Dewey Pest & Termite Control Review

Weights add to 100% without the factors marked N/A. How the adjustments work

How we review companies Handshake Score v1.5.0 (rules v1.0.7, confidence v1.2.1)

“In score” marks the profiles counted in the customer-satisfaction factor.

In reviewers’ words

Quoted verbatim, up to 300 characters, as recorded by our researchers with the reviewer’s first name and last initial at most. Low and high ratings are shown alternately.

• ★☆☆☆☆BBB, California · July 1, 2024

  “Not acting in Good Faith will sell you a contract for a "discounted initial service" which is far above market value. Say $300 when this is usually a $100-$150 service.”

  Craig M.Read on BBB

• Facebook, California · October 26, 2026

  “The best around! Family owned and operated since 1929”

  Cameron D.Read on Facebook

  Shown “2 days ago” on October 28, 2026; the reviewer shares the owners’ surname, so this may be a family member.

Profile scope: California: Pasadena headquarters file covering HQ and corporate-owned locations; branch files (San Diego 1126-13000337, Colton 1126-89082930, Fresno 1126-1000137385) show the same F rating and 5-complaint total. Every location is in California. File opened 6/23/2014 (HQ, BBB of Los Angeles & Silicon Valley). Only 3 of the 5 complaints are displayed (BBB notes some complaints are not published). Unanswered count (2) is from the rating reasons. The HQ complaints page was re-read October 28, 2026 with every “load more” control pressed; still 3 shown.

Scored: Complaint record (−1.5, −1)

Complaint themes

• Termite estimate not delivered after inspection
• Final bill far above the quote
• Billing continued after canceling by phone

From BBB complaints and reviews

• BBB complaint · October 3, 2025

  “A Dewey representative came out to gather the information for a termite issue estimate on September 8th, 2025.”

  Name not shownRead on BBB

• BBB complaint · August 22, 2025

  “They are asking for us to pay over $8000 for a job that was quoted to us for $4200.”

  Name not shownRead on BBB

• BBB complaint · August 19, 2025

  “I contacted Dewey Pest Control by phone at the end of June to cancel all of my service contracts and disabled autopayment. They continued to bill me for July and August and today made an unauthorized payment.”

  Name not shownRead on BBB

BBB profiles

• Main profile · FView

Door-to-door sales: Yes

Door-to-door: yes. Dewey runs a commissioned summer door-to-door sales program (“Summer Marketing Program”) across its California branches, recruiting college students (including from Utah) and housing out-of-state reps; daily schedule “2:30 pm - Sunset* - Working in Area (*or the latest hour permitted by applicable law)”. The site also lists “Sales Professional” among positions (about-us/employment). No first-hand customer report of a rep ignoring no-soliciting signs or knocking after 8 pm was found (Yelp, the main source for such reports, blocked).

• “This is a door-to-door sales job!”

  wayup.com · retrieved October 28, 2026⁸

  WayUp job listing “Door to Door Sales”, Dewey Pest Control, Thousand Palms, California (listing closed; posting date not shown). Also: “Knock on 100-120 Doors in your assigned sales area (Monday- Saturday)”.

• “Knock on 100-120 Doors in your assigned sales area (Monday- Saturday)”

  wayup.com · retrieved October 28, 2026⁸

• “As a door-to-door sales rep for Dewey, you have the opportunity to offer our premium services to consumers throughout California at a discounted rate.”

  teamdewey.com · retrieved October 28, 2026⁶

  Dewey summer sales recruiting site (teamdewey.com, signed by “Sky Holman VP of Sales @ Dewey”; 2023 season dates April 24 - September 4, 2023; reps relocated from out of state are housed by Dewey). The page header now reads “DEWEY PEST CONTROL IS NOW MOMENTUM MARKETING”.

• “Working in California during the summer months with a professional sales team and selling yearly exterior residential pest control agreements can be very demanding.”

  teamdewey.com · retrieved October 28, 2026⁶

• “Dewey Pest Control is looking to hire a highly motivated individual to join our team and fill a full-time Summer Sales Program Manager position.”

  talents.vaia.com · retrieved October 28, 2026⁹

  Job listing “Door-to-Door SalesTeam Recruiter in Orem” (Orem, Utah recruiting role for the California summer sales program); requires “2+ years of door-to-door sales experience”.

