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Pest Bear review: Lawn Pest Control 31

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8:32 pm EST
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I was visited at my home by a lady sales person representing Pest Bear. I was very reluctant to engage a lawn pest control service due to being scammed in the past. She took my phone number and assured me that this company was very reliable and that they were the best in the business. After several phone calls over the space of a few weeks, we finally agreed to try their service. My lawn was in pretty bad shape with bear spots and I was told that I would begin to see improvement almost immediately. After 4 months of treatment, my lawn actually looked worse. Where I had green grass, I now had brown grass and the weeds were thriving on what they were spraying on them. On two different occasions I called and complained, and they scheduled to have a supervisor come and evaluate the lawn. I stayed home on these two different days and no supervisor ever came or called to cancel the appointment. After four months I called and cancelled the service, but the technican came anyway and started to spray the lawn. Fortunately, I was home and was able to stop him. He insisted that he go ahead and at least spray the back yard. I insisted that he get in his truck and leave. I was billed for the last service, even though I feel that I was paying for nothing, I paid that bill. This is absolutely the worst experience I have had in lawn pest control. For the monthly fee they were charging I can purchase all of the chemicals and fertilizer I need.

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31 comments
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John cosgrove
, US
Mar 16, 2017 9:51 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Danger don't use these guys, they contaminated my home by spraying pesticides inside my house with the air conditioner running and caused this poison to circulate throughout the house.
The spray also ruined carpet in two rooms with stains.
This company refused any responsibility and only offered some free spray applications in the future.
What a joke, these guys are definitely fired..!
By spraying while the air conditioner was on resulted in severe respitory problems for me resulting in a trip to the emergency room.
These guys have cost me over 3000.00. STAY AWAY!

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Timothy Tuttle
, US
Mar 12, 2016 4:31 pm EST

Worst service I ever had. Will send two techs to do your lawn within 15 days. I had four techs show up the latter part of February and March. The last one supposedly called the "manager" and told him to cancel service. Low and behold, today, March 12, 2016 I get a bill showing service on March 1. Company is a complete ripoff using substandard products. Will go back to doing my lawns myself. Can not trust billing or anything the tech tells you.
Timothy Tuttle

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mikey 11126
Valrico, US
Feb 04, 2015 11:53 pm EST

I use to work for pest bear I was a lawn tech probably one of the best. My lawns where green and weed free I use to run the lakeland route. Well I should say.use to be this company is a scam the products that work they take from you. They upped the ammount of weed killer so guess what my lawns died. Plus they run the techs into the ground you have to be at work by 630 and you weren't aloud to leave until you were done. If I was a home owner I would cancel all services and go with s&o they are the best lawn care professionals In the state of Florida.

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sometime
, US
Jul 21, 2014 5:30 pm EDT

I used to work with pest bear this company sucks. The will screw you out of your money all the care about are sells not the customer nor the people that work for them. If you are looking for a job stay away from pest bear!

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CAPTJIMBO
, US
Jun 03, 2014 7:22 am EDT

RUN DON'T WALK FROM THESE GUYS

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truthhurts11
Largo, US
May 05, 2014 10:11 am EDT

For all the complaints on here i can back you all 100 percent. Try working for this company they will work you 150 hours every 2 weeks and treat you as an employee like a pile of trash on the side of the road. They don't even let you have off when family members pass away the company treats there customers like crap and there employees even worse. You could injure your self on the field and they will fire you because your not able to do the job.. there products they use are trash all they are is a band aid to help color the lawn but 2 weeks later they will brown again

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Lauren717
Tampa, US
Feb 01, 2014 12:25 pm EST

This company is a joke! I called about 2 weeks ago and scheduled an appointment for today, 2/1. I know I scheduled for Saturday as their weekend availability was a reason I chose this company. Yesterday I got a reminder call for an appointment on Monday. I called and the person who answered insisted I scheduled for Monday and the technicians never do termite work on Saturdays. I got off the phone to see if there was any way to be home for the appointment. I called back and spoke to a different person. When I explained the situation she scheduled me for today from 11a-1p.

