The SWS drivers I've encountered are great...I've got no issues with them. I do have issues with the office staff--customer service is definitely lacking.
I've had more issues with Suburban Waste than with any of my other creditors for the past few years. A few years ago, I took a large hit to my income (around $36K less per year...almost 50% of my income), so I've been scrambling for all I'm worth since that time, and have been able to keep my head above water...barely. With all my other creditors, I've been able to dance that fine line on the edge of the "code-red" past due notices and getting shut down completely. Long story short, I'm behind with everybody, but I'm digging out.
My dealings with SWS have been less than helpful. In this latest instance, we were behind on a bill that got our account suspended for last week's garbage pickup on 20 Sept...fair enough, I get it. I crossed the line of "too late" and didn't get garbage picked up. However, I made a payment early on Thursday morning, 23 Sept, at 1:23am (I'm a late-nighter) so I would be covered for my garbage pickup on Monday, 27 Sept (4 days...PLENTY of time!). I was monitoring my bank account all Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and as soon as I saw the funds come into my account early on Thursday morning, I immediately made my payment to SWS for the past due bill. Later Thursday morning, around 8:22am, I received an email back from SWS that referenced my payment--to clarify, it did not say the payment had cleared, but it was clear that they were *aware* of the payment being made earlier that morning.
I felt reassured because their website states "payments on suspended account [sic] must be made 48 hours prior to service day to resume service." Great...1:23a on Thursday is approximately 100 hours prior to my service day and time...Monday, around 7:00am to 8:00am. That's twice as much time as they stipulate on their own website. No problem, I'm in the clear.
Except I'm not.
Around 10:00am, I noticed that my garbage was not picked up on Monday morning, and I immediately emailed them to let them know so they could send someone back to pick it up. I received an email back from them saying "we just received your payment today, and route sheets were printed on Friday." They also said that they'd check with the driver to see if he could swing back to pick it up. I emailed them back mentioning my previous email conversation on Thursday at 8:22am in which the customer service agent specifically referenced my payment. The second email response said "How did you make the payment? It can sometimes take up to 3 to 5 days to be applied on your end." Wait a minute, whatever happened to the 48 hours? Is it 48 hours or is it 3 to 5 days? Regardless, I emailed them back to let them know I made payment online through their website and provided them with the *full* details of my transaction--including date, time, card used, transaction code, authorization code, etc...and I heard nothing back.
So, I called this afternoon around 2:15pm and talked with the most recent person I'd been having an email conversation with. She offered the same justifications...they hadn't received my payment, the route sheets are printed on Friday, the driver couldn't come back.
I challenged her on that. I drove a school bus for years...and we received our route sheets *each morning before we left on our routes*...not the day before, but on THAT day. We would show up between 5:30am and 7:00am (depending on our route) and get our route sheets at that time. Her justification was that the office doesn't open until 7:30am. Well, maybe it's time to start opening the office earlier so someone can be handing out the latest, most up-to-date route sheets on the morning of...NOT the morning before (especially if a Monday pickup means the route sheets are handed out 3 days before on the previous Friday morning).
When I challenged her about the timing of my payment and the fact my garbage wasn't picked up even though my payment had been made 100+ hours previous, not just "48 hours"...she mentioned something about it being measured in days they're in the office--translation: business days. Well, if your standard is "business days" and not "48 hours"...then it's time to make a change to your website.
Here's the upshot...I paid them at 1:23am on Thursday morning (4 days / 100+ hours before my scheduled pickup), and they still didn't pick up my trash on Monday morning. So, if you're dealing with SWS, make sure that you're paid up a full week before your pickup happens, because it's likely their ineffective system will not pick up on the fact that you've made that payment until it's too late.
They need to:
1) get their misleading "48 hour" instruction rectified on their website
2) get someone in the office earlier so route sheets are handed out ON the day of pickup (like 100% of school bus companies do each and every day)
3) tune up their customer service...I was talked over several times read more