Waste Management [WM]
Reviews and Complaints

On or about July 31, 2020, I asked that WM remove 2 of my damaged waste bins whose tops had been ripped off by the garbage collection employees. They agreed to do so at my next pick up, which was on Tuesday, August 4th.
On that day, they dropped off 3 new waste bins but did NOT remove the other 3 bins. I emailed or called three additional times and was promised that they would remove the old bins on August 11, 2020. Today is August 12, 2020, and the bins are still in front of my home. I am being fined by my homeowner's association for leaving the bins on the street for over a week. We are trying to sell our home, and the damaged, old bins are an eyesore and diminish the value of our property. I have been a good customer for WM, and prior to that, Blue Barrel for over 35 years. And yet this is how I am treated for being a loyal customer, with lies and failure to act. I need those old bins removed TODAY!

I have had to call and complain several times . On many occasions they have failed to pick my trash . The customer Rep promises the problem will be corrected and it is a for week or two then same issue persist again . I have had enough of this company but I am forced to use them and they have a contract with my HOA.

Waste Management missed pick-up for 5 weeks, starting 4/17/2020. Called supervisor every week to complain, they promise to remedy the problem and nothing is done about it. The WM truck just drives by as if the house did not exist. Most recent supervisor was Adrianna, Empl. ID 0059 who promised that another manager would resolve this, no one called

A WM driver took my blue bin out of my driveway, loaded it on a truck and left. I contacted WM via chat, since the customer service phone numbers were not working due to an outage according to their recorded message. I was told during my chat session, "[02:16:32] Charlie: Thank you for your patience. Our drivers removed all containers that were not being paid for. Your account is registered for use of one trash container, one yard waste container, and two recycling containers. Our drivers have performed a removal of unpaid service containers."

I only had one blue bin to start with, which they took. According to the chat they've been charging me for TWO blue bins. So not only am I being over charged, but they took the one blue bin that I had.

I missed garbage collection the week before last. I moved to Florida recently and traveled with a lovely decorative stone/fiberglass garbage bin that I used for garbage collections in New York.

I put two bags of garbage in the decorative bin and took the lid off so the collectors would know that my garbage was inside.

I heard the truck come for pick up and when I went outside the bin was gone. The guys threw it away along with the trash bags inside.

I called WM this morning and asked them to replace my bin. The operator said, "They would have never taken it and thrown it out."

But, in fact, they did.

The response I received is not right. The company should replace my garbage bin.

Thank you.

on 04/08/2020 an employee "Humberto" Truck # 655 License Plate # 99445F1 from the waste management physically confronted me towards me witnessing him throwing about 2 bags of garbage from a full bin onto the floor behind my vehicle, blocking my way to and from exiting. As he left I asked him if he was going to just leave the garbage on the floor as he physically threw it on floor. He stopped his truck onto the next apartment building towards were I was and physically confronted me in a threatning manner telling me that next time the bin is overfilled that he was not going to pick up the garbage. My husband began to walk towards me because he saw your employee verbally speaking to me in a aggresive manner as to defend me. I said to him that if he was just going to leave the garbage that he threw onto the floor there. He was very aggravated and seemed to me that he was not having a good day. I told him that I had recorded and took photographs of him throwing the garbage onto the floor and that I was going to make a report on him.in an aggresive manner he said some jibberish words to me that I couldn't understand and proceeded to back his truck up and pick up the garbage that he threw onto the floor as I was going to do it myself. My question is? Why does this employee think he can intimidate me and come at me in a threatning manner. First of all he snapped at me and im not even the owner of these buildings. For all he knows he blew up on me like if I had overfilled these garbage bins. I was just dumbfounded over how an employee from the waste management would do such a thing as to physically throw garbage off a bin onto the floor. Maybe some training on how to address these issues would be great and providing great customer service no matter who it is. He was just a person having a bad day. The address that this took place was at 831 opal Dr. San Jose California 95117. I don't think it was necessary for your employee to get off his truck in a threatening manner and try to intimidate me. I felt that he was going to physically assault me at that moment and wish that this situation have a corrective action. It is very unprofessional and unacceptable for any individual to that. But macho men tend to that towards women. Photos will be attached for your consideration to resolve this situation.

