatment. Plus it costs way less! When we compared Gramps samples to the ones that we had (which we had to dig out of our trash) they were in fact the exact same bugs. We called the company and the manager came out and also examined all the samples and agreed that we never even had bed bugs in the first place. He was extremely apologetic and nice and also told us that the inspector that came to our house ended up quitting the next day. He said that his company should be able to reimburse for something but that he couldn't make that decision that his boss had to. Todd and I were very relieved that we didn't have (the extremely hard to get rid of) bed bugs! We were upset, however, that it was misdiagnosed in the first place. All the wasted time and almost all of our stuff was still in the garage in plastic bags! We sat down and composed this letter which started the ball rolling. . . (I am editing out email addresses, last names and our address. I will also write some comments and clarification on some of the email chain in red)
From: Todd E. [mailto: .com]
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 4:22 PM To: .com'
Cc: 'Todd E; 'Andrea E'
Subject: E {our address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
Mark,
Thank you for taking the time to come by my house yesterday. It was very nice to find out that we never had bed bugs after your inspection of the seven sample bugs we had to show you. The amount of stress, time loss, and expense that we have incurred over the course of the last week has been insane and we are all much more at ease knowing that they were only carpet beetles. However, after you left yesterday my wife and I started thinking about all the expenses that we have really occurred over this whole ordeal. The inspector, Todd, that came out on 3-11-10 told us that our five bagged sample bugs were bed bugs. He didn’t inspect our mattress, sheets, or really much of anything besides looking at the samples. He said it would be a good idea to throw out the mattress and box spring in our room since that was the room that we found the most bugs. He said to empty and bag up everything in closets and the more stuff we move out of the upstairs and put in bags the better. My wife and I stayed home the rest of that day, bagged items in our upstairs. My wife also stayed home from the Sounders game we had tickets for that night to continue bagging and clearing items. We then stayed up all night Thursday night and all day on Friday the 12th until the tech’s got here to treat the bugs. Your tech that showed up on site didn’t ask to see the samples if he had then maybe they could have told us at that point that we only had carpet beetles.
I run a customer service business and have many employees that need to be accounted for and that I am responsible for as well. I understand accountability. I also know that mistakes are made. However, when my employees make mistakes I always stand up and make things right. Below is a list of things that we have incurred cost wise and labor wise that I want {pest control company} to consider when thinking about our compensation. Below is a list of items that were unnecessary had the inspector and techs not told us we had bed bugs:
1. We took our mattress and box springs to the dump because inspector Todd said it would be a good idea to get it out of the house. Cost of new King-sized mattress and box springs range between $1,300 to $2,000.
2. We took our futon that was near our bedroom to the dump. Approximate cost was $400.00 3. The dump fees involved were $30.00
4. We threw out six pillows from our bedroom and the kids’ rooms. Approximately $60 and that is for the cheapest pillows you can get…
5. We purchased $514.25 worth of Bed bug mattress, box spring, and pillow covers for all of our beds and our future bed and pillows. That is for two twin mattress covers, one full mattress and box spring cover, one king mattress and box spring cover, and for two pillows for each.
6. I also took to the dump my oldest son’s box spring because his bunk bed does not require a box spring but I was worried about it having them being in storage in our house. This box spring was only a couple of years old, but the choice was to purchase a box spring cover for it or just throw it away. Throwing it away was cheaper. I obviously now wish we would not have done that, as I will have to purchase another one when he grows out of the bunk.
7. Inspector Todd told us we should not use our bagless Dyson vacuum cleaner since the bags need to be discarded each time we vacuum, so we went out on Thursday the 11th and bought an Oreck vacuum for $300.00 from Costco.
8. We purchased two air beds for us and the kids to sleep on until our mattress covers could arrive which cost $60.00 and we purchased 200, 33 gallon bags to bag up and seal all of our belongings and used all of them plus more at $17.00
9. We bagged and moved all of our belongings in our entire 1400 square foot upper floor into our garage in a matter of 30 hours. We bagged and moved many items from our main floor which is also 1400 square feet.
