Aptive Pest Control review: They made my bug problem worse and refused to let me cancel

APTIVE MADE MY BUG PROBLEM WORSE, THEN REFUSED TO LET ME LEAVE.

HOW THEY GOT ME: A teenager knocked on my door. Nice kid, polite. I said 12 months was too long. He stepped away, said he was calling his supervisor, came back and told me 6 months was approved just for me. That promise is the only reason I signed.

AT 6 MONTHS: I called to cancel. Aptive said no such agreement existed, no supervisor approved anything, and I was locked in for the full year. The doorstep promise evaporated the second I tried to use it.

AFTER 12 MONTHS: The charges didn't stop. I was told the contract auto-converts to month-to-month. Nobody disclosed that at my door. They just kept drawing on the card on file.

THE SERVICE IS WORTHLESS: Techs walk the perimeter, spray a band around the outside, and leave. Fifteen minutes. The insects didn't die - they moved IN. I had more bugs inside my home after treatment than before I hired them.

That's not bad luck. Repellent perimeter sprays don't kill a colony. Insects detect the treated band, avoid it, and relocate - through your walls, into your kitchen. UC IPM documents that repellent products make ant colonies split and spread instead of die. Studies show these sprays kill under 20% of roaches, leaving the colony behind the wall untouched. Real pest control uses non-repellent products and baits carried back to the nest. Aptive doesn't.

I paid monthly to have my pests relocated into my house.

THE MODEL: Send a likeable teenager to your door, because you'll trust a kid in a polo shirt. Let him say whatever closes the sale. Then deny he had authority to say it, lock you into a contract you were rushed through, and auto-renew it forever. Treat cheap enough to protect the margin, weak enough to keep you needing it.

DON'T SIGN AT YOUR DOOR. If it isn't in the written agreement, it doesn't exist.

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