Mosquito Joe of Virginia Beach-Norfolk

I will say the first service went well and they did impact the mosquito population; however they did not seem to have any impact on no-see-ums, in fact I had never seen them as bad. I do not know if the treatment reduced whatever eats no-see-ums but it warrants consideration.



My concern comes when the company came by for the second treatment. I did not call and schedule the treatment; they assumed that I wanted the treatment. They where correct, so when I saw the email saying the company would be by the next day between the hours of 8am to 5pm, I decided not to call and cancel; however, the email came in at 4:04pm the day prior to the service so the reaction window to reschedule is small. The email stated the following:



You have an upcoming scheduled treatment from Mosquito Joe. Spraying will occur between 8am and 5pm. If you may not be home, please be sure to secure pets and unlock gates so our technician has access. If for any reason you need to reschedule,

please give the office a call at 494-3440.



On the day of the service at 8:49am, I was outside cleaning up with my son and dog. I did not hear anybody knock on the door, nor did I hear anybody say they were going to start. What I did hear is two blowers start up. I told my son to get in the house and as he was going in the back door from the rear deck one of the individuals blowing rounded the corner and sprayed in the direction of my son. Both company individuals saw me and saw that I was yelling and signaling to stop, which they did. The workers told me that they knocked but nobody answered. I was upset they started the treatment without clearing the yard first and I sent them away. I immediately called the local number, same as above, to talk to somebody in the

local shop. I did get somebody in a national call center, who told me repeatedly “As I have told you, we can only forward your message”.



The local rep called me back fairly quickly. My concern was the workers started without clearing the yard first. What I received back was a qualified apology. Sorry but 90% of our clients work during the day. Putting aside the possible escalatory nature of the messaging, I recommended again that the company should call out and check the yard before they have their workers start. The local rep was very focused on the original message, and cut me off a few times to repeat the 90% theme and sometimes we spray the neighbors too, when they pop up from behind a hedge. I stated that they should visual check rather than play the odds that people are not there. She disagreed with me saying that knocking and blowing isn't playing the odds. When I tried to interject my point, I was told that I should stop yelling. Bottom line if you are not visually checking and you are blowing without calling out, you are gambling that people are not there, and I did not yell.



Eventually I did get the local rep to say that it was a good idea to change their procedures to call out and visually clear the yard before they start up the blowers and start spraying. She did not say they would do this, just acknowledged that it was a good idea. Until the procedures are changed I would highly recommend finding a different service.



Issues:



1. Spraying without clearing they area



2. National call center with no immediate local access



3. Prioritizing speed over safety as a policy that has been acknowledged but not yet changed.



4. Making defensive excuses at the call center and by the local rep.



These above policies and practices are showstoppers for me and why they get an F for professionalism.