ABC Home and Commercial Services

It never smells.They do good quality work. They come out when they say they will and they are professional.

After a call to ABC, a very young man came out to take a look at my parents house for a quote on controlling carpenter ants. Once he took a look at the bugs under a small magnifier, he told us that we had an infestation of subterranean termites and dry wood termites. He reffered us to another company and then quoted $4500.00 to treat for the subterranean, but only following the treatment for the dry wood termites. It would be a week before the inspection could be done for the dry wood termites. But at the recommendation of ABC, we prepared to move my invalid father from the house for the fumigation, removed trees, shrubs and anything and everything that was attached to the two story house since he had said we would have to have 12" of clear space on all sides of the house. When the inspector from Houston Fumigators came to give us the quote for the subterranean, we found out quite happily, that we did not have a dry wood termite problem. Upon hearing the good news that we did not have an issue with dry wood termites, we contacted ABC to schedule the treatment for the subterranean. We scheduled an appointment, and the inspector/sales person didn't show up. We called to inquire and he explained that he had lost the original paperwork and would come out the next day to give the formal quote and schedule the work. Once again ABC was a no-show. I called the company and spoke to the receptionist who answered the phone, told her of my problems and asked to have a supervisor contact me, and she assured me that she would have someone call us back promptly. After two days of waiting, I tried once again to contact ABC, and I asked to speak to the President of the Company. The receptionist told me he was too busy to take calls from customers and that a supervisor would call me. We never received a call, even though we gave them four (4) telephone numbers to call us back at. They clearly have too much business and don't want any more.

It went well. The job is now complete and I do not hear varmits in my attic. ABC did a good job. I

very professional, and easy to work with.

I use them for pest control. They do a good job. We haven't had termites so far. We don't have anything to worry about. When I was at their office, they were very professional.

The original appointment for estimate of work was a two hour window on a week day. I asked them to give me a call 30 minutes before arriving so that I would not need to miss an entire afternoon from work. The estimate was provided on a Monday, 4/1/13. Additional appointments were scheduled for Thursday, 4/4/13, to apply the toxin, and Monday, 4/8/13 to remove the hive toxin. I was told up front that they would not be able to replace any wood that they removed to reach the hive. A few hours before the Thursday, 4/4/13, appointment, they informed me that it was being moved to Friday, 4/5/13. I spent five hours on Friday, 4/5/13, waiting for the technician to arrive. He never arrived. I called the company's main switchboard twice and was told that they had no idea when the technician would get there. That evening I left telephone and e-mail messages with the representative who provided the bid. He apologized for the problems I had experienced and then arranged for someone to come the next day. On Saturday, 4/6/13, someone came to the house to apply the toxin. He applied the toxin and told me that the hive could not be removed on Monday because there would not be enough time for the toxin to work. Hive removal was rescheduled to Friday, 4/12/13. One technician arrived on Friday, 4/12/13, to remove the hive. The bees were still active. He put on a bee suit and removed the hive anyway. My overall satisfaction with their service is mixed. I liked the service provided by the representative who provided the estimate and the second technician who removed the hive. I did not like the level of customer service offered in their call center/main office, or from the technicians sent to apply the toxin. If the bees come back, I will use someone else.

