Paid for Pest Control and the Pests Came Back? Demand a Refund

You paid $420 for a “full internal and external treatment” with a “12-month warranty”. Three weeks later the cockroaches are back in the kitchen and there are ants in the pantry again. You rang. They said a “free re-treat” was booked for Tuesday. Nobody came. You rang again. “The technician will call you.” He didn’t. Now the office says the warranty only covers “certain pests” and yours “aren’t included”.

You paid for a result. You didn’t get it. That’s a refund.

Pest control is a results-based service

This is one of the clearest cases in the Australian Consumer Law, because the whole point of the service is the outcome:

• Section 60 – the treatment must be done with due care and skill (right chemicals, right places, right dose).
• Section 61 – the service must achieve the result you told them you wanted. If you said “get rid of the cockroaches” and they said “no worries”, they have guaranteed that result.
• Section 267 – if they fail and won’t fix it within a reasonable time, you can get someone else to do it and recover the cost, plus a refund.

Their “warranty” is extra. Your ACL rights are the floor. A warranty that “excludes” the very pest you booked them for does not remove s 61.

Give them one real chance

Pest treatments can take a couple of weeks to fully work, and a tribunal will expect you to have let them try. So: one written request for a re-treat with a date deadline (7 days is plenty). Keep it short. If they no-show or push it out again, you have done your part.

Then get it done properly

Book another company. Keep their invoice and ask them to note on it what they found (for example, “no evidence of prior gel bait in kitchen cabinets” is a very useful sentence).

Evidence

• Original invoice and any “guarantee” wording.
• Photos or video of the pests after the treatment, dated.
• Your messages requesting the re-treat and their non-answers.
• The second company’s invoice and notes.

The Letter of Demand

Demand a refund of the $420 plus the cost of the second treatment. Cite ss 60, 61 and 267, give 14 days, and name the tribunal. Pest control companies are licensed in most states, and mentioning a complaint to the licensing body (usually the EPA or health department) gets a very quick response.

These are small businesses that run on Google reviews and repeat customers. A tribunal claim for $700 is not worth their time to fight. They pay.

You were promised a pest-free house. You are still sharing it with cockroaches. Don’t pay for that.

Claim Done drafts your Letter of Demand for $49. Done in about 5 minutes. You approve it before it is sent.