I live on Patricia Avenue in San Mateo. Unfortunately and overnight two nights ago somebody had dumped a bunch of Chinese food takeout in my green recycling bin. I'm talking cartons of food, trays of food, bag and soda cans. The grease and the sauce if you will has pooled at the bottom of my cart as you can see in the picture. I called them yesterday to tell them that I wanted it noted in my account that this was not my mess. I also asked what was I supposed to do because I have a bad neck, back, and wrist. I am unable to clean up this entire mess myself. She said it was my responsibility otherwise I would get charged for it if the driver picked it up and saw what was inside. I then called back this morning to try to talk to somebody else to see if I could basically just switch out the cans so I could get a new one. This person was worse than yesterday very rude. She said if I wanted a new can I was going to have to pay for it, $92. So here I sit with a trash can full of disgusting decaying food. I also asked on the phone this morning what do the elderly or handicapped people do...is it their responsibility to clean the stuff out and her answer was I guess it is. I detest this company. I miss Allied Waste Services. Way better customer service and policies. read more

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This year we had have a few times for missing our bibs after trash picking up day. Last week we miss one bin again and we called for replacement. The customer service person was very quickly said the replacement will be delivered next day but her tone sound we owe her something made us feel very uncomfortable. If there is another chose of trash pick up service we may consider