I was billed a $75 pickup charge along with $26.01 fuel charge, a $3.64 regulatory recovery charge and a $6.50 administrative charge for a total of $111.15 to cancel service. this was noted on the final bill with the statement "this invoice constitutes an offer by wm to provide service to you for a specified period. by paying this, you agree to continue service during the specified service period and to the terms of service. if you cancel services you will be assessed a cart removal charge of up to $75 plus applicable taxes and charges..."

I called customer service and they informed me I agreed to the terms by paying the bill. I told them I did not agree to those terms and would like to pay for my last month of service but I do not agree to those terms. I asked when this new $75 charge was disclosed and she stated it was on my bill which I agreed to. I did no such thing.in the past, there was a statement on each bill that only stated "this invoice constitutes an offer by wm to provide service to you for a specified period. by paying this, you agree
To continue service during the specified service period, with no refund (whole or partial) for early cancellation, unless such refund is required by law, regulation or contract." there was never any clause for a cancellation charge until I tried to cancel. I never agreed to a service contract that includes a $111.15 cancellation charge. I cannot even pay a portion of my bill without "agreeing" to the new terms of service forced upon me by wm. now, I am being assessed additional "administrative charges" and the bill has climbed to $134.15. this is outrageous. I have tried to work with you but the only way it seems I can pay anything is to agree to your new demands for surcharges.

Hello,
If i can I would leave WM ASAP, unfortunately agreement is for 3 years.
If I do not watch my bills the fee for services will be increase double every year.
Right now I was charged $272.00 for overcharge service yard incident #[protected] which increased my usual payment from $100 to $272 for extra garbage inside of container. I do not agree with this charge. Me and my team were cleaning the area around the container trying to keep environment clean.
I discussed this charges twice with Austin and Natasha (managers form WM). They explained me this amount of $$ is making by WM and they charge whatever they need it because of the dangerous condition of the driver, but driver did not get any benefits from this (like bonuses etc...) I can say the only WM is making money of this charges (not environmental or employees). I think $175.00 for overage services can not be double from regular price. Please contact me [protected]. Thank you,
Anna

Waste management charged me for service even after I told them to put my collection service on hold for 2 months. I called and spoke to 6 differnet customer service rep's 6 different times and I was told it was straignhted out but I was still charged for 2 months even tho I put my service on hold fo 2 months. Also when I received my bill I was charged for using thier waste management's garbage comntainer when I did not use thier service for 2 months. What a scam of a company!

Sincerely,
D.

We signed up for trash service twice a week with WM. They often miss pick ups, and almost every time they come, they charge us $120 for some sort of fee. Recently, they missed a pick up, so our trash bin was full, and we had 2 tied bags of trash right next to the container. They refused to take the extra bags, and charged us $120 fee. They then refused to put our trash bin back in our trash storage container that caused us fees with our landlord. I've scheduled extra service pick ups to avoid future problems, which they never show up for. When I called to cancel the service due to the lack of customer service and contract fulfillment, they stated we would owe $4677.00 just to cancel! Their resolution was for us to pay additional money to them monthly to increase the number of pick up's which seems outrageous because they weren't coming to the ones we're currently paying for anyways. We have paid more in erroneous fees with them than we have for the agreed upon monthly service. Even the Retention department admitted that he gets complaints like this regularly.

I understand delays in pickup when the weather is questionable. I am not advocating that WM place their drivers in harms way. Today (and not the first time) my waste will not be picked up. No notice. No communication. The UPS and FedX drivers are out and about. The mail has been delivered. The snow (4") has been mostly cleared and melted off the roads. No break on the bill of course. WM says they will pick up the next scheduled day. For me that's two weeks. Where do I keep the garbage for another two weeks? WM says that's my problem. Bottom line if WM doesn't supply the service then the customer (you and I) should not be charge for service that was never delivered. How about politicians do something besides take our money and force companies to do the right thing?

Yesterday one of your trucks was getting onto I 10 at the same time as I was from Prince. I shocked to watch the amount of garbage that was blowing out of the truck. I almost hit one plastic bag filled with garbage. We both continued down I 10 and I continued to watch pieces of garbage blowing out of that truck. Truck was #1339.

