American Disposal Services

They were really good in picking up the trash. However, we had problems with their contract terms. They billed us too much, and we suffered a lot of difficulty with them for the termination of the contract.

After our basement flooded this past Friday, we spent the rest of this week using a shop vac, fans, etc., to extract the water from the carpet and padding. We decided, however, that we were going to replace it all, and so my husband and sons cut the carpet and padding up into 3-4 foot sections, rolled each section up and duct taped each roll so it could be easily picked up by the trash men. The carpet pieces were at the curb, either in a trash can or leaning against a can, very convenient for the workers to pick up and throw in the truck. I just got home from work today to find they didn't take any of the carpet pieces; not a one!!! Not the ones that were in the two cans, nor the 4-5 other pieces that were leaning against the cans. I called the company, spoke with a young lady whose name I won't publish here, to protect her privacy, and was told that "Carpeting is considered a bulk item, and requires a special pickup." I said I didn't understand why, since we had cut everything up to be a non-bulky size, easily taken by their workers. She repeated again, "Carpeting is considered a bulk item, and requires a special pickup." I realized that she had a canned response when she heard the word "carpet," so I gave up trying to explain, and asked "How much would it cost to have this picked up?" She said "$30." I said "When can it be picked up?" She said "Next Friday." I said, "So I will have to leave everything out on the curb for another week?" She responded in the affirmative. I advised her that this was not very good customer service, and my neighbors would be very unhappy if we left the carpet remnants curbside for a whole week. She apologized, but I didn't get the impression she really gave much of a hoot. I wouldn't even mind paying the extra $30, but they expect it to sit out for a week? And what is the difference between them being able to pick it up today or next Friday? They don't use a special truck for special pickups; I've paid for and seen them pick up REAL bulk items for us before, and the bulk items are just picked up with our regular trash. I guess the extra $30 is what it's all about, not their ABILITY to do the job.

After having very bad customer service from AAA trash company, along with constant price hikes, we switched over to American Disposal. What a difference! Great customer service and reasonable prices.

My next door neighbor also switched and is happy with American.

Great experience. After AAA seemed to be raising their rates every quarter, we decided to shop around for garbage removal service. The person who answered the phone at American was very friendly and professional. They offered a far better price for service and provided new, large dumpsters for trash and for recycling as promised. Service has been reliable and consistent. We've never had to call them about any issue since service started over a year ago. Sorry to hear others' complaints, but we've been very pleased with this company.

Absolutely awful consumer service. They are unprofessional, and unapologetic for their mistakes. Tried to get an incorrect bill fixed - forget it. You can get through to them if you are willing to wait and wait. Waited for 40min on one call that was supposted to be only 8 min wait. Incompetent operators. We were misled by initial salesman and ended up with an extra charge on our bill, which we thought we had straightened out with them only to find a letter 2 weeks later saying we still owed the inital amount (like we had never called them) and that we had been cut off from service and that our bill will be sent to a collection agency! Mind you I have only been a customer only since September (now is mid January), and have already paid one quarter! Wow they certainly don't want my business. I dread calling tomorrow to try to straighten out bill again. I will cancel as soon as I can and go back to AAA. Made a terrible mistake to abandon them and only because American had promised to be 10$ cheaper. I hope AAA will take us back and we will be very happy to pay the additional $10 per quarter. However, I can't complain about American's pickup service, that has been right on. As long as you don't have a billing problem you will probably be okay, which is probably why they have gotten some high ratings with Angie's list.

So far, so good. Pick up is timely.

We switched to ADS in January of 2010 when our old company stopped servicing our area. For the first 4-5 months the service was fine. No problems and a reasonable price. However, starting in May, garbage and recycling collection have both been spotty. Garbage was supposed to be picked up 2 times a week. However, ADS only showed up about half the time on the Friday pick up, and also missed our Tuesday pick up a few times. There were a couple occasions when we went over a week without garbage collection. The weekly recycling pick up was missed a few times as well. On the positive side, every time I called in to report the problem, the customer service representative was very friendly and responsive. However, nothing would really change in the pick-up problems. After 3 months of this, I canceled our service with ADS. I would not recommend them.

Terrible customer service. They claim to be the biggest hauler in the area and act like they don't care if they get any bigger.

They are very timely and always show up on time. Sometimes they move the trash cans to other places and it is kind of annoying. But other than that they are good.

