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The best pest control companies servicing
Highlands County, FINALLY ranked and reviewed |
Highlands County ----When did finding a reliable pest control company get so complicated?
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HIGHLANDS COUNTY ----With so many pest control companies servicing our little towns,
which one should you call when bugs are on the wall?
Is there a way to tell which company gives you the most bang
for your pest-control buck? Should you really have to sign a contract? Those were just some of the questions you asked us when several
reports illustrated that applying pesticides yourself was putting your family's health at
risk and costing you more money in the process. And, after some very thorough research, well, our answers may end up surprising you.
In short, after 'mystery-shopping' over 50 companies that actually attest to
servicing
Highlands County
with our team volunteers, standardizing the data we collected from over 500 confirmed customer
reviews, and analyzing over 100 consumer surveys, we've organized Highlands County's top ten pest-controllers by the following criteria:
- How much services are likely cost, whether the company guarantees their work without making you sign a contract and how likely you are to be satisfied with the service overall
- How knowledgeable, forthcoming and helpful each company's employees are and how they performed through scheduling appointments, providing services, handling complaints and etc
- How long the company's been in business, whether they're properly licensed and insured, what their better business ratings are, and whether their technicians could identify the carpenter ants in our sandwich baggy
Our findings along with further details, describing the companies themselves
as well as the services they provide, are shown below: ordered from greatest value to least. |
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#1 |
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Ecolab Services |
"Proudly serving the commercial property, healthcare, and food service industries" |
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Website
1-800-352-1671 |
Services |
•Pest-Control
•Termite-Barriers |
Better Business |
Company Information | Customer Satisfaction |
Average Service Price | Service Status |
A + |
Existing in its current form since 1986, Ecolab pest control is a multinational arm of the Cascade Investment Group
that provides pest control services to commercial properties, hospitals,industrial manufacturing plants and food production facilities only |
98% |
$51.50 WITHOUT Contract |
Licensed
Bonded
Insured |
REVIEW |
Calling Ecolab's most readily available telephone number had our call transfered to the nearest operating call center where, after selecting a few menu options, and remaining on hold for a bit, our teams were connected to one of their 10,000 representatives at random. Admittedly, we didn't always think this approach was that personable--and it does sometimes seem painfully obvious that their representatives are reading from a script that they're not all that comfortable with--but everyone our team spoke with did answer all of our questions.
While it is worth mentioning that no one we spoke with could give us pricing over the phone, we did receive an e-mail within an hour of hanging up that contained all the pertinent data we could want as well as a reference number that would help us get our further questions answered if we decided to call back. Appointments, which were officially scheduled for us once we contacted the call center again, came an average of 8 days after making a request, and our fake "complaint" saw us having a "redo" set up an average of 8 days later which, more often than not, was the soonest a different technician would be in our area again. Future appointments would be made two days in advance by a call center member contacting us to let us know when a technician expected to arrive.
Our Ecolab technicians ranged from quiet to talkative, but every single one of them was on time for our appointments and were very well aware of our issues and concerns in particular. Each technician was informative in answering all of our questions as well as identifying our carpenter ants, and each of their technicians offered us additional services expressly for those ants so long as we agreed to the additional costs the service would entail. Services took about 30 minutes and were very thorough.
what others said in a nutshell
Others Said... |
Ecolab Services is a strong, reliable, company that prides itself on it's market positions and most seem to really like their options for service on weekends and/or after hours normal business hours. |
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#2 |
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McKenzie Pest Management |
"Getting you back to normal safely, easily and affordably" |
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Website
(863) 471-2300 |
Services |
•Pest-Control •Lawn-Care
•Termite-Barriers •WDO Inspections •Pre-Construction •Wood-Treatments |
Better Business |
Company Information | Customer Satisfaction |
Average Service Price | Service Status |
A + |
McKenzie Pest Management is a locally-owned, multi-truck company that's been servicing
Highlands County since 1980 and is licensed to specialize in all pest control categories |
98% |
$55.00 WITHOUT Contract |
Licensed
Bonded
Insured |
REVIEW |
McKenzie Pest's secretary and office staff were very pleasant and knowledgeable, answering all of our questions without hesitating to give us further details, recommendations and volunteering price information.
All of our teams appointments were scheduled for the following days and at times of our choosing, too. Later, our fake "complaints" were met with immediate apologies and after a few questions to gather more information about our concerns, we received an insistence to have our "respray" done to our respective properties that very same day at no additional cost. Calls to schedule further appointments came a week in advance and were specifically scheduled around our team's preference and convenience.
