DO NOT USE CITY COMPOST. My review is consistent with many of the other reviews that the service does not occur on time and dealing with Adam is a nightmare. It is the worst customer service I have ever experienced. I highly recommend paying more for a different composting service. read more

I have been trying to cancel my service for months and can't seem to get any response from this company. We have called and emailed the form requested and we are still getting charged. The service was unreliable before the pandemic and even worse after. We have already signed up with another company. read more

If I could give ZERO stars I would. My compost hasn't been picked up in over 3 weeks and my bin is full, as well as my small bin in my kitchen. That means I have had to throw out food for 3 weeks, and just threw out my small bin in my kitchen. I have called and left a voicemail; all my other times calling the voicemail is full, and I can only assume it is full of mad customers. I have emailed several times, and the only response I have gotten is about updating my payment. This is a Horrible company with horrible service. I cannot wait for Bootstrap to start up in my neighborhood. In the meantime I have a bin sitting outside at my driveway/sidewalk! If they charge me for weekly service, while not picking up for 3 weeks I will scream! read more

My husband and I have had it with this sham of a company. They constantly forget to pick up our compost and often don't send an email when they plan to not come. Just this week they forgot to pick up our compost. When we called to remind them they said they would come by within a few days, but nearly a week later they have yet to pick up the compost. The owner, Adam, is not only disorganized, but also smug and bristly, as if he doesn't need our business. We will definitely be going with a different company once our agreement is done. read more

I have received horrible service as well. Gave them an entire year and service was good for only 2 months then the problems started again. Adam only offered excuses and never apologized. Not only have I cancelled service, but also notified my credit to reject any further charges from City Compost. read more

I liked city compost until I tried to get out of service, called multiple times (Adam never remembered who I was even though I was calling him and emailing him) but they would not let me out of service and continued to charge me 2 months after I tried to leave service. There is a public compost program in Boston called Project Oscar that will cost you nothing; I would recommend this over bad service and unnecessary expenses that are wasted on paying for city compost read more

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, please read the previous reviews. My experience was exactly the same: late or no pickups, overcharging, odd emails, customer service forms that seemingly disappear into the ether when sent. Taking nothing to chance, when cancelling I completed the 'form' on the website and also sent a strongly worded email (paper trail). Also instructed my bank to reject any future requests for debit, after reading others' experiences in trying to cancel. Go with Black Earth or Bootstrap. read more

This company does not communicate with its customers AT ALL. I signed up for biweekly service in early Sept. I paid via PayPal and received an automated message saying that I'd hear details soon. Nope! After a few days, I emailed customer service and got a few answers. They said a bucket for compost collection would arrive on a Thurs. but it never came until the following Tues. I finally got a welcome message several days later. 10 days later was to be my first collection so I happily put my full bucket out. You are supposed to report a non-pickup within 48 hours which did, but I didn't receive any reply. So I sent another email and was told that I would be hearing soon. It has been five days, and I have not heard a word. I don't mind a later pickup, but I need to know when it will be. I checked with a couple other customers and they aren't happy either. I quit. read more

Great service to have available and at a reasonable cost. Adam is very responsive and has always been quick to respond if we ever have an issue. The counter container with charcoal filter totally works, and our two-person home easily fills up the 5 gallon bucket each week. Excited to know this food waste is turning into good compost instead of sticking up our trash cans and landfills! read more

I still don't recommend City Compost but Adam did reach out to try to fix the issues with my account and I'm understanding that things can happen. I wish them luck. What they provide is a nice thing when it works out. read more

Updated review. The service has improved in the past two months, which I greatly appreciate and am very happy about. Adam seems to have worked hard to make things happen, and I hope everything is going to go smoothly read more

