If there’s one thing you’d think the bug-killing folks at Terminix would be good at it would be putting an end to pests that keep returning no matter what you do to make them go away. But apparently their expertise in this regard does not extend to the company’s own billing practices.

Consumerist reader Ethan had been using Terminix to make regular pest-control treatments. But he decided in November of last year that all the rescheduled and cancelled appointments were enough to terminate his relationship with the company.

A week after he cancelled, he received an invoice in the mail, even though he hadn’t had any Terminix visits in months. He called the company and was told that only one of his two service agreements had been cancelled.

So he immediately cancelled all his agreements and confirmed that he had no balance due on the account.

Of course this was not the end of the invoices.

In January, he received yet another bill and a phone call from Terminix.

“I spoke with at least two levels of customer service,” says Ethan. “I was told there was no balance due by the highest level CSR. They tried transferring me to a person who could send me a letter stating a zero balance but the transfer disconnected the call.”

The next day, Terminix called Ethan again and he once more climbed the CSR ladder, trying to find someone who could confirm that he didn’t owe any money.

Eventually, he was transferred to the local Terminix manager’s office, where he left a voicemail with his contact info. That was January 31.

Three weeks later, that call still hadn’t been returned and Ethan hadn’t received the letter showing his $0 balance.

Instead, yesterday he received a letter from a collection agency for the Terminix bill.

“I called the local Terminix manager’s cell phone, who told me that he only returns active customer calls,” says Ethan. “He also said that they wrote off the account on January 31 [the same day he’d left the voicemail]. I explained that each time I called Terminix (11/26, 12/1, 1/30, 1/31) they said no balance was due.”

We have told Ethan to contest the collections notice in writing and demand that Terminix and the collections company prove he actually owes the debt.

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