10. We removed 15 windows worth of hanging drapes that now are stuffed into plastic bags in our garage with other items stacked on them because our garage is waste deep in bags. These will all need to be dry cleaned as they can’t go into the washer. Not sure on how much this will cost.
11. We spent 4 hours at a laundry mat with our kids last Sunday cleaning clothes and blankets, so we would have stuff to sleep with and wear this week. Approximately $50.00 and not fun at all with a 3 and 6 year old who spent the whole weekend at other peoples houses…
12. I had one suit, 12 dress shirts, 6 pairs of pants in my closets that were dry-cleaned and pressed which have now been stuffed into plastic bags and wrinkled. I will have to dry clean these again. That will be around $82.00
13. We have been doing wash continually since 3-11-10 on clothes, blankets and towels that were already clean. I can only imagine what the increased electrical and water bill will be. Not to mention I can only find two of my shirts and one pair of pants and have had to wash them each day and night as we change in and out of clothes thinking if we didn’t bed bugs could be on them. We became even more freaked and cautious about changing clothes every few hours after we found out my grandpa’s house had the bed bugs too (which turned out to be carpet beetles)
14. We sent our kids to their other grandpa’s house for Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday. They missed school on Friday, my wife again stayed home from work on Friday and Monday and kept the kids home to continue trying to get our place back into organization enough so we can find some things.
15. I have worked until 10:30 or later Monday through Wednesday of this week just to try to catch up from all the time off I spent not working. My wife was at home from work a total of two days and missed a family night at a Sounders game.
16. It will likely take us another weekend of 48 hours or more just to put all of our items back into our house and more than that to get it all organized once again. That is if we don’t wash any of the items. If we wash them it will take weeks...
17. My wife had someone that wanted to purchase six new chair covers on craigslist. Embarrassingly, she had to call the lady on Saturday and tell her we had bed bugs and we should not sell them to her. $30.00 and the hassle to now relist them when there was a buyer already coming over to get them.
18. The stress and embarrassment of telling our neighbors, friends that had been over recently, grandparents who live next door and my wife’s work and my office.
To think that this whole thing could have been avoided and that we would not have had to do any of this except vacuum and move our furniture two feet from the wall is insane! I chose {pest-control company} because I have a large property management firm here in West Seattle and we have many contracts with you and give you lots a work every year. I have worked with your techs for 10 + years and have always had favorable service that works. It just seemed like a logical choice when I was having an issue at my own home as my wife and I expected a trained person to come over and correctly identify which type of bugs we had caught. I know that mistakes happen and I know how hard it is training and keeping good staff as I do it every day, but I would like to think that when my managers recommend {pest-control company} to all of our clients that we are getting trained professionals into high end condos and condominium buildings.
We are reasonable people, but we are also very busy people with small children and we wish to be compensated fairly for all that we have been through and the expenses that we incurred, which could have all been easily avoided.
Attached are a few pictures of before what these rooms look liked and a few after. They also show how this stuff has taken over our garage. You can see we are waist high and in some areas chest height with bags. Please get back to us once you have gone through this with your office and let us know if you need anything else from us or if anyone else needs to come out and look at anything.
Thank you,
Todd M. E.
President
{Property Management Company} ___________________________________________
From: Todd E [mailto: .com]
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 4:22 PM
To: L, Mark L
Cc: 'Andrea E'
Subject: RE: E {our address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
Mark,
We are going to start the long process of putting our house back together this weekend and next week. Is there anything else in addition to the email {above} and the pictures we have provided for your meeting with your management on Monday?
Let me know and have a nice weekend,
Todd M. E.
__________________________________________
The lengthy response, LOL!
From: L, Mark L [mailto: .com]
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 3:02 PM
To: Todd E
Subject: RE: E {address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
Not at this time.
