Keep your receipt and the container (for the UPC).
If it doesn't perform as advertised, Bayer has a money-back guarantee and they do honor it.
I got my money back for the Bayer all-in-one rose care because the black spot was not diminished a bit and I used it (starting before the roses leafed out) precisely as the bottle instructed.
However, the Bayer tree & shrub did a great job ridding my boxwoods of a bad leafminer infestion.

I have had very good success with the Bayer product on rhododendrons to prevent lacebug and weevil damage and on a weeping birch to seemingly eliminate borers.

How you feel about using chemical insecticides is a personal matter, but imidacloprid appears to be among the more benign products and a drench is better than a spray since there is very little chance of drift. If you time the application, one dose per season is enough.

Thanks. I would much prefer not to use it but after last years attacks by Japanese beetles I want to be prepared. I'm not certain though because I've heard that this product encourages Spider mites which i also have a problem with on some nearby alberta spruce trees.

There seems to be a lot of confusion out there about what this product does and doesn't do.

It is a godsend for CERTAIN THINGS -- borers and sucking type insects (scale, mealybugs, whitefly, aphids).

It absolutely will NOT control chewing insects like caterpillars, grasshoppers, Japanese beetles. They don't consume enough of a dose to kill them. It doesn't claim to do so -- the label is very specific about what it does control.

How will it affect the plants around the tree -- it will give them the same protection against sucking type insects. It won't do a thing about Japanese beetles.

Finally, one other comment -- it doesn't control spider mites. They aren't insects, they're arachnids, and usually you need special products specific to mites to deal with them.

If we're all talking about the Bayer 12 month tree & shrub insect control that contains 1.47% Imidacloprid, it does claim to control adult japanese beetles. Here's the list of what it claims to control:
Adelgids
Aphids
Roundheaded Borers
(including Asian
Longhorned Beetle and
Eucalyptus Longhorned
Borers)
Flatheaded Borers
(including Bronze Birch,
Alder Borers and Emerald
Ash Borer)
Japanese Beetles (adult)
Lace Bugs
Leaf Beetles
(including Elm
Leaf Beetles and
Viburnum Leaf Beetles)
Leafhoppers
(including Glassy-winged
Sharpshooter)
Leafminers
(including Birch Leafminers)
Mealybugs
Pine Tip Moth Larvae
Psyllids
Root Weevil Larvae
(including Black Vine Weevil)
Royal Palm Bugs
Sawfly Larvae
Scales
(including Armored Scale
[suppression] and Soft Scale)
Thrips
Whiteflies

My experience shows that imidacloprid (Merit) will control Jap beetles. However, on larger plants, it has been shown that it's upward mobility is limited, so you can see quite a bit of damage on treated larger plants. Also, it pales in comparison in effectiveness to bifenthrin, permethrin, and carbaryl. A good alternative, but same mode of action, is Safari. It's more water soluble, making it easier to move in the plant in a shorter amount of time than Merit. The drawback is it doesn't last nearly as long.

Works for me.

Doesn't eliminate Japanese Beetle activity, but significantly diminishes them.