Payne Pest Management

This review is based on an emergency phone call, and not an actual service provided.
I was walking my dog this morning and noticed she was digging near a tree and sniffing something out. I thought it was a carcass. Turns out there was a rodent box. My concern turned into fear that maybe my lab mix may have inhaled the rodent poisoning. I pictured my fur child on its way to doggy heaven.
I took a picture of the contact info on the box and called the number. It’s Saturday morning. Their office was closed but the voicemail provided two emergency numbers. The first number I called, I reached Larry. I explained to him what happened. I saw my dog sniffing out the rodent box and heard something like a glade room freshener spray. His sense of calm and knowledge eased my fears. Fortunately, my 60 lb lab would not be able to get into that box. And the poison is actually a solid material, not a spray. Whewww! Now I can carry on with the rest of my weekend.
The kindness and immediate attention I received on the phone says a lot about the company itself. Even though I did not receive any pest service, this company warrants a review for its customer service. I bookmarked the company in case I do need any pest control service.

This outfit is completely indifferent to the security of its customers’ property. I would rather the place fell apart from termites than work with them again.
With fresh stories on the news about thieves targeting houses during fumigation, their approach was «We’ll leave your key under the mat for the gas company to come in and relight your pilot lights.» This at the same time as they demanded all residents sign a waiver to not hold them responsible for the acts of any third parties.
They changed their story briefly when I dropped off a key. (They have to be able to access inside to be sure everything has been wrapped up properly and then to open the windows after fumigation.) I was assured the gas would be back on and that at no time would a key be left under the mat unsecured.
So when I returned, the gas wasn’t turned back on and Abbas, the rep from Payne, told me he would be taking off but could either leave the key under the mat for the gas company or leave it inside and then it would be my problem.
Sorry, these people should not be in business.

Mike Guarino has been helping my clients for some time now with their termite and pest issues. I have used many companies in the past but Mike and Payne Pest management go over and above to make my clients adn referrals happy. Their bids are always very reasonable as well.
Quick story — I got a call from a close friend who was purchasing a home. He said that the termite bid he seemed high and I referred him to Mike and Payne Pest Management. Mike came in a did the same job for a much better price. Mike also helped my friend remove some small roots that were wrapped around a gas meter. My buddy didn’t have any of the appropriate tools. I guess SDGE wouldn’t turn it back on unless the roots were gone. Many would say that’s not my job but Mike had the appropriate tool in his car and was able to get it done in a few minutes. My buddy called me and said Mike is the best and I am going to refer him to everyone I know.
It’s always nice to hear these stories in a world where most people are quick to say «it’s not my job.» Call Mike and use his services. He will not disappoint.

Mike from Payne has been over a couple times to help out with termite problems and I cannot be more complimentary about his professionalism and willingness to share his vast expertise. Great to see his level of customer service in an industry that can have more ‘pests’ than superstars like Mike!

I’ve had a bad case of ants since I moved in 8 months ago. They were all over out back patio, and recently invaded our bathroom.
The owner was very pleasant on the phone, explaining how ants work, and telling us of certain services we thought we would need, that we actually wouldn’t. He saved us money!
Eric showed up to do our home, and was very pleasant and quick. It was a hassle free, easy transaction. And now, I have an excuse to shop for four hours! ;-)

Friendly technician, but unfortunately (through several attempts) missed to locate the problem areas of our attic rat infestation. Proof is in the pudding — as another company ultimately resolved the issue (with a bit of help from us).
Payne considered our problem resolved after repeated traps failed to catch any rats (rats often avoid traps, smart animals), no point of entry points were found or plugged (which was surprising as the holes were later easily spotted by us and 2^nd company), and «repellents» were ultimately used by Payne as a considered «resolution.»
Feeling frustrated by 4 months of rat noises and suspected co-​habitation — we had my dad go up in the attic and found 2 «rat highways» between our unit and our neighbors. He also found an obviously very chewed Hvac duct (rat condo — yuck!). My dad plugged some holes — and the rats that were supposed to be staying away from Payne’s repellent had to hold a funeral as one or more must have been trapped and died (stunk terrible for 14 days… But this confirmed the rats continued presence as did another death later). So, we asked our HOA to bring in another company. The new company found more damage (even in our neighbors unit — which Payne also missed) and recommended that the insulation in our unit and all of our neighbors be removed and cleaned up (lots of rat poop and pee just beckons more rats and removing the insulation would allow more holes to be found). Once the attics were clear, multiple holes were seen in roof lines and walls. A construction company came and closed the holes and then new insulation was put in. Knock on wood — no more rats!
And while Payne was always courteous — unfortunately they never got the job done and their urging us that the repellent should do the trick was not founded. The rats persisted as was shown by the rat dying in our wall about 2 weeks after the repellent was put in. They told us that the rats were probably getting in through all sorts of ways (gutters, along pipes from underground) — but it really was just holes in the attic.
As a side note — I would have really like to have seen the tech wear hospital booties either in the attic or our home. Our attic was full of rat poop and pee. The amount of cleaning I had to do after 4 months of Payne coming in and out trying to resolve the issue was substantial. Booties would have given me piece of mind and less of a back ache from bending down to clean the floor and steps after each visit. Would have been even grosser if we had carpet.
So Payne, 2 stars for always being courteous. Others may have more luck with this company. They were never rude and were persistent at least. I know we were a trickier infestation (the attic was hot, stinky, and tight — and we were a townehome) but another company did end up doing the job vs just leaving us with repellent that did nothing.