___________________________________________
Never heard anything on Monday so Todd sent this response on Tuesday:
From: Todd E [mailto: .com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 5:00 PM
To: L, Mark L
Cc: Andrea E
Subject: RE: E {our address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
Mark,
You indicated to me last week that your boss was back on Monday and that you would be talking with him and management about our situation and compensation. I have not heard anything from you. I just wanted to check in to see when we might know something. I would like to purchase a new mattress and we are getting really tired and sore from sleeping on a $30.00 air bed that leaks air each night…
Please keep me in the loop,
Todd M. E
President
{Property Management Company}
__________________________________________
From: L, Mark L [mailto: .com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 3:03 PM
To: Todd E
Subject: RE: E {our address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
I have spoken with him and am researching a few other items. I have been informed that he would reduce the rate of your service to match that which was quoted to your grandparents. Do you still have your prep sheet for the bed bug job?
Mark
Todd and I were ticked off when we received this!___________________________________________
From: Todd Emery [mailto: .com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 4:12 PM
To: 'L, Mark L'
Cc: Andrea E
Subject: RE: E {our address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
Mark,
I figured the reduction in the service cost between that of bed bug treatment and a carpet bug treatment would be a given. I was more interested in the status on the compensation for all the items and time we lost coupled with the extreme hassle and financial hit we have taken with this…
Yes I do believe we still have the prep sheet for the bed bug job at home. I can look when I get home late tonight. Why?
Todd M. E
__________________________________________
From: Todd E [mailto: .com]
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 11:55 AM
To: L, Mark L
Cc: Andrea E
Subject: RE: E {our address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
Importance: High
Mark,
I am starting to get the feeling that I am now being ignored by {pest-control company}. I left you a phone message yesterday asking the status of things. You indicated to me last week that your boss and/or key members of your management were returning to the office this past Monday the 22nd. Since then I have heard very little of a game plan as to how {pest-control company} is planning to work with me on the huge mistakes, which were made causing us financial, work time, and personal time loss over the last couple of weeks. To date I have been charged $930.75 for a misdiagnosed Bed bug service by {pest-control company} and told to throw away my mattress and box spring and bag everything in upper floor of my house. I should have only been charged somewhere around $200.00 for a carpet beetle service this is a $730.75 difference. At the very least my account should have been credited the difference by now (I would have expected that done on Monday the 22nd). When will this happen? Today? Tomorrow?
Also I expect an answer to my email of 3-18-10 no later than tomorrow morning. One week should be plenty of time for Management to review things and get back to a loyal customer that has been improperly handled by one or more of {pest-control company's} employees. I would like to hear back from you or a member of your Management with a game plan by the end of today or tomorrow morning at the latest. We are getting very tired of sleeping on a $30.00 air mattress and tired of the mess we are still cleaning up around our house each evening and now going into the third weekend!!!
If I have not provided you with enough information and you need more then please let me know.
Todd M. E
{Property Management Co.}
__________________________________________
From: L, Mark L [mailto: .com]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 5:14 AM
To: Todd E
Subject: RE: E {our address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
I apologize for the delay I will check on your credit today. It has been submitted and I will see if I can put a rush on it. As far as reimbursement for mattresses or other items that were disposed of {pest-control company} will not do so. The prep sheet you received states that the mattresses and other items are treatable. However my boss has authorized me to provide you with a free years worth of pest control service to compensate you for your hardships.
Sincerely,
Mark
Oh we were fuming when receiving this email!!! __________________________________________
Todd kept his cool though when replying back, not sure that I could have done that!
