| rev:text
| - Ever read a review that was so glowing in praise that you swear it must have been written by the guy's mother? I'm going to try very hard not to make mine sound that way, but no promises other than that I promise I am not related to him and have nothing at stake here. They didn't offer me a deal, freebie or even a discount if I would write a review; I'm doing this all on my own after-the-fact.
That being said, my overall impression of bee removal companies in the Phoenix area is right down there with roofers, painters and window salesmen ... which is about as low as it can get. I started getting bees congregating under my roofline almost a year ago and since they weren't bothering me I left them alone. Over time their colony grew and still I didn't feel I had to do anything about them. That is until just recently when a new neighbor moved in who is allergic to bees and the colony started getting REALLY large and was having an impact on my outdoor life and ability to do fixup projects around the house. I don't see any reason to kill bees and after educating myself a little about them I learned that the bee population is dwindling and beekeepers have an urgent need for bees.
So I called a few "experts", the ones with the big ads. I could see the dollar signs spinning in their eyes. Here I was trying to help them by donating my bees and even willing to pay them for their time and I got the full load of BS about how "urgent" it was and they would be there at 4:00 AM for an emergency call and yadda, yadda, yadda. Of course I needed the "guarantee" that would only cost me $89 a month for them to keep the bees away in the future (which is a total crock; if they are removed properly bees won't come back to the site of their former hive). I could buy a new car for what they wanted to charge me.
I ended up running across a website called Bees-on-the-Net which is not a sales site but rather a personal project of some guy whose site has a ton of useful information about bees. He has a list of like-minded beekeepers and shares their bios and of all of them I liked the way Dan Punch's read ... no hype, no scare tactics, it sounded like the guy knew what he was doing.
So I called him.
My gut feeling turned out to be right. He swung by one day after a removal job and (here is where it gets night vs. day compared to the other companies I called) he got up on my roof, took thermal images, listened to the bees and gave me an evaluation that I believed. Note that every other company was throwing quotes at me without even coming to my home or just eyeballing it from ground level.
Dan made an appointment for two days later and showed up on time with an associate. He erected a full scaffolding rig for their safety (and my liability and protection of my property) and went to work. It took him a full 5 hours to do the job for which he had given me a written estimate. Even though there was some extra time involved he stuck to his estimate to the penny. Having a family member in the construction industry I know that Dan went WAY above and beyond just sucking the bees out and patching the hole (see the attached photos). After he was done, the bees were gone and my house looked like it had never been touched. I watched the two of them from my window a few times and they were absolutely meticulous about not doing any damage to the house, putting "caution" tape up to warn the neighbors, and cleaning up afterwards ... even moving my neighbor's trash can from the middle of his driveway where the trash collection guy had left it.
A quick note about the only negative review. I don't doubt what you say is true, service people who don't return phone calls have a special place in hell as far as I'm concerned. Never calling back gets that company instantly deleted from my list and my negative experience shared with everyone I know. But a late returned call? I have to give the company the benefit of the doubt and believe there could be a reason. My experience with Dan Punch was quite the opposite ... he called, he emailed and he texted all within a reasonable time AND he sent the most professional after-job wrap-up I've ever seen, complete with the photos I am posting here. I hated to do it but I emailed him on the following Saturday night because a huge swarm of bees was gathering at the same spot I had the problem. Dan came out the next morning, a Sunday, on his own time and at no charge and took care of the problem. I'm not a millionaire either but I'm sure of one thing ... Dan is a very hard worker and exceptionally professional.
If you're a homeowner or business owner you know the frustrations of hiring someone and finding out too late after they've done a bad job so I hope my review of this company has been helpful to you. I honestly don't recall ever being as satisfied with anyone I've hired to do work on my home.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)