I manage military housing in San Diego and Payne Pest Management has been the answer to all of my prayers as a Property Manager. All of the staff is great to work with but Joe Keller has been my right hand since they started working for us. His skills when talking to residents, follow up and work ethic are the best! Thank you so much for always going above and beyond.

Some of the negative reviews here are false we have had our house serviced for over 4 years and no problems we have recommended to all of our friends and family Joe Keller is amazing.

Admin. Ruth Tedrahn Payne Pest Management San Diego is an amazing individual. I love her personality, nice, very friendly, and very helpful! If she doesn’t have the answer for you, she doesn’t hesitate to find and get you the answer. Absolutely love this place. Would definitely recommend.

This company is a joke! They were hired to tent our house prior to our purchase of and completely missed major sections of the house as well as destroyed the roof. They have had to come back several times to complete the work and still have not addressed the roof or the damaged landscape.
In trying to address these issues with their management, their response from Pam Sexton is that they are «Finished with this matter– and do not contact them again»
Really– total lack of professionalism and compete disregard for customer service.

Payne Pest Managemet is the exclusive fumigator for our complex. We were forced to move out for 3 days. I called Erick Solorzano (on site fumigator) day 2 to make sure all was going well. He informed me that they would have to postpone the fumigating because my neighbors dog was in the side yard. Instead of allowing us to move back in immediately, I was told that we would have to wait till the scheduled move in date when SDG&E returned to turn our utilities on.
No compensation has been offered and no suggestion on how to rectify the situation.
Erick Solorzano has horrible customer service and the entire company has a horrible business model.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

Very bad experience. Avoid this company! Payne Pest Management recently performed a fumigation in my home. All employees that I interacted with, at least three or four, were unprofessional and even rude at times. When we returned the floors were dirty. This company is shady. If you need pest control services I would highly recommend you use someone else.

If you’re looking for the worst pest management company in San Diego, start with Payne and it should be a pretty short search.
Our HOA Board of Directors asked Payne to inspect our units for termites and recommend a plan for control. Since their business is doing fumigation and not diagnosis, it was a foregone conclusion that Payne reported that every building needed fumigation — which just happens to be the most expensive way to treat termites. Oh, and they failed to provide the owners with any detailed report.
Nevertheless, against all reason our Board decided to accept Payne’s sales pitch… I mean ‘recommendation’. The board was immediately recalled specifically for their decision on this issue. Rather than approach the situation with some amount of respect for the highly divided community, Payne immediately came in and threatened lawsuits. Oh, wait, I’m sorry, they specifically said that those weren’t «threats». Of course, demanding a certain action and then listing the consequences of failing to comply is pretty easy to misinterpret as a threat. Actually, I’m confused. Isn’t that exactly a threat? [I was forwarded an email from Willie Payne specifically mentioning legal action against a home owner if they did not agree to supply their keys and sign the paperwork]
Regardless, after a lot of yelling at the homeowners, they called the police to remove a few residents on the morning of the tenting. Nice folks, Payne.
THEN, while the residents were still prohibited from entering our units, several units were burglarized! Nice job with the security, Payne.
So, if you want a contractor to call the police on your neighbor, and then be utterly absent while your neighbors are burglarized, give them a call. I can’t promise that you’ll have the same experience that I did, but likewise I can’t promise that you won’t.

