Able Exterminators

dishonest, unprofessional, uncooperative are the terms that come to mind to describe this company. I had a home sale closing, and the realtor brought in Able Exterminators to bid on and perform the required work. Able offered a 10% discount for quick payment, and as our bill was being paid by escrow, we were told we would be eligible, as escrow pays promptly. We authorized the work, and moved out of the house, and relocated to another state, and guess what? The 10% discount disappeared. The management of this company refused to even speak to us, only offering a receptionist to state that she wasn’t «authorized» to help us. The accounts manager refused to come on the phone even one time. We now believe that these people cannot be trusted. We know through first hand experience that they are unprofessional, rude, and nasty. We doubt their quote was even honest, given that their billing is dishonest. USE THIS COMPANY AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I have dealt with Able for the last 14 years, had many inspections and termite work done before. They were done to my satisfaction till three years ago. If I remember correctly, it was because management refused to fulfill the promise to do work free on the area that was overlooked by their inspection, a promise they used to keep in the past.
I found some termite droppings and looked for termite companies on Unilocal.I found low rating for Able and decided to give them another chance. Thought I would write a fair review to help them out after. The scheduler answered my phone was very cheerful and told me it should be no problem to get approval for the competitive price I asked for, since I am a return customer, so I went ahead with the appointment.
The inspector was great to spot a termite infested area that was overlooked by another inspector. He also said our foundation suffered termite damage and need work, but this was not confirmed by other inspectors. Upon completion, he asked for the full price. I called the office, the scheduler was not there and the manager, the owner’s wife refused to honor the $ 25 discount and argued for a long time over the phone. Frankly there are many 5 star companies willing to give out free inspection, I don’t understand why she was so stubborn about the discount. I went ahead and paid the inspection fee I was committed to. It’s been more than one month, but I never received my inspection report and received no words for it. It’s so sad to see a good company I used to trust to go downhill. In the end, I got my termite work done by a five star company on Unilocal that also gave me a free thorough inspection first.

Did not have any major problems. Scheduled and servicd on time. But all I did with them was fumigation, which they subcontract to another comasny

Wonderful reply after a year, John — let’s clarify a couple of things.
First, I never complained anything about the BOUNCED check — yes, it was my fault, and if you do remember, I personally took my check + the $ 25 bounce fee that your bank charged you.
Of course, no apologies on your part for actually mis-​calculating our final invoice (you double-​counted 2 of the items and deceivingly tried to increase 1 item on our 25-​pager invoice — I went through EACH AND EVERY item and added them up instead, since you were unable to do simple arithmetic). Obviously, you were thinking I wouldn’t realize that you were trying to cheat us.
Second, without my consent, you decided to post how much we wasted on your horrible service. That was *very professional* of you to do — no wonder all other Unilocalers also state that you guys are «dishonest» and «unprofessional». Serves you right!
Third, since you decided to bring up episodes from our work, let’s play that game. When we were dealing with Dwayne (our incapable scheduler), he lost all the signed quotes that we emailed him (they started work at our place already)! John called, and threatened us (yes, that’s right — he *threatened* us) to re-​send him the signed quotes. At that point, we knew we were dealing with crooks.
Fourth, let’s go back to that $ 100 fee — remember that «promise» of a «free inspection»? B.S. — and as many other Unilocalers have mentioned in their reviews, you lied and that’s a fact. «The $ 100 fee that was charged didn’t seem unreasonable» — really? When you claim «free inspection» and charge 50% higher than your original quote, being dishonest about your inspection fee doesn’t seem unreasonable?
Finally, let’s discuss your crew’s work:
— In less than a year, we’ve already had carpenter bees build nests in the seams where you performed work.
— In less than a year, the plumbing that you replaced in our bathroom started leaking — we called you and you said your warranty was 3 months (your plumbing didn’t last half a year). You asked us to pay $ 90 for an inspection this time — we instead went with a real plumber who knew what he was doing for $ 75 and they told us that whoever did this was a total novice. They fixed our bathroom plumbing and it’s been working for over half a year now.
— In less than a year, we’ve had to have rodent exterminators come to our place, because your crew didn’t patch our exteriors properly when ripping our place apart. Yet again, we had a general contractor come out to patch and they told us that your work was sloppy.
— When you called in the fumigation crew to our place, your crew destroyed our deck because you needed to cover the entire house. Understandable, but you never came to repair our deck, and we had to spend a considerable amount fixing what you destroyed without our proper consent.
— The only thing that I can praise your crew for is that your tile guy did a reasonable job. Our bathroom looks nice, but I still had to re-​apply grout since they started cracking in less than a month.
My conclusion is the same as before — (Un)able Exterminator’s service is horrible, and as other Unilocalers have noted, is dishonest and unprofessional. Management is at the root of its problems, and I don’t see any improvement. Unilocalers, stay away — go look for other termite companies instead.

