Terminix

Terminix's Woburn branch is the local face of a company that's been treating homes for pests for close to a century — the company's own site says nearly a hundred years in the trade, and the Better Business Bureau puts the figure at 99 years. It runs as a subscription pest program: a technician comes on a quarterly schedule for the life of the contract, treating for ants, mice, bees, and the occasional wildlife problem, with termite bait-station monitoring offered as a separate line of service. What holds up best is the relationship with a specific technician. Recent reviews name names — Carlo, Jon, Dave, David Cieslik — and credit them for showing up on time, explaining what they're doing, and sticking with the same house visit after visit, which more than one long-tenured customer says beats getting a different stranger every time. A customer of 13 years and another with a multi-year ant problem both point to one assigned tech as the reason the pests haven't come back. The last six months tell a rougher story than the 4.5-star average Terminix carries on Google from over a thousand ratings. Roughly a third of its most recent reviews are one- or two-star, and the same complaints repeat: technicians who never showed and never called to say so, bait stations reviewers say were logged "inaccessible" without ever being checked, and a retention team accused of stonewalling refund and cancellation requests. One customer says it took four calls to the call center before anyone wrote down the actual problem; another describes paying over $3,000 and still having mice and ants three months later. That split — strong when a good route technician is assigned, frustrating the moment something needs escalating past the local branch — is worth weighing against the glossy long-run number. Before booking, ask how bait-station checks get documented and who to call if a scheduled visit turns into a no-show; several recent reviews say the normal channels stall. Terminix holds an A+ from the Better Business Bureau, though it is not a BBB-accredited business, and its 4.5-star rating on Angi is built on reviews dated 2004 to 2010 — a much older read on the business than the Google activity from this year. This is a reasonable pick for a straightforward, recurring quarterly pest program in a house dealing with common ants, mice, or seasonal bees, especially if a regular route technician sticks around. It's a harder call for anyone who might need to cancel, dispute a charge, or push a complaint up the chain quickly.