Republic Services, Inc.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
[redacted]The issue isn't as much that I'm not happy with their response, because they did finally come forward and say that I was correct in not owing anything, and their billing was incorrect, the issue was that they terminated my service due to my "unprofessional behavior". Yes, I used profanity when speaking with the customer service reps, but only because I was transferred to many different people and everyone said something different. And this wasn't a one time thing. I've had issues with their billing since signing up in April of 2012.Oh, and just to throw it in there, I have now received yet another bill for the next quarter's billing cycle, even though THEY are the ones who terminated my service. But I will let my husband handle that one so that I'm not "unprofessional" with them.
Regards,[redacted]

Services were supposed to have been canceled in January, there was never a valid contract, there was no trash that was picked up on 2-2-2016 because I already had a container put in on January 30th, 2016 that I was using. According to the amount of negative complaints about your company, it's proven that you are constantly frauding consumers. I will take this as far as it will go even if it has to be resolved in court. Your container needs to be picked up ASAP, Starting 2-10-2016 our storage fees for your container on my private property is $20.00 a day starting on 02-01-2016.

Republic Service Supervisor Farver did apologize for the customer representative not connecting me with a supervisor and expressed appreciation for our customer loyalty to their company, which was nice. However, the explanation provided for the large discrepancy of annual costs over the years for the same service provided no specific evidence regarding the increasing expense. The reason provided was that the increases were due to a vague blanket statements of “maintaining the landfills and general business costs” and “fluctuating fuel and the environmental charges”. Farver also selected random bills that we paid over the years to present versus examining the difference in annual costs. Farver gave a credit of $36, which we found absurd compared to the excessive amount of money Republic has been collecting from us over the years unjustifiably. I responded for Farver to examine the annual totals of service from 2003-2015 and that we have yet to see any specific reasoning and evidence for the over $200 a year increase (around $176 in 2003 jumping to $400 in 2015) from when we initiated services. Farver responded that there are the garbage truck, fuel, and employee insurance expenses to consider. Of course these are expenses that are expected to be involved. But how was the customer service representative so easily able to reduce our expense from $400 to $152 a year in one phone call? And then when asked why this was not lowered before, she responded that I should have called earlier to inquire about the cost increases. If “maintaining the landfills and general business costs”, “fluctuating fuel and the environmental charges”, garbage truck, fuel, and employee insurance expenses all currently equate to $400 a year for one residential home, how can they afford to reduce it to $152 a year? I know there have to be many other homeowners like us who have not noticed the excessive annual overcharging that Republic has engaged in because it is easy to just pay the bill when it comes in the mail and not take time to calculate and compare their annual bills. I’m concerned that there are other victims out there to this financial exploitation and my desire is to spread awareness of the disservice that this company is providing their customers.

This is in response to Revdex.com Case #: [redacted].  The customer has been credited an additional $9.25 for service issues.  This was done for customer satisfication.  The customer should receive a check in 3 to 4 weeks.

[[redacted]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before...

sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

I had the supervisor of this route/area contact the customer today.  He also contacted his driver to make him aware of the service issue so it doesn't happen again.  The stop was serviced today and will be monitored by my supervisor over the next couple weeks to ensure consistent service...

going forward.

Mr. [redacted]
Republic Services of Brandywine does not accept cancelation cards from any competitor.  In the past, we did accept cancelations card and ran into incidents of forgery. At that time we  thought it was in the best interest of our customers to call customer...

service and cancel trash and recycle collection.  I apologize for the inconvenience and hope you understand why this has become our business practice.  I have prorated your invoice and your remaining balance is $17.08. 
Regards,
Beth D[redacted]
Customer Service Supervisor

Republics' standard removal charge is $50/container.  We will credit these charges as a one time customer courtesy and verify that no negative credit reporting occurred.