McKenzie Pest goes out of its way to assign each account its own regular technician to ensure familiarity with a customers on-going issues and preferences and each of those technicians consistently showed up about 10 to 15 minutes early for our respective appointments. Each technician was very clean-cut, personable and attentive to our needs and each of them were able to answer all of our questions while identifying our carpenter ants and then going on to provide additional "precautionary" services for those ants at no additional fee. Services took about 30 to 40 minutes on average and were very thorough and precise with a lot of included hustle.
Others Said... |
Mckenzie Pest Management provides an easy going, honest, and customer focused company that always delivers on its promises and doesn't nickel and dime. Most like the discounts McKenzie gives for multiple services and others mentioned that they're cheaper than their competitors 'coupon rates.' |
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#3 |
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Eagle Pest Control |
"Providing comprehensive pest control" |
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Website
(407) 647-3864 |
Services |
•Pest-Control |
Better Business |
Company Information | Customer Satisfaction |
Average Service Price | Service Status |
B |
Eagle Pest Control is a locally-owned, single-truck, owner/technician company that's been in business since 1992 |
86% |
$65.00 WITH Contract |
Licensed
Bonded
Insured |
REVIEW |
As there was no office or administrative staff that we were made aware of to contact with this particular outfit, most of our calls made throughout the day found themselves themselves going directly to a voice-mail answering service. After leaving messages, our teams most often received call-backs by the end of the day, and the tech our team members spoke with was very well informed and knowledgeable--only having to call us back once to confirm that an answer they gave us was actually correct.
Pricing and service information was straight-forward and scheduling a service appointment for as soon as possible had our visit set up for an average of 2 days later. 10 days after the service, our fake "complaint" voice-mail got us an almost immediate call back and, after a few questions, we were set up again to be sprayed the following week.
Eagle Pest Control was right on time for all of our appointments except one --and even then was only about 20 minutes late. Through each service the Eagle Pest Control technician was able to answer most of our questions and even went on to identify our carpenter ants correctly while recommending services at additional costs for "next time" should we continue to see them. In our experiences, services generally took about 20 minutes on average and were applied to most areas that we asked to be sprayed specifically. Calls to schedule additional appointments were made two days in advance, mostly later on in the evening, with specific time requests being available as an option so long as we'd be willing to wait a day or two to make it work.
what others said in a nutshell
Others Said... |
Eagle Pest Control provides a solid, well-rounded service that's just a little bit rushed and rough around the edges on occasion, but most feel they try to hold up their end when the time comes. |
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#4 |
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Terminix Services |
"Get your free pest-evaluation today" |
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Website
1-866-319-6528 |
Services |
•Pest-Control
•Termite-Barriers •Pre-Construction |
Better Business |
Company Information | Customer Satisfaction |
Average Service Price | Service Status |
C - |
Owned by Service-master, and in its current form since 1986, Terminix is a multinational corporation that's become the largest pest control
company in the world after absorbing several smaller pest controllers throughout the 90's and 2000's |
79% |
$70.00 WITH Contract |
Licensed
Bonded
Insured |
REVIEW |
While it would've been more than possible for us to call the nearest Terminix branches servicing the area if we could have actually found their numbers, calling the numbers we could readily get ahold of saw our calls being routed to a call center where our team members were promptly and happily greeted by telephone representatives that, unfortunately, in our experiences, weren't able to answer very many of our questions. Instead, what we seemingly ran into here was a situation where they basically take down your name, address and phone number so someone within a reasonable driving distance can get back with you.
Things were admittedly much better when we finally got the call back about 30 minutes later, though, and all the technicians that our team members spoke with seemed to be very knowledgeable and forthcoming but, even then, discussing prices and specific terms over the phone seemed to be, pretty much, a big no no without first having a free pest-evaluation performed on our respective properties. Once we got that the following day--at a time of our choosing--we were given all the information we could possibly want (with prices being almost exactly the same for our team's very different properties) and we were also presented with the option to be serviced right then and there, on the spot. A few days later, our fake "complaint" saw us getting another appointment after a few questions the following business day--also at a time of our choosing. Future appointments were set up in advance, on average, with a weeks' notice.