Shocker but they didn't show up. When I called the same rude man I spoke to yesterday said when they rescheduled my appointment they never let the technician know. He was working on something else and would not be able to come out today. I asked what they could do for the inconvenience and he said nothing. I told him I'd be going with a more organized company.

This was the only company that gave me a quote over the phone instead of coming out to my home to inspect. It was the lowest quote but I'm sure if they had ever showed up they would have raised it. I got a bait and switch vibe from them. How exactly do you go from scheduling sat to technicians never working sat to another sat appt? The salesperson Angelo seemed very accommodating but there was nothing to back it up.

I wish I had read all these awful reviews before wasting my Saturday!

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cpick
Tarpon Springs, US
Nov 09, 2013 9:21 am EST

This is the formal complaint made to the BBB.
7/13 called to report small brown area in lawn. treated saying fungus treated with potash. 2 weeks area grew from 4 x4 to 20 x 10. Called to report didn't respond physically for 1.5 weeks. Stated it wasn't fungus, but cinch bugs. Area now has grown to 1/4 of our backyard. Stated need to have it re sodded secondary completely dead of weeds. Manager Brian Fazelle came out early Sept.to measure for resodd, but didn't bring round up stating this is "horrible". Aprrox.10 calls made daily to come spray round up so we can have our yard re sodded no response saying it has moved to regional manager. Finally Sept. 26 appt. made to spray round up by mnager, but didn't show up at time frame given. Called and manager said I need to reschedule for tomorrow. I said don't you have another employee/truck who can come spray. "oh, that is a good idea, I have someone I'll call". That evening late round up sprayed. I called the next day and talked to the manager who apologizes for poor customer service. I asked when will they resodd. He said in 15 days. They will come out with the sod cutter and resodd. I asked do I need to make an appt. "no, I will personally take care of it". Oct 11 called to ask why we haven't resodded. No response from receptionist, but emailed manager Ron. Many calls from then to schedule the "not needed scheduling" appt. No answer except I'll send it to the regional manager. Finally Nov. 6, an appt. was confirmed. I took the day off from work to speak personally to the manager. Ron didn't show up, and said he needed to remeasure the already measured are form August. He said he would come out the next day and call me. No call the next two days. Today is Nov.9 (Saturday), the office is open, but the manager who "personally" was going to take care of my lawn from the initial complaint in July and still hasn't fulfilled his promise. I'm submitting this complaint for inferior work and treatment of my lawn and horrible customer service.

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Pestered@PestBear
Tampa, US
Sep 26, 2013 3:59 pm EDT

An absolutely horrible company! Doesn't care at all for their employees or their customers. Employees are instructed to focus energy on sales and not at all on service. This is due to the fact that they are losing customers at an alarming rate. If they would even make an attempt to keep the customers they have they may be able to make this company worth working for. But that simply does not happen. The other regional managers don't have the backbone to stand up to Brad Shaffer, the regional sales manager, so he leads them around by their nose and even gets them to push for sales even though they are supposedly over production. Hats off to Brad Shaffer for having the ability to make the other ones bow down to him. Even though I personally do not care for him you have to be impressed with his ability to make an entire management staff fall at his feet. The other regional managers should never be in a position above middle management and that itself is a stretch. One of them has already failed in multiple business attempts and the other has a checkered past I'm not comfortable repeating. As far as their customers go I think that would fall upon the technician they have. If you have a good technician you will get good service but probably won't have that technician very long. He or she will be terminated due to taking to long to do their job or not completing the ridiculous amount of stops that are put on them on a daily basis. Either way be prepared to have your job threatened on a daily basis. Pest Bear needs to wake up and respect their customers and their employees or soon they will no longer have either.

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pestbear
Oldsmar, US
Aug 08, 2013 7:01 pm EDT

I'm a technician for the company, over the years, a lot has changed, chemicals have improved, the work ethic has improved. The new managers are great and motivate everyone. people don't understand that what we do isn't magic, everything takes time and you cant create something from nothing, grass only grows so quick, and watering and mowing habits make a big difference. people just count on what we do to fix everything, all we do is green it up, kill the insects, and work on getting the weeds under control.