When I signed the service contract with this company, I let them know that I would need services performed on Saturday only. Even after eight years, their system couldn't stay on top of ensuring that I received Saturday service. (A minor inconvenience, but an inconvenience non the less). Several weeks after a pest control service at our Houston home, I found most all the items in our attic to be caked with white pest control powder. It appeared that the technician had literally stood on the top step of the attic stairs and flung the pest control substance. I sent pictures to the owner of the company and a supervisor was sent out to clean it up right away. She did the best she could but getting it all out of there would have been impossible for anyone. I understand that things happen and did continue to use them for many years following the above-mentioned incident. The company's response to correct the problem immediately was impressive. The pest control service at our Kingwood home was great. The technicians are knowledgable, respectful of our flooring and have done an awesome job. They take the time to ask if there are any special needs and use the best method to treat. The lawn service is another story entirely. The lawn technicians seem to lack motivation and pride in their work. Our lawn contract included hand weeding the flower beds with each service. I discussed this at length with the salesman who came to give the original estimate and it was the main reason I selected them for our lawn service. The weeding happened once. I had to spend my time to call them after each service to let them know that it hadn't been done. (I don't have any super special weeds that are hard to recognize and sent pictures of the weeds to the supervisor on more than one occasion). The supervisor agreed that it hadn't been done and said he would get with the crew to be sure it wouldn't happen again. Clearly that never worked. I recommended them to my neighbor to use for regular lawn service. The lawn service had always been good and they wouldn't use them for flower bed work so I figured it'd be okay. I was surprised to get a call from my neighbor some weeks later telling me that she couldn't get anyone to call her back for an estimate and that when they finally did agree to come out, they never showed up!!! I also came home after one lawn service to find that the crew had broken our back gate with the mower and just left it. Again, I called and sent pictures of the damage, including the mower tire marks, to the supervisor. The supervisor repaired it the best he could. (Having them service my lawn should not take up this much of MY time) ABC's accounting system will not allow one combined account number for two locations. I'd always paid on time, but one payment was accidentally sent to them with the other account number on it. I started receiving calls from them on my cellular number while I was at work about my 'past due balance' (it was applied as a credit to the other account) BUT when I answered the calls, it was a RECORDING telling ME that I needed to call THEM. This meant that I not only had to stop what I was doing at work, but I had to call them back, sit on hold, give all of my information to someone and wait for them to figure out why they'd called me to begin with. That is not customer service in my book. During February 2013, I called for an estimate to trim my shrubs and rose bushes and replace a tree in the front yard. The supervisor was going to call me back the next day which turned into the next week and then another. By the time he called me back, I'd done most of it myself. I sent an e-mail to Raliegh Jenkins with my concerns. He was apologetic and forwarded my e-mail to various managers within his organization to address. Although I received messages from each of them, not one of them took responsibility for any of the issues or saw an opportunity for improvement. It was their system or they were busy or or or. Once again, I received an automated call from their system asking me to call their office. I called and spoke with the most unpleasant accounting person I've ever dealt with about my 'past due' balance. He proceeded to e-mail me four to five e-mails marked DELINQUENT Invoice. As it turns out, he was calling me about a lawn service that they'd just billed and I had paid. I cannot believe the amount of time I spent dealing with a $28 balance. The customer service at this company is nearly nonexistent. I have cancelled all of my services with them and would not recommend.

The man was on time and very curteous. He was informative about bed bugs and explained the procedures possible if an infestation were found. They found not one bed bug, however, much to my relief. It has been months since and we do not have bed bugs.

They are great for the pool. Their pool service is fabulous compared to their extermination services. Their pool service is about $50 per week and the pest control service is more than $70 every other month. They are really good. We have been using the extermination services for 16 years. They are very professional and they do what they say they are going to do. The people who come out are hard working. They are just nice guys, really good guys.

We have used ABC on numerous occasions. The work has always been fine.

It has been outstanding service, and I have been using them for way over ten years, maybe even 15 plus years. Dawn has been an outstanding tech, and she really knows what she is doing.

The inspection went ok. You have to remind the technician to check closely around the outside of the house. The real problem with ABC is that they've have rapidly expanded into many different areas such as lawn irrigation, home alarms, etc. beyond their original area of expertise, pest control. This refocus and not minding their core expertise has resulted in a deterioration of service and performance. They have a young, rookie staffing that simply does not know what their doing. It is best to do a few things well rather than being everything to everybody and not being great at anything. Lastly, their technology issues associated with bill payment and their website in general are horrible. Year after year its the same. No connectivity, payments will not go through, inability to access account, etc. What's happened to ABC is a shame as 5 years ago the company provided good overall service. Not anymore.

