Affordable Pest

My parents had a rat in their townhouse and after weeks of trying to catch it on their own, they called Affordable Pest to step in. On the day of the appointment, I was at there to meet with the inspector/​technician and explain the situation (droppings/​sightings/​etc.). He laid traps and poison in addition to sealing off any entry points he found around the house. During that entire time, I probably asked dozens of questions, and the technician was knowledgeable and very helpful. I’m happy to report my parents’ home is now rat free.

This company cannot get anything right. At all. Ever. If you like incorrectly scheduled appointments, missed appointments, billing errors, wrong products used, poor communication, then maybe you’ll like them. I do not.

I contacted Affordable after being referred to them through the Thumbtack referral system.
I followed that up by reviewing their ratings on Unilocal, and figured I’d give it a go since the majority of their reviews came back 5 stars. Now. I’m sure those others who’ve posted truly had a great experience with Affordable. However, I did not.
After hearing what I thought was a squirrel that had crawled in through an outside, vent, I had Affordable come to my home to inspect. They came to my home on ¹²⁄₁₁. The inspector, who seemed well experienced and knowledgeable, walked in, looked around, went to the space I was hearing the noise from, then went outside to inspect. After walking around the property (I live in a fully detached SFH in DC), he came in to give me a full report. Because his level of knowledge seemed great, I let it go that he did not ask to inspect my basement, kitchen space, nor my 2^nd floor.
He immediately stated that he thinks I may have a rat (or two), and that he’d suggest RAT stations. After some discussion, I agreed to have two stations placed, with bait outside for a total of $ 150. We then discussed a plan to have Affordable return after a month, every month, for three months, for $ 35/​month to refresh the stations.
After 01/​05, I received a phone call from an Affordable technician, who stated that he was at my property to refill the stations and inspect the home. No prior notice. Since I was at work, and I couldn’t just leave at the drop of a hat, and after some discussion about why I was given no prior notice, I let him go ahead and service my two stations, both of which were FULLY paid for from the first payment. I followed up with him to let him know that I would contact Affordable directly to make the $ 35 payment, per my contract.
The next day, I contacted Affordable, and ended up speaking to someone. I proceeded to let them know that I needed to make payment, but first, asked that going forward they give me at least a day’s notice to let me know they’re coming, especially since the $ 35 I’m paying is not only to refill the station, but to inspect the exterior AND interior of the home.
Then, I stated that I would like to make payment. THAT is when things started getting fishy. He claimed that I owed $ 35 for refilling the station, PLUS $ 115. Already perturbed that they showed up at my home without any prior notice, I asked why, since the contract I signed, and was looking at in my hands, stated I’d only be paying $ 35, he was unable to answer. So, I asked to speak to his boss or owner.
After a few moments, and some heated discussion, I asked that my contract be cancelled. I was told by the owner that I seem to be having a bad day, and that he’d just like to put this to rest. Further perturbed, I asked what I needed to do to make payment of the $ 35, since at this point the owner said the $ 115 was a mixup. He responded that he didn’t want my money and that the contract would be cancelled. I agreed, and thought that was that.
Fast forward one week, and I come home one day and, as I’m entering my home, I see that the two stations that I’d FULLY paid for had been removed from the side of my home. Since I’d had enough, I chose not to call, and have since moved on to a pest company who’s representative just left after spending two hours at my home, inspecting EVERY nook and cranny, only to tell me that the RAT stations I’d previously paid for were not necessary as I have… a mouse.

Kids got bit by a spider. Thomas who was my technician came over the same day and serviced the house. This was several months ago! Haven’t had a problem since, which is great since my kids are allergic to almost anything that crawls!
Great job Affordable Pest! Id recommend you to ANYONE!

If it was possible to give MINUS 10 starts, I would. Booked and confirmed this company for a termite inspection for clients with a short inspection deadline and they left our team AND the clients waiting there for 3 hours, no call, no email, then didn’t show. Called and they said OOPS, no one in area, too bad.
Affordable is not so affordable since I had to pay a premium to get another REPUTABLE AND RELIABLE inspector out with very short notice. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE, NEVER AGAIN!!!

