Republic Services — Local services in Anaheim

Update: 2023-04-01

Wow. I feel the need to walk through my entire experience with Republic Services recently just to demonstrate how they literally mess everything up that is possible.

I call about an extra pickup for yard waste. They charge me about $21 for it and tell me to fill both the trash bin and recycle bin with the yard waste. False promise #1: They don't show up for the pickup. I call and they say they will come the next day. False promise #2: They don't come the next day. I call again and they say they'll come the following day. False promise #3: They don't come the following day. I am assured they'll come the day after. False promise #4: They don't. Trash day is the next day and there is no longer time to do an extra pick up. I'm worried since the recycling bin is full of yard waste. The lady says not to worry, the trash pickup driver will be instructed to pick up both the trash bin and the recycle bin. They'll do the bonus pick-up on a future day. False promise #5: Trash day comes and sure enough, the trash truck driver only picks up the regular bin and skips the recycling. I chase him down the street and politely explain the situation. He was never told to. He backs up and picks up the second bin. Non-existent internal communication apparently. Brutal honesty #1: I call the office to schedule the extra pick up I'm still owed. The lady is super honest with me and says I should not even try to order extra trash pickups since they will just fail to happen. She refunds my $21. Ridiculous mistake #1: I just received a nasty "past due" notice for $21. I call the office to ask what the charge is for. I'm on hold forever as they realize their mistake -- they refunded me the $21 for the extra trash pickup that never happened but then still wanted me to pay $21 in their system. They credit my account and apologize.

Net result: Calling Republic Services for anything is WORSE than just not calling them at all. Not only do they fail to deliver what you pay for, they literally can't even process the refund properly in their own system -- or even communicate effectively within their own internal departments. You may as well just not call them at all and be grateful that they pick up your neighborhood's trash sometimes.

With respect to the Republic Services employee that responded to this review -- it's not my job to help your company figure out what it's doing wrong. Please look inward and engage in some process engineering to clean up the common pain points described in these reviews.

Original review:

I'm in Anaheim Hills, and like many other reviewers, I constantly get false promises of when services will be rendered, and then they just don't happen. When I call to follow up, I get no explanation as to why, just another false promise that it's coming, and it goes on and on.

This happens with routine missed trash pickups (which happens a lot in my neighborhood), with ordered services (paying $20 for an extra pickup on Monday, it doesn't arrive, I call Tuesday morning, they say it'll come Wednesday with certainty, it doesn't arrive, and now it's trash day and it's a big mess to sort out), and so on.

The service is reliably unreliable, if that makes sense. If they can miss an appointment, they will. The agents over the phone seem confident services will be rendered so perhaps it's a central office I'm talking to with no idea with how bad the service is with the regional office.

I don't know if they're understaffed or have logistical issues -- but it's the communication gap that's the issue. Constant missed services with no explanation. I've tried polite complaints within Republic Services, repeated calls to keep the ball rolling, but given the sheer volume of complaints here, I don't think anything is going to change until we start pressuring the City of Anaheim to do...

Some car hit our trash bin on a pickup day in early April. We've been calling at least 6 times since then but our trash bin still hasn't been replaced. Every time, the representative was very nice and all said:

There has been a back order. Your trash bin will be replaced after the pickup service next time.

One time, a representative even offered to replace a small bin temporarily.

But none of what any representative said came true. The last representative I spoke to was Ashley on Monday, 05/20, who nicely promised that it would be the last time I called and that our bin would be replaced by Wednesday, 05/22. But it didn't happen, again.

I spoked to a supervisor Kim today, 05/23. She said, again, because of the back order, and the new shipment won't come in until July, and we may not be 1st in line to get the bin. But she'll give us a smaller bin (56 gal) temporarily until then. Let's see if this will happen.

It's not acceptable to not have our bin replaced for almost 2 months and having to call almost every week. It's also so disappointing to have all their promises failed. They're really losing our trust. Maybe it's time for the city of Fullerton to let this company go.

• Update (05/25): Another failed promise by Supervisor Kim, who said that a smaller bin would be replaced to us (temporarily until the normal size one arrives) by Friday, 05/24 at the latest. She even said she would personally monitor the account. But nothing happened, again!

• Update (05/29): The supervisor Nico brought a bin to us yesterday. He was very nice, and he found us a normal size bin, instead of having a smaller bin as a temporary replacement. I gave another star because of him and Kerensa, a Customer Care Specialist, who helped, and then checked in and made sure a new bin was delivered to us. Thanks, Republic Services for being responsive to this...

I called their customer support today on behalf of my dad due to a language barrier. He has been charged for overage fees 3 months in a row, after the first charge he has tried carefully to make sure that there is no overage in his bin. His car is parked near the bin so he sees it every day when he leaves and comes home from work. During the last call in July he stated that if they had documentation, he would take responsibility, and the documentation would allow him to address the issue with others in the building. We have asked for documentation on multiple occasions, in which none could be provided. Today the "customer service" rep stated that documentation is not required for the charge and it's per the driver's discretion. I'm sorry but what the hell kind of day and age do we live in that it's okay to charge people with things without evidence. Can you IMAGINE if someone pressed charges against you for assault and you're bewildered because in your mind you genuinely believe you didn't assault anyone. Then ican you imagine if you ask for evidence to explain why they think it was you, they respond with, "We don't have to provide documentation." That is just ridiculous, what is the point of investing in cameras for your trucks if they clearly serve no purpose? But then it gets better, I ask what WE are expected to do in the future to prevent these charges from happening again, and was told that if WE could provide documentation of pictures of the bin on pick up days, we could dispute it. And when I ask if he is expecting us to take pictures of the bin each day just to not get charged again, he responds with it's up to me if it's what I decide I want to do in order to obtain documentation. I am just baffled by the customer service and...