Attorney General's Office Reaches Settlement With Deceptive Pest Control Company

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Attorney General Josh Shapiro's office has reached a settlement with a pest control company accused of deceiving customers in the Pittsburgh area.

The Bureau of Consumer Protection began looking into Aptive Environmental, a Utah-based company with offices in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, after officials from the Borough of Franklin Park reported numerous complaints from residents about the company.

Shapiro's office says Aptive would ignore some consumers' requests to cancel service. The company would send pest control technicians to these consumers' homes and then bill them for services that the consumers said they did not want.

Sales representatives also allegedly engaged in door-to-door solicitation in Franklin Park even though they didn't have proper permits from the borough, and they failed to provide consumers with copies of their service agreements.

Shapiro's office reached a $101,430 settlement with Aptive Environmental. The settlement includes more than $57,000 in restitution for more than 300 Pennsylvania consumers who were harmed by the company's deceptive practices.

Affected consumers will receive a restitution check from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the coming months.