Called on Christmas Eve because there was a rodent in the attic. I must have frightened it when I saw it and pointed my light at it. ABC could not see us that day (which I expected, so not problem). I made an appointment for the day after Christmas and had to break it because I was not feeling well. ABC accommodated me me with no hassles. Cedric showed up on time today and did a very concise examination of our attic and found the possible entry point and made the suggestion that we wait to see if it returned as it has been gone for several days now. He gave us a cost for a future extermination. The initial inspection was a no cost to me. Cedric was very nice and very professional.

I have a maintenance contract with this contractor. They always call in advance to notify me when they will be performing the treatment. the serviceman always arrives within the window. He is always responsive to any insect activity I inform him I have observed and provides the appropriate treatment.

We had ant problems and the person doing the consult was very professional. They had to do 3 separate treatments to get them out of my kitchen but it did work. The ants have been back in my master bath and study but they've been prompt each time. The only complaint I've had is with wasp removal. I've had wasp nest pop up around the house which they said they would remove with each treatment. I've had to call them back to have them do the service a couple of times. Overall, pretty happy with the service. The price is every other month.

ABC Pest Control has been our pest control service for 20 years. When we moved within Houston and continued using this company the service was always excellent. The technicians were friendly, knowledgable and on time. When we started using them, ABC Pest Control was a small company. In the last 20 years they have grown and expanded but since last year, I have observed a change in the way the technicians or inspectors approach their customers. While no services were rendered today, there were two disappointing experiences with two different technicians in the past 12 months. This review is about the last incident that just happened today with one of their inspectors. Today, an inspector was scheduled to come to our construction site to prepare an estimate for lawn treatment. The appointment was at 11:00-12:00pm. 20 minutes before the appointment the inspector called. He was already at our property. I told him I was on my way, leaving a chiropractor's office located just minutes away from the site. He insisted the appointment was at 10:30-11:30. The ABC office later confirmed that it was in fact at 11:00am. - However, I told him I was at a chiropractor, had finished, was getting ready to leave and he agreed to wait for me. When I arrived at 7 minutes past 11:00am, the technician who had told me that he would wait was gone. I drove back home, called the office, they apologized, confirmed that the appointment was at 11:00 and arranged for the inspector to meet me back at the construction site in 5 minutes. - That is when things got even more uncomfortable. - The technician acted as if nothing had happened. I explained the issue in the yard and then said that I thought is was disrespectful of him to leave although he had told me he would wait. His answered, 'No it was not. I told you I would meet you back here.' - He had never said that. - When I asked him when he would have wanted to meet me, he turned around without any further comment and left. When I called back the office, they apologized again, they told me that this is not the way customers are usually treated and I agree, my experience tells me different. For years, ABC Pest Control offered excellent service. The reason why I am describing this in such detail is because this is the third time that this has happened to me within the past year. I am disappointed and upset. The whole incident has costed me over an hour of time without producing any results. I have no explanation for the attitude with which I am met when dealing with ABC other than that, maybe, the company is expanding too quickly or is putting too much pressure on their people in the field. The manager just called and apologized. He assured that they are still a very good company. He sounded sincere. The fact remains that the inspector tried to push his schedule. To his manager he admitted that he in fact had been too early. Behavior like that does not reflect respect for the customer and is not good business practice. I am inclined to believe that this is not their usual way of operating but this was the third time in a row that I had a very disappointing experience.

Original comment: I hired ABC to patch holes and catch squirrels in my attic. They did OK on the installation (4 cages) and came back the same day to collect one squirrel. I called the next day for them to get another squirrel but they didn't. I called again. Finally the sales rep came. Of course the 2nd squirrel was dead, poor thing. Because of the location, I had to recruit my son-in-law to get the cage. The sales rep. then said "[installer name] won't be coming back so you can keep the other cages that are in your attics". It is strange that they didn't want their cages back. And it was strange that the tech didn't want to come back to get them. Odd way to run a business if you ask me. Update: I emailed the owner of ABC who never replied. I emailed the sales rep who did. The sales rep tried to explain his way out but it was obvious they are dysfunctional. The install tech did finally came out two weeks later to get his cages.