All services received saw our respective technicians show up on time and our team members found most of them to be well informed with a semi decent group understanding of what the proper answers to your questions actually were. Each of our Terminix technicians properly identified our carpenter ants, but assured us that nothing they had on the truck at the time of service would really help. We were invited to call their main office and make a special appointment at additional cost, though. Services, in our experience, took about 30 minutes and mostly consisted of our technicians walking around inspecting our homes, not spraying or applying much of anything throughout the majority of our properties as far as we could tell.
what others said in a nutshell
Others Said... |
Terminix Provide a good value that tends to lean on the pricey side because of the company's enormous size and ad campaigns. Guarantees are mostly honored, but several complaints alleged that entire months of "service" go by where nothing's been applied to prevent problems from occurring. |
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#5 |
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Affordable Pest Control |
"All-over pest-services" |
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Website
(503) 635-8137 |
Services |
•Pest-Control |
Better Business |
Company Information | Customer Satisfaction |
Average Service Price | Service Status |
C |
Affordable pest control is a single truck, single technician sole proprietorship that's been working out of Plantation, Florida since 1997 |
74% |
$65.00 WITH Contract |
Licensed
Bonded
Insured |
REVIEW |
Our team's experiences, calls to Affordable Pest Control were more often than not answered by a technician that very clearly and honestly likes his job a lot more than then he likes the more inquisitive people that might employ his services. As each of our team's respective calls came several weeks apart, and were each met with the same general feeling of annoyance and aggravation emanating from the technician's end of the phone, we don't know of another, kinder way to illustrate that.
It's really unfortunate because when the technician finally got around to understanding why we were asking the questions we were, our team members found that he was consistently well informed and very helpful--if not just a little bit hesitant to explain what his prices are and what service actually included. Our team's respective appointments were set up for the one day a week that he's actually in town--at a mostly take it or leave it time that he had available. About a week after service, our fake 'complaint' was met with an apology and a few long discussions mentioning things our respective team members could do to help their pest problems themselves until he could make it back down the following week. Additional appointments would be scheduled by assigning us a day system (monday 1, tuesday 2, etc.) that was up to us to keep track of, as the next calls we received were the ones that announced his arriving to our front-doors soon.
The Affordable Pest Control technician arrived to each of our team's appointments 10 to 15 minutes early and consistently answered every question our team could throw at him once he understood why we were actually asking. He went on to successfully identify our carpenter ants, but did not, however, offer us any additional services or further comment. Services, in our experience, took about 20 minutes on average and were mostly thorough.
Others Said... |
Affordable Pest Control's service can range from good to terrible depending on how the owner feels about you. We saw more than a few complaints alleging last minute cancellations and a couple mentions of Affordable's guarantee being 'worthless,' but some have only good things to say. |
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#6 |
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Arrow Environmental Services |
"It begins with results" |
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Website
1-877-851-1143 |
Services |
•Pest-Control •Lawn-Care |
Better Business |
Company Information | Customer Satisfaction |
Average Service Price | Service Status |
C + |
Arrow Pest Control is a regionally controlled third-party franchise group out of Sarasota, Florida that
established it's local presence after buying out locally owned operations like Safekill and A-action |
70% |
$67.00 WITH Contract |
Licensed
Bonded
Insured |
REVIEW |
For us, Arrow's secretaries and office staff were pleasant and forthcoming in answering all of our questions and were very straightforward in explaining their service prices along with what their treatments actually entailed in our team's opinions. All of our team's appointments were scheduled to take place within 3 days of our call, but, in our experiences, our scheduled times were pretty much assigned by area.
For example, if we weren't able to regularly be at home at 2 in the afternoon throughout the week, we'd seemingly have to either find a way to make that time work for them or find another company. Later on, a few days after one of our initial appointments, our fake "complaint" got our team offered a new service for the following business day but, again, were at the same prescribed time of 2 p.m. Future appointments were set up by calls that came 4 days in advance of the actual service date. Guess what time they wanted to come.
Arrow Pest Control, like another of our top ten companies, assigns a
specific technician to each of their account to ensure familiarity with a
property's ongoing issues. People love that approach and we do, too, but
the problem our team unfortunately ran into with Arrow's technicians is
that the two our respective teams encountered didn't seem to have the faintest
clue what they were actually talking about when we asked them questions and, beyond that, barely knew what they they were
supposed to be doing throughout the services. Only one of them could identify our carpenter ants as anything more specific than
"ants", but she did offer to take them with her and have the office get back with us. Each service we received took about 15 minutes
and were pretty basic.
