Missed pickup, then zero accountability. My recycling bin wasn't collected because it was supposedly "too close to a vehicle" -- no notice, no heads up, just a missed week. When I called to sort it out, the rep gave me the runaround and basically said tough luck, nothing could be done until next week's pickup, other than scrambling to bag everything in clear bags myself in the meantime. No effort to make it right, no exception, just a shrug. If you're going to penalize customers for a parking issue you didn't flag in advance, the least you could do is offer a same-week fix. Disappointing service. read more

California Waste Solutions - The "close car" - Recycling Center Near Me - San Jose, California

Tuesday, 12/23/25, our recycling and our next door neighbor's recycling was missed. I called both City of San Jose and Calif. Waste to report the missed pickup, but received no return call or recycling pickup even though we left our recycling cans out for the next few days. I'll understand if this incident and any other reports cause the contract to not be renewed or contracted for any other locales but this was zero service from our perspective. I'm posting this on 12/28/25, by the way. read more

Every time I call they quickly take care of my concerns only took one phone call and the next day on pick up day they Delivered recycling bottles and oil filter bags as promised...and the next week bye bye to. The used motor oil ! What more needs to be Said... I called years ago to have them drop of containers and oil filter bags never got them and continued to take to the Auto Parts store it is so much easier to just set it out at the Curb don't have to worry about getting your car all messy I'm very happy with how this has worked out! read more

There is a woman named Kim here answering the phone that is particular rude and hostile. We schedule junk pickups and sometimes the driver misses and writes BS note as an excuse like there was a car blocking the item. We literally were home all day and the item was freely accessible. Kim was literally yelling to say that we're wrong (was she personally driving the truck that day??) while she could have handled it in a much more neutral manner. Like just say you're sorry to hear that, reschedule the appt, and move on! If management is reading this, she needs retraining in basic customer service. Other representatives there are fine. It's a shame we pay this much in city taxes honestly. read more

Terrible experience. Horrendous and unprofessional customer service and junk pickup operators. They expend more energy weaseling and lying about their attempt to pick up your items instead of just doing their job. Scheduled 2x, and never had them successfully pick up a single item. They drove by, took a picture, knocked down some of the stacked items, and drove-off. Received a notification that my case is closed because the items were not set out before they arrived, which was clearly untrue. The city should cancel its contract with these hooligans. read more

After reading some of these reviews, I'm wondering how they are paid for junk pickup. Is it per scheduled pickup? Each time they go out? Or is it actually per item picked up? It should be based on ACTUAL ITEMS picked up. This will incentivize them to actually pickup items. I understand the need for rules otherwise many are broken, but some of these complaints are legitimate. This is my situation: 1. I put out items on sidewalk since there wasn't space on the street. They didn't pickup. Rescheduled pickup. 2. Put items on street, car parks within 3 ft of items on pickup day. They don't pickup. Rescheduled pickup. 3. Put items on street and talked with all my neighbors to not park near the items. But it rained 2 days prior to pickup and the toilets I put out filled with a little water. They would not pickup previously empty toilet bowls because of the rain water. It has now been 6 weeks since I first scheduled and still have toilets in front of my house. What exactly is someone supposed to do during rainy season? Put a cover over the toilets and then they won't pickup because of the cover. This seems like an extreme case of trying to follow the rules OR staff is lazy and just doesn't want to do their jobs OR they are just getting paid for every time they come out and so they are maximizing their payments. In my situation, they likely will be paid 4 times before my toilets are finally removed and the whole process will take 8 weeks (at least you can book another pickup within 2 weeks). The call center IS professional, but the system is broken. San Jose needs to renegotiate the contract with them since they are NOT INCENTIVIZED TO PICKUP. Why punish citizens that are trying to do their best by not throwing junk on the side of the freeway when that seems like it may be the easier approach than waiting 8 weeks and constantly trying to figure out why your junk was not picked up. BTW, I had to call them to know why my junk was not picked up. There is no indication or status. They just close the ticket out. read more

