I've lived in my place for 22 years. Because of the trash pandas that sometimes gets in my garbage, I put it out in the am. Yesterday I placed it out at 6:45 am. The driver came thru at 8:06. He totally missed my can. I got REAMED out by a CS Rep because I was honest that I placed it outside at 6:45. When the driver came to pick it up today. He put a nasty orange sticker on it. I have a camera. I know when they come every single week. This was not my fault. JERKS. read more

Update: 6/10/26 I contacted Groot through their website. They responded with an email stating "We have received your request and will look into it soon. It is now 6/10/26 and they never contacted me (no surprise). There email said to call customer service. Sure, let's get on the merry-go-round again. Original Review: 6/2/26 Beware of "auto-extras" for $80 each from Groot trucks taking AI/UN-Intelligent pictures from the trucks of your dumpsters, garbage cans, possibly people, etc. and add "auto-extras" charges of $80 each time. No warning/heads up of AI picture-taking. I am the Treasurer for the Condo Association and pay all of the bills. May 2026 invoice had 4 "auto-extras" (extra pickups) for garbage over the top of our dumpster which is ridiculous in the first place because residential garbage cans always have garbage over the top. It's bad enough we pay $112 for dumpster plus $38 Environmental Fee. Now we were overcharged $320 for 4 "auto-extras" for a total invoice of $467. Groot's autopay took the $467 out of our checking account right away. I stopped autopay. My apartment building's parking lot is shared with another building, and each building has its own Condo Association and invoicing for everything. The landlord at the other building had made arrangements for each 3 extra pickups and pre-paid $29 for each one. He was there when Groot trucks picked up their furniture and garbage because renters moved out. AI took pictures and charged us 4 "auto-extra" pickups. The Groot truck driver(s) put the neighbor's furniture and boxes in our dumpster after they emptied our dumpster. Then AI/Unintelligence took pictures and charged us. The landlord looked at his video recordings and saw that the Groot truck driver(s) put their couch from on the ground on top of our empty dumpster. AI/Unintelligence took a picture and charged us again. Called Groot but the rep did not believe me even though the previous rep emailed me their AI pictures. Landlord next door called Groot and told them the 3 separate extra pickup days were his, including the couch the driver(s) put on top of our dumpster. Just got invoice for June 2026. We only got a $240 credit. Then they charged us $5 in administrative fees to correct their own mistake. So, now I have to call Groot again. Of course, I fully expect them to deny our 4th $80 credit. Below are the 4 Artificial Un-Intelligence pictures. Groot needs to get rid of their stupid AI/UN-Intelligent pictures or watch the whole video. Better yet, have the driver(s) do their job, put the extra pickup items in the right dumpster, and take the pictures manually! Horrific customer service from Groot.... again! read more

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I would give zero stars if it was possible. Groot is the worst at communicating; then they make empty promises too. I'm a property manager and it's near impossible to get ahold of your Rep at Groot, then when they get reassigned, nobody lets anybody know and your emails and calls go unanswered. In addition, the request me to do some of their work and then don't pull through for the residents, which makes the PM and company look bad. This is all on Groot; horrible service. read more

FUTURE CLIENTS BEWARE!!! This company has unfair and deceptive business practices related to contract renewal and cancellation fees. My company has been a customer of Groot Industries for over 10 years. During that time, we have experienced ongoing service issues, including repeated rate increases, excessive overage charges, and container sizes that do not meet the needs of our building. These concerns were communicated to the company on multiple occasions. Despite our dissatisfaction, we honored our contractual obligations, including a prior five-year term. Earlier last year, I contacted Groot Industries customer service rep Theresa Schilling over the phone to confirm the expiration date of our current contract. She informed me that the contract expired on April 26, 2026. I wrote down this date and understood that cancellation required 90 days' notice prior to that expiration. In December 2025, I contacted her again to provide notice of cancellation. At that time, I was informed that the contract actually renews on April 1, 2026, and that I had missed the cancellation deadline by only a few days. This directly contradicts the date previously provided to me by Theresa. Had I been given accurate information, I would have submitted notice within the required timeframe. Instead, the company is now attempting to impose substantial cancellation fees of $1,800 based on a renewal date that was inconsistent with the information they provided. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!! read more

Absolutely terrible experience with their customer service. They keep sending me invoices even though I haven't lived at the location of services for MONTHS. Tell me how that makes sense, that I would pay for services at a home I havent lived at for months. I have called them and requested to cancel so many times, and none of them have helped me. Absolutely horrendous customer service. read more