We signed up with American in mid-2006, and at first the service was great. However, during our last 6 months (approximately, service ended in 2/2008) with them we were frequently skipped. Not only were we skipped, but their customer service people were downright rude and unhelpful. The first time we were skipped we called the next day to complain and were told (in quite a rude manner) that we needed to call when we were skipped. Huh? I was on the phone that very minute doing exactly that. I decided she must mean that we need to call on the same day that skipping occurs, but how do we know that we've been skipped until the end of the day after their office is closed since they may be coming late? The next time we were skipped I called in late afternoon to see if they were coming. We were told they'd already been through our neighborhood and it was too late to send them back. Hmmmm. Seems I need to call even earlier. It got to the point where I was calling around noon on trash days just to see if they would come out. Finally, they notified the drivers of our dissatisfaction with service being, to them, optional. That fixed the problem for a few months, but it ultimately returned. We had enough and moved on to another service provider.

Collect trash and recycling twice weekly efficiently. I like that they on Friday's they pick up both the trash and the recycling unlike our previous company that picks up recycling on a separate day.

Overall, American is good about picking up our trash and recycling (haven't missed a day since the first week or two). A couple of pet peeves of mine, though. We have caught them moving broken-down cardboard boxes (that fit in the recycling bins) into the trash. We have also told them time and time again to stop putting any bins in or in front of the driveway after they dump them into their truck. We have hit them with our car, and even with the new tall recycling bin, it's a pain to have to move it before going to work. We have even threatened to go to a different company. When we get out the door, we just want to leave, and we don't want to have to worry about moving the bins! Unfortunately, the other company in our neighborhood has poor customer service (which is why we switched in the first place). I suppose this company is the lesser of two evils. I would actually seriously consider quitting the service altogether if there was a waste dump facility closer to me than Fairfax.

I just bought a house in North Springfield that had tons of broken brick and assorted debris in the backyard. The brick and debris had to go. I'm on a limited budget, and decided to do the work myself. I had to choose between a company with a very good website and my residential trash hauler, American Disposal Services. It would have been easy to order from the web company. But something told me, since I signed up for residential trash removal with American, I should stay with American for the roll off also. So I did. I ordered it from Linda Edwards of American. Well, the web company would have sent me a roll off 11-15 feet long. But for the same price, Linda sent me a 22-footer; huge. What a benefit. And believe it or not, I filled that 22-footer up by myself, nearly all the way to the top. Had I ordered from the web company, I would have needed another load, which would have cost me double what it cost me by using American Disposal Services. Adding to my appreciation for Linda is the fact that even though I failed to sign and fax the rental contract back to her on a Thursday, Linda, on Friday, scheduled the delivery of the roll off for Saturday morning, so I wouldn't fall behind schedule. That is definitely going out of your way for a client. And to make matters even better, she scheduled the pickup for a Monday instead of Saturday, giving me that extra full weekend to complete my work. And I needed every minute of it. I highly, highly recommend Linda Edwards and American Disposal Services.

In the beginning of March we had consistent problems with the quality of their service. The person who would pick up the trash would leave trash all over the sidewalks. One time he dumped it and the lid came off and it just went back into the truck and we didn't get it back. Since we discontinued the service they have given us two dates to pick up the trash cans and they still haven't picked them up and this was three months ago. They are still at my house, taking up space. Multiple times all the trash in the bin wasn't taken. It might have just been this particular crew, but I wrote a letter to the company and never received a reply. There were consistently weekly issues from when they started until we discontinued them.

I generate little garbage and only signed up for service because of the cost and difficulty of having my lawn waste hauled. A year of this service costs less than just having leaves picked up from the curb once or twice! I selected American because of better price, fewer restrictions on what would be picked up, and no complaints from neighbors using them. I have been pleased with American in virtually all respects. Pick-up is reliable and neat. The one time I saw a mess with on pick-up (neighbor's bag broke) they cleaned it up very thoroughly immediately. Customer service by phone is friendly and effective. The only hiccup I have experienced was starting the service. Cans could not be delivered for 7-10 days after I called. On the specified date I didn't receive any cans. When I called, American apologized, said my trash would be picked up if left out in bags, and delivered cans a week or so later.

We have been with them for some time now. They are generally reliable, but there are times when they have missed a recycling pickup. I haven't bothered to call for the missed pickups, so I don't know how responsive they are to it. They have not missed a single trash pickup. We are the only ones on our cul-de-sac street that uses this company, so they actually have to go out of their way to get down the street. They always pick up in the morning, so we know to leave the bins out the night before. We have also left larger items (such as a twin mattress boxspring), and they have picked it up. Their price has gone up since we starter with them, but it has been attributed to higher gas prices and increased Fairfax County Waste Disposal fees. Nonetheless, I'm pleased with their service and plan on continuing to use them.