Others Said... |
Arrow Environmental's policies and training programs have seemingly led to both more frequent pest problems and 'un-trained' technicians that either refuse to follow customer instructions or aren't allowed to. The consensus we've seen generally alleges that services have really fallen off since the former companies' respective buy-outs. |
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#7 |
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Clarke Pest Control |
"Serving desoto, glades, highlands and okeechobee counties" |
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Website
1-866-896-6622 |
Services |
•Pest-Control •Wood-Treatments |
Better Business |
Company Information | Customer Satisfaction |
Average Service Price | Service Status |
D - |
Clark Pest Control is a regionally owned multi-truck franchise corporation that's been in business since 1996 |
67% |
$74.25 WITH Contract |
Licensed
Bonded
Insured |
REVIEW |
In all of our team's experiences, Clarke's secretary was very pleasant but unfortunately wasn't very helpful in answering many of our questions to any satisfactory degree. Once we got the office manager on the phone, though, we got up to speed pretty quickly, getting all the service and pricing info we could ask for. Appointments for each member of our team had our phone-calls handed back over to the secretary who, on average, had our appointments scheduled two days later.
A few days after our team's service, our fake "complaint" had us again speaking to the same secretary who seemingly had no idea what to tell us because the office manager was on the other line. After being assured we'd get a call back as soon as he was done, and not hearing anything for the remainder of the day, we called again the next morning and were scheduled for a "retreatment" the following week.
Clarke's technicians arrives to our teams appointments on time and 2 out of 3 were able to answer all of our teams questions and identify our carpenter ants. Neither offered any additional services, however, as there were really no services provided--in any traditional sense-- in the first place. All they really, as far as we could tell, was put down glue boards underneath our team's respective sinks. On average, services took about 10 minutes with most of that being spent talking. Our "come back" treatment had a completely different technician inspecting the glue boards under our sinks and applying tiny bits of spray and bait to window sills closest to where we reported having problems.
Others Said... |
Clarke Pest Control provides a decent value where guarantees are concerned, but there were numerous complaints alleging that their approaches don't fix existing problems or go very far to prevent new ones. We've also seen several surprised that their accounts were passed off to other franchises without notice. |
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#8 |
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Sunny South Exterminating |
"Free pest estimates" |
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Website
(863) 382-2551 |
Services |
•Pest-Control •Lawn-Care
•Termite-Barriers |
Better Business |
Company Information | Customer Satisfaction |
Average Service Price | Service Status |
D |
Sunny South is a locally owned, multi-truck operation that was reformed, and slightly renamed, after being involuntarily dissolved in 2009 |
65% |
$71.00 WITH Contract |
Licensed
Bonded
Insured |
REVIEW |
In our experiences, calling Sunny South had our calls answered by a secretary that, in our opinion, was just seemingly there to set up in-home-inspections. She was very nice and apologetic about it, but regardless of what we asked about terms, prices or service inclusions, her answers always seemed to find their way back to having someone come out to take a look and tell us more then.
Appointments, most often, were available to us later on in the same day and once our team's respective technicians finally arrived, our questions were answered and our service options were finally explained. Eight days after our service, our team's fake "complaint" got us set up for a whole new spray the following morning that no one ever actually showed up for. We called to ask what happened and the secretary was very apologetic in taking our message, but we never got a call-back or a follow up appointment. Calls to set up additional services never happened, either.
Sunny Souths technicians arrived on time and were able to answer about half of our team's questions accurately. Each identified our carpenter ants without issue, though. The services we actually received took about 20 minutes and were, in our opinions, sparsely applied to only what was readily exposed and out in the open. No cabinets, closets or doors were opened and no areas beneath or behind our major appliances or furniture pieces were treated.
Others Said... |
Sunny South Exterminating's technicians seemingly range from 'smart' to 'barely know their own names.' Many say that services can be great depending on who you get but, unfortunately, those same people also say you never know who's coming. Sadly, beyond that, we weren't the only customers to apparently be "dropped," after a re-do request, either. |
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#9 |
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Orkin Pest Services |
"Pest control down to a science" |
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Website
1-844-513-0872 |
Services |
•Pest-Control •Lawn-Care
•Termite-Barriers •Pre-Construction •Wood-Treatments |
Better Business |
Company Information | Customer Satisfaction |
Average Service Price | Service Status |
D + |
Orkin Exterminating is a national pest control company owned by the Rollins Broadcasting Conglomerate that has existed in its current form since 1989 |
62% |
$68.50 WITH Contract |
Licensed
Bonded
Insured |
REVIEW |
In our team's experiences, Calling the most easily accessed Orkin numbers we could find led us to a rapid response call center that, for us, picked up so fast we almost swore we were calling a local company down the street. Our team's representatives were consistently helpful and informative in answering all of our questions and addressing our concerns, but wouldn't elaborate or explain anything at all when it came to price. "That's what free estimates and property assessments are for," we were told.