Let's get their contract removed for being such a total scam to the public and for taking our tax dollars without providing the services they are contracted to do. Contact your local representative, your district representative, the mayor's office and 7 on your side. You can also call the environmental services department, who handles the contract. Enough is enough. I'm tired of spending time on the phone with them due to their service failures. I agree with the people who mentioned they will do anything to try to get out of doing their job. The job they are paid to do through taxes. Fraudulent collection of tax money due to breach of contract. Also, their 'customer service' is anything but. Special shout out to Magaly, in April 2025. I sure hope that I spelled that correctly... the spelling of which seemed to be more important to her than the lack of trash service I was calling about. read more

The worst. Don't waste your time with this company! Scheduled a pick up waited two weeks and they didn't pick up our stuff. So when I called again, now I have to wait another two weeks for them to come back. read more

Very unprofessional and wants me to put junk out blocking the street- customer service person was extremely rude to me and wouldn't address my concerns about leaving a couch in the street blocking driveways. I sent pics showing the issue and they insist I put couch in the street after not picking it up 2 other scheduled times because it was on the curb. I don't think the city should contract out this service if they can't manage it effectively. read more

Horrible service trying to address a missed pick up. Our driveway video shows the driver going pass our bin without stopping to try to pick it up. Lots of lying from customer service. They said our bin was not out to pick up then later changed that it was inaccessible. read more

Wish I could give zero or negative stars. Customer service rep lady is rude and should be fired. Hung up the call and did not want to listen to the request. Terrible! Who is even managing this company!! read more

Should lose their contract with the city. Unprofessional service. "Rules are rules" when they missed a pickup and could not reschedule for weeks. They do not update email address when a new tenant requests a pickup. read more

Terrible company to deal with. city of San Jose should cancel their contract. Seem to find reasons for not collecting a scheduled pick up. Too big. In the wrong place. Just pick up the dammed trash and do your job !!!!! read more

horrible customer service lady, she so rude and act like she is the boss. City should remove their contract and close this business.

Anything with a 5 star rating review for CWS is a fake account. Completely useless company. Useless customer service who blames others for their own mistakes and missing pickups. The City has picked the worst options for the citizens once again. In addition to them trying to raise rates. Leave your recyclables on the street and make their drivers pick it up by hand read more

Scheduled a large item pick up that was left behind. Contacted them again and said it would be picked up the following week, it was not. After sending emails to two different customer service emails for them, they told us that it was our fault that we didn't put the large items properly on the blacktop where it needed to go even though their initial email stated to be by the curb or trash cans. Pretty terrible customer service. Slow on replying back to emails and providing accurate information. Due to how slow they actually look at and respond to emails, the date they gave us (2 weeks from then) was no longer available because they didn't respond in time. read more

Scheduled a large items pick up and not everything was picked up. Their reasoning was that not everything was on the street. I live at the end of a court. I did not want to block the street. The other items were immediately behind one large item on the side walk. It wasn't up my driveway or some major distance away. Given all the illegal dumping going on, it's such a shame that they ding the law-abiding, tax paying citizens with petty excuses such as this. This company needs to reevaluate their protocols and be more reasonable. Customer service was unapologetic and useless, as well. I wish I could give them ZERO stars. read more

Our neighborhoods' recycling bins are supposed to be picked up every Friday morning. Coming home from work on Friday night 1/6/24, I noticed several recycling bins including mine were still out on the streets and found mine not emptied along with many others. I checked their website to see if they scheduled it for another day, but it was supposed to be picked up as usual, on Friday, 1/6/23. No notifications were given to our neighborhood about any changes or reasons as to why recycling bins were not emptied. I decided to leave my recycling bin outside for another day like some of our other neighbors in case they come on Saturday, 1/7/23 to empty it. The yard waste and garbage were all emptied per usual without issues. Coming home on Saturday night, my recycling bin was emptied. Again, no explanations given or notice to leave the bin out for Saturday pick-up. I just happen to decide to leave it out. Terrible. Looks like now they can even choose what days to empty recycling bins without giving notice to anyone. San Jose, it's time to choose another recycling company. Our hard earned tax dollars are going to waste. read more