I have been a customer for several years. For the most part, the service was consistent, though at least once every couple of months my bucket would get skipped. I would receive an email saying the driver could not find my bucket and that I should always let them know if I will be away. Each time I would explain that my bucket has been in the same place it always is, and if the driver gets out of the car and walks towards the house, they will see it right away. I was always told I would be credited for that week because of the error, however, each billing cycle, there would be no credit added to my account. Understandably, service was interrupted quite frequently throughout this year. Often an email would go out saying they were behind schedule due to a sudden reduction in staff, but service would continue into the next day. For the most part, it was always continued. By late summer and into September however, service was almost non-existent. The first week my bucket was skipped, I was again assured I would receive a credit and they would pick up the two weeks' worth of compost the following Monday. The next week, they skipped me again. This time I received no answer when I emailed. My bucket was at capacity and it was a very warm week. Finally, Friday morning, someone came to collect the bucket. The same thing happened the next week. Still no response from Adam or anyone at City Compost. I continued to email and finally got so fed up I requested a cancelation of my account and confirmation once complete. I was still charged for October for the full amount, once again, no credit applied even though they collected my bucket only once. Throughout the month of October, I continued to email with no response. Adam finally emailed everyone saying they had a reduction in staff and the police were involved. I feel bad that something like that happened, but the complete lack of communication from him or anyone else during that time was so unprofessional. He still had not acknowledged my cancellation request. On November 2nd, he charged me again. Beyond fed up, I tried calling the "only for emergencies number" which is the owner's number. No answer and the mailbox is full. I tried calling several more times till if finally got a text from Adam saying I should be more considerate when someone is clearly not able to answer the phone. After that, he finally responded to my email acknowledging my request to cancel from over a month prior. SInce then he still has not confirmed my account has been canceled. On Dec 2nd, I was charged again. Adam at City Compost is a crook. He does not care about his customers and is totally fine stealing people's money when they ask to cancel. If you do ever get in touch with him, he is incredibly rude and dismissive. Avoid at all costs. read more

I have two kids and this man gave me a bounced check. Then when I call to get the money that I am owed he told me wait until next week. I repeat do not work for this man, everyone I know that has worked for this man has had this same problem. read more

I've been using City Compost for over a year and, while they started out strong, they began having service and reliability issues for much of the last year. The customer service is atrocious - brusque bordering on rude. Adam, the main contact/owner, refuses to take any accountability for the service - always blaming it on staffing issues, but never bothering to step in himself to provide the service he charges for. Currently, it's been more than 6 weeks since my last bi-weekly pickup and the last time I was charged, I had somehow been downgraded to monthly service with no notification. To better avoid his customers, he has removed the ability to contact the company by email. Now you have to fill out "service forms," which are Google forms, for which you get no submission confirmation. And no response. And no way to leave any qualitative information. At least this time the service lapse comes during winter and the rotting food scraps on my porch are mostly frozen. That wasn't the case when this happened over the summer. I do not recommend this company. read more

Don't waste your time. I just canceled and am switching to Boostrap instead.

I will echo what many others have said. Unreliable service and the problems are blamed on everyone else rather than the owner taking responsibility. I have asked three times for a refund for a two week span that they suspended service to re-organize. Most pickups are missed and the last so called clean bucket was filthy with a large crack in the bottom. They claimed it couldn't be replaced and I should put a plastic liner in it. Useless company. If you can use other compost companies I highly urge you to do so. read more

I have gone from considering cancellation when I started the service to being compelled to write a favorable review. Adam is often hard to reach, slow to respond and not always clear. But he has always resolved any issues I've have and he is better than fair with billing. Pickup/dropoff may happen late, but is almost always the scheduled day, and it ALWAYS happens. City Compost is inexpensive and dependable. I am glad I have stuck with them. read more

Unreliable, poor communication. But worst, I asked them to discontinue my service on July 8, 2020. They've continued to charge my credit card after multiple requests to stop. They plead a backlog of emails from a service disruption in late June. I've had to cancel the credit card they've been charging. read more

I've written a negative 1 star review before, but took it down after I thought that my situation had been resolved. I'm so frustrated with this service that I don't even have time to write a lengthy negative review. I've already wasted hours with this company already. Long story short, my wife and I have been trying to cancel service with City Compost since June of 2018. I am writing this review as of March of 2019. After literal months of back and forth communication, which I do not want to relive here (it involves City Compost wrongly charging us for service that we had cancelled in June of 2018 and not picking up our compost for several weeks nor giving us the correct amount of compost that we had ordered), Adam emailed me in Dec 2018 assuring me that he had cancelled our account. Again, it's MARCH 2019 NOW, and just this morning, I received a creepy email of a driver (from their personal email account) who took a photo of my house and said that we hadn't left out our compost bucket for pick up. I am considering filing a formal complaint with the Attorney General's Office. I am going to ask around to see if we have any legal protection against a company that refuses to cancel our account after months of attempts to do so. I'm genuinely confused about the other 5 star reviews here- maybe there's parts of Boston in which customers get regular compost service from City Compost, but from the moment we signed up in Feb 2018 until today, it's been a continual regret doing any "business" with City Compost. Delays in service, non-service, wrongful billing, and refusal to cancel. This is a nightmare. read more