Was the best call I ever made! They could not have been more professional or more considerate to me and my adventure. I was at a loss as to what could be done & they walked me through the whole process. No question I had was unanswered & or unexplained to me. Would highly recommend to anyone needing any of their services.

Service technician was very friendly. Arrived on time, and was very thorough. He answered all my questions.

The service started out great the guy was on time for the estimate and for the treatment. During the estimate we scheduled a date and time for the treatment and for the follow up treatment. During the treatment I incurred several broken picture frames and foods that were destroyed. We were told to make sure numerous items were out of the house prior to the heat treatment but food items were not on the list. After the heat treatment the followup appointment was rescheduled for the following friday. They never showed up but instead showed up on a completely different day that I was even home. So then of course the followup appointment was again scheduled for one month later. Frisbee came out and according to the guy nothing was found. We thought we had beat the bed bugs finally. Two days later my daughter finds a bed bug in her school book. We all thought it was a lone bug that got away so we did not think anything of it. Another week goes by and my daughter finds another bed bug. Ok so now I know something is going on. Another week goes by and I find 4 nests on my daughters bed. We call the company and the guy comes out again. He confirms that it was nests. Ok so now Im freaking out because now at this point in time we have spent almost $4000 trying to beat this thing and we were guaranteed. The guy who confirmed the new nest tells me that its a new nest there is nothing he can do about it except give me a new treatment at a discounted price. Of course its a NEW nest!!! We just bought the bed right before the treatment and supposedly everythign died during the treatment. How would there be an old nest. Anyways, so he goes back to his truck and the discounted price to fix their mistake that they are blaming me for was a $200 discount. Are you serious?!?!? We just spent our life savings on beating this and we were guaranteed they would be gone. We did not travel anywhere, no one came to visit, no friends stay over or come over, so you tell me how they got there because Im fed up. I was planning on switching over to this company, for a pest control contract, from Orkin but atleast Orkin delivers! Looks like I'm sticking with them. Update from 7/27/12: I reported earlier about them basically giving us the "oh well" attitude and refusing to reservice our house without another $1500 charge but yesterday I received a phone call from I guess the manager. He received instructions from higher up to help us resolve this bed bug issue. They are going to re service our house and help us provide mattress protectors at no additional charge. Thank you for helping us fix the problem that should have been fixed the first time. I am very greatful that this company does have someone in charge that cares about their customers

I had called ABC last summer (Aug 2011) to do a routine maintenance on my AC unit. They ended up not servicing my unit because there were rplacements needed and i had a home warranty which would cover the replacement at no cost. So this year I got a coupon in my email for a free annual inspection. I called them and was able to set the appointment for my day off which was nice. The technician called me early to say he was running behind and would be there by 11 (original window was 9:30-10:30) however he was there at 10:15. He supposedly serviced the A/C unit, told me it was working fine but since it was old I should start considering replacing it. (Unit is 17 yrs old). But there was no pressure or anything to purchase from them so I was satisfied until 6 weeks later when the A/c went out. I had ot go through my home warranty company to avoid paying for the repairs - when the tech came out he told me my motor burned out because the A/C unit had not been serviced, then he took me up in the attic with him to show me. The unit was covered with dust & dirt, way more than what would have accumulated since the ABC technician had been there.

We pay an annual fee for critter protection because the mice and squirrels are the bigger problems in the attic. We pay a monthly fee for pest control. For critter control they first come out to critter proof my house. They don’t play games on the contract which I have found the other doing. The best part is that it works because I don’t have any ants, roaches or anything like that. The critter control works well too. I have a brick house and they have put a steel wall in all the weep holes so only water can get out. They have put screening over everything like chimney and anything that goes outside the house so nothing gets inside the house. I don’t know if they are more expensive but they seem to be to me than the other people that I have used but it’s worth it. One year I had some problem with the ants and they came out until it was under control. They did what they said they were going to do. I get what I pay for because of the quality of their work. They give me a call ahead of time informing me when they are going to be here. Now, they have a system where they don’t come into the house unless I am having a problem so that I don’t have the chemicals in my house. They don’t spray in the house and spray all around outside the house and close to the base that I don’t have to worry about walking it in or anything; it’s just outside.