From: Todd E [mailto: .com]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 10:09 AM
To: 'L, Mark L'
Cc: .com'; Andrea E
Subject: RE: E {our address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
Importance: High
Mark,
I am very disappointed in this response. Maybe your boss did not see any of my emails from the chain below starting 3-18-10. This is about much more than just a mattress. Your Inspector Todd (I could not read his last name off his signature) advised us on the phone before even arriving at our house that “he would take the mattress out of the house”. After he arrived he didn’t look at it and told us “we should throw it out and that we did have bed bugs”. Since this incident of wrongly diagnosing my bug problem {pest-control company} has either let this inspector go as a staff member or he has quit according to you. I don’t want a free year's worth of pest control that I don’t need. I want to pay $200 for the carpet beetle service that we should have received from the beginning. Why would I want a company that is going to treat me and my family like this in or around my house for a year? {Pest-control company} sent a professional bug expert to my house. That professional whom we relied on told me we had bed bugs and told us what we should do. We packed the entire top floor of our house (everything except large furniture) into plastic bags and moved it to the garage per your expert and your prep sheet.
When we then thought the “bed bugs” had spread to my grandparent’s house next door we again called {pest-control company} to come out and help us with the problem. This time another one of your experts came out, I believe his name was Andy. He was able to look at the bugs and determine that they were not bed bugs right off, that they were in fact carpet beetles. Expert Andy was able to do that just the same as you did when you came and compared the samples at my house. Had we not found the same exact bugs next door at my grandparent’s house we would have went on thinking we had bed bugs for weeks and would have incurred even more costs in taking all of our household items in our garage to the laundry mat and spent countless extra hours wiping down all of our sons' toys with a bleach wipe (per your technician's recommendation). We had already spent 4 hours on a Sunday at the laundry mat when we did think it was bed bugs. I still need to dry clean drapes that have been stuffed in bags and so on. Read the email from the 3-18-10 there were many items from that list I provided that were on your prep sheet for bed bugs!
Your response is both unacceptable and insulting. I want to talk to your boss today. I can’t believe {pest-control company's} policy is to make a long term customer whose whole family has already been hit financially, has many hours of personal and work time dealing with this error then have to argue with them about this. We are not being unreasonable in asking for compensation of out of pocket expenses. I was not even going to ask for compensation for our time, but we will now. Please give me your bosses name and contact information, so I can call him in-between meetings today. I would also like a return call from you as well, I will be available at 12:00 today to talk.
I have also Cc’d Ms Katrina H. at the email address obtained from the BBB web site on this email. Maybe she can help bring some resolution to this situation prior to me needing to take other measures to get this resolved.
Todd M. E
President
{Property Management Company}
Mark's boss called Todd back within minutes of receiving this email;) __________________________________________
Accidently, Todd forgot to get the name of the "boss" so he sent this:
From: Todd E [mailto: .com]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 11:03 AM
To: 'L, Mark L' Cc: .com'; Andrea E
Subject: RE: E {our address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
Importance: High
Mark,
Will you please provide me with the name, phone number, and email address for your service manager that just called me.
Thank you,
Todd M. E
President
{Property Management Company}
Todd didn't want to wait for an email response so he called Mark to get the information. At first Mark told him that he couldn't talk to him or give him any information but finally relented and gave up his boss' first and last name. __________________________________________
This is when Todd realized that all of the pest control company's employee email addresses were the first initial of their first name, their last name and then the company email. He started including everyone that he could on the email chain;)
From: Todd E [mailto: .com]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 2:24 PM
To: '.com'; 'L, Mark L' Cc: .com'; Andrea E
Subject: RE: E {our address} ," Bed Bugs" Which Were really Carpet Beetles
Importance: High
Mr. V,
We talked this morning at 10:20 a.m. It is now 2:00 p.m. and I have not heard from your boss who you indicated has the power to talk to me about compensation. I figured I would attempt to email you since I don’t want to wait another week to talk to the next person in your office. You were supposed to call me on Monday the 22nd and today Friday the 26th is the first time I have heard from you. Instead of calling to apologize for the very time consuming and costly mistake your home inspection representatives (who is supposed to be Washington State licensed and trained) made at my house you called to tell me you were going return the cost of your services. Per our phone conversation earlier and my email chain below I am not accepting that as compensation. I am also going to pay for the carpet beetle treatment. I fully expected a call from you on Monday letting me know that my account has been credited the $730.75 (or whatever the exact compensation is). Basically the difference between the bed bug service your team misdiagnosed and treated for and the carpet beetle service that you have now switched to. An apology along with that call to let me know my account had been adjusted to reflect the difference between services would not have hurt either. It would have been a whole lot better than a call five days later on a Friday to tell me that you don’t plan to compensate me for my expenses or time incurred from following your companies prep sheet, direct conversations with your inspector, office and service technician.
