Arrow Exterminators

Expectations.



That's what they will try to sell you. What are your expectations?

And, how much is that worth to you?

What is a green lawn worth to you?

What is a lawn with no weeds worth?



How many times have you seen a lawn technician spray your lawn and gone in ten minutes?



What to know why?



Because that's what it's worth to them. Ten minutes, maybe fifteen at the most. Unless you complain and then you might get a watered down service with a smile. Doesn't matter what service you have or what the company might be named. They spray the least amount and do as little as possible because the technicians are payed by a percentage and they are loaded with work and only have so much chemical for the day given to them. So, they are given your expectations typed out on the part of the bill you never see. They only fullfill those parts unless, of course, you don't have any expectations and then you get a quick spray and a nice hello.



I've worked for three lawn companies in Florida. They all operate the same way. They will never get rid of your weeds because if they do ... they will be out of business! Instead, what they will do is try to sell you a pre-emergent. They will never spray an insecticide (this goes for anyone with yearly pest control too) that works as long as it keeps you as a customer. They will charge you extra for everything! How many jump from one lawn company to the other just to get the same results?



Why is that?



I used to think that there were no bad lawn companies, just bad lawn technicians. After working for this company - I see where I was wrong. I can't tell you how many times we were almost given nothing to spray a lawn with but told to finish what we had on our routes anyway. How many times was I told to spray chemicals in the rain next to a lake, knowing it would run off into the water? Or, the huge chemical spills we had a few times that went running off into the gutters next to a community with a lake and our management telling us to knock on doors and tell people we stopped it before it went into the gutters (which lead into the lake, which lead into their drinking water).



How many times did I see a racoon get beaten to death by a baseball bat by one of the pest control techs and people standing around laughing about it? Or, the fact that we would run off our extra chemical in fields or flush them down the gutters by our office.



I had customers that were neighbors that had the same sized lawns, but one would be charged eighty dollars a service while the other sixty. Why? Because ones expectations were higher than the other.



And once someone called the state on us. She came by (the agriculture representative or whoever she was) ... she sat in the office with our manager. I was sitting outside waiting to get the okay to go home. She left our office laughing and joking. I asked Steve (who was our district manager) what was going on. He said we didn't have to worry about her because she liked the company.



Whatever all that means.