Contract terms and pricing

• Company statement (summer sales recruiting site): door-to-door reps sell yearly exterior residential pest control agreements; rep pay is a percentage of the annual contract value.⁶

  “selling yearly exterior residential pest control agreements”

  Scored: Sales and contract fairness (−1)

• Service frequencies offered on the sales program: monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly (company statement).⁶

  “COMPETITIVE PRICING & FREQUENCY US: YES! MONTHLY, BI-MONTHLY, & QUARTERLY”

• Maintenance plan: quarterly recurring treatments after an initial inspection and treatment; free re-treatment between scheduled visits if the customer is not satisfied.⁷

  “After initial inspection and treatment, we provide ongoing quarterly pest control treatments to ensure your home or business stays pest-free.”

• No published prices: cost varies by infestation, property size and area; initial quote free.⁷

  “Depending on the level of infestation, the size of the property, and the area you’re in, the cost of our pest control services may vary.”

• Customer report (BBB, San Diego file, July 1, 2024, Craig M.): the contract runs 12 months, and canceling within 12 months makes the “discounted initial service” (about $300 per the reviewer) the cancellation fee. One first-hand report; the fee amount is not stated as a figure.¹⁰

  “Because per their contract if you wish to cancel for poor service within 12 months, which is common with pest companies just read the reviews, this locked in "discount" is now your cancelation fee.”

  Scored: Sales and contract fairness (−1)

• Price increase notice reported by a customer in a Santee community Facebook group: bi-monthly spray going from $85 to $91 on June 1 (year not shown). Search snippet only (Facebook group not fetchable without login).¹¹

  “So I received a notice from Dewey pest control that my $85 BIMONTHLY spray that they do is going $91 June 1.”

Status and expiry dates are shown exactly as the issuing agency’s record showed them on the date retrieved.

Only resolved government actions count toward the score. Pending lawsuits, allegations and private matters are listed here but marked “N/A” (not counted in the score). Summaries are our researchers’ wording of the source; allegations are allegations, not findings.

• October 28, 2026 · California (BBB of Los Angeles & Silicon Valley headquarters file, Pasadena; includes HQ and corporate-owned locations, all in California) · Complaint summaryScored: Complaint record (−1.5, −1)

  BBB headquarters file: rating F, not accredited, 5 complaints in the last 3 years and 0 in the last 12 months; the rating reasons cite failure to respond to 2 complaints. Branch files (San Diego, Colton, Fresno) show the same F and 5-complaint totals. Three complaints are displayed: an HOA termite estimate not delivered (answered), a job quoted at $4,200 billed at over $8,000 (answered; cost adjusted), and billing after a phone cancellation (unanswered).^{3, 5, 50, 52, 53}

• April 30, 2026 · California (Contra Costa County Superior Court) · LawsuitN/A

  Monica Kelly v. Dewey Services, Incorporated, Case No. C26-01490: putative wage-and-hour class action filed April 30, 2026 by Zakay Law Group, alleging failure to pay minimum and overtime wages, provide meal and rest periods, provide accurate wage statements, pay wages when due and reimburse business expenses. The plaintiff alleges employment from May to August 2025 as an hourly non-exempt employee in Contra Costa County. Open as of the UniCourt docket update of August 2, 2026; first amended complaint filed July 7, 2026. Allegations only; not scored (pending private suit; wage cases go to Workplace only when settled or adjudicated).^{55, 56}

• June 23, 2025 · California (Solano County Agricultural Commissioner) · EnforcementScored: Licensing and compliance (−0.5)

  County agricultural commissioner civil penalty: Solano County, NOPA EA-48-2025-056, structural civil penalty (SCP), incident date June 23, 2025, code section 3CCR 6726, final fine $250. Respondent written “DEWEY PEST CONTROL (SAC - PCB 38648 SPCB 4636)”; SPCB number 4636 is the Sacramento branch office (licensing row BR 4636, 7290 55th Street, Sacramento). Minor administrative penalty.⁵⁴

  The only Dewey row in the file (incidents September 2024 to August 2026). Confirmed by license number 4636 = SPCB Branch Office 4636 at the Sacramento listing address.

Workplace score: N/A. It carries 10% of the Handshake Score when at least 20 employee reviews are on file (otherwise excluded and remaining weights renormalized).

Awards and certifications

None verified.

What the company says about itself

These are the company’s own claims, quoted from its materials. We haven’t verified them.

• Dewey Services, Inc. owns and operates 36 branches throughout California (about-us); the careers page says 33 branch office locations.^{2, 64}

• Lancaster office “voted Antelope Valley’s Best” by Valley Press (not verified with the issuer).⁶⁵

• Largest pest control company in California and one of the oldest in the nation (recruiting site; not verified).⁶

• Products are “Earth Friendly” and pet and child friendly.⁶⁶

• Re-service guarantee: “If you have a problem, call us back and we’ll return, no questions asked!”⁶⁶

• The summer door-to-door program is now branded “Momentum Marketing” (recruiting page header).⁶

Mentions

• PR Newswire (Zakay Law Group release) · News · May 21, 2026 · Negative toneRead

  Labor & Employment Law Firm Zakay Law Group, APLC Files a Class Action Against Dewey Pest Control, Alleging Failure to Provide Meal and Rest Breaks

  Plaintiff firm’s press release announcing the wage-and-hour class action (Case No. C26-01490) against Dewey Services, Incorporated; labeled an attorney advertisement.

