This company's whole goal is to trick you into extended service agreements and use that to jack up your rates, all while providing really terrible customer service. I have had WM servicing my small business for the last 9 years. For the first chunk of years I was just monthly and things seemed to be going ok. Then in 2020 one of their agents called to pitch me an extended agreement, saying it would help me lock in a good rate. I never in my life thought a trash services agreement could cause me so much stress, but they have their contracts written so it's like performing a very expensive miracle to ever part ways with them. There is only a specific time period where you can notify them that you don't want to renew (which is from 180 days to 90 days before the term ends). In 2020 my rate was $150 per month. By fall 2023 they had gradually jacked up my rate to $297 per month and were officially the most expensive provider in town.
If service is great that might not be such a big issue, but they have abysmal customer service. Their agents are rude and uncaring. They failed to fix my dumpster lock for about 6 months after we reported it broken all while continuing to charge me $15 more for the locking dumpster each month. Their agents also lied to me about how long I had to cancel the contract. They told me by phone I had just a 30 day window, which was a lie. Their agents are absolutely trained heavily on their contract, so any inaccuracy they portray is intentional.
If you are responsible enough to be using Auto-pay beware as they'll try to use it against you. Technically you are supposed to have 30 days to object to a price increase, but when they notify you of the price increase they put in a sentence on the invoice that says "payment of this invoice is consent" and then they deduct your payment through Auto Pay before your 30 day objection period is up. Nowhere in the service agreement does it say they can do that, but they think because of a sentence they add and then helping themselves to your bank account at a higher rate that this gives them some right to more and more of your money. Invoices are mailed and with their app being very spotty you may have only a handful of days to actually send in your objection. They don't answer emails and they don't tell you exactly what address to use to mail in your termination/objection so you have to get someone on the phone before you can even confirm where to overnight your communication to them.
Their phone system will cut you off a minimum of 3 times before you finally get a call successful enough to reach a human being, and expect to be on hold a while. Their app doesn't work. Their website doesn't work. This is all by design because with the prices they are charging they could absolutely fix this stuff. They want you to give up so they can endlessly charge you increased rates and beat you over the head with your service agreement terms.
They charge you $300 to deliver or remove a dumpster. Other providers charge $200.
I cannot even describe how much I loathe WM, and if you look at their other reviews you'll see I'm not alone. Just don't ever, ever use them.
While the service agreements for Republic may look similar so far I've been handled in a really attentive, caring way by Republic's customer service team and I have 2 people I can call directly if I need help. My neighbor's business has Republic and when we had a small issue with one of our dumpsters getting tipped over by a Republic pickup I was able to get a Republic agent on the phone in 10 minutes for help despite not even having a customer account yet.
It's just not necessary to do business the way WM operates. It's taken me over a year to leave the relationship with them but I'm departing and never looking back. read more