One of the worst experiences I have ever had. These people are extremely frustrating. I agree with other reviews that they are dishonest and unprofessional. I wish I never used them. I suggest to anyone that needs exterminating services to look elsewhere. They change their discount policy depending on who answers the phone. I was told that I would not be charge a inspection visit if I removed a deck before an employee was at our house. The employee was to see the deck removal and all would be fine. Now they are saying I need to send an inspector for $ 150 just to see that the deck has been removed when their own employee saw that the deck was removed 4 days ago. Honestly look elsewhere. It isn’t worth the frustration.

Please review the previous one star reviews and give yourself a gift by going with another provider. I paid $ 200.00 up front for an inspection. I received an e-​mail attachment with the proposed areas needing attention. I was having problems with my computer so I had to call the less than competent office personnel to request a hard copy. I was sent another attachment, so had to call again. Ultimately, I received the hard copy and then had to contact office again to schedule work. John was to have called me. I have never heard from the elusive John. After a couple more calls, I am having another inspection by a different company this morning. Avoid stress — stay away from this company!

Do not trust these people, cheap inspection report means big repair bill waiting for you later. I was informed of a bunch of section 1 termite issues and $ 2300 of damage which I fixed with $ 10 because most of them are not true.
They point to chip paint on wood as termite damage. They see natural cracks on wood thats 58 years old as termite damage. Come on, termites can produce perfect straight lines when they consumed the wood? They must be highly intelligent termites.
Oh get this. They found saw dust which they then call it termite pellet, and these were on my newly painted fence 5 feet away from the house. Recommendation is a full house fumigation that cost $ 2000. If these were real pellet how come the paint on my fence were perfect without any scratches what-​so-​ever? And why would you want me to fumigate entire house because of a pile of saw dust so far away from the house?
They have significant conflict of interest. By giving a bad inspection report you fool the buyer who knows little about the house to pay you for work.
And guess what? At the end of the report you provide a 15% off coupon for my $ 2300 fix that I could fix myself for $ 10, thank you so much for that.
Do yourself a favor and find other inspector.

Thieves, Create work by making up false accusations of termites. The industry is a complete conflict of interest and these guys have managed to push it to the limit.
They recommend unnecessary work to help create work for themselves and to create excuses for buyers/​realtors to make concessions on the price of their purchase for homes. I almost filed a legal complaint for saying there was termites when in fact there wasn’t. Little did they know that I used to repair termite damage when I was a youngster.
Avoid these guys like the Plague!!!