On 2-27-15 [redacted], Sales Supervisor and [redacted], Territory Rep met with [redacted] of Tortoise and Hare at his business to review his account receivable situation. At time the account was past due over 60 days and there had been several conversations with the customer regarding...

the past due balance. AR Information:12-23-14 - [redacted] (republic services) spoke [redacted] in regards to the AR issue. [redacted] said she would get with the owner to have him call back.12-23-14 - [redacted] call a 2nd time and spoke with [redacted] who stated that the owner would call back on 12-24-14. [redacted] promised that the owner would call [redacted] and pay us on 12-24-14 1-13-15 - [redacted] called [redacted] to again ask about payment since no payment had been received since the 12-23-14 call.1-21-15 - [redacted] called and was told that the bill was paid. A check did arrive on on 1-21-15. The check that was sent did not clear all outstanding balances.1-27-15 - [redacted] left multiple message regarding payment and left a message that we could not service without payment.2-13-15 - [redacted] left final message since he had not received a return call.2-20-14 - [redacted] spoke with [redacted] and he said that he paid - [redacted] stated the [redacted] was very rude and would not provide amount paid.2-21-15 - Received partial payment.3-6-15 - [redacted] left message for owner regarding payment.3-12-15 - [redacted] (Lead Collection republic services) spoke with owner regarding payment. The said the he would pay when and if he felt like it. She let him know that the past payments were partial payments. The owner said that he will quit account. [redacted] let the owner know that we would like to keep his business. 3-25-15 - [redacted] called and provide a reference number of the payment made. Republic Services had stopped service until payment received. We let [redacted] know that as soon as the check cleared we will start service. During the meeting with [redacted] and [redacted] informed him of the AR concern and offered to work with him on this issue. [redacted] stated that he would not be

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
While Republic attempts to explain away the $69+ fees as a required fee from the state, county, and state, they only explain the $24.99 mandatory fee.  None of the other competitive garbage collectors in our neighborhood charge these fees on top of their service for regular residential weekly garbage pick up  Republic's competitors charge a total between $70-90 quarterly.  What this company is doing is fraudulent, to say the least, by inflating their quarterly billing with fees which are, by other companies of their caliber, included in the price of service. 
Now here is the most interesting part: I called Republic today and asked how much it would cost, providing my neighbor's address, to have residential service, and I was quoted $77.44 quarterly "with all the taxes and fees included".  I asked if this was a new customer special price and was told "No".  When I asked why then, was my bill over $160, I was told that "your fee will increase $3 to $4 a year".  Then, when I pointed out we have had Republic for 8 years, and this would only be $32 over an 8 year period, I was told, "I mean it goes up $3 to $4 a month each year".  Bottom line, Republic has been charging me over $160 a quarter, but when I call to see how much service costs, I am told it is a mere $77.44 including all the fees and taxes. How then, can they justify adding these fees totally $69.16 to my bill?  This is fraud!

Regards,

Credits for the July 31 and August 31 invoice were placed on the account on February 18,2015.  The account was also closed effective Sept 1, resulting in additional credits for all charges billed after September 1st.  A total refund request of $758.25 was processed and...

approved.  There was an error with the closed effective date of Sept 1st, resulting in charges for one day.  An additional credit of $46.82 will be processed today and an additional refund check will be issues along with the $758.25 to ensure the customer receives the full refund of $805.07.  The customer should receive the refund checks within the next week.We sincerely apologize for the delay in processing the customer's refund request.  This was something that should have been processed and mailed out at the beginning of March and the issue has been addressed with the employee.

Our records indicate that your service was cancelled as of 11/30/15. We are awaiting system processing in order to be able to issue your refund. Residential accounts are paid in advance, therefore the account would have to be cancelled in order to issue you a full refund as a third of the payment...

was for a time period that had not occurred. We were working with a field supervisor to have your service issues rectified, and were offering credit for the month of November. It was our understanding that you were not satisfied with that and that cancellation of service was the only remedy. Your full refund will process on the 16th of December. A check will be sent to the billing address listed on your account.

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

Complaint ID: [redacted] response to Mr. [redacted] complaint, trash service hadbeen missed several times in February.  These misses were a direct resultof the weather (snow/ice) in Mr. [redacted] area, only one miss was a result ofthe private lane being blocked by a pickup truck.  Driver...

reported that hewas attempting to back down the private lane when a pickup was coming up thelane, blocking his access to Mr. [redacted] drive.  Mr. [redacted] did callin on Friday 3/13 to report another miss and was told that we will have adriver there on Monday.  The supervisor was notified that the customer hadcalled in and was able to divert a delivery driver to this address instead ofwaiting until Monday when the normal driver would be back in the area, which iswhy Mr. [redacted] was serviced prior to Monday.    Resolution:Since the misses were a result of weather and beyond our control,credit normally isn’t given since we will collect all the trash that thecustomer has, which we did.  In this circumstance we will credit Mr.[redacted] account $22.42 for his inconvenience.  Going forward, ouroperations department has made the determination, due to a safety hazard ofbacking out onto a highway, not to service this private lane.  Allcustomers who are serviced on this private lane will need to bring the trash tothe highway in order to be serviced.