This is unfortunately one of the worst Pest companies out there. Our HOA hired them to investigate our complex as some units had termite issues. They recommended fumigation of the entire complex. Many homeowners noted that they haven’t had any termite issues and recently had inspections that did not reveal termites. In fact within the complex 7 other termite companies came out to do inspections at the request of homeowners, and none of the others recommended fumigation, just local treatment. This company is just out for the money, plain and simple. I would not recommend them because you just can’t trust their judgement. Now the entire complex is being fumigated and their «pruning» of trees involved cutting the all to the stump. They hired a separate company (Your Way) to do the fumigation… you can read the reviews about that company here on Unilocal

Our HOA hired Payne to do a tenting fumigation for our complex. Payne did not inform us that the concrete patio outside the townhouse would also be tented so I put all our house plants (and holiday tree) on the patio. On the morning of the fumigation I noticed that our neighbor’s patios were being covered with the tents. All our house plants would have died if I had not moved them before leaving for work. Not a good way to start my day.
While moving the plants to the pool area I saw trucks and workers for another company «Your Way Fumigation» pulling onto the property. It seems that Payne gets the contract and then has «Your Way» do the actual work. Bait and switch? (By the way, a Unilocal review of Your Way shows it is rated as one star — a single review of a homeowner who reported his gun was stolen during the fumigation.)
As I was moving the plants I saw the «Your Way» truck bottom out and cause a scrape in the hardscape. I caught up with the driver and confronted him about the damage. I asked for his insurance information but he would not provide it to me. He asked «how do I know you are the owner?» (exactly who else would be preparing for a fumigation and confronting him about property damage)
I then contacted a representative from Payne and explained what I had witnessed; as best as I could when he was not talking over me. To his credit he did finally — after he realized I was not going to let it go — agree to have the company repair the damage (relatively minor but still).
One other point… many of the storage bags they gave us for packing our food were defective. I discovered this when I put a bottle in one side of the bag and watched it drop out the other side and break on the floor.
Overall not a good customer service experience…

We had a horrible experience with Payne.
They never coordinated with the actual fumigator to come on the day of tenting. So after weeks of planning, we are waiting to hand over the keys to the fumigator in the morning and no one shows up. No one showed up from Payne or even gave us a phone call to check and see if the fumigator had come. After finally getting a hold of someone from Payne their solution is to hand over the keys to them, with no apology for their failure. We were supposed to hand over the keys to the fumigator. Why would I hand over the keys to someone who can’t even do their job? The tenting was delayed till the next day and our plans for the next few days are completely screwed up.
After the tenting was completed, the fumigator didn’t follow our signed instructions to leave the keys in the house and just gave them to me without even asking who I was. They could have given the keys to a robber and wouldn’t have known the difference. On top of that, multiple lights and plants were damaged around the property and Payne had to refund us for the property damage.
The entire process was a nightmare and I would never do business with a company with such poor customer service.

This pest control company is who our HOA recommended we call for a random roach problem that occurred in our unit. We have lived in unit 10 years so when this problem suddenly popped up we were clueless as to why. Sean was sent out and did a basic spray in kitchen and bathroom. It didn’t solved problem, so after getting in touch with him a couple weeks later he returned. He advised from the info we gave him about problem that he thought they may be living in refrigerator motor. Horrifying! Anyways he re-​sprayed, focusing on what he thought was the problem. It’s been several months now and we have not seen another roach since. I would definitely call them again in future.

Payne does the pest management for my condo HOA and I’ve used them myself once when my poor pup had a flea infestation — they were great.
What prompted my review today is their excellent management of the termite fumigation for my complex. Shawn coordinated the pre-​fumigation meetings and did a great job clearly and quickly informing everybody of the process. The whole experience was not without hiccups, but considering what a huge undertaking it was, I’d say they did a great job.

Payne does the pest management at my condo so I thought I would call them to take care of the invading ants in my new home since I had the week off from work. I called them on monday and talked to someone who said he would email me out a quote and some coupons (they also have a 50 $ off coupon on their website). Never saw it.
Called back on tuesday and the girl answering the phone took my information and said someone would call me. but nothing. Called again wednesday and talked to the receptionist but didn’t hear back from anyone. Called again Thursday and they receptionist says, «You again? Nobody has called you?» She assures someone will call me and I did get a call from someone who said he would have someone else call me asap. Nothing on Friday… and since it was Friday I just called Countywide and they had someone come out that day.
I finally had someone from Payne call me on Monday, a full week after my first call. Unless you have 2 full week window to get your work done I would advise going with someone else there are many choices out there.
The girl answering the phone was super nice though.
I should have given up earlier but I really wanted to use that dam coupon.

Payne preformed termite inspections for our HOA. After the inspection I requested a copy of our report and noticed it had the wrong address (wrong Street /​and Zip Code). I called them to let them know and ask of they could correct it. The lady on the phone was very rude and acted like it was stupid of me to request the address be corrected. She told me it was already submitted to the State of California and they didn’t not plan on correcting it with the State either.
Do NOT trust this company. Rude and unprofessional!
Wonder if the State of California cares you are submitting incorrect information?