Critter Control

Not really sure how I feel about the service. I paid $ 202. for a trap with an apple in it for a possible woodchuck and a couple of buckets as mole traps. The traps were set from the 8^th thru the 16^th minus the weekend (the company closed the trap because they won’t check it over the weekend) No capture was made and my yard has obvious signs of mole damage and the woodchuck that we’ve seen may have left the property on its own. Some preventive advice was given. I don’t know. You decide if this is worth it.

My husband and I discovered on Saturday night that we had what we are sure is a raccoon in our attic. We wanted to get it taken care of as soon as possible so we called on Sunday morning and left a message so they could contact us when they opened Monday. In the meantime my husband got on the roof and found a hole that it had ripped open. A neighbor had a live trap that he said we could try. This morning a woman called back and my husband explained what we had done already and that so far we didn’t have luck trapping it. He told her we were anxious to get it out and get the hole repaired because of the rain. Instead of helping out with our situation she proceeded to tell my husband he shouldn’t have put the trap up there because now it would cost us more because they would have to remove our trap. She also said he should have just covered the hole with plastic if he was worried about rain. As a prospective customer I don’t appreciate being told what I should have done. There is a tactful way to suggest that someone cover a hole with plastic without implying they are an idiot for not having done so already. The biggest issue is that she didn’t ask us any questions about the hole (it wasn’t able to be covered), how we set the trap, etc. Instead she said she didn’t even know if she could give us a quote because we had put the trap up there.
As a business owner myself I realize that a prospective customer calls me because of my expertise in my field. They don’t need me to tell them what they should have done. Instead it’s my job to let them know the cost to fix it, complete the job if they choose to use me, and then offer helpful advice to keep avoidable problems from occurring in the future. I would not charge someone extra to carry down something as simple as a small cage if I’m already up in their attic doing a paid job. I’m very disappointed as there are not many pest removal places in the area, but I would look elsewhere before using Critter Control.
Follow up: It seems that if you leave negative feedback for this business you will get a call from the owner. Normally I would be glad that they reached out. Unfortunately, my experience was not positive like the previous reviewer. The owner called me this afternoon to discuss our negative review. This was a tipping point. If I had the opportunity to discuss the experience with him and have him understand how I felt I would have gladly amended my review like the previous reviewer. Instead, he told me that the woman working this morning was so nice and wouldn’t hurt a fly. I am sure that the woman is very nice, and maybe I caught her at a bad time or her wording came off wrong. The bottom line is that I left the conversation with a negative perception of the company. I wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise with the owner. He just continued to insinuate that I was wrong. As a business owner, the customer’s perception is the only thing that matters. After getting frustrated at not being able to even say anything I hung up on him. He called me back to tell me if I were an upstanding business person I would not have done that. I’m sure he will share his point of view and anyone reading this can make their decision based on both sides. At this time, I choose to stand by my original one star review.