Our appointments came an average of four days later and, like their multinational competitor, service and pricing information was nearly identical across all of our respective properties and offered on the spot at the time of our "assessment." Our fake "complaint" got us an apology and an invitation to wait for service until we were due again the following month or commit to a new, more expensive contract. Further scheduling appointments came by phone three days in advance and would be at the same times as our last appointment.
Each technician arrived mostly on time with one being 10 minutes early and another being 15 minutes late. All three of our technicians were very well informed and knowledgeable when it came to answering our service questions, but 2 of them identified our carpenter ants as termites and then went on to recommend we get $2000 Termite treatments as fast as possible. It's not our belief that there was any foul play involved here, as it is a very common mistake among pest control professionals not included in our top-ten list. But, given the many lawsuits allocating consumer fraud that Orkin deals with on a yearly basis,
it becomes worth mentioning. Services lasted around 20 minutes, using only small amounts of bait, and further appointments were scheduled a week in advance by local offices.
Others Said... |
Orkin is generally regarded as being a decent value by people that have never had an infestation, but a nearly equal brought up concerns over dramatic changes in what service contracts do and do not cover when problems arise. Further complaints allege arrogant,' deal with it or pay us more money,' approaches to customer service after repeat visits. |
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#10 |
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Bugs Bee-Ware Exterminating |
"Your all in one beautification company" |
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Website
(863) 385-0404 |
Services |
•Pest-Control •Lawn-Care |
Better Business |
Company Information | Customer Satisfaction |
Average Service Price | Service Status |
D - |
BugsBeeware is a locally-owned, multi-truck company that's been in business since 1995 |
61% |
$75.00 WITH Contract |
Licensed
Bonded
Insured |
REVIEW |
In our experiences, calling into bugsbeeware for information had our teams members speak to a very nice and all together pleasant secretary who can schedule someone to come out to your property and very little else. Next to no information at all was provided to us over the phone unless we specifically mentioned seeing or hearing about a particular ad of theirs. We also found that calling early would net us a visit the same day with our afternoon calls resulting in a visit the following day, most often, at a time of our choosing.
Once the technician arrived to assess and quote our team's respective properties, and we finally got to accept service though, that technician then called their office to schedule someone else to come out to our property and actually treat us--on another day and at another time that they had available. After treatment, one of our fake "complaints" was surprised to find that there was no record of her property ever being treated. After providing a canceled check number, and the office manager decided to, "take her word for it," her "do-over" was scheduled to be done just two days later. Further appointments for one of our team members (the one with the canceled check) came four days in advance, while another of our team members never actually received a call to set up additional service appointments at all.
Three appointments had three different technicians show up to to one of our teams accounts, while the others only had two. In our experiences, all of Bugs bee ware's technicians were well informed and able to answer all of our questions with only two notable exceptions: One who had no idea what he was spraying and the other had "no idea" what our carpenter ants were. The services our team's received ranged from 10 to 20 minutes and were more like spot-treatments than the "preventative applications" we spent half an hour discussing with the technician that turned out to be a salesman.
Others Said... |
Bugsbeeware is generally a good choice when everything works as intended, but most seem to think that that's an unfortunate rarity. Numerous complaints allege that the same service can fluctuate in price dramatically from one month to the next, and many have said their credit cards were billed without ever receiving treatments, sometimes even after canceling service altogether |
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POPULAR HEADLINES
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All views and periphery information expressed or otherwise presented in any and all of the above statements as well as the reviews and awarded assessments therein are the personal opinions and summary conclusions of our team volunteers only and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ourselves or our sponsors, affiliates or partners. Rankings determined by tabulating a respective company's attributes and organizing them in order of assumed consumer importance in addition to the following further details: Service Status based upon the documentation provided to our volunteers upon their requests to both office staff and technicians. Customer Satisfaction % based on volunteers personal experiences averaged against both positive and negative third party reviews. Average Service Prices based on total cost of guaranteed services our volunteers were recommended by our respective technicians over the two month trial period. Better Business Grades measured A-F were calculated in accordance with a company's: presentation, quality of service, willingness to honor their guarantee, their prices in relation to competitors, ability to answer questions correctly and identify common issues while providing reasonable solutions. |
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