To go a step farther to say that you can’t reimburse me for a vacuum cleaner because (and these are your words) “you purchased it at Costco and can take it back so we won’t reimburse you for it” is even more infuriating. As I pointed out to you on the phone I run a business and in both my personal life and business dealings I believe it would be very unethical to take a vacuum cleaner that I purchased two weeks ago after heavily using it twice a day to vacuum up bugs and bug larvae (such as carpet beetle’s) back to the store that I purchased it at. Is that {pest-control company's} policy? Do they promote being unethical to other businesses and people because they can? Even if that is your policy it is not mine! I am not that type of person in either my personal or business dealings. You also said that your prep sheet didn’t tell me to purchase a new vacuum cleaner, but it did. Both your prep sheet and Todd the inspector said that we needed to throw the bag away after vacuuming each time twice a day. We told him that we had a $350 Dyson bagless vacuum cleaner (We obviously were not in need of a new vacuum cleaner, as it is only a year old) but Todd your inspector said “you should take that one and clean really good with bleach water get a new filter then bag it and put it in the garage. You need a vacuum that has bags, so that you can throw them away after each cleaning for this treatment”. So we went to Costco purchased an Oreck vacuum along with plastic bags, and air beds.
Maybe if you had asked Mark L. and Ron the service tech about what the situation onsite looked liked and their thoughts on the matter then read this email chain {above} you would understand that I don’t want free service out of this deal. I want to pay what I owe for service. What I do want is to be compensated for this very large mistake made by one of your supposedly “trained, qualified, state licensed inspectors" that wrongly identified carpet beetles for bed bugs, told us over the phone prior to arriving at our house that we should remove our mattress from the house then never checked anything other than the two bags of carpet beetles we had as samples and told us they were bed bugs. Our mattress had not been thrown away at that time nor was any of our stuff moved. He then sent us down the path of moving everything out of our upstairs per your “prep sheet” and his own additional verbal instructions. When {pest-control company's} on site tech’s showed up to go to work spraying for bed bugs the bed was still there outside in my utility trailer. They didn’t ask to see it or the samples of bugs we had. If they had then there was another point in time when some of the expenses we have incurred could have been avoided. It would not have changed the fact that we missed work and moved everything to the garage however.
Had my grandparents not had the carpet beetles as well we would still be treating for and thinking we had bed bugs meaning we would have been displaced even longer and had more cost involved. To me the length of time it has taken you to get back to me and the way you are treating this situation is outrageous.
When we got off the phone this morning you said you were going to check this through and talk with your boss. I asked you to please just have your boss call me directly. That was over four hours ago and soon the business day will be over and we will have to wait through another weekend worrying about this. I would like to either hear from you today with your real game plan for compensating me or directly from your boss if you are unable to make any decisions. It is already ridiculous that it has taken me this many emails and time to get to talk to you in the first place.
I have Cc’d Mark L. on this email since I didn’t get your name, phone number, or email address when I talked to you this morning. I called Mark, but he would not give it to me, so I am assuming that it is your first initial and last name at {pest-control company} .com like Mark’s if it is not then, Mark, can you please at least forward this email onto Mr.V or his boss.
I look forward to resolving this soon as possible, so we can all get back to work.
Todd M. E
President
{Property Management Company}
__________________________________________
Todd finally receive this email and copied and pasted it to the chain of emails as he wanted it all in one location.