I have been using Affordable Pest for over 3 years and always have great service.
I have a contract with them so they come out to treat the house every quarter and will come out in between if I am having any issues. I have seen a dramatic difference in the bugs. The staff is well trained and polite. I recommend them to all my friend and family.

I am having a «gnat issue». So I called this company. According to their business info, they’re open until 9pm at night. However, the guy I spoke so said the last appointment on any given day is the 3 – 5 pm slot. Not good because people work. Anyway, I did schedule it, but I called back the next day to reschedule it to the weekend, they said I didn’t need to reschedule — I wasn’t in their system for any appointment and the guy I spoke with «must have just been dispatch» who didn’t forward my info. I didn’t reschedule.

Unfortunately, communicating with this company is a big problem. For example, they have come unannounced for the quarterly service when I’m at work, which I’ve repeatedly told them not to do because they can’t enter the locked gate, and then they try to charge me for the service anyway. Also, while one of the technicians is really good, when he’s not available, the ones that show up are really mediocre.

We’ve been using them for almost a year and are completely disappointed. Go with someone else! They are unreliable, don’t show up when they are supposed to, and still have not fixed our pest problem. So disappointed!

Great service.

Why are there 24 filtered reviews ?! I did not see this when I originally came on here… and two weeks ago they had 5 stars from 1 reviewer who left a very detailed post. So I felt confident enough to call them and use their service.
I am an ACTUAL client and this is my REAL experience. so if this review gets filtered… I am going to lose my faith in Unilocal… seriously. The 24 filtered reviews which I failed to see before (completely my own fault)… would of made me steer towards another vendor. But I do feel like 24 filtered reviews and only 1 actual review that counts towards their rating is complete and utter BS! Maybe some of those are fake but I know some are actual real experiences they had with this company.
Here is MY EXPERIENCE with Affordable Pest:
9÷21÷13: I had an estimate appt. set for the morning time 8−10am. The technician called around 9 saying he is on his way and should take about 25 mins. 15 mins later I receive a call from another gentleman saying the technician is running late and will be here around 10 – 10:15am… which is fine since its only 15 mins after my appt. time so I didn’t mind at all. The technician comes in and steps into my kitchen (which is about 5 steps from my front door), takes his flash light from his camera phone– and shines it under one of the cabinets. Then steps back into the door way and gives me a quote, that’s it… not information or treatment process. So it was me asking him a bunch of questions which he answered but was not very knowledgeable or at least did not leave that impression. It was an awkward experience because he just stood there without saying much. At that point I questioned their professionalism and the company itself but I decided to set the initial appt for next monday and he also said we could do a follow up a week later after the initial appt. This process took less than 10 mins…
9÷30÷13: I had my appt. set at 1−3pm. Technician arrives on time around 1:15pm. This was a different technician this time and he was definitely more knowledgeable, personable and professional. At this time I had more faith in this company and thought… that previous experience must of been a fluke (bad technician). After paying my bill ($ 180), he asked if I still wanted the 1 week follow-​up. I said «Yes» and we scheduled an appt. for next Monday (today) at the same time 1−3pm.
10÷7÷13: One week later… which is today… I called around 2:30 to check the status of our technician, at this point I wasn’t even upset or impatient because we had up until 3:00 for our time slot… I was just simply curious. The receptionist told me that I didn’t have an appt. this Monday, it’s scheduled for next Monday. At this point I explained to her how both the technicians that came to my house asked me if I wanted a 1 week follow up appt. and the last guy who was here set it up for this Monday (1 week from last Monday) at the same time slot. She puts me on hold and then tells me we never respray a house until 10 days after the initial appt. and that is the reason why my appt. was moved to next Monday. Really?! REALLY??! I don’t mind if it’s been moved for whatever reason… but how come no one called us about the rescheduled time?! Are we mind readers? Do we have a copy of your appt. book? Come the F on– WHO DOES THAT? I am beyond disappointed. And if the receptionist actually just took fault and apologized, I would not be upset. But no, she just had excuses which lead to an unhappy customer, who is also a Unilocal user. Thanks for wasting my time guys.
I gave them a rating of two stars because:
1. It’s pretty affordable, I live in a small townhouse with three floors– $ 180 and $ 80/​per quarter.
2. The second technician was professional, personable, and knowledgeable… did not make me feel all awkward.
As far as the treatment for pests, I am not sure how effective it was since it’s only been a week and we do not have an infestation, just taking preventative measures.
This is quite possibly my longest post (rant) on Unilocal… thank god I type fast and Unilocal,don’t even think about filtering this review…

