Mr Bee

We hired Mr. Bee for bee hive removal in April of 2010. Member Comments: Ed Bacardi is the owner. I wouldn’t recommend him. He charged us $5500 for what he claims as eleven hours worth of work. The bee hive is still on our exterior wall. We called the local police and animal control to get rid of the bees. Animal control people said that they didn’t do bee removal and I asked them as to who does so they gave us this gentleman’s company name and number. We then called Mr. Bee and it took him about ten days and multiple calls to get him to come out. We also tried some other people, but the others didn’t really appeal to us. After ten days, the guy from Mr. Bee came out and brought us fruits the very first time. He was chatting a lot. He was smoking the bees and he said that it was the most effective way to do it. We learned quite a bit about bee removal in the last seven or eight months and we know the method he used was more stressful for the bees. He quoted me a rate on the phone; he told me that he would charge $160 to come out and $160 an hour. The first bill we got was $4200 for what he claims as eleven hours worth of work. He was charging us a fee for after hours. He also told us that he was there one day for four hours, which was in the dark and we know that he was only there in the dark once. He never scheduled and he just showed up. I was never given a fee sheet, but he gave one to my husband when he signed for the work. He actually didn’t give it to my husband until he gave him the permission for the bee hive removal. We are trying to straighten it out now since we got the bill. He told us never to call him again so we didn’t and we didn’t hear from him again for six months. He then sent us the bill which also included interest and an additional fee. We wrote him a letter and tried to pay him again. He sent us back a three-page letter accusing me of all kinds of things. It has been very upsetting and harassing. We now don’t know what to pay him. He also charged us another $170 to write us the letter. more

From Chip B. San Jose, CA , 1/9/2011 Deceptive business practices. Every step he prepares for small claims court and doesn't hint at the total cost up front. When you "sign " the work order make sure to get a copy and to negotiate maximum price before he begins. Discuss cost at every visit or call before work begins. Charges for all sorts of things like off hours, night, round trip to your site, steps up a ladder (per foot). Uses his knowledge of bees to prey on the unknowing. Read wikipedia on bees. We had a temporary colony in the yard and they would have gone on their own, Mr. Bee charged us over $1000 to remove. Bill came 8 months later when we had forgotten it all, and warned sternley of Lein and collection agency if not paid in 10 days. Who needs this language on the first bill???? more

I, too, was stung by Mr. Bee. He quoted me $160 an hour to remove a dormant wasp hive (which in hindsight I should have done myself). He literally took 5 minutes to remove the hive (after showing up one hour late). I offered to write him a check immediately and he surprisingly declined. Now I know why. Similar to the rest of the reviewers, over two months later I was billed a whopping $589.00, which included a $160 "service" fee, ladder extension fee, "out of area" fee (my house is only ten miles from his place of business), and a 25% stuctural removal fee. I mailed him a check for $160.00 for his work (because he DID say he had a $160 minimum per hour charge) and have not heard from him since. I am a business litigation attorney and, despite the stereotype, am loathe to file suit. I am curious as to whether the rest of the reviewers paid the exorbitant and unfair bills (and if you did pay, why). If I don't hear from him and he cashes the check, I plan to leave it alone. If he continues to pursue, I will strongly consider seeking input from the rest of the aggrieved customers and certifying a class action lawsuit against him for violation of Business & Professions Code Section 17200 et seq. I am also aware of other businesses he has emplyed the same tactics with, which I fine amazing. more

Bees swarmed our house and took residence in an exterior wall on 09-Apr. My wife called Sunnyvale public safety and they recommended Mr. Bee. We called him and he said it would be $160 for the visit and $160/hr to remove the bees. He arrived on the 19th to start work. After 10 days and ~11 hours of onsite time he successfully removed the bees. We were happy even though the expected bill would be nearly $2000 (our calculations based on his fee sheet) we figured we did the "right thing" removing rather than exterminating. The bill just came and it was a whopping $4200. Seems Mr. Bee also charges for out of town travel time ($80/hr), mileage (45¢/mi), ladder length ($2/ft), before 8am/ after 6pm/ weekends/ holidays (50% base rate), structure removal fee (25% of base rate). He made a total of 5 visits over 10 days. Each visit with the exception of #4 was made close to 6pm or on a weekend when his after hours surcharge applies. I'm home all day so there was no need for the after hours work. And since they were docile honey bees and the hive was not too bothersome there was no great urgency in getting it out. The mileage charge was 30 miles on 2 days and 90 miles the other three. The "out of town" travel time was always 1.5 hours. Mapping software puts the round trip mileage between his business address and our home at 27.3 miles and the drive time is estimated at 33 minutes. When asked he told us that the surcharges are computed on his service hours. This was the case for two of the after hours surcharges. The structure removal surcharges were computed on the total of his drive time, mileage and billed hours. The remaining two after hours surcharges were computed on the total of his drive time, mileage, billed hours and the structural removal surcharge. He swears he isn't milking us but the inconsistent mileage, drive time and surcharge calculations makes me suspicious. I did call him and explained the $1000 worth of inconsistencies in the bill and he says I'm wrong and he stands by his bill. more

I recently used Mr. Bee to remove a bee hive from under an office trailer on a vacant lot I own. I received other quotes in the range of $125.00 to kill the bees to $500.00 to kill the bees and remove the hive. Mr. Bee said he could get out there the same day so I sent with him. He did not give me a flat rate but instead a general fee schedule of 120.00 an hour. I figured based on the other people I spoke to it would take 1-2 hours. I authorized him to do the work and never heard back so I called him the end of the next day. He said he would take care of the problem and not to worry. I never received any phone call or estimate before the work began. Then I receive a bill in the mail for 1,753.00 ! I am not happy to say the least. more

I have been told by my friends not to use Mr. Bee -- this is a link to a report on Better Business Bureau on this guy: http://www.bbbsilicon.org/commonreport.html?compid=200818&code=74. You should definitely call the District Attorney's office and file a report as well if he provides bad service. Here's the contact info: DA's Office Patty McRae 408-792-2835 more