Very good service. Quick garbage pick up. Recycled later in afternoon. All in all good not pricey garbage pick up. read more

The office staff at the beginning where helpful and friendly. The Driver Enrique was exceptional. We only needed the dumpster for two days but had to pay for all seven days and I was disappointed especially since this was for my Senior disabled brother. The Agent I spoke with to have the dumpster removed was not helpful and may not have been having a good day. read more

Unreliable. Scheduled a roll-off dumpster to be delivered today (8/27) for long weekend of yard work. Got a call shortly after 7:30 am to let me know the only driver they had scheduled for today had a family emergency. Totally understand the employee's situation. The manager should have planned better and should have had a back up plan if going to 1 driver. The manager offered to drop off the container Tuesday. No other option offered. No discount offered. Significantly impacts the 3 day weekend of yard work. And, since this is prepaid, I have to wait 3 - 5 business days for a refund. Lesson learned, next time some one other than Groot. read more

if I could give this company -100 stars I would! they STEAL money from customers no problem, they claim they will call you back never do. I called for an extra pickup paid $50 and then nothing got picked up after I called 2 more times I was told I will NOT get my money back but I need to pay ANOTHER $50 or $75!!! are you kidding me??!? I was also told the driver came back and I was sitting OUTSIDE the whole time NO ONE ever came. liars and robbers don't care about anything but taking money from people. read more

Missed pickups. Put the sticker on the bin because I did not put all things on the same spot in one square meter? - never seen this happened in past 20 years. Attitude like they are doing us a great favor. Our city contracted them not long age. Before that, city had own garbage collection services and it was really nice the. read more

I have experienced great service with Groot - both on the Waste management pick up side & by phone with customer service. Always very helpful, informative & they're giving me a senior discount rate which I much appreciate. I just spoke to Lydia today with a quick question & she was very friendly & helpful. Thank you Groot! read more

The reason I didn't give them 0 stars is because it's not an option. Let me say that I had a problem with my trash. Pick up and the b**** on the phone just hung up on me. I was not rude. I was not courteous. She just told me there was nothing I could do I am a disabled veteran 90 years old. This company is the biggest piece of c*** in the world. Too bad we cannot choose our companies. I'm stuck with what the village gives me. If you have an option go somewhere else read more

Changed their policy on lawn debris pick up with no notice. I have to drive 7 miles to pick up "stickers" before they will take my Lawn debris bags. May be easier to take the bags to their office and drop um, since I have to go that way. Saves THEM the trip. read more

Groot made a commitment to shut down service and did not follow though, they then promised to pro-rate our bill from the original date of cancellation and did not follow through, and now they won't send a refund on overpayment, even though they send me a bill monthly that shows a credited amount. And, they claim they are in integrity with attitude, even though they change their agreements with the direction of the wind. read more

In Hanover Park, IL 60133 GROOT is our trash collection company. Drivers are very conscientious; they are awesome!

They call and will say your garbage is delayed a day due to a holiday. Then they pick up on your actual day it's supposed to be picked up instead for the delayed day. Worst part.... They are arrogant and take no responsibility! I called them as a saw the garbage truck leaving, and asked to send them back. I was told no it wasn't their mistake. It clearly was! And I have the incoming call in my phone the night before saying it's delayed a day! Zero customer service and didn't give a crap about any customers. Elk Grove needs to go back to Waste Management. We never had a problem in 20 years with waste management! read more

Groot Industries, Algonquin - another example of NO customer service in our continuing degrading country! The drivers are wonderful, so no complaint there. I feel sorry they have to work for a money grabbing corporate company! Bad enough they keep raising the waste sticker prices, but now found out they will probably phase them out and force people to pay 4X the amount for yet another huge can to be dragged out every week. Went to Jewel near Sandbloom Rd which is/was the only offering to get stickers on the east side of Algonquin, only to be told Groot no longer will supply them. Called Groot and talked to very rude person who gave me Ace Hdwe & Jewel on West side on Randall Rd. Drove 12 miles roundtrip to search for stickers at Ace only to be told they have none. Called Vil of Alg only to be told the same things. Finally after 3rd trip found stickers at Jewel west side on Randall. This is outrageous to yank people around like this!! read more

Absolute terrible customer service. The lady on the phone is so rude. Their webpage specifies that they pick up yard waste on in bins, literally for years they picked up without issue. All of a sudden they stopped, and she make sit seem like it's my fault their webpage has outdated information. Had the audacity to talk to me like I was the unreasonable one, when it's on their webpage. read more