It went great, well, as great as confirming you have bed bugs can be! I suspected it but knew we need professional help. They were on time, professional, nice and very knowledgeable about the subject matter. I feel better knowing exactly where the bugs are and what can be done to eradicate them fast. It is very stressful knowing you have bugs that bite you during the night but you can't see them! I feel better knowing where the bugs are and what we can do to get rid of them fast.

We decided to change our prior weekly yard maintenance, pest control, and lawn fertilization & treatment contractors, as we had minor to moderate complaints about all of them.There were 2 factors that led us to contract with ABC - the possiblility of having one contractor for all the services, and the claim that all their workers were document, uniformed, bonded, & insured.A salesman came by in April, and gave us prices for several services, some one-time or quarterly & some recurring weekly. He gave us a total for the services we selected, which included all the one time & the first instances of the weekly recurring. We authorized up to that total to be charged to our credit card, with the thought that the one time items would be billed as they were done. Instead, ABC billed the whole amount up front, then when we fired them a month later, they still hadn't done some of the services, notably 1 item that accounted for 1/3 of the total. Now they are still arguing over how much credit they will give us for the damages they did, and the work they didn't do.Details:Weekly yard maintenance - The charge each week was $30 for the "regular" mowing, edging, trimming, & clean-up. Generally done acceptably, but each week they also charged $6 for pruning, plus $6 for weeding. This was according to our agreement, the problem was the weekly person didn't do any of either for the first 3 weeks, but they charged us for it, anyway. The fourth week, several bushes in the back yard were butchered, one of our plants was cut down entirely, several flowers were damaged, some chunks were broken off some of the stepping stones or landscape rocks, and the clean up was pathetic. We probably never would have noticed the broken stepping stones or rocks if they hadn't left a couple of large pieces in the grass on the side of the house. This was the incident that caused us to fire ABC.Lawn fertilization & treatment - No complaints about this, other than the crepe myrtle has some kind of fungus/insect infestation & it was supposed to be in their scope of work to treat that sort of thing.Lawn irrigation & repairs - We have an existing sprinkler system that needs some modification because of larger bushes and other natural factors. It was several weeks before the guy showed up to do an evaluation & give us an estimate for the repairs and modifications. He was knowledgeable & professional, the best employee ABC sent to our house. But his dispatcher kept calling him & telling him to hurry up, he was spending too much time at our house. We never got the repairs/modifications done, but at least they never billed us for anything but the evaluation.Pest control including termite monitoring - The salesman showed us a video showing how the pest control technician would clean all the spider webs from under the eaves, etc., as part of the service of getting rid of the spiders. He didn't. We have a problem ants, which every prior pest control application made go away for several months. Not ABC's, we still have ants. The weekly yard maintenance worker screws up the termite monitors, every time we had to put the pieces back together for at least half of them. They were supposed to give us a 10% discount on the first pest control treatment, and didn't.We also contracted with ABC to do a one time catch-up cleanup of weeds in the beds, pruning of the shrubs, and replacement of mulch. They didn't show up the first time it was scheduled. The second time, they only showed up with half enough mulch, so they did everything in the front yard, nothing in the back yard. They scheduled to do the back yard about 2 weeks later (already paid for this back in April, remember), but we fired them before that happened. I checked Angie's list before we ever hired them. I noticed that in every category at least 20% of the people gave them a D or F rating. I thought if we worked with them patiently, we could get them to perform satisfactorily. After all, the TV commercials promise they are "conscientious & we care about you." After personal experience with ABC, I wonder why the bad ratings are not even higher. If ABC doesn't credit my card for a fair amount, BBB will be next to receive my comments.

Charles the installer was on time and reasonably. Priced and gave excellent explinations leaving us with a comfortable feeling.