California Waste Solutions - Recycling Center Near Me - San Jose, California

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Terrible customer service!!! The representatives on the phone will yell at you that they're confused and give attitude when you're trying to explain to them. Too bad they're the only ones we can call in San Jose. read more

After calling for a bulky item pickup, only part of the bundles were collected after two weeks. (I swear I did exactly as requested by them in the initial call, in terms of number of items and bundles). So I called again to follow up, but instead of an apology, I was met with complaints. It's frustrating to pay such a high property tax--around $29,000 a year--and receive such poor service. Go Musk, and go DOGE! read more

This junk removal service is quite picky with regards on which junk they will pick up and how that junk is to be presented on the curbside when/if it gets picked up. 1. Wood not bundled tightly enough. 2. Wood looks kinda like treated wood. 3. Not enough bundles than was reserved (they reserved for me a number of bundles "Just to be safe"). Somehow, if the number of bundles are less than expected, they can't pick up that smaller quantity. These are the reasons they said on the phone why they did not pick up the junk when we had set an appointment. It already feels like I am doing them a service by removing all the nails, cutting the wood down to size, and then bundling neatly together for them to pick up. Since they seem to have an exclusive contract with the City of San Jose, no need to worry about service since us city taxpayers will pay them anyways. read more

used 311 junk for a desk pick up for one item selected other. They cancel since there not an item picked. They did not try to call or text back. I hope the city and cal waste can fixed there issues with the app. Pointing fingers at each other. Cal waste won't even try to pick up the item on the scheduled date read more

I requested to have my junk picked up on 7/19, 6 chairs, 2 speakers, 1 mattress and 1 box spring. They picked them up on time and had to issue. read more

I'm not sure why San Jose has a contract with this company for junk removal. By far one of the worst! I had a pickup scheduled and did everything I was supposed to do then looked at my ring camera and seen them just stop, look, then drive away and acted like nothing was there!! Attempted to contact them to no availability. The one time it went thru and got someone on the phone they must've hung up because it was silent for a good 10 seconds then the call ended. I contacted SanJose311 and they told me to contact these people directly but that sure didn't work. Now I'm most likely just going to have to find somewhere and pay to drop off the junk. Thanks for nothing! read more

I never expected to write a review about a municipal recycling company but I just have to say that today's encounter was wonderful. The customer service rep was extremely patient and helpful and was able to schedule a pickup much sooner than expected. San Jose really makes it easy to get rid of junk so there is no reason for stuff to be dumped on the street. Kudos to CWS and San Jose for setting up a great program. read more

Talking to schedule a date went smoothly. The people are polite and thoroughly. Explain the process. I recommend them to anyone.

They'll miss your recycling, then when you call in to ask if they'll come back they just hang up on you. Great customer service (that's sarcasm). read more

Customer service is always awful.I've had the displeasure of hearing their calls and they've,over and over again,showcased their extremely POOR customer service skills.Every agent is always eager to end the call even if it means treating the customer like absolute garbage AND,by doing that,making the call 3x longer than it should be.I've heard people trying to get bedframes picked up,basketball hoops or plastic stuff and it's always questions like "well if you had to put it in a box thats 3x3 and the box was really tiny and you have to disarm your basketball hoop in every single tiny piece like in a factory how many tiny boxes would you need?" and if customer takes 1 second to answer it's always a shitstorm of "why wouldn't you know? how don't you know? why are you like this? are you HEARING me?",absolutely condescending.I've had the displeasure of hearing "for the 10TH TIME,what do you need?",even if the customer service agent didn't even hear what the customer's answer was.Always very patient customers and ALWAYS agents that are very angry and rude for no reason at all,not even 911 dispatchers try to ask many questions in such a short amount on time AND in such a disrespectful manner.Completely awful service,if you have to use it just know that you're in for an absolute (and literal) garbage ride. read more

Calwaste addressed an issue promptly and professionally. I reached out to them after this past Wednesday's garbage and recycle pick up. Glass had accidentally dropped on to the ground and shattered. My surveillance video captured the moment. I contacted Calwaste, they did the right thing and sent someone to pick up the glass. Special thanks to that gentleman for doing a good job in picking up all the glass. read more