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BorisTheBlade11
, US
Jun 24, 2013 12:37 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

i like these bros. they are brotastic. i am very pleased with their service.

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Patchylegg
Cumming, US
May 31, 2013 8:59 pm EDT

The business is unprofessional and teaches employees how to cheat, lie and steal. When I worked there my manager was Joe. He was a little short guy with cotton mouth and always looked like he just walked in from a snow storm from all the dandruff . He threatened to fire me because my wife was out of town on business and I had to go pick my son up from daycare at 5pm. I was a top seller for this rag tag company and told him to go ahead I would go to work for a competitor lie Truegreen he quickly backed down so I quit anyway . This company is totally unethical

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Andrew122
Odessa, US
May 31, 2013 8:04 am EDT

I made the mistake of paying them to re-sob part of my lawn. The only time someone showed up to my house was after I cancelled my service. DO NOT HIRE THEM! I am still out my deposit and had to do the work myself.

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Candace11
Pinellas Park, US
May 30, 2013 3:38 pm EDT

I have had nothing but positive experiences with PB. They seem to be growing as a company and really feel as though they have improved everywhere. My lawn went from brown to green in about 3 months.

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FlipSaunders
Clearwater, US
May 29, 2013 1:39 pm EDT

I see anglebaby8781 has copy and pasted her review everywhere she could. i disagree, i have been dealing with pestbear/lawnbear for over a year and my lawn looks like a golf course. i dont remember the tech's name but when we started he laid out his plan and delivered on it. very impressed with this small business. much more personable than the likes of truly nolen and trugreen.

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AngelBaby8781
Orlando, US
May 07, 2013 3:11 pm EDT

Florida Residents: DO NOT deal with PestBear under any circumstances. They will give you services that do not work, charge your credit card without authorization, call your workplace, and lie about conversations and promises that were made by their employees. We made the mistake of giving them several chances to improve our problem, but when we called quits, they came up with another bogus charge for us to pay. THEY ARE A BAD BAD company...DO NOT use them!

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CORTLAND
apopka, US
Feb 17, 2013 10:56 pm EST

A VERY GOOD COMPANY, IN ALL PHASES ... I HIGHLY RECCOMEND LAWNBEAR

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displeased cus
Bradenton, US
Oct 24, 2012 10:40 pm EDT

I had pest bear and i was very displeased. The technician nick was very rude and unprofessional. Do not believe anything this guy says. After watching him spray my home as quick as he could and supposedly check my bait stations which come to find out were empty. In about five minutes time. Sits in his truck smoking for twenty minutes and says he did a thorough job. Then he tells me my lawn needs to be aerated and I have to much thatch build up. I just had new sod laid a month ago by a professional. The last straw was when I talked to my neighbor that I go to church with. He told me nick tried to sell him rat boxes for bird pooh on his window sill. I do not understand how people can look you in the eye and flat out lie.

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csaporito
Parrish, US
Oct 21, 2012 5:30 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I actually love pest bear. I have'nt had any problems ever since I cancelled hughes and hired pest bear to service my home. I have the pest control service where my technician Nick sprays my home very thoroughly. He sprays the lower and upper parameter and even sprays around the windows. i also have the termite stations and lawn spray for fire ants. Nick is awesome. He changes my termite stations and puts brand new ones in everytime he comes. I have no insects in or out of my home other than a few here and there. But I live in Parrish and always had fire ants and tons of creepy spiders. Nick sweeps my gutters and doorways and windows before he sprays the home. Maybe you guys had a bad technician, but every company has them. I love my technician and would'nt change anything about my service.

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Patteliv
Cape Coral, US
Sep 07, 2012 3:08 pm EDT

I had this company for about 3 1/2 years, , , the last year was a real joke, , my contract was every 5 weeks, , , so they started coming every 3 weeks, , I always had weed, , and fire ants, , so just what they treated is beyond me, , When you call there it was a vicious cycle, , no one can ever help you, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, , , it would take 2-4 weeks to ever get an answer, , and the final straw was they sent me a bill, but no one ever treated my lawn that month...that took about 5 weeks to resolve, , Cliff (
the manager) is a good man, , but he's working for the wrong company, , , Cliff save yourself, , , ,

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Ptech
Fort Myers, US
Aug 16, 2012 10:34 pm EDT

which branch you work for?