Grossly mismanaged business.
I signed up for the quarterly service contract with Affordable Pest to deal with a very serious rodent problem in and around the rowhouse I bought in DC. The technician they sent was actually quite knowledgeable, friendly, and effective at sealing up the property and beginning the rat extermination efforts. However, I quickly realized that because scheduling ahead of time was so difficult, I was doing all the maintenance work of emptying the rat and mouse traps myself, and could just as easily re-​bait the poison stations with a cheap refill bucket from Amazon. So I decided not to renew the contract for another quarter, and directly told a manager of their Lorton office that I did not want any more service unless I called them first.
Affordable Pest’s business office first charged me $ 35 for my second bait station despite the clear terms of the quarterly contract including two stations. They «refunded» this in the form of an account credit I will never use since I’m cancelling their service.
Next, Affordable apparently sent someone to my house without any prior notice or scheduling and without my permission. This person could not have gotten inside the house but apparently found some way through the locked back gate to «check» the traps I was already maintaining, oh and leave a bill on the door for $ 200+. When I got a call from Affordable the next day, I was expecting some sort of explanation for the erroneous trespassing, or at least a check-​up on the service. Nope. Another aggressive mosquito-​control sales call from Affordable despite the fact that I have zero grass/​yard and it’s almost Fall. Multiple calls to their office about the unwanted, unscheduled service resulted in promises from a call-​back from a manager. Still waiting for a response over a month later; they have my cell and office numbers.
If you’re not comfortable taking care of the rats yourself in DC, there are plenty of other pest control options more centrally located and with ostensibly less shady business practices.

We were having swarms of random bugs, we weren’t sure if they were flying ants or termites, in the spring and occasionally in the fall for a few years. They were only appearing in the bathroom and coming through the air vent. The first time it occurred we contacted another pest control who stated that it may be termites but don’t be too concerns as it looked to be swarmers and we were moving some old books and shelves around. Hummmm ok.
Fast forward — the swarming occurred seasonally for a few years with no other incidences and the swarmers dying off. Finally, this spring, I noticed them in other rooms in the house, including the kitchen. Now I can deal with occasional bugs in the (small) hall bathroom, but my kitchen? O Heck No! So I called another bug company. The guy they send evaluated the bugs and couldn’t tell if they were termites or ants… strange. He offered to treat for other bugs in case that it was ants. I went ahead because bugs may be extra protein but I would prefer to not have it in my food. He sent the «termite expert» who confirmed that yes, it was termites. He attempted the scare tactic telling me that my house was infected and everything was going to fall down. According to my independent research and prior experiences with the other bug companies, this was likely not true.
Did some research on Unilocal,noting the above mentioned company had poor reviews, and found Affordable Pest control. They also had a great Unilocal deal going on. Kris came to our home, looked at the perimeter of the foundation and confirmed that we actually had been treated before in the past for termites due to the holes in the concrete padding. (we were told that it was but don’t fully trust the prior owner’s word). We decided to treat again because we have been in the house for 4 years and would prefer to have the piece of mind. The team came out, excavated the perimeter of the foundation and installed the treatment. The treatment that they installed was the same as the prior company who gave us an estimate for work. Did I mention that Affordable lived up to it’s name and offered the same treatment product for HUNDREDS of dollars cheaper? Add the Unilocal deal that was going on to the mix and we felt that we got a fab deal.
Wonderful price, great employees and helpful staff. We are planning some kitchen renovations and they even offered to return to evaluate if damage was found when the walls were opened.