  “The lawsuit alleges Dewey Pest Control violated the California Labor Code by failing to provide its employees with meal and rest periods.”

• HR Tech Edge · Trade press · May 22, 2026 · Negative toneRead

  California Wage-and-Hour Lawsuit Targets Dewey Pest Control

  HR-technology trade site rewrite of the PR Newswire release on the wage-and-hour class action.

  “A new class action lawsuit filed in California against Dewey Services, Incorporated, operating as Dewey Pest Control, is drawing attention to ongoing compliance challenges surrounding meal breaks, overtime pay and workforce scheduling practices.”

• Third News · News · Date not shown · Negative toneRead

  Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Dewey Pest Control for Labor Violations in California

  News aggregator article restating the Zakay class action allegations.

  “The lawsuit, designated as Case No. C26-01490, has been lodged in the Contra Costa County Superior Court.”

• GANZ Media (web agency case study) · Blog · April 11, 2016 · Neutral toneRead

  Dewey Pest Control launches new Website to support 32 locations!

  Web agency case study on rebuilding Dewey’s website in 2016, when the company had 32 California branches.

  “Dewey Services, Inc. owns and operates 32 branches throughout the State of California.”

Reddit hasn’t been searched for this company yet.

34 locations on file in California (34).

Overall confidence in this score: High, 8 of 11 points.

Where it fell short of full marks:

• Verifier rated the customer reviews medium (high earns a point).
• Verifier rated the legal and regulatory record medium (high earns a point).
• 17 independent websites cited (25 or more earns a point).

How confidence is set

Gaps in the record

• California Secretary of State entity record not read: bizfile Online is blocked (Incapsula/hCaptcha) and OpenCorporates served a “Checking your browser” bot page on October 28, 2026; entity number, status and incorporation date unverified. BBB records “Type of Entity: Corporation” and court filings call it “a California corporation”.
• DCA License Search (SPCB license detail pages, disciplinary documents, qualifying operator, insurance/bond) blocked by Cloudflare Turnstile; licensing taken from the DCA bulk file (October 1, 2026 snapshot). SPCB accusation PDFs: only the PR 1652 file-name guess was tried (404).
• No published service agreement, terms of service or cancellation policy on deweypest.com (site links checked October 28, 2026): auto-renewal, cancellation channel and fee, and arbitration are unknown. The only cancellation-fee evidence is one first-hand BBB review; a Yelp snippet mentions a “$150” cancellation fee (Burbank) but snippets are not evidence.
• Yelp returned 403 to the automated fetch (October 28, 2026); Yelp branch ratings and reviews not read.
• Indeed returned 403 “Additional Verification Required” and Glassdoor blocks automated fetches; employee ratings recorded from search snippets only and not scored.
• Facebook logged-out view shows only the 84% / 229 summary and one recommendation.
• Google review excerpts not collected (listing pages loaded, review panels not expanded).
• Angi, HomeAdvisor, Trustpilot, Thumbtack, Nextdoor: no Dewey profile found through searches; not checked further.
• Whether it is a legacy listing of a closed office is unknown.
• Courts: CourtListener served a human-verification check; LA Superior Court and other county portals not searched. Only the Contra Costa wage case (found via news) is recorded.
• Cal/OSHA / OSHA establishment search not run.
• No Reddit mentions recorded.
• BBB: only 3 of the 5 complaints in 3 years are displayed; the other 2 could not be read.
• Zakay complaint PDF (zakaylaw.com) rendered no text; case facts taken from the PR Newswire release and the UniCourt docket summary.
• Web search was not used.
• Facebook not re-read (Facebook terms prohibit automated collection). BBB Fresno file returned 403 on re-read and Google listings for Burbank and Commerce timed out.

Open questions

• Minimum term rests on a 2023 recruiting page (“yearly... agreements”) plus one first-hand 2024 BBB review; no published service agreement exists.
• teamdewey.com now carries the header “DEWEY PEST CONTROL IS NOW MOMENTUM MARKETING”; whether the door-to-door program is now run by a separate marketing entity was not established.
• Santa Cruz listing: legacy listing of a closed Dewey office or a third-party/stale record? Not resolvable without the SPCB history or Google listing owner.