Waste Management has now become one more example of a company with enormous management problems and terrible customer service. Our next scheduled pickup according to their website, is Friday, December 20th. That will be a full four weeks since it was last picked up. An email from the company says Tuesday, December 17. Contacting the company is extremely difficult, chat sessions not helpful and if you get someone on the phone, they offer a litany of excuses for why their trucks can’t get your trash picked up on schedule, but they tell you it will be there on the next pickup day, which turns out to be a false promise.
They are not picking up in North East, but we’re not alone. A news story on an Erie website says at least one neighborhood in Millcreek has been waiting for pickups just as long as we have.
Government officials seem to be helpless here, from the township to Erie County to Pennsylvania. Since Waste Management does not have a township contract as an exclusive provider, they are a private company providing a service to individuals in the township. It’s up to everyone to deal with this on their own.
Better Business Bureau Revokes WM Accreditation
It looks like Waste Management has serious issues.
Accreditation Revocation
On 10/30/2024 this business’s accreditation in the BBB was revoked by the BBB’s Board of Directors due to failure by the business to adhere to the BBB requirement that Accredited Businesses meet and abide by the following standards:
5A. Fulfill contracts signed and agreements reached.
6. Address marketplace disputes quickly, professionally, and in good faith.
6D. Cooperate with BBB in efforts to eliminate the underlying cause of patterns of customer complaints that are identified by BBB.Pattern of Complaints
Beginning in 2023 and continuing to date. Waste Management has patterns of complaints/customer reviews, and the number of complaints is continuing to trend up. Those patterns include:
- Consumer complaints and customer reviews report poor customer service, i.e.: not returning phone calls, not following up with consumers, long hold times or being hung up on, rude customer service representatives and having to call multiple times to have issues addressed.
- Trash not being picked up and sitting out on the curb for weeks at a time
- Drivers or system stating the trash has been collected when consumers deny it has been picked up
- When trash is missed, consumers being told their trash would be picked up but isn’t
- Trash not being picked up then consumer being charged for overfilling bins, etc.
- Consumer’s have trouble canceling service.
- Chat function not customer friendly.
- Consumers not receiving trash bins but being billed for service they are not receiving
An opportunity for someone
This seems like a great opportunity for an enterprising company to begin or expand their trash pickup service. It might also present an opportunity for an attorney to put together a class action lawsuit demanding Waste Management offer refunds to all of their affected customers for all of the weeks when service was rescheduled.
Do you remember when simple things like garbage pickup just worked? Those were the days.
In the meantime, everyone can file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
You can email the company: wmcares@wm.com
You can contact Waste Management in a chat session, but you may be disappointed with the response.
You can call them: Phone numbers: (1-814-824-7825) (1-800-796-9696) (1-866-566-6884)
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Jim Barbour says
It doesn’t affect us directly, but it makes one wonder how they will handle the waste from their acquisition of Stericycle that was done in November
Brian Sherman says
We ran into a similar issue with Raccoon Refuse in their waning days and switched to BW Stroup. They’ve never missed a pickup in 3+ years and even showed up during the recent storm (we didn’t expect them to).
Lynne says
I’ve used BW Stroup, Waste Management, and Raccoon Refuse (before they went out of business).
BW Stroup has been the most reliable service provider by far. Plus, they’re locally-owned (Waterford, PA), so the money stays in our local communities. Waste Management is owned by investors like Vanguard, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and BlackRock.
Paul Crowe says
Investor owners like that explains a lot.
Robin Steff says
They finally got mine last Friday.
Jen says
Waiting waiting waiting. Now they say Friday for us. That will be a month of trash they get to haul away IF they show up. Then we have 2 weeks of holidays. Wonder if the logistics dept can figure this one out. My only demand now is that they come to our road first. Service those that have not been serviced for a MONTH. This is not rocket science.
Kevin says
We have experienced lack of scheduled pickups for a year finally switched to a different company they still have not picked up their can for over a month called three times promised they would pick up next couple days and never did we have their can in the way at the drive. They must be having big problems, poor management.
Sarah says
Sent new trash cans and telling us we have to pay to use a second trash cans.. but yet they’re late picking up by more than a week almost every single time. Getting really frustrating
Paul Crowe says
Like so many others in North East, I switched to BW Stroup and I’ve been very happy with reliable and on-time pickups every week. You should give them a try.