I will attempt to explain why I am so furious and frankly nauseated with Paul and this company…read more
As I write this, my home is being consumed by termites, and I am now looking for contractors to repair significant termite damage...
If you want to avoid finding your house leaking in the next storm because of termite damage, then AVOID DAB TERMITE at all costs!!! You have been warned!!!! This is a nightmare YOU DO NOT WANT!
Please read on!
I purchased a property 8/31/2021 that had been previously treated by DAB. The work was supposed to have a warranty, and I was supposedly covered as the new owner. I was noticing termite damage around the house, and I told Paul that I had seen some winged termites a few months prior, but they had died in a windowsill, and I was not sure what to make of it.
Paul came by 2/2/2022 and he was quick to dismiss everything I showed him as old damage. When we encountered a dead swarming termite in the crawl space when showing him some damage I was worried about, he again dismissed it again as probably old. He did not perform an actual inspection, which seems like the natural course of action for a pest company that is coming onsite to investigate client reports of termites. If he had taken me seriously, and done such a professional inspection, I am sure he would have found the substantial activity that is and was clearly going on.
Paul was vocal that he had had a bad experience with the prior owner, and during his visit he began to cast doubts about whether he would honor his warranty. He commented that the house had had some work done to it since he had been there last, and that if there are termites, they could have come from the new work after the treatment. He "couldn't be sure" what was new and what was old. This is understandable on some level, but as the current owner, I was not in a position to argue with him about what was added to the property when....
It is important to note also that Paul was so rude to me, that my girlfriend commented that she was shocked that I let him treat me the way he did, especially in our own home. I am from MA, and this is my first home in Southern CA, so I took a lot of what he said at face value, as I have never had to deal with winged termites before. Paul was condescending and made me feel like I was wasting his time, making comments such as, "That's it? That's all??" when I showed him some damage. He is the owner of this company, and this was how he treats clients -- or rather, the poor saps who end up buying properties that his company has supposedly treated.
One more specific example of Paul's rudeness: when I showed Paul one spot where my deck had termite damage, he initially dismissed it as just wood rot, but he made the comments in such a way that he made me feel stupid for a moment. Then, I looked closer and pointed out some of the droppings, he acknowledged it was termite damage, but of course he dismissed as old. When I brought a second pest company by to look, they identified this spot as termite damage right away (I did not even bring it to their attention), which naturally made me stew about this first disrespectful interaction with Paul....
Maybe my experience is an outlier, and I am suffering the misdirected ill-will that existed between Paul and the former owner of this property... But the way he has treated me is extremely unprofessional, disrespectful on a human level, and very important: their results speak for themselves, they DID NOT WORK - I HAVE TERMITES AND THEY DON'T STAND BEHIND THEIR WARRANTY.
Stay away, spare yourself and your home! Please also feel free to message me if you want more specifics about my terrible experience.
I plan to update once I make some progress with my complaint to the licensing board.
