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Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas!
Michael Wienecke
Hey, so today I want to talk about something a little bit different than what we normally talk about. And, you know, on this podcast, we always talk about how we’re trying to help the homeowner, save the homeowner money as best we can. And we talk about stuff that, you know, we’ve experienced, whether it be a pest issue or rodent issue, a wildlife issue, whatever it may be. And, unfortunately, we’ve been, we’ve been experiencing a lot of really poor exclusion work, really poor customer service, in my opinion, had some some recent customers that have just, you know, you know, completely my opinion, but they’ve, they just, they were taken advantage of, you know, this, this particular instance, this company charged them $50 per rat that they were catching, they had no intention of covering up any holes, they just trapped and trapped and trapped. And, as we’ve talked about in our previous podcast, you know, if you don’t cover up that hole, those rats are just going to keep on coming and coming and coming. I mean, they’re, you know, Travis, you can probably attest to this, there’s, there’s, there’s, there’s a lot of rats in this world. So.
Travis McGowin
So just as of right now, I just finished up on a job. One home that caught 25 in the house, prior to the problem, ceasing, you know, after some exclusion work was done, we still call it 25. And, you know, unfortunately, the customer did not realize just how extreme the problem was, I’ve got another house, that is a duplex. And I have caught, I’ve lost count, but I know it’s well over 30 in in between the two units of the duplex so far. And if we were charging $50 Or at I mean, you know, these companies making money, and like you said, Either they’re not recommending exclusion because either a they don’t know about that don’t know how to do it or be there’s no end in sight, and they want to continue to make money by trapping rats, because you know, as well as I do, if you don’t solve the problem, they’re gonna keep coming in, they’re gonna keep coming back. It’s just an ongoing cycle. That’s never gonna
Michael Wienecke
Yeah, I 100% agree. I actually did the math. You know, how many rats Did you say?
Travis McGowin
I know, 25 and one, and then I’m pretty sure it’s now over 30 and another.
Michael Wienecke
So 30? Yeah. Yeah, so that’s $1,500. Just just in catching rats. So, you know,
Travis McGowin
we’ve been it doesn’t end there. That’s the problem is it’s not gonna stop.
Michael Wienecke
No, I mean, you’re, you’re, I couldn’t even imagine how much it would cost. So, you know, like I said, it’s all opinion based. But in my opinion, that’s definitely not the right way to do it. I feel like the customer is not being taken care of. And, you know, it’s just wrong. That’s not how we would do it at pesquisa. So I’ll just tell you, you know, this, this particular customer, they had been dealing with rats for a whole year in their house scratching, you know, dropping, droppings everywhere, urinating in their attic, the noises? I mean, he was just, you know, at his wit’s end, and just told me, he said, you know, this is this isn’t my house anymore. It’s the rats house. He said, You know, I can’t I can’t sleep at night. And he just, you know, they went into a hotel a couple times, and they just to get relief from this problem. And I mean, it’s not something that we normally talk about when I wrote it job, or a rodent infestation, or, you know, rodents getting in your house, can can do that to your, I guess, your mental state. But this this guy was literally, you know, at that point where he would do anything to get rid of this problem. So
Travis McGowin
how many, you know, many companies did he have come in prior to you coming into his house.
Michael Wienecke
So I want to say two or three. I know one of them was a big big chain company. And they just put bait boxes on the outside and put a few snap traps in the attic. He actually did his own reconnaissance, and he put his, his get, he put a ring camera up there, and he just, you know, the company would come out and they’d be like, hey, you know, we’re not seeing the evidence ARATS anymore. And he’d be like, well, they’re, they’re jumping up and down in my attic because I can see him on camera. So you know. So, you know, once I talked to him, yeah, yeah. And once I talked to him, you know, I told him, I gave him exactly you know what we talked about, you know, we were going to do it until the job’s done. We give a full guarantee. If I did All the work, and you know, you paid me and the problem wasn’t solved and I would give you your money back because I’m not going to have you pay me for something that did not solve your issue. We have just finished this job. And we are going I think two weeks in the noises has completely stopped in the attic. We’ve we’ve had no rodent activity as of yet. We are checking about every one week to week and a half depending. So our next follow up is next week. So but just to say that, you know, get a reference, if you’re going to call a company and you’ve got a big rat problem, a big squirrel problem raccoon, I mean, any kind of wildlife issue that really needs to be seriously taken care of. Not with just traps and bait boxes, you know, call around, get references, you know, here at pesquisas we have plenty of people that would would love to tell you their story and how we help them you know, their problem. You know, my claim to fame is and I know Travis you do too, you know, we’ve done Rodin jobs where literally they’ve had scratching, you know, Nolen rats in the house for a year. And then all of a sudden we come in, we do a full exclusion job and they’ve never seen a rat again.
