REPUBLIC SERVICE

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Have been with this disposal service and its predecessor AAA which Republic bought out for approximately 30 years. A competitor has offered the same service for less than half of Republic's current billing of about $130 per qtr. I called Republic and said I would like to stay with them since they had given decent (but not great) service over the years, but could they consider reducing their cost to a more competitive price. When the first customer service rep looked at my current high bill he was shocked and said "Wow!" He then turned me over to a hatchet lady who refused to negotiate, but kept telling me that they had a contract and they would not consider any adjustment to the contract, no matter what. Republic's response was they had this contract and they would not reduce the cost, although they would do something not described to me for one quarter only. The person I spoke to stated unequivocally that they would attempt to hold me to the contract no matter what. What a wonderful way to hold onto customers.

When we moved to our current address we needed to find a trash/recycling hauler. American and Republic were the two big names and Republic seemed to be the preferred vendor for our neighbors. Cost was supposed to be $129.95 per quarter but we were charged erratically --- 2/13/2014 $164.32, 3/13/2014 $27.56, 5/13/2015 $140.55, 8/13/2014 $140.85, 11/13/2014 $141.97, 2/13/2015 $0, 5/13/2015 $129.95. Pickups were fine for trash and recycling, although they come twice a week for trash and once for recycling and we rarely need trash more than once every-other week and always need recycling at least once a week. They were good about picking up brush as long as it was tied together or put in bins. They called up periodically when there were storms, snow, etc. to update us on when pickups would occur. Their website claims that they can also handle special pickups, dumpsters, and the like in our area so I called up about getting a large pile of brush removed. After finally getting through to a human I explained that I wanted to find out what it would cost to remove the brush or provide a dumpster I could put it in and have them haul it away. It was like I was speaking some alien language. She explained the normal procedure for bundling brush and putting it at the curb, which I already knew and then started to set this up as a separate paid-for service even though it is part of the normal trash service. After 20 minutes on the phone I aborted the call. About a month ago someone from American came by and offered the same service for $69.00 per quarter and said we should check what we pay now but it was probably around $90 per quarter. We checked with a couple of neighbors who were paying $90 per quarter. I called Republic and after 20 minutes on the phone got through to someone who could not hear me. I called back and spent another 15 minutes on the phone and eventually got someone who could hear me. I explained about the huge markup we seemed to be paying and the CSR explained that the price depends on what specials are going on when you sign up. So if you actually decide to go with them, haggle over the price up front, don't get roped into a long-term contract, and threaten to cancel if they raise the price.

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