David vs Goliath

Anyone else running into national companies under cutting you and then only doing half the job. I've had 3 jobs taken from me by a national chain to only get a call back a couple of weeks later to try and clean up their mess. Like raccoon in an attic with young they come in trap the mother and leave the little ones inside the wall.... went and quoted a beaver job to have them come and do it for a third of my price. Not sure if its me or if others have to deal with this too.

Vicious cycle. Nice new trucks along with cool lettering, lots of overhead and a big name doesn't necessarily mean better service. Lots of people get caught up in that. Keep marching on, it's the busy season. You win some and ya lose some, but can't win'em all.

What TDHP said.

Quote what you need to in order to do the job right and still make what you need to.

Their reputation will soon follow them. Keep yours intact.

^^agreed!

Just wait until you're competing with USDA trappers AND there is BMAP money (your taxes) working against you

Those instances they may drive 2 hrs each way to a job yet only charge $25/trip.

Reputation will win in the end

Traprjohn haven't run across any USDA guys while trapping at all, I read on here about them but never crossed paths with one yet I know they had an open pt position available in my area but for the money they're offering I wouldn't waste my time unless I'm missing something [

All the years I trapped, I never advertised in the Yellow Pages or , (of late) the internet.
I had a business card, I had a truck and I had a lot of traps.
Did I mention knowledge ?

There's a lot of blowhards that show up, with hired help out of the temp agency, with more more trapping skills than the man in the moon !
You don't need to be a 'real' trapper today...All you need is a web -site and people will hire you, because, well...you have a g d web site !
That's it ! You can google "how to trap" any animal or watch it on YOU TUBE and you're a g d expert !
And that my friends, is how you and I, get ran over by the big name, big corp animal control companies and the good ol' USDA !
All of which, if you can't already tell, I despise !

I think I've always been a fairly good trapper.
I've trained guys in 20 states to be just as good as I am.
I feel reputation can carry you only so far.
If I were to stay in wildlife control, today I would have a web-site and I would state how it is :

ARE YOU PAYING TOO MUCH FOR WILDLIFE REMOVAL !?

And I've have to hire help...help that I trained ! I'd have so much work, why I wouldn't have time to even talk to you . LOL

Why, I'd turn the world upside down.

LT G

I don't always trust the national chains. I've seen some of the ways they set mouse traps and it almost seems like they sometimes deliberately set them so they will catch some mice, but not really solve the problem. They don't seem to always know how to set a simple multi catch mouse trap (I've seen them not tight against the wall). And they really don't always seem interested in fixing the problem (i.e. entrance holes). It sometimes seems the national guys will just do the minimal effort so they can keep charging a monthly fee to come and check their traps.

The chains make their money selling supplies and franchises, and I doubt they give a crap what happens to you after.

That's my thought too Bob. They often don't offer the same level of pride and top notch customer service.

Some might be due to lack of training, and lack of incentive. We don't do it right the first time, we lose profit. They don't do it right the first time, they get an hour added to their paycheck next visit.

Those guys seem to deal with more of the larger commercial accounts.

Not around here these guys are going for the residential accounts too haven't figured out their game yet, I talked to a guy that just took his adc state exam and over 2/3 of the people testing worked for a national chain. What I mean is in ct you need to take a class and pass a state exam to charge for any animal trapping job, neither the class or the exam is cheap and the companies paying but the license is issued solely to the individual unless your taking it for a municipality which then the lic is only valid for that town and you can not charge for services. But as everyone has said just keep plugging and my reputation will grow and bring me the work and it's true atleast last couple of months.