Travis McGowin
Well, so one of my favorites. And you know, sometimes the most simple solution is actually the best solution in terms of access into a house and whatnot. But I had a lady and her husband had a very large rat run through their living room one day, while they were just sitting there in the daytime, it ran from the kitchen through the living room, kind of down a little flight of steps and into the laundry room. They had already had the rat, I believe, rats had chewed through the drain lines for their dishwasher that were up underneath there, their kitchen cabinetry flooded, their flooded their kitchen flooded their cabinets damaged all that. I believe we were the third company to come out. And within about 10 to 15 minutes, I was able to locate what I thought was where they came in at. And essentially, in looking around, I found that the rats had come through the exterior wall where there was no dryer vent cover on the dryer hose. So they came up through the clammed up the brake came up through the hose, and had chewed a hole through the dryer vent hose. And were just coming back and forth into the house through the at uncovered dryer vent to the outside of the brick wall on the outside of the house. I pulled back the washer and the dryer, there was all sorts of rat feces under there, the lady was mortified, she had never seen it never noticed it. None of the other company means that ever noticed it. So I literally went got the parts to fix it got her new dryer hose, got her new dryer vent cover all that stuff. And they never had another rat come in the house ever again. But just knowing what to look for, or being a little more, and trying to find it and then solving the customer’s problem, that’s one of my favorite things to do is just to be able to come into a seemingly hopeless situation like you were talking about with your customer just then had multiple companies come out. Problem had went on for over a year, like you said they felt like the customer was losing the battle against these rodents in their house. And that’s my favorite thing is to come back and help them take back the control of their house from these terrible things.
Michael Wienecke
No, I agree. 100%. I mean, you know, I think I think listening to our podcast and the way we talk. I mean, I think you can tell that here at Penske is we’re very passionate about what we do. And if you’re on if you’re on our team, and you’re not, then you don’t last very long. And I think we know that. So. But yeah, like I said, not not trying to talk bad about any company, because there are companies out there that do the right thing and that, you know, know what they’re doing. But it never hurts to just, you know, ask that company, Hey, can I get a reference from you know, the last couple jobs? You did? And you know, do you mind if I could reach out or, you know, if I could get some kind of a review or check their check their Google reviews or check their Facebook reviews, check what people are actually saying about them and who they’re talking about on the on the review, because, you know, naming someone saying, hey, so and so solved my rat problem in a day. You know, you probably want that guy out there, you know, solving your rat problem.
Travis McGowin
Yeah, I don’t think that I’d go with the with the the recommendations. It’s like, oh, well, you know, in about eight months, we didn’t hear any more. Yeah, I don’t. I don’t think that that would be the route that I would want to go for my own house.
Michael Wienecke
Yeah, and I’ll also say too, I mean, every rep. Every rat issue at a house is different. You know, some take one or two days some take a couple of weeks. I mean, I’ve honestly I’ve had one that took four months to get rid of I stayed with the customer for four months. We got rid of it and free and clear hadn’t had a rat since. You know, we stand by our guarantee. Like I said,
Travis McGowin
Oh, and what people don’t understand too is that I’m, especially you know, someone who may not be really familiar with building construction, the way things are designed When a house is built, but Case in point the the house that I caught the 25 rats that we caught them in an upstairs closet. We caught them in a downstairs laundry room, we caught them in the garage, in another closet in another bed room. So I mean, there were just multiple areas like the living room. They were just multiple rooms. And these rats, when given access, will will go through wall void. You know, they’ll go through ceilings, though, they’ll go through attics, they’ll go through basements, and all of these different places. And like you said, Every house is different, some are more complex than others. So you really need to take your time or a technician needs to take their time and be thorough and you know, and try to examine all of the possibilities. Because sometimes, you know, the answer is the simplest sometimes it’s a little more complex.
Michael Wienecke
Yeah, definitely. Well, like I said, you know, just just do your research follow up, make sure make sure that the company that you are hiring is the right one for you. And you know, that’s just the best thing you can do. I just I wouldn’t just trust anybody. I would get you know the information and make sure that it’s going to solve your problem.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