BEWARE! Able Exterminators may be affordable, but that is reflected in their sloppy work and disregard for customer satisfaction. Your money is better spent with another company that’s invested in doing a good job, and winning your loyalty!
My landlord hired this company to fumigate for termites and put in a new shower, toilet, and bathroom floor.
The work was all scheduled to be done while we were out of town camping. I was really looking forward to a shower on our return!
Instead I found a literal disaster. Please check out the pictures I posted to this page. There was a layer of ghost-​town-​like dust covering every surface of the house. Couches, pillows, throw blankets, beds, candles, photos, cabinets, stove …
Demolition debris could have been confined to a 6 sq. foot hallway had they bothered to take 15 minutes to tape plastic sheeting over the doorway. Able Exterminator’s gross negligence left me a mess that took 9+ hours to clean up.
Their teams work independently, and the job ‘boss’ has never been on site to inspect the process. Therefore there’s no one providing any big picture guidance to the workers. When I left the house the previous week, all bedroom doors, cupboards, drawers etc. were shut tight. When they fumigated the house, they OPENED everything. Two days later the demolition team came in to start on the bathroom, uninterested and unaware of the state of doors, cupboards etc. Example — the rolltop desk that I made sure to close before leaving, was opened by the fumigation team, and wasn’t closed before the demolition team started their work. Every scrap of paper inside received a generous coating of tile dust.
I called Able Exterminators on Monday morning, providing instructions that no further work should be done until the hallway was screened (which the workers did), and leaving a vmail for the job boss to call me back. It’s been three days, and I’ve gotten no call back, but I have called back to confirm he got the message.
I also need to mention — the bathroom still isn’t done. I am lucky to have a toilet, because that is the only thing in the bathroom aside from a bare floor. It is now Wednesday, and the bathroom will not be available for a morning shower until this coming Saturday — a full week after the work was supposed to be complete.
If you pick Able Exterminators to save a few bucks, you will be sorry.

I had a termite inspection performed. On the initial report, I had a total of one section 1 items, which was for a one square-​centimeter stain inside of a bathroom vanity, left by a wet sponge. The stain was classified as fungus, and they bid to fix it for $ 95.
I figured they would do something like chisel out the stain, treat the area with fungicide, and then spackle it. I didn’t want to get involved with fungicide, so I figured I’d pay them the $ 95 to do whatever they wanted to do and get on with things. The person who came out to do the work looked at the one square centimeter stain and said there was no fungus and no work to be done. He sanded the area, which had no visible effect on the stain, and which I interpreted as a goodwill gesture on his part, so it didn’t seem like he came out for nothing.
A few days later, I got a bill for $ 95. I’m guessing he wrote up the sanding gesture as having repaired the problem.
This is when good old-​fashioned bureaucracy went into action. I’d call and talk to one person, who would need to talk to someone else, who would say he’d call me back, but then wouldn’t. After one iteration of this, the price came down to $ 10.
That should keep me quiet, right? Still not acceptable. The simple sanding did not repair anything. In fact, it was becoming clearer and clearer that there was no problem to begin with, and the whole thing was their mistake. But they still wanted to squeeze $ 10 out of me.
To their credit, they were not being argumentative about it. They were just dragging their feet and bouncing the issue around the office to always ensure I was talking to the person who knew the least about the issue, to ensure the most number of promises to call back, followed by sometimes not calling back.
Eventually, they came down to no charge, but with a nasty twist that seemed to be a form of retaliation. They asked that I physically hand them cash for what I did owe them (for an undisputed inspection fee). I drove to their office and handed them cash.
I’m giving an OK rating because things worked out in the end. My only goal here is to give a real-​life example of what happened, not to paint a hopelessly bleak picture.

Able did our 4-​plex purchase inspection. I was not present for the inspection, but have worked with the report, examining the issues in each apartment and hiring people to make cited repairs. I believe Able accurately identified most of the problems with our building.
However, it was not until we purchased the property and I phoned them to ask a question that they discovered significant errors in their inspection report. The inspector blamed it on his typist, but he’s ultimately responsible for the report. Our repairs will cost about 20% more than they quoted in the report.
Later I found a second error in the report that suggests there’s one problem at our building I don’t have any description of. I phoned the inspector again, and explained the problem to his voicemail, but this time he didn’t bother to return my call.
Everyone makes mistakes, but this is not the attention to detail I wanted for a pre-​purchase inspection.

Horrible service. After inspected my garage for more than a week, I have to call twice to receive the report.
The inspector came 4 hours ahead of scheduled appointment, and he spent 5 minutes in my garage just looking at one side of the wall. He didn’t take any pictures. Finally in the report, he stated «as requested by the customer, only one side of the wall is inspected». What a load of BS, wasted $ 50, now I have to find another good termite company do it all over again.
Stay away!