From: V, Daniel [mailto: .com]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 1:17 PM
To: Todd .com
Subject: Service Concerns
Mr. Emery,
I have reviewed your concerns and claim, and in the interest of good customer relations I have provided a resolution I believe is consistent with our original mutual written agreement.
First, our licensed sales representative, Todd S., inspected your property and identified an active bed bug infestation. At that time, he provided a service agreement and a preparation checklist for you to follow prior to the service. The preparation checklist clearly outlines for the homeowner the items that should be performed on the home prior to and after the treatment. There is no instruction for removal or replacement of any property. This is the format we provide to eliminate any confusion on the part of our customers.
In speaking with the service professional, Ron S., who serviced your home, he made no indication that your home did not have bed bugs. Rather he notes on the service ticket that he provided treatment “for bed bug activity.” He did, however, also identify an active infestation of carpet beetles, which we also provided service for during his follow-up visit. The presence of carpet beetles is unrelated to the presence of bed bugs and finding two or more separate pest problems in any home is not uncommon. At this time, not having seen your home prior to the initial inspection and treatment, it is my contention that the pests were correctly identified and treated.
Nevertheless, in the interest of good customer relations, we are willing honor our pest control satisfaction guarantee, and provide a full refund of the bed bug treatment on your home in the amount of $930.75. We also are prepared to not charge you for the carpet beetle treatment that was performed, which is no less than a $200 value.
In response to your numerous requests for re-imbursement of costs you claim where incurred, I refer you to the original agreement attached. Specifically, page 2 paragraphs 2, 3, and 8.
I regret any misunderstandings and/or inconveniences you may have had with our company.
Please reply with your acceptance or denial of this offer for refund, and please conduct all future correspondence in writing.
Thank you,
Daniel S. V
Seattle Branch Manager
{pest-control company} International
So basically Daniel just made up some stuff in this email! Todd did not want to accept the full refund of service because he didn't want them to say later that we accepted that as compensation for our loss. He also was apparently scared to talk to Todd again, LOL! Todd basically tore him up in the first phone call (about taking the vacuum back to Costco and other things).
__________________________________________
From: Todd E [mailto: .com]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 6:09 PM
To: 'V, Daniel'
Cc: 'ML .com'; .com'; Andrea E
Subject: RE: Service Concerns
Daniel,
Thank you for taking the time to finally get back to me.
First, Todd, your licensed sales representative, inspection of my property consisted of him walking in taking the two samples of carpet beetles that I had collected in 2 ziplock bags and telling me that those were in fact Bed Bugs. He did not ask to look at our mattress or box springs that were right outside our house nor did he inspect the sheets that had been on the bed for the last 7 days along with the extra sheets we had wrapped the mattress and box springs in when we carried it out of our house. Nor did he inspect anything else. He walked around our master bedroom closet and shined his flashlight in one corner as he talked to us about bed bugs. We then went downstairs without inspecting a single other room and he wrote up the contract saying that we needed to do the whole upper floor. He did not see, smell, or note anywhere that he had identified signs of bed bugs other than the “Bed Bugs” which were carpet beetles (which we had collected) in our ziplock bag.
He then wrote up the {pest-control company} agreement that I am looking at right now where he hand wrote in Bed Bugs. I don’t see carpet beetles checked on the agreement. He also quoted on there the price for doing the entire upstairs for bed bugs. He then handed me a Bed Bug treatment customer preparation checklist not one for carpet beetles. This checklist most certainly tells your customer's to remove your property and clean it. Clothes and all items from dressers and closets. How do you expect to have 1400 square feet of clothes, linens, bedding and such to be washed and inspected if you don’t remove it. It was Todd that told us we should bag it all and not return any of it until after it is washed that would be about four weeks worth of laundry if you did laundry 4 hours a day! During our time of bagging everything I found what we thought were bed bugs (because that is what your "expert" Todd identified them as) in our kids library’s of books, stuffed animals and such. We then called your office and talked to a women named Becky who said that you should bag those too and "to bag up as much as possible in the infested areas". I called and asked because we found them in the books and the sheet said to throw away old magazines/newspapers it did not say what to do with a couple hundred kids books and toys.