Don't you cover your loads or get them inside so this doesn't happen. Almost makes me think of switching to a different company.

Kaye Light

I just witnessed one Waste Management Trash truck stop at my house and pick up my trash as well as my recycling...AGAIN! I have Waste Management for my trash and recycling in Valparaiso, Indiana. I have seen this company pick up trash and recycling in the same truck in the past. I have contacted them and have been told many different things. I have been told by a customer service representative one truck picks up both. I called again and was told by two different managers of Waste Management that is not true and they do not have trucks capable of doing that and the issue would be looked into. We were contacted later and told this is done because the company was having issues with customers placing trash in the recycling bin so they were having to pick up trash with recycling. We were told we don't pay for recycling, which is true but it gives me the feeling that because I don't pay for it then it shouldn't matter if it gets thrown out with the trash. Unfortunately, they are one of the most affordable trash pick up services around my area so we opted to keep them for trash pick up and then I would take my recycling to a drop off 20 minutes from my house. I did this for a year and a half when suddenly we saw a recycling truck in our neighborhood again. I took the chance of putting out recycling this morning and what happens? One truck comes by and takes both. I feel like I waste my time sorting, rinsing, and storing recycling properly just to have it end up in the trash. I deeply care about the environment and it pains me that this company cares so little about the environment and its customers. I cannot imagine how much perfectly good recycling is going into landfills. I think this practice is disgusting and shameful. I will go back to taking my own recycling and hope that whoever picks up the recycling at the drop off location isn't Waste Management or another company who doesn't care about the environment.

Waste Management is a HUGE company and if they are doing this across the board it is incredibly unethical. I am being deceived into thinking I am recycling and helping the environment.

Business Information
Waste Management

Houston, TX [protected] Fannin St Ste 4000

Complaint Summary
Complaint Type: Consumer to Business Complaint
Nature of complaint: Billing or Collection Issues
Problem description:
Waste Management (WM) bought my existing residential garbage pickup company (American). Shortly thereafter they raised the bill 24%. I was already paid up through the end of June, so I called WM on June 26th to cancel my service effective July 1st. I later received a bill from WM for cancellation/cart removal. I never hired WM in the first place, so I'm sure I never signed or agreed to a cancellation fee. The carts say "American" on them. I'm not paying WM to come pick them up. If they want them they can have them, but I would never agree to pay them to remove them. Completely unethical! Buy up the competition, jack the price up 24%, and then charge the customer who never hired you in the first place when they cancel.
Desired Resolution: Billing Adjustment
Desired Outcome
WM turned these unscrupulous charges they claim I owe over to a collection agency. They need to negate these charges and apologize to me for the trouble and anguish.

New homeowner in Oro Valley, AZ, never done business with WM before. Trash not picked in second week of service. Trash was supposed to be picked up on Tuesday. I called on Tuesday, they said it was not placed according to their guidelines, which were never communicated to me. They said driver put a note on the can the prior week of service. Note was illegible. I complied to their reg's and placed trash cans out again, they said it would be picked up by 12 noon Wednesday. No pick up, called again on Wednesday. Spoke to an agent who told me the promise for a pick up was a courtesy and not guaranteed. Asked to speak to a supervisor. Cornelia from South TX customer service gave me work order # 406881, and 406885 for my trash to be picked up on Thursday for sure this time. Thursday nope, trash not picked up. Called again, talked to Russell from South TX customer service, he said Cornelia was right about the work order but not the date, they will pick up on Friday. Friday morning nope, called again just before noon, spoke to Regina from South TX customer service, she was positive a truck was in my area and would stop by within 20 mins or so. Nope no pick up, called again on Friday at around 2pm, spoke to John from South TX customer service, he said the truck stopped by at 12:12pm and did not pick up because there were no trash cans out on the street in front of my home. Cans have been out on the street since Tuesday and none moved them not one inch. Asked John to confirm the address, address is right, am not crazy I can see the cans out there on the street, so truck driver must be lying to his teeth.in fact, I was out at the exact time when they claim they stopped by and nope no WM truck stopped by. Asked to escalate, only way to escalate is to ask for a call from the route manager (presumably the driver's manager), expected 24-48 hours later, i.e., by next Tuesday when they are supposed to pick up again. Good luck to whomever decides to do business with this company.

