Best way to deal with bad waste management company?

[Kim N]

My home has a new waste management company who has not only missed three pick-ups but also missed the "missed pick-up" as well. All the waste management companies in my area get terrible reviews, so I picked the best one of them, but it's not going well. Any time I've called, they've said that I'm still scheduled on the driver's route, and there are no holiday delays/changes or issues with the route. They promise the driver will pick up, but no one comes. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I've already paid them for service through February. Should I do a credit card chargeback since I'm not getting the service I'm paying for? I'm not even confident that switching companies would get me better service.

 

[TooPatient]

Wish I could offer advice. Where we live, only one service is allowed in each area. The city or county selects who will get the contract and that is who you get whether you like it or not. Often, the city or county gets paid some amount by the company to get the contract. We are lucky to live in unincorporated county. That means that we have the option to cancel service and haul stuff to the dump ourselves. Better than those inside city limits who usually are required to have service by local laws. You can imagine how good the service is in this arrangement....

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

That's why I love being on here so much. I didn't even know that there's a private model in the US. Everywhere I've lived so far (4EU countries) had the same public model. Everything managed by public service. I cannot recall a missed pick-up ever.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

I guess we are very lucky then
we have at least 3 providers to choose from
its like a rubbish truck procession on a wednesday
lucky for us ours is picked up at the end of our drivers route well after 3pm so while just about everyone else in our street is rushing about in a last minute panic at 6.30 im not even out of bed yet

when i was a kid the council did it
how times have changed

 

[Garnetgirl]

I’m sorry to hear of your problems @Kim N. I hope they eventually get resolved.

But like @kipari I learned something today.

Where I live, garbage collection is a municipal service, paid for by residents’ taxes. I have never lived in a city or town where the garbage wasn’t picked up on schedule. I had always assumed that it’s like that everywhere in North America.

 

[Arcadian]

The waste management for my house is county run as I'm in unincorporated part of the city, so no matter what, I'm paying for it. The guys do a good job. The morning guys know my dogs by name...lol

But literally 2 houses north of me, from the freeway wall (east) to 2 miles west is where the incorporated part of the city begins. They have choices of waste management, not all of them good according to my neighbors who have to go that route. But all the waste management companies have a contract with the city, and residences in the incorporated areas get a reduced rate to choose from. What they aren't able to do is choose their own day, thats a city based thing. with one company they must buy the proper trashcan, the other dosen't care. Yeah its a bit of a shitshow because those that paid for bins, they don't always get picked up...its weird. And, you can see several trucks in my neighborhood depending on the service.

You may (and might be helpful to get the neighbors involved maybe) try to discuss this at your next city council's meeting. Or if they have a waste management office, complain there. You may not get anywhere with the service itself. Or, you can even try your local news station if the situation is bad enough.

 

[Kim N]

Thanks so much for your commiseration, TooPatient, kipari, Daisys and Diamonds, Garnetgirl, Arcadian. Arcadian, thank you for the suggestions--I will try those ideas if I don't get anywhere with this company.

I also had no idea until I moved to this new neighborhood that there was such a thing as missed pick-up. I signed a two-year contract, so I was worried yesterday that they wouldn't allow me to get out of the contract, but fortunately the rep canceled my service when I called today. But he couldn't assure me that I was going to get a refund of all monies already paid. He claimed that someone would get back to me by mid next week. Given that they've promised things before that never got done, I'm not holding my breath for that, and I'll probably have to do the credit card chargeback if they don't refund.

 

[LilAlex]

Not sure what country you are in but no one can hire and there are an incredible number of vacancies in service industries. At work, we empty our own garbage now -- we have whole buildings that do not get custodial service. In our case, they are not bad or lazy; it's just that no one works there anymore -- or probably for the foreseeable future.

 

[Kim N]

Not sure what country you are in but no one can hire and there are an incredible number of vacancies in service industries. At work, we empty our own garbage now -- we have whole buildings that do not get custodial service. In our case, they are not bad or lazy; it's just that no one works there anymore -- or probably for the foreseeable future.

I'm in the U.S. I think you're totally right about this. I see Now Hiring signs everywhere in town.

 

[seaurchin]

I also didn't realize there was waste management in the US that wasn't a municipal service.

In my deleted post, I suggested just going through your credit card company and not dealing with this company at all anymore. But yeah, I could see that not being too helpful if the other available services are even worse.

Would an outside the box solution be feasible at all? Like seeing what it costs to take a load to the local dump, then possibly go in with a few trustworthy neighbors to handle it yourselves?

 

[Kim N]

I also didn't realize there was waste management in the US that wasn't a municipal service.

In my deleted post, I suggested just going through your credit card company and not dealing with this company at all anymore. But yeah, I could see that not being too helpful if the other available services are even worse.

Would an outside the box solution be feasible at all? Like seeing what it costs to take a load to the local dump, then possibly go in with a few trustworthy neighbors to handle it yourselves?

I never thought of that, but I think it might be feasible, even if I just do it myself without neighbors--thank you for the idea! I haven't gotten to know the new neighbors yet, but this would be a good reason to start. I probably should have done this to begin with and just asked people which company they used (although two of my closest neighbors just moved in, so I'll have to find some longtimers in the area to talk to).