Groot always address any concerns I have as a customer. Today , I want to thank Lidia at Groot for her customer service. She was able to address all my questions and helped me get a senior citizen discount. Thank you for your service. read more

I used Groot for several years until they screwed up our billing which resulted in a green tag on our containers and trash that had not been picked up. This occured two times and we were even on autopay. We finally switched to LRS (a much better company). Groot had told us to leave our containers out the last Thursday of the month so they can pick them up. It's now Friday evening and they still have not picked them up. Whatever you do, don't choose Groot! You WILL be waiting on the phone for 20 minute increments EACH time you call, and you WILL be doing all the leg work related to billing, pick up, and all other functions you pay them to do. read more

charging the account and not picking up the trash when they supposed to. had to called every week for them to comeback and get it. charging double to restore the service. who can pay as a senior in a budget $298.00 to restore the services when they not even do the service,and every time that I called got a different amount withou explanation. read more

I was called at 8:11am today for my missed pick up yesterday. Said my name is not on the account. It's my account! She had an attitude like I was the problem. I need my bin emptied! I have people coming over tomorrow and a full recycling bin. I have no where to put anything tomorrow! She said they have no drivers in the area until Tuesday! Tuesday is too late to come. I cannot believe you will not make this right. My bin was out the night before, it's not my fault; it is yours. I immediately fix problems like this in my businesses. I cancelled services last time because of missed pick ups. This is the 4th time in 6 weeks it was fully emptied. The other 2 weeks: 1 I did not put it out, 2 I met the driver (last week) and told him he wasn't emptying it out. It looks like he just passed me by this week. read more

Nickel and diming me over picking up a second garbage can they have picked up for three years with no extra charge during that time is terrible during a recessionary period. And what choice do customers have?? None. read more

These guys are scumbags - I reiterate the other comments about the greasy fine print in their contract language. My contract runs through the end of December - it is currently November 2023. If you do not cancel within the 30-day window in the fine print (120 days - 90 days until the expiration of the contract) they automatically renew your contract and will charge you 6 months dues to cancel - $800 in my case. I told the pipsqueek I'm not paying, and he's sending me a legal letter lol. read more

I called group today to check on my bill and to explain a problem that I had. The customer service rep was very snippy and after I told him that he really wasn't helping me he said he would get someone else to help me like a supervisor. He kept me on hold for 25 minutes and never came back to the phone. I needed help with my trash can issue. Someone stole mine and the garbage man gave me the wrong one from another household, but that household already has one with their number on it. I asked him if it could be switched out and he gave me a hard time about it and seemed so nonchalant about the problem. It really ticked me off. The least he could have did was come back to the phone and tell me that he couldn't help me. Sorry, I'm talk texting, I meant Groot. read more

Another note on canceling your contract with groot. You can't write them until their "window" opens up. You can't write them in advance. It must be within a 90 window that they specify. Also, it must be a certified letter. You can't email them to cancel and you can't write them a standard letter. It must be certified. Doesn't make sense. Obviously, the want to hold you hostage to auto renewals. Why else would they make it so difficult to cancel your service. read more

They are constantly passing my home and NOT picking up my yard waste bags! During the 4th of July Weekend they didn't pick up either and it resulted in 3 burned circles in my completely green lawn! I contacted them and requested them to fix or pay for the grass seed patch and the manager said "just let mother nature do the work and it will grow back". That will take months! Nice customer service...NOT! So unacceptable! Unfortunately we don't have an option for our waste pickup otherwise it would be the end of them getting any business from me@ read more

Groot Industries - Burned by grass bags because Groot did not pick them up when they where supposed to! - Recycling Center Near Me - Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Signed a contract 5 years ago, they tripled the price and auto renew my contract . now they want over a 1000.00 to get out of something I never signed up for. $$$$$$ Dont do business with them!! They will stick it to you in the end!!!!!!! Read---- Colin O. post 11/7/23 or Douglas S. post 7/10/23 Waste management much better company! read more

Truly awful company. I wish there was another garbage service I could go with, but this is a case of Groot being the only option in my area. They frequently don't take my garbage, they don't provide me with a garbage can despite me paying for it because they don't have enough, and the customer service agents just lie and say, "oh the truck missed you they'll be there later today or tomorrow" and then they never show up. If you have any other option, take it. Avoid Groot unless you have no choice. read more

Horrible company. Garbage people are rude and do nothing but write notices why they can't take the garbage. Trying to figure out why the dimwits who run Round lake decided to switch to this company. Right after we put out out garbage I was informed they won't take any extra bags of garbage!!??? What??? I've been doing that for years! On top of it the bill for these con artists was over $100 a month ! Unbelievable! read more