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abc837
Brandon, US
Aug 01, 2012 9:38 am EDT

Worked for these idiots for 2 years, had the best cancel retention in the company in June. They fired me for lack of sales in july. Biggest mistake I have ever made working for them.

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homless
Sarasota, US
Jul 07, 2012 1:40 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

My wife and I moved to Florida from Maryland a little more.then a month ago.I came to florida two weeks before the move to secure a job and a place to live I took a job with pest bear with promises that I will be a branch manager in few months since that was the position I held back home.My wife at the time was 28 weeks pregnant with twins a week after moving in to our apartment we started feeling sick in the morning come to find out the place is full of mold and bacteria.we had to sleep in the living room were it was more ventilated.On the 23 rd of June my wife slipped and fractured her ankle
Which now she is wheelchair bound due to high risk pregnancy.on the 6 of July my wife was having severe chest pains and troubled breathing she was taken to Sarasota emergency room by ambulance.I called my supervisor to let him know I had to go to be with my wife.now pest bear knew of my home situation that we had to move due to the unhealthy living.conditions and with twins on the way anytime since my wife is now 32 weeks pregnant they fired me when I need the job the most.I serviced the bradenton .Sarasota. palmetto areas and if you met me then you know my strong work ethic.I served my country in the army I represented my country when I was a teenager in cycling and lived at the Olympic camp in Colorado springs and this company fires me in my time of need.now we are basically homless

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verypleasedcust
, US
Dec 20, 2011 11:36 pm EST

pest bear is an amazing company, knowing what i know, i have worked in a call center before and honestly customers call for service and it is set up with them whenever they call! they are the ones who set it up, not the people in the office. technicians arent your mothers, they are only going to be able to do what they can to help you out, but that doesnt mean that you shouldnt be doing part of the work yourself when the tech cannot be out there. if you dont trust someone with your card, you shouldnt have given them your number in the first place! people explain to you the need for service then when you skip the times you are supposed to have it you wanna get upset because your lawn looks like crap when you didnt give the company a chance to fix it? hmm that doesnt sound right to me. when something isnt fixed right when you want it to, you have to understand it takes a while for the problem to be fixed. if you have worked in a lawn or pest company, you should know that. who thetruthhurtsis, dont be mad because you were a terrible technician and probably got fired on the company. you people are pitiful.

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barb_p
Tampa, US
Oct 22, 2011 4:38 pm EDT

All, i have the same complaint for this company. They get our addresses somehow and start the service on their own and demand the invoice money. If you do not pay they will threaten you to send this to collections. Instead of just complaining on these web sites, let us atleast act as a responsible citizens . If you have any issues, please complain against them at better business bureau ( www.bbb.org) and click the link 'File complaints'. Also, file a complaint with florida attorney general. ( http://myfloridalegal.com/). If the attorney general receives enough complaints, they can initiate an inquiry against this company. Please do something constructive to save others from getting suffered like us.

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badconsumerexperience
Land O Lakes, US
Oct 13, 2011 2:17 pm EDT

Worst experience with ANY company ever!
I used their services for about four months, they promised me to do front and back for a price and apparently convenient for them, what was sold to me was never communicate with the company so every time a technician would come to my house they missed the back. They also call and offer you a "discount" for singing up for easy pay, well BE AWARE! DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD INFO! I canceled easy pay as soon as they charged me the first time, not only they didn't give me the "discount" but charged me before the service was complete. After several complaints, the rep who sold me the service schedule a re treatment as a courtesy for all the bad experience I had. What was my surprise when I got a charge on my card (after couple of months of being off the easy pay) for that re treatment. Why did they still had my credit card info? Very weird! I spoke to about three managers and two supervisors, and none of them were able to give me the money back, all the wanted was that I would pay them for one more service and will give me two. Are you kidding me? What kind of business is that? Well reading therealtruthhurts post I can understand what kind of company that is. It should be out of business.

