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Survey of PCOs
(3 posts)-
The PCO that did my apartment yesterday did a poor job, considering he just sprayed, when I have learned here that there are MANY things a PCO can and should do to deal with bed bugs if they take the problem seriously.
I've started to wonder how that can be. Either they don't have the proper training, or they only offer a basic service and charge extra for additional things, or they offered a full service and cut things until the landlord was satisfied with the price.
So I wrote a letter and have faxed it to 10 PCO companies that list themselves in the yellow pages for my city. If enough of them reply, I'll personally pay to fax the other 200 or so that list fax numbers (it will cost about $50 to fax them and set up a return fax number for them), and create an online catalog of their responses so people can pick and choose which one provides the service they're after.
Maybe then people in other cities will do the same, and we could get something really cool happening.
The reason I thought of this is, well, because of the above, but also I thought I should educate myself a little in things from the PCO side if I plan to take this to my local government representative and lobby for an education campaign or for bed bug specific legislation like I saw on the front page for Ohio today.
Here's a copy of the letter I sent:
Dear Pest Controller
I have selected you along with others from the yellow pages to ask a few questions, as I am taking my landlord to court for their poor handling of a bed bug infestation in my apartment. My complaint is not about the pest controller themselves – I have the highest level of respect for your industry and understand how intense competition can lead to cut-price services. Also, I consider myself well educated about the bed bug issue and don’t need advice in that regard.
What I am trying to determine is what level of service you recommend as a default to new clients, what you are willing to cut to reduce your price and most importantly what warnings you may give when doing so. So if your business treats bed bugs and you have a few moments to answer these questions and fax them back to me I would really appreciate it. Please be aware that I may reproduce your response in court/print/tv/radio/online/in parliament and elsewhere. I may also follow up with you at a later stage if I need clarification.
1. For a single apartment (2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen, 1 living room, 2 balconies; all with thin carpeting except the kitchen which is linoleum), where a dozen bed bugs have been sighted in at least one bedroom and the occupant is reacting strongly with multiple bites, what level of treatment do you first recommend? Include:
Pre-treatment
Do you provide a printed list of instructions for the client to follow in preparation?
Do you inspect inside the apartment to locate bed bug colonies?
Do you use animals or bed bug locating dogs?
Do you ask to see adjacent apartments?
Do you seal any cracks?Treatment
How quickly could you schedule a treatment?
Do you fumigate or use any bombs or gasses (vikane, etc)?
Do you steam?
Do you spray?
Do you use dusts?Post-treatment
Do you clean up dead bugs afterwards?
Do you leave anything for post-treatment?
Do you leave a business or contact card for the occupant?
How many treatments are included in your first quote?2. Please indicate if a client can opt in or out of any of those services. Do you warn either way that any of these treatments above are or are not necessary?
3. Please feel free to make any other comments if you feel something hasn’t been covered above.
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Hi,
Might actually be simpler to select Australian Pest Controllers on the grounds of it they follow the Code of Best practice written by Stephen Doggets team.
I think the link is:
It sets out a set of standards for both Pest controllers and home owners to follow as well as other related industries such as hospitality. It is a good document and I agree with a lot more in it than I disagree with.
David
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Oh I agree, and I've read that document a lot. Unfortunately they are just guidelines and a PCO is under no obligation to follow them. And in my city it appears that only two out of the hundreds of PCOs are even a member of that organisation.
Also I didn't have a choice of the PCO as they were hired by the landlord.
That's why I did the survey. To find out if they are doing the things that are in those guidelines, like providing a list of instructions, steaming, and doing a follow-up visit.
The guy who visited me certainly didn't and I don't know why. I'm suspecting either they offer a cut-service price by default, or the landlord haggled them down from a proper service to a crap one. In which case knowing that will work in my favor when I take them to court.
My legal footing is already pretty strong seeing as the landlord has broken multiple places of the contract (not providing a fit habitation, taking over 14 days to fix the problem, trying to evict me for raising a complaint, harassing me, interfering with my peaceful possession of the property, not lodging my bond correctly, not declaring me to the real estate agent correctly), if I can indicate to the court that they also went for the least possible service against PCO advice it's just another nail in their coffin.
I'm going to destroy these guys and be the first to set a legal precedent for my city. I don't want anyone ever having to go through this junk again.
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