Complaint Review: Weed Man - West Seneca New York

WEED MAN LAWN CHEMICAL BILLING SCAM

A pushy door to door sales person came to my house last year selling lawn spray services. I told them we had a pet and were not really interested but in an effort to just get rid of him, I told him to send me some info on the chemicals they use so I could check them out to see if the are dangerous to pets, he said ok, thanked me, and left. A couple days later I came home and found lawn flags stuck in my lawn indicating that they treated the lawn. I was shocked as they did this without my authorization without disclosing any prices or having me sign anything. I asked my neighbor across the street and he told me they were here for five minutes and left. I called them up and told them I never ordered their services and I did not want them and they said okay and they made a mistake. 2 days later they came by and treated again without my consent. I called once again and told them I didn't want their services and never ordered them and I was not paying for them. They said okay and that was that.

Now months later, I get a letter from a collection agency saying I owe them $100? UNBELIEVABLE! I looked them up and they have numerous complaints for this kind of "treat and bill" scam. These people are complete scam artists and if they ever show up on your door slam it in their face and do not give them any information whatsoever or you'll end up in collections too!! I called their office to explain the mistake and they rudely swore at me, called me a name and hung up on me after I had asked them for a copy of the contract that they do not have. I guess that's why they don't tell people prices  - at $50 per treatment they are insane and they are probably spraying water on top of it.  Little did they know, I recorded the calls I made to them requesting the contract that they did not have and I got a very expected response from the sort of company that they are.  

Then, I complained to the better business bureau and they responded by lying, but this was prior to me revealing that I had recorded them.  I am planning on building a website this week allowing everyone to hear how they speak to the public if the scam bill is not eliminated and the collection agency account satisfied as it is a fraudulant bill.

The person who wrote the response to the BBB complaint is unfortunately, a pure liar.  We recorder the calls that we made to them and there was certainly no swearing involved - on our part that is...  We are happy to forward you a copy of these recordings.  I cannot make this any more clear.  A pushy salesmen showed up, we told him to send us information on the chemicals so we could research them as well as the company which we had NO intention of doing business with, we just wanted the pushy salesmen gone.  A few days after that.  They treated our lawn when we were not home and did not want it done, never ordered anything, never signed ANYTHING, and on top of it,was never even offered the pricing.  It is not my fault that you do not know how to run a business.  Generally speaking, most businesses tell clients what they are offering, give them prices and they enter into a contract.  Unfortunately, you have not figured that out yet.  Do not expect to ever get paid when you perform services for someone that they absolutely do not want and did not order.  You will save a lot of hassle. I am contacting the attorney general, rip off report, and every forum i can find.  I am going to also put up a website which will be right next to them in the search engines to hopefully educate other consumers to stay away from this scam company that thinks that they can just "treat & bill" consumers.  

This is obviously not the only complaint that the BBB has gotten about this company doing this as your records show and they are all over google as well with complaints.  I want the "bill" eliminated and it removed from the collection agency or I will pursue every avenue at my disposal until it is rectified.  I have reached out to a friend at channel 4 about this and he is looking into starting an investigation seeing the time of year it is - he thinks it may go a long way in preventing this scam in the future for other home owners right around the time that they start preying on other home owners.  Please let me know if you would like to hear the recorded phone calls, I would be happy to send them to you.  They will be displayed on the webpage we are building to let others know the way that they talk to people.

Regards,

Joanne C