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elena pinera
Cape Coral, US
Oct 11, 2011 8:00 pm EDT

THERE IS NO WAY TO CANCEL THIS SERVICE. I HAD TO TALK TO AT LEAST 10 PEOPLE AND THEY STILL SENT SOMEONE TO MY HOUSE. THEY GIVE YOU THE TALK THAT THEY ARE LIABLE IF YOU HIRE SOMEONE ELSE. MY LAWN WAS MEDIOCRE WHEN I BEGAN AND NOW IS HORRIBLE. I HAD TO INSTALL NEW SOD AND THEY CAME IN AND TREATED IT AND IT TURNED ALL BROWN. NOW THEY WANT ME TO TALK TO SOMEONE ELSE. I REFUSE TO TALK TO ANYONE ANYMORE. I JUST PUT IN A COMPLAIN WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU OF SOUTH WEST FLORIDA

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therealtruthhurts
, ZW
Aug 12, 2011 1:55 am EDT

I was a manager at this company for a very short time and could not get away fast enough! The so called President of Operations James Sarantopoulos was probably the biggest buffoon I had ever met in the pest industry. The bottom line is that most of the chemical used is bought from Ebay or even worse ag grade product that is not labeled for use on residential properties. The office is run by the incompetent Tom Barry who is the second biggest idiot in the industry. Steer clear of this POS company! There is no drug testing so if you are a pill head with an extensive criminal history this is the place to work until you are released from probation. Even the operations manuals are plagiarized from TruGreen since most of the garbage that could not hack it in a real corporate setting are now so called executives at PestBear. Pest Bear is the rebirth of Ace Pest Control which was ran out of the industry for multiple DACS violations in the 80s but continues to operate in the same fashion. This is the worst pest control company in the industry! Buyer Beware!

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egcsyd
Tampa, US
Jun 10, 2011 6:01 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Worst lawn care service. I work in the lawn care industry as a sales person and had probably the worst experience as an employee yet, at Pestbear. I was trained to harass people until they finally gave in and bought. I was told to tell people they had problems with their lawn even if there weren't any and lie if that's what it took to make the sale. I would make quality assurance stops when I was in an area with existing accounts and half the lawns looked like they didn't have any regular maintenance done at all. Before I realized how unethical this company was, I signed one of my family members up for service. The service was mediocre and their telemarketers made so many harassing sales calls in order to gain more business for extra services that he cancelled on principal alone. When I left to go to a more ethical company, I was ripped of on my paycheck and still have not received the money that I'm owed for my work even though I gave notice. This is the type of company that gives sales people and lawn service a bad name. I never felt like a professional in this type of environment and the sales tactics used were sleazier than that of a used car salesperson. I'm happy to be promoting a service I can believe in and be out of that type of environment and I urge all homeowners to do their research before ever using an outdoor maintenance company like this.

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Raphael Drehsen
St. Petersburg, US
Apr 22, 2011 5:00 pm EDT

I've had the exact same experience...probably worse, in fact! I've phoned multiple times regarding my weed service. I'm constantly pulling weeds on my own, and the situation has completely worsened. I've had several supervisor meetings scheduled, and have yet to have a single meeting occur...no show/no call. I'm calling to cancel my service today. I hear Scotts Service is much better. I have golf-grass type grass...if that makes sense. At one point, it was a pleasure to lay in it, now there are only several nice areas.

Raphael from St. Pete- Causeway Isles

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glor1234
Tampa, US
Jan 21, 2011 8:44 pm EST

I have found them to be a very effective. Another company had killed my lawn and Pestbear brought it back. It did take awhile but the service people were very diligent. They explained to me the process and what to expect. It took longer than 4 months but it did come around and I have recommended them to all my neighbors. My lawn guy is the best and my lawn is the best around. i am sorry for your problem but hopefully it was a rare occasion or a bad tech. My husband is not easy to please and he loves the lawn.

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