Company Admits Under Oath That Homes Will Be Eaten Up By Termites

The nation’s largest termite company has been issuing termite prevention contracts for more than a year with a new and unbelievable twist – pledges to protect homes without applying any chemicals, baits or traps to kill or repel termites. An Arkansas state regulatory agency is now investigating the practice.

In court-ordered testimony from an Arkansas fraud case, Terminix confessed on January 9, 2008 that it knew before issuing these contracts that failing to provide a complete treatment would result in termite infestations 100 percent of the time.  Nonetheless, Terminix issued the so-called “no treatment” agreements without telling customers of the potentially disastrous consequences. 

As reported in the The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on December 4, 2007, Terminix justifies charging consumers for these agreements, which it knows will not prevent termite damage, by concealing the consequences and getting consumers to sign a form waiver agreement.

Terminix defended its plan to make treatment optional under these plans at a public hearing held by the Arkansas State Plant Board in December. Terminix Vice President Steve Good called the plan a response to consumer demand for “environmentally responsible” pest control that uses the least amount of the lowest toxicity chemicals. No matter how seemingly attractive and environmentally friendly the company may make these plans sound, Terminix’s promotion of this type of contract is frighteningly deceptive and the company now has admitted under oath that it will result in untold property damage.

According to company testimony, Terminix does not tell customers the devastating truth that their homes will be damaged if they agree to these “no treatment” contracts.  While Terminix pledges to pay for home repairs under some circumstances, consumers are left to fight the company in costly secret arbitration hearings if they are not treated fairly. These arbitration procedures are so lopsided in favor of Terminix that the country’s largest arbitration association, the American Arbitration Association, says they deny consumers “due process.”

The Arkansas State Plant Board voted to survey consumers about the practice of issuing contracts that promise to prevent termite infestation without taking preventive measures. However, Terminix’s deposition testimony (taken by Campbell Law’s Tom Campbell) already reveals that the company does not expect Arkansas consumers to know that the company’s failure to apply termite prevention chemicals may well result in their homes being eaten up by termites. Further, the company fully expects that consumers will not understand the problem.

Terminix testified in January that it has been offering no treatment contracts for about a year; and that the same contracts are offered in all but two to four other states in the U.S.

If you have been conned by one of these contracts, call Campbell Law and help us stop this corporate rip-off in Arkansas and elsewhere.