I wish I had read the reviews for this company before I signed up, because I had exactly the same experiences. A lot of missed pick ups, blaming me when they didn't pick up my bucket, rude customer service, lack of response to emails, and now, a lot of difficulty cancelling my service. I want to compost, but not with this company. read more

Finally heard back from Adam and in my follow-up email I offered the advice that an apology anywhere along the way for all the inconveniences would've gone a long way. His response, as owner of the company, was: "I do appreciate the feedback. If it were myself that skipped out on providing service to you then an apology may be due." read more

I've been a customer of City Compost now for 3 months and I love it. I feel great about my kitchen now - every little bit of food, paper towel, tea bags, coffee filters - it's all going towards making awesome soil! And no more smelly fish in the trash bag because my kitchen container keeps all the smells in! They come by and get the bucket every other week and it couldn't be easier. read more

City Compost did a great job removing a large compost pile from my property. The several team members who did the work were all friendly and courteous, which was definitely appreciated. read more

Adam still hasn't called me to address the issues I've raised with him for weeks now. I have been a loyal customer for two years and one month and only requested compost 3 times. Nevertheless, Adams is clearly disinterested five weeks later in seeing that I get compost. I'm in the market for another service provider. read more

Loved my experience with City Compost. Such an easy way to discard of kitchen scraps (and so many other items!) in a way that's good for our communities and for our planet. Adam was very receptive to changes in service and runs the business efficiently and professionally. read more

I've never given a business, especially a small business, a negative review. I was unsatisfied with the service I received from City Compost, so I canceled. Normally, I'd leave it at that and not bother with a review, but a mass email I received today from the owner, Adam, pushed me over the edge. In it, he accuses customers of taking up the precious time he could otherwise spend interviewing potential hires by...emailing him about their service. It seems he's been receiving a lot of emails lately, presumably from customers like me who haven't had their compost picked up in weeks. I'm used to receiving passive aggressive emails from him, but this once was just plainly aggressive, and that's not acceptable. Based on the regular service-delay messages I get, it seems like City Compost is an over-stretched, understaffed business going through a period of transition, and I can sympathize with that. But at a certain point you have to be honest with your customers about whether they're actually going to receive the services they paid for, and it's never okay to attack them for having that expectation -- that's how a business works. read more

I was delighted to start this service, after having composted at home for 30 years. Loved being able to compost meats, etc. But I had a very very hard time ever getting any compost back, even after repeated requests. When I tried to stop the service, they continued coming and continued to bill me for two months. Since finally getting Adam to stop my service, I recently noticed that I was still charged for two more months. Still haven't been able to get my money back. I will not recommend this service to anyone. read more

Signed up for weekly pickups with City Compost 3-ish years ago. The service has never been super consistent, but I always chalked it up to growing pains. I was happy to do business with a budding company who was providing a much-needed service, so I looked past the inconsistencies for a while. Cut to fall 2018, when service became WILDLY inconsistent. The collection driver wouldn't show up until well after dark most days, and some days not at all. I then tried to take advantage of a Christmas tree pickup deal Adam was running. Long story short, after contacting Adam four times, and after his assurance that the tree would be picked FOUR TIMES, my tree is still out there, rotting in my back yard. By the time I told Adam to just forget it, the City would no longer accept Christmas trees at the DPW transfer station. At this point I attempted to cancel my service, but Adam assured me that service would be much better moving forward, so I agreed to stay on but switch to bi-weekly pickup instead. But the thing is, City Compost continued to charge me for weekly pickup for SIX MONTHS. Now here we are in summer 2019 and I keep getting creepy, annoying emails with a photo of my house pre-dawn and a note saying that my bucket was not out for pickup and that it will be picked up in two weeks, unless I want to pay for a "special service" pickup. So of course the next time I put my bucket out at the crack of dawn it's not picked up until late in the afternoon or the next day. What's more, Worcester's bylaws prohibit residents from placing any kind of collectibles on the curb prior to 6:00 AM and imposes hefty fines on those who do. I'm not even going to talk about the mammoth raccoons who have opened my bucket in the past, thus the reason I stopped putting it out before dawn. I of course brought these issues up to Adam, who responds in the most condescending way possible, stating that his service is the only one of its kind in Worcester (HA!) and I will have a hard time finding a replacement (HA HA!). When I told him no thanks he responded thusly: "It is unfortunate that you cannot be flexible with the set up. It seems to work for every else in Worcester who uses the service." I can't be flexible? I've been flexible and paying for a sub-par service for 3 years. I shouldn't have to be flexible--I'M THE CUSTOMER. Oh, and no where in any of his responses was an apology. I was going to give a 2-star rating, but the snarkiness pushed me over the edge. If you look at his responses to the other negative reviews here, you will see that this guy has absolutely no ability to take responsibility for his (in)actions and those of his employees. Honestly my 8-year-old has more humility. This dude thinks he's got the market cornered and uses that as an excuse to act like a diva and give really crappy customer service. STAY AWAY!!!! read more