The account for [redacted] located at [redacted] has been closed. The date of the close was 9/8/15. A credit has been issued for service from 8/24/15-9/8/15. Thank you.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
Rejection of Republic Services Response to my Complaint ID # [redacted]
 
Responding to each item in order:
 
It is not a fact that they have been in communication with me, unless you consider sending bills (which have been revised & re-sent without explaination) and dunning notices threatening to send my account to collection to be communication. Wendy & Rene have been unavailable to accept my repeated calls and have not returned my calls as the telephone assistant promised. Their statement gives the erroneous impression that some effort has been made to resolve my complaint or at least find out what I was complaining about.
 
It is a fact that Republic has advised me about their cancellation policy. It is not mentioned that this was long after I requested that my service be cancelled or that the “steps required” are arbitrary and not businesslike. It is also not mentioned that I was advised that my cancellation would not be “accepted” until I had invaded the privacy of the new owner by providing his contact information so that they could contact him to “set up his new account.”
 
1)      Provide proof of what? I sold the building, moved & provided my new address! I told them that I didn’t want or need their service any longer.
2)      I first called Republic when I called my other utilities to set a date for discontinuing service. This was in February upon the sale of my 4-plex residence (Not March). I was told that the telephone receptionist couldn’t write down my intention to cancel and new address and that it was necessary for the account manager to call me. After dodging my repeated calls, the account manager pointed out that it would be a hardship on the remaining tenants and suggested that I delay stopping service until the end of the month to provide the new owner time to establish an account. No mention was made of any penalty (I still don’t know what the penalty might have been) or requirement for notice. When I received a bill for March, I called again until I got my account manager and was asked to provide information. I wasn’t sure that I could get her email correct so I asked her to send me an email. I replied to her email on March 18 & dispute that my first call was March 17.
3)      I was advised of a number of things including receiving a bill for the Month of June. Advising me doesn’t make it so.
4)      I am not sure what is meant by “...honor the agreement of the 5/17 date.” I made no agreement & didn’t discuss a date of 5/17 with anyone.
 
It is true that I contacted [redacted] to stop Republic from withdrawing funds from my account. The response does not explain why invoice # [redacted] was originally for a larger amount ($270.84) or reference invoice # [redacted] for the entire month of June on which they stated they intended to withdraw funds from my account. It is also true that I asked [redacted] to investigate & that they reversed a previous invoice.
 
Republic Services has used unscrupulous & deceptive practices to extend and inflate charges for services which were not provided and which were requested to be stopped. I would like them to discontinue dunning me and to provide written assurance that they will not proceed to legal action or report derogatory credit information as they have threatened.
Best regards,[redacted]###-###-####

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and it is accurate.  The cart was indeed picked up on 7/16/15 after I called on 7/14/15 to complain again;So, I'm OK with the cart.  I couldn't not substantiate the 'two-month in advance cancellation notice;' my most recent one does not have that disclaimer; so I will look for invoices from prior years (the invoice is issued annually) to see if this is true.I do however, find it cumbersome that I have to prove I did not break a contractual obligation, instead of the business being able to demonstrate as much. It feels as if I have to prove I'm innocent instead of them proving that I'm guilty, if that makes any sense?

Regards,

We had a yearly contract with Republic Services in [redacted]. We did not plan to renew our contract, but they automatically renewed our contract without our consent. They said they had a copy of the contract showing that it would automatically renew , but we did not have a copy of that contract.
When we tried to cancel the contract, they refused to pick up the container and said that they would continue to bill us for a minimum amount and would not pick the container up for two more months. As of today they still have not picked up the container.

A message has been left for the customer to call me back to discuss this complaint further.