Fairfax County General :
Fairfax Underground
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Reston Trash Closing - Alternatives
Posted by:
TrashTalkin
()
Date: September 28, 2015 12:42AM
I searched and didn't find any recent posts about trash service.
Reston Trash is closing and is transferring all customers to American Disposal Services. I was a customer for ten years. I didn't shop his rates. He was reliable and didn't have ANY of the bad behaviors I found in my search about the other trash companies - both here in FFU and elsewhere.
https://www.restonnow.com/2015/09/16/reston-trash-service-shutting-down-due-to-founders-health/
One person is quoted in that article that he was told he was "locked in" to a rate with American Disposal Services when he called to get competing rates.
This is the same company that two years ago went door to door (including mine) lying about Reston Trash selling out to AAA - a ploy to get me to switch.
This gives me two reasons to shop around.
Fairfax County has a long list of trash companies but I can't tell which ones serve Reston without calling all of them. My short list is:
American Disposal
AAA
Republic Services
Does anybody have any experience with these companies?
Does anybody know of any other companies that serve Reston?
Thanks!
Reston Trash is closing and is transferring all customers to American Disposal Services. I was a customer for ten years. I didn't shop his rates. He was reliable and didn't have ANY of the bad behaviors I found in my search about the other trash companies - both here in FFU and elsewhere.
https://www.restonnow.com/2015/09/16/reston-trash-service-shutting-down-due-to-founders-health/
One person is quoted in that article that he was told he was "locked in" to a rate with American Disposal Services when he called to get competing rates.
This is the same company that two years ago went door to door (including mine) lying about Reston Trash selling out to AAA - a ploy to get me to switch.
This gives me two reasons to shop around.
Fairfax County has a long list of trash companies but I can't tell which ones serve Reston without calling all of them. My short list is:
American Disposal
AAA
Republic Services
Does anybody have any experience with these companies?
Does anybody know of any other companies that serve Reston?
Thanks!
Re: Reston Trash Closing - Alternatives
Posted by:
TrashTalkin
()
Date: September 28, 2015 12:48AM
Update: Republic and AAA are the same. Many gripes about them.
Sigh. I'm hoping for the "least worst."
Sigh. I'm hoping for the "least worst."
Re: Reston Trash Closing - Alternatives
Posted by:
DUOPOLY
()
Date: September 28, 2015 09:18AM
Can't speak to Reston coverage, but I've had both AAA and American. Never had a problem with trash pickup from either, but both will start you out at a competitive rate and then continuously raise your rates. Kind of like fios vs cable. Not enough competition to keep them honest.
Re: Reston Trash Closing - Alternatives
Posted by:
Shawshank
()
Date: September 28, 2015 09:37AM
DUOPOLY Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can't speak to Reston coverage, but I've had both
> AAA and American. Never had a problem with trash
> pickup from either, but both will start you out at
> a competitive rate and then continuously raise
> your rates. Kind of like fios vs cable. Not
> enough competition to keep them honest.
Only good news is that, unlike changing from FiOS to cable, switching trash companies is relatively painless. You have some leverage in negotiating rates, but not much. AAA/Republic is fine...really not a lot of difference between them and American IMO.
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can't speak to Reston coverage, but I've had both
> AAA and American. Never had a problem with trash
> pickup from either, but both will start you out at
> a competitive rate and then continuously raise
> your rates. Kind of like fios vs cable. Not
> enough competition to keep them honest.
Only good news is that, unlike changing from FiOS to cable, switching trash companies is relatively painless. You have some leverage in negotiating rates, but not much. AAA/Republic is fine...really not a lot of difference between them and American IMO.
Re: Reston Trash Closing - Alternatives
Posted by:
mjs
()
Date: September 28, 2015 10:43AM
I used American in reston, and when I moved to vienna American still services me.
the only problem with trash companies is when you cancel service, they want to hit you up for trash can retrievial fees...
if you prepay you can work some deals..
American has been alwasy cheaper than AAA
if you can get enough neighbors, you coudl turn your neighborhood into small trash district and get fairfax county to collect http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/trash/customer.htm
the only problem with trash companies is when you cancel service, they want to hit you up for trash can retrievial fees...
if you prepay you can work some deals..
American has been alwasy cheaper than AAA
if you can get enough neighbors, you coudl turn your neighborhood into small trash district and get fairfax county to collect http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/trash/customer.htm
Re: Reston Trash Closing - Alternatives
Posted by:
TrashTalkin
()
Date: September 28, 2015 11:50AM
Shawshank Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Only good news is that, unlike changing from FiOS
> to cable, switching trash companies is relatively
> painless. You have some leverage in negotiating
> rates, but not much. AAA/Republic is
> fine...really not a lot of difference between them
> and American IMO.
I see that collectors vary on subscription and/or contract service. Any thoughts on either?
Contract service is probably cheaper and the price won't creep up, but you're stuck with them should they screw up the one job they're hired to do. Do they behave any worse without the threat/possibility of switching?
Reston Trash was three people including the owner/driver. I don't have any idea how his rates compared to others because we had the perfect relationship. I paid on time and he did his job reliably with zero hassle for over ten years. I make enough at my job to afford the luxury of not having to shop prices on that service and it would have been silly to risk AAA/ADS shenanigans to save a few bucks.
I wonder how profitable it was. If it was lucrative the owner could have hired a replacement. My guess is that he was doing okay but was working an insane number of hours both driving and keeping the books/truck going - so it wouldn't be profitable to hire two people to replace him... where he would have to transition/babysit forever because business owners simply care more than hired help.
Or... the stress of being a business owner is too much of a toll on his health and he needed to get out - and maybe needed the funds earned by selling his customers to ADS. He has a great reputation, so I'm not annoyed that I (as a subscriber) was transferred automatically to ADS. I am annoyed that another transferred subscriber customer was told that he was "locked in."
How about you earn and keep your customers with good customer service and competitive pricing? Not feasible. People that want the cheapest will be the first to bitch when being cheap causes them problems.
Let's get McLean trash out here in Reston. Rich people don't have time for this.
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Only good news is that, unlike changing from FiOS
> to cable, switching trash companies is relatively
> painless. You have some leverage in negotiating
> rates, but not much. AAA/Republic is
> fine...really not a lot of difference between them
> and American IMO.
I see that collectors vary on subscription and/or contract service. Any thoughts on either?
Contract service is probably cheaper and the price won't creep up, but you're stuck with them should they screw up the one job they're hired to do. Do they behave any worse without the threat/possibility of switching?
Reston Trash was three people including the owner/driver. I don't have any idea how his rates compared to others because we had the perfect relationship. I paid on time and he did his job reliably with zero hassle for over ten years. I make enough at my job to afford the luxury of not having to shop prices on that service and it would have been silly to risk AAA/ADS shenanigans to save a few bucks.
I wonder how profitable it was. If it was lucrative the owner could have hired a replacement. My guess is that he was doing okay but was working an insane number of hours both driving and keeping the books/truck going - so it wouldn't be profitable to hire two people to replace him... where he would have to transition/babysit forever because business owners simply care more than hired help.
Or... the stress of being a business owner is too much of a toll on his health and he needed to get out - and maybe needed the funds earned by selling his customers to ADS. He has a great reputation, so I'm not annoyed that I (as a subscriber) was transferred automatically to ADS. I am annoyed that another transferred subscriber customer was told that he was "locked in."
How about you earn and keep your customers with good customer service and competitive pricing? Not feasible. People that want the cheapest will be the first to bitch when being cheap causes them problems.
Let's get McLean trash out here in Reston. Rich people don't have time for this.