Rouge traders

Sadly its a fact of most industries there will be rouge traders tarnishing the reputation of honest trustworthy professionals and for want of a better word "ripping off customers", thankfully they are in the minority.

After watching BBC1s Rouge trader programme on the 10th February 2010 we felt it would be helpful offering pointers on how to avoid becoming the victim of a rouge trader. Thease tips are primarily aimed at pest control but would be good practise for all professions.

1 Ask to see insurance certificate, membership certificates and competence certificates, don't be embarrassed to ask, reputable pest controllers will happily show you there documents, they are proud of them and continue learning and developing there knowledge.

2 A thorough inspection of your premisses is of utmost importance to establish the pest problem, at the beginning of a survey we often jokingly apologies to customers on how invasive our job can be and if they have anything laying around they would rather us not see then now is the time to remove the items.

3 The pest controller should explain his or her findings, what they will do, how they will do it and what they are using. all of this information will also be detailed in a report left for you, if they don't have any knowledge about the type, effects and consequence of the baits they are using then the ask them to leave.

4 If they attempt to leave open baits around your home available to pets and children then ask them to take everything away and leave, responsible pest controllers will not do this, they are thinking about your pets your children and you touching or eating the bait you and your families safety is first in there mind.

Please bear in mind the above points and always ask, if you get the feeling that they don't know what they are doing you can call us for completely free advise.