In speaking with the service professional, Ron S, who serviced my home he did not make any claim that our home did have bed bugs or that he saw any signs of bed bugs or their activity. He did not put anything on the service ticket about seeing any bed bug activity nor did he see any. You can ask him yourself on that. He may have wrote that he treated for bed bug’s (because that is what he was there to treat for per the initial "inspection") but he sure didn’t look at any of our samples or identify bed bugs or traces thereof at our property nor did he identify that we did in fact have carpet beetles. If he says he did at this point he is lying to cover this whole thing up. I don’t think Ron S. would lie to cover it up so I think you are stretching this work order in your favor.
After we found out we had carpet beetles (due to a different inspector correctly identifying them at my grandparent's house next door four days after our initial service) is when Mark L. came to inspect my home. I let him look at the sheets from our bed that were still bagged along with 200 full garbage bagged items that were chest high in our garage. He told us that there were no signs of them in the sheets or anywhere else. They were white sheets that had no blood on them. Nor had we seen any blood on them ever. The only bug ever found in our house by myself, Todd the inspector, Mark L., or Ron S. were the carpet beetles. There also were never any sign of Bed Bugs at all anywhere! This was simply the case of your inspector who was apparently a newbie licensed inspector telling us these were bed bugs and not going through the steps set up by your company to actually inspect for them.
I will pay for the carpet beetle service you have provided. For you to try to state that you were treating for both from the beginning and that your inspector did his job correctly and there was no mistreatment of our inspection and job is a gross understatement.
In comment to your terms and conditions as you point out I am following them to try to work this out with your local office first as I have been since Mark’s visit to my home. I just can’t believe the way you and your office are treating a long term customer on this. I still wish to talk to your Boss or manager on this issue today if possible or Monday my cell phone is {---}. I would rather continue to try to work this issue out prior to taking the next steps of contacting your corporate office, state licensing (including Washington State Department of Agriculture-licensing, Pesticide Management and Compliance investigation department, and Tim Baker of Washington State Pest Management Association for spraying a stronger chemical than needed to kill carpet beetles when it was bed bugs) , BBB and any other legal or arbitration available. Please have your boss contact me to try to salvage {pest-control company's} relationship with my company as well. At this point I can’t in good faith continue to recommend your services to the 100+ Condominium buildings we manage in the Seattle area. Nor can I allow them to renew their annual service agreements with {pest-control company} knowing how they handle customer relations and problems which arise from their employee’s.
Also, I have been trying to communicate with you both via email and phone for the last week, so I have no problem communicating with you in writing. I have copied and pasted the entire time line of emails since I started emailing {pest-control company} over a week ago for the purpose of records. I have added the people you are referring to back to this email chain to keep them in the loop. I don’t have anything to hide and have not been twisting the facts of what has happened or the timeline of when and by whom the bugs were identified as you are trying to do in your email {above}.
Todd M. E
President
{Property Management Company} ___________________________________________
Finally, Todd receives a call telling him that a corporate representative will contact him.
FW: Service Concerns
From: Todd E. .com)
Sent: Mon 3/29/10 5:12 PM
To: .com
Mr. A,
I understand you are going to be giving me a call today. I just wanted to forward you this email chain with its original pictures, so you can have all the facts on this from the beginning starting with my email of 3-18-10 below. I look forward to your call {---} cell.
Thank you for your time,
Todd M. E.
President
{Property Management Company} ___________________________________________
The corporate rep. bascially is very nice and says that he should have been dealing with this from the beginning but he had been sick. An agreement was made and Todd and I made our final list of request for compensation. We were quite fair in my opinion, especially how badly they had treated us.
{our address} Compensation Request
From: Todd E ( .com)
Sent: Tue 3/30/10 5:08 AM
To: CA .com
Mr. A,
Thank you for taking the time to help us resolve this issue. Below is a numbered list taken from my email of 3-18-10 and listed what compensation we are looking for. Per our phone conversation this morning I have not asked for any of our time or work loss.