What a shit company. After my town has changed to this garbage company I hate calling in to pick up the garbage. Minimum of 20min wait in order to contact their customer support. If you don't respond to their hello in 5 seconds? Good luck you are waiting 30minutes now. Thanks for wasting my time and money big time. read more

Prices go up every quarter. But my biggest complaint is at least twice a year, they take my bin, dropping it into their bucket with the refuse. That's $25 - $35 dead loss for me each time, and tho I complain, they never respond. read more

I am leaving this review in hopes it gets to our route driver and hopefully his superiors. Today I looked out from upstairs as the garbage man pulled up to unload my garbage cans. It was super windy and both my cans have blown over into the ditch and my cardboard was in the grass. He took the time to pick up BOTH cans and then went into the grass to collect the cardboard. Wow, I am so thankful and proud of his commitment to make sure he put in 100 percent! Thank you so much Groot for your wonderful employees, it's nice to see someone put in effort even when they don't know someone is watching! :] BTW I live in St. Charles, Il read more

When you sign up for Groot, beware. They will hide the automatic 5 year renewal in the lengthy contract. You can't get out of it. And, you can only cancel during the window. You can't cancel in advance of this window. If you miss the window, you are automatically renewed for another 3 years. And again, you can only cancel during the window. Find another recycling company. Their contract is a scam. read more

I miss Waste Management so much... Groot fails on every level compared to WM, but we have no choice.

Pls!!! pls bewares, Groot just lost their services with Evanston, they do everything to keep their bad services, they added recycling services to my 2 accounts, I called to remove the services, the sale agreed then send the online signs to me that they removed, I didn't even see that they added another 60months services, I think they add after got online software signature from their own, not even the DocuSign, make sure print out everything before and after signing anything, they are Crookes. I used their services since 2013, I think we should do something to stop these garbage co. to adding the services with out the approval, adding services another 5-10 years by trick for online signs and adds to any 5-10 years contract this fraudulent practice acts. read more

On a rainy day, the team at Groot leaves my trash bin lids in the open position and leaves one of the bins lying on its side at the curb, protruding out into the street. Notice the other bins in the neighborhood look good. Not sure what's up with this. read more

Groot Industries - Recycling Center Near Me - Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Groot recently became our city's garbage removal service. In the past I had put out two cans for yard waste, one big and one small. I've been composting most of my grass this year so I only put out the small can and they wouldn't take it. One small can of grass clippings was too heavy. By this standard no one would ever be able to mow their lawn since this is less than half the clippings from my average sized lot. When I called Roslyn was extremely rude and attempted to hang up on me. When I asked to speak to a supervisor I was placed on hold for 10 minutes of dead silence. Then at 5:01 Roslyn came back on to notify me that all supervisors left at 5:00. A quick review of the company online shows that this is their M.O. I'm very disappointed in my village for contracting a company known for these problems when they old company tab flawlessly. read more

-1 STAR!!! Republic was my previous carrier before the account was transfer over to Groot. Since day 1 they keep missing to pick up my recycle. I always put it out the night before. I'm between to residences and their recycle was picked up. I've call three times to have them come back out. I've asked for a reason as to why my recycle keeps being missed. Customer service rep does not know. So very disappointed with Groot and their recycle team. On the phone today with them calling about another missed pick.. This time I'm going to hold them accountable and speak to a manage. Sincerely, Unhappy customer. read more

Avoid this company at all "costs." To be fair, I would not have said this 3 years ago. We started using Groot in 2015 after Advanced kept raising their monthly prices. Groot was local and had a long history in Illinois. The sales rep assured me that prices would not go up and up and up as had happened with Advanced (avoid them, too). Well, guess what happened? Groot has been bought out by a Canadian company, Waste Connections (Toronto). So it's no longer a local company. Since the buyout, our monthly charges have been steadily climbing. Since starting with Groot in summer 2015, they have gone up nearly 100%. The other reviews here corroborate what I'm saying. Although my customer sales rep is professional and courteous, the company no longer has my respect and no longer deserves our business (condo association). I rarely give one star, but this company is so awful that it merits it (which is being generous). If you're with them already, bear in mind that contracts renew automatically. To cancel auto-renewal, contact your sales rep. I believe that notice must be given at least 90 days but no more than 180 days before contracts are set to auto-renew. Notice must be mailed to Groot by certified mail. They're just making it harder to get out of a contract. What an awful business practice. Avoid Groot (and Advanced Disposal). read more