Our experience with City Compost is excellent. They have been great about picking up our compost and leaving behind clean buckets. Feels great to lessen our footprint in the environment in a positive way while also greatly reducing the trash we put out every week. Yes, there have been a few times here and there that it didn't get picked up on time but I do not find this a big deal at all. By far most of the time they have done it on schedule. We have happily nreferred others. read more

We love our service, no complaints at all. They come weekly and provide us with a clean empty bucket. It's so easy, just wish I signed up sooner. read more

Inconsistent service and mostly unresponsive to emails and voicemails. I still got charged even for the weeks that they missed. Many times I requested finished compost (dirt) back, and only once did they follow through. I called this morning to complain that service had been missed this week and I had emailed three times and filled out their "form" asking for pick up ASAP, as I am leaving town for Thanksgiving. Adam the owner agreed to send someone to pick up the compost today but did not apologize. I thanked him and said that after this pick up I would like to continue service. Adam took it personally, saying he was "stunned" that even after he offered this "gesture" (sending someone to pick up my compost today) I would still choose not to give them another chance. I said that I had already given them plenty of chances (over a year now as a paying customer) and his "gesture" was actually the bare minimum of what I would expect for a service that I pay for - of course they should make up for missed service. He sounded exasperated and started to go on about how he just wants to make soil out of food waste and grow things. I told him that I really needed to hang up as the conversation was already becoming quite an ordeal, and would just like to resolve my complaint and finalize my cancellation. He said that since I had decided to cancel, he withdrew his offer to have my compost picked up today. It felt like he was trying to bribe me not to cancel by withholding the service that I am owed. It wasn't worth the fight, and I really didn't have time to hear his grievances (which I had already heard over email a few times) so I just said to please pick it up whenever they can and to cancel my service. He said that in order to cancel I had to stop the recurring payment on PayPal, which sounded really sketchy to me. I said I would but asked if the company would take any steps such as removing me from their schedule. He again just said I should cancel PayPal. I have heard horror stories about how difficult it is to cancel service with City Compost, so fingers crossed that after they finally pick up the compost that has been rotting for a week now, I don't have to hear from them again. Adam, I also want to turn food waste into soil. But that only happens when you as the composting company hold up your end of the deal and actually pick up the food waste. Per the recommendations of others, I am switching to Black Earth Compost. read more

This is an impressive composting service with reliable customer support.

Fantastic service! Quick and easy to set up. Easy automatic payments. Adam is very responsive and pleasant. Plus you're doing good for the environment. It's a win win. If they service your area you should absolutely take advantage of this very convenient opportunity to compost! read more

I really love this company. I have read the other reviews and, yes, service is VERY spotty to say the least. Days for pick up can change (I went from Wednesday to Friday and now back to Wednesday). I understand that keeping good workers is difficult and I have missed a lot of pick ups. However, here is where I differ from the other reviews. Adam (owner) has not only been timely in his responses to my emails, but he has been courteous and as helpful as he can be. He can hire people to do pick ups but if they slack off, he has no control other than to fire them and then we are right back to where we started--no pick ups. This is a great service and one that every town in Massachusetts (and beyond) should be implementing. I don't know about the other servers mentioned in the other reviews--City Compost is the only one that serves my area (at this point in time) so I have no comparison. I would give five stars (based on my experiences with customer service) but cannot because the pick ups need a lot of work. I am trying to be as patient as possible because this is a GOOD service and I want it to make it. Adam just needs to find the right people willing to make a real commitment to the company. Adele M. read more