jwalstrom82
New Member
Hello, my senior citizen mother recently had an pest in her basement and called a company in the phonebook without looking into the company first. She called this company prior to 8am and they did not get to her home until after 6pm. She called Mid afternoon to see where they were and also asked how much the service call would be. The Office manager who she spoke with refused to give her an amount stating they would have to get there before they told her an amount. Anyhow they get there and the don't really do much briefly looked around and didn't put much effort into finding a solution. They ended up laying 2 traps and that was all the did. Then the gave my mother an invoivce for $407! They charged her $68 for the service call, $50 for an emergency visit (it really isn't an emergency if it takes 10 hours for them to get there), $120 of labor for maybe 20 minutes, $40 for the trap, $10 for the bait, $10 for the disposal, and $78 for the labor and trip back out after the animal was trapped. A friend of mine and I found out where the animal was entering the house and corrected the problem so that the animal hasn't come back. We took care of the problem, not the company. When they were there on their service call my mother didn't want to sign the papers or write the check, but she did as she was uncomfortable with 2 strangers in her home, she felt the threatened.
30 minutes later she called me crying. Upset, thinking the amount was outrageous I called a couple of competitiors to see if what they charged was reasonable and I found out she was taken for. As I did more research on this company I found out that this company has had a reputation for taking advantage of senior citizens and single women. Disturbed by this I had my mother cancel the check and called the company to discuss paying them for the actual services that have been rendered. I spoke with the office manager 2 weeks ago and she told me she would contact the techs to see what was done, a week went by and I heard nothing, I spoke to another women and she said that the women I spoke with the week before would call me in the next 24 hours, I heard nothing.
MOnday of this week my mother got a threating phone call from the owner of this company stating that he needs a check in 2 days for the $407 + $40 for the stop payment returned check. He also mentioned that he got my messages but wasn't willing to talk to me because my name wasn't on the account. My mother being intidated by this person asked me to call him. To no suprise he wouldn't talk to me, so I got her on a 3 way call and he still wouldn't talk to me. He hung up on us and we received a letter today stating that if he didn't recieve the $447 in the next 10 days he was going to send this to the D.A. I am more than willing to pay for the services that were rendered, but not for what was charged. I am even willing to pay the $40 for the returned check. I can't get this gentleman to listen to me. All I would like is justice. What should I do?
Thank You
30 minutes later she called me crying. Upset, thinking the amount was outrageous I called a couple of competitiors to see if what they charged was reasonable and I found out she was taken for. As I did more research on this company I found out that this company has had a reputation for taking advantage of senior citizens and single women. Disturbed by this I had my mother cancel the check and called the company to discuss paying them for the actual services that have been rendered. I spoke with the office manager 2 weeks ago and she told me she would contact the techs to see what was done, a week went by and I heard nothing, I spoke to another women and she said that the women I spoke with the week before would call me in the next 24 hours, I heard nothing.
MOnday of this week my mother got a threating phone call from the owner of this company stating that he needs a check in 2 days for the $407 + $40 for the stop payment returned check. He also mentioned that he got my messages but wasn't willing to talk to me because my name wasn't on the account. My mother being intidated by this person asked me to call him. To no suprise he wouldn't talk to me, so I got her on a 3 way call and he still wouldn't talk to me. He hung up on us and we received a letter today stating that if he didn't recieve the $447 in the next 10 days he was going to send this to the D.A. I am more than willing to pay for the services that were rendered, but not for what was charged. I am even willing to pay the $40 for the returned check. I can't get this gentleman to listen to me. All I would like is justice. What should I do?
Thank You