1. $1700 for a new King mattress and box spring.
2. $100.00 for the futon, as it was five years old and a new one is around $400.00 (I just wish I would have donated it to the Goodwill instead of taking a hardly used piece of furniture to the dump.)
3. $30 dump fees for taking the bed, box springs, and futon to the transfer station.
4. I know that the new pillows will cost me more than $60.00 but we can split this one at $30.00.
5. We will give you the bed bug covers in exchange for the $514.25 (the receipt is attached). So you can use them for the less fortunate when the need arises. Two twin covers as well as six pillow case covers have been taken out of the packages and washed, we do have the original packages still.
6. My oldest son’s box spring is not needed right now and it is likely that we will just get him a new bed after this one, so I am not going to ask for anything on this one.
7. We will give you the Oreck vacuum in exchange for the $327.40 that it cost, this includes tax (the receipt is attached). This was a full upright and a little handheld that came in the same box. You can then use it for the less fortunate as we discussed on the phone.
8. I would like $65.67 for the cost of two air beds, we also bought and used 200 plastic bags that we are now throwing away as we unpack that was $19.10 (the receipt is attached).
9. After thinking about it we decided to not ask for money for our work time or personal time spent even though it was and still is extensive.
10. I called a local dry cleaners, which is where I have all my dry cleaning done. They will charge the following: approximately $12.00 per drape they charge by pleat but ours don’t have any, so he said by size we can just call it $12 a window even through it may be a bit more. That is 15 windows $180.00 They will charge me 12.00 for my suit, $1 per dress shirt, and $6.00 per pair of pants. We will call that $12 for the shirts, $36 pants, and $12.00 for the suit for a total of $60.00.
11. We would like to be reimbursed $50.00 for the amount in quarters we used during that 4 hours at the laundry mat.
12. We covered all the dry cleaning under number 10 above.
13. I will pay for all my added water, sewer, gas and electricity. Although it will be quite high because we have been running the washer and dryer without stopping now for a couple of weeks and have several more loads of laundry worth to do. We will cover this since I don’t have the utility bills and I would like to get this resolved sooner rather than later.
14. We will not ask for time as I said.
15, 16, 17, & 18 we will not charge anything for.
The total for the items above is $3,076.42. We would then give you the bed bug covers and the Oreck vacuum as discussed on the phone.
Lastly, we have the matter of the difference between the cost of the bed bug service and the carpet beetle service. That amount needs to be refunded to my account. To date we have paid $930.75 and the carpet beetle service is substantially lower that that amount. I am not sure exactly what the amount is but I have been referring to the difference as $730.75 meaning the carpet beetle service is $200.00. Please let me know.
Todd M. E
President
{Property Management Company}
Update: We finally received payment on April 16th and our new mattress will be delivered tomorrow on the 17th!
Also when I told my dermatologist this story, she said she knew it wasn't bed bug bites I had (would've been nice to have this information prior;). She also said that the lab result was still basically just a guess and that my rash could have been caused by a number of things. . .
Here are a few pictures of our house during this crazy month!
Couch cushions bagged and no drapes, blankets, etc. in the living/dining room.
Family room fairly empty as well. . . 
Guest room 
Jaden's room, using a sheet as a curtain for the time being. Absolutely no toys! 
Bryson's room, using his duvet cover as a curtain. 
Nothing on his shelf, but kept the pictures on the wall. 
Our room and an after-shot of our lovely new painted black bed with no mattress! 
Our lovely air mattress that we've been sleeping on for more than a month! 
We cleared our storage closet! 
Our garage 
And now a few pictures of our fun Mom and Jaden ski day! The day was absolutely beautiful, with many people skiing and boarding without coats on. 
Snack time! 
Jaden, sad to go:( 
Exhausted little boy on the ride back home. 
And a few videos of my lil' skiier:)
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