The company seemingly only cares about how to get more money of you and your organization.

Contracts - auto renewed for 3 years, requires a snail mail letter to be written to the company exactly at a specific range of time near the end of the contract or it will be again. Auto renewed for 3 years

Early termination - the "gotcha" - as easily as it is to be locked into 3 year agreements after making the mistake of moving to wasted management you'll is just as hard to get out of their "contracts" as it was easy to auto-renew into one. Termination fees are astronomical. We're about 2 years short of the end of the the auto-forced contract, about ~$350/mo and it will cost almost $3k to exit the agreement. 3 thousand dollars

Price increases: the last three years we've seen price increases of 9%, 17%, 19%... Good thing we have that "contract" to keep us safe from price gouging!

Alterations: oh, those prices increases stinging a little? Come change your services! People are using your bins and you want to clamp down on that by adding a wasted management approved lock and chain? Sure, thats $185 to deliver a lock and chain and tape it to the bin we're picking up from. Plus, we'll charge you $30/mo for that lock and chain, making many times over the cost of a lock and chain in each month.

The company is so far beyond caring about customers. Just lock them in and when they call and complain that their costs have gone up 50% in two years... Find ways to extract more money!

Waste Management raised prices with no notice except in fine print on the bill when received. I checked with Republic and found the same service for 50% less. WM bills 3 months in advance and I had paid and cleared payment prior to the next service term $209.00. On calling to cancel they said no refund would be allowed as their "bill / contract" indicates that by submitting the payment they agree to perform the service - whether they perform the service or not - and that constitutes fulfillment of the agreement. No service performed - no refund - that's theft.

The trashman refused to pick up our trash both on Wednesday 10/16/19 and Saturday 10/19/19. We are moving from 136 Extonville Rd Hamilyon, NJ 08620. We specifically had each trash bag approptiatley contained and unheavy. Donations were placed on opposite curbside and we had scheduled the donations pickup to come later in the week. The trashmen on wednesday wen thru the donations also leaving them a mess on Wednesday. That day they refused to pick up a single bag despite them beinf placed exactly as requested. Saturday they sat outside our home for 20 minutes my fiancee and I assumed they were finally taking the trash, we comw outside to find that they had ripped open almost all the trashbags, assumedly looking for things they wanted. Once againthey did not take a single bagas I went to ask why they did not take anything, they got in their truck and pulled off takimg the donations or whatever they wanted, leacing drawers of dressers open, destroying the trash bags, causing them to spill everywhere and once again did not take a single bag. I asked why wont you take the trash both wednesday and friday. We literally went theu all t trash making sure not too heavy and as required in your website. One of the trashmen gave me the finger from hanging on back of truck. This is not okay. We have moved out, Donation services are picking upthe furniture and all the teash bags and recyable materials should jave been gone by now. Also we have 2 full 3 meter bagsters that we have already paid for removal scheduled for the 21st. They also had the gall to dig thru those, thuse spreading trash all over our yard after we spent much time getting that to required specifications. We have moves as of today but the trash is all curbside and it looks bad when you take time out to make sure its easy for the trashmen and they go and create more work for us. Who digsand rio ps open fully closed garbage bags. I get therr are donationscloseby but have some common sense and digging thru my bagsters, I feel waste management should now refund us the money for the bagster pickup and take care of that for free. All week these trashmen have not picked up a single trashbag but instead dig thru, rop apart and spread trash all around yard and street.. I feel you should trear others as you would want to be treated and thats just wrong.

Our yard waste/compost pick up is skipped on a regular basis. We have lived at our address for 13 years, and we never had a problem until about a year ago. Since then the problem seems to be getting worse and worse. I do not know if this is driver incompetence, or if the driver is singling us out for poor service. Oddly, the driver wrote in permanent marker on my container, after I had complained several times, that I needed to keep my containers 3 feet apart. My issue with this is it seems like an excuse as I have placed my containers side by side for 12 years without a single issue, AND because all of my neighbors place their containers side by side on the street.
But, today I placed my containers 3 feet apart as requested and they still skipped my house. I am formally requesting that my route be handled by someone else, and that this driver be reprimanded.