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Customer service to set up pick up was great, no complaints. The day of pick up I was surprised they still took my corner desk as it was broken down into pieces. I thought we were going to be able to bring it out in 2 pieces but ended up having to break it down. Scheduling online was super easy, they communicated with me throughout the process, showed up as scheduled, and took all items as listed. Couldn't be any happier. It's unfortunate people are too lazy to use the free public service to remove unwanted items and throw it on the side of streets as I've seen near creeks or freeways. It's easy and the customer service is great. read more

Recycle truck hit and run my mini van. Talked with manager and deny any responsibility. Didnt ask driver for answers. And the driver didnt stop. Even with video footage proof. read more

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Junk removal service is a joke. I feel the drivers are lazy and only pick up items that are easy to get. I had requested a table to be picked up and they didn't pick it up because they were looking for a table with legs. And not a table top. Customer service is a joke and will defend as to why items weren't picked up. I know it's a free service but they need to do better. It's no wonder you see so much illegal dumping read more

Long story short. They hit my new van with a bin. No one would get back to so I called them out on social media (Facebook/Instagram). They had someone reach out to me after that and sent someone to look at the damage. It's super obvious the bin was dropped down on the side of the van, the guy that came out, Matt Bussing couldn't deny it, but insisted that they didn't do it because I didn't see it happen and the driver said he didn't do it. After many tries and having to revert to calling them out on social media again, Kenneth Mitchell finally called me back and was rude and condescending to me on the phone. And in the end they refused to cover the damage they caused. This after having me get a quote for the damage, me being super patient with them and having them act like they were going to take care of it. Every time I reached out to them, I would have to call them out on Social media to get a return call. Very unprofessional company. They also reported my both my social media accounts to hide a bad look. And yesterday, a lady jogging, asked me "do you know who's van that is, because about a month ago I could swear the garbage truck hit it with the bin as I was running by." Yeah, I know they did! read more

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This is the 3rd time I am using this service. I am so exiled with their helpful and courtesy service On all 3 visits the showed up on the on time and took my oversized or even overweight items without any complaints. Their supervisor also was very nice. I really appreciate this service. Thanks a lot. read more

Does not even deserve one star. Terrible service, terrible management, terrible collectors. Please work on doing your job better, or else you would have responded to everyone who's left bad reviews for you guys. For someone who lives around the corner and has not had their items picked up in over 2 weeks, CWS lacks the communication skills and the management skills. Reading all these other reviews, I found that Ive experienced the same thing in which CWS calls, then hangs up on you just to be able to note that they called. My number is probably blocked by now because of the amounts Ive called them. I truly hope this service gets better for every disappointment they've caused. read more

I have been waiting two weeks for an appointment. I placed my sectional in the street and followed all instructions required for my scheduled day of 10/12. My sectional was never picked up. I have called several times, left a message and no one returns the phone call. As a taxpayer this is completely unacceptable. I'm certain that the City has many options when choosing a company for recycling junk, etc. My hope is that we can do better than this. BTW- this is the second time they have been unresponsive. So disappointed. read more

This company's truck drivers constantly leave a litter trail on my street. It's like they dump the bins into their trucks and miss completely. Today was the last straw, I took a picture and called customer service. Let's not get it confused, they are paid to provide a service just like cable, internet, etc. they are quick to reject your recyclables for mixing and leave a non pickup note, but they leave behind a mess and not one word. Unfortunately our options are limited, otherwise I would change pick up companies in a heart beat. read more

California Waste Solutions - Recycling Center Near Me - San Jose, California

Thank you to the customer service rep, who scheduled junk pick up via web request, and promptly answered my email questions. The crew picked up my items in San Jose before 11am. read more

California waste solutions is supposed to pickup the items listed on the san Jose website for junk removal. They will schedule the appointment and then leave a number of items that San Jose allows. If you call the customer service line, they will be rude, condescending and make excuses. They do not provide a solution. I recommend to never use them if at all possible. read more

I like the large item pick up, however sometimes the wait times are really really long to speak to a representative, and you may have to call back several times. It's been that way, not due to COVID-19. Today I called and talked to the rudest representative, I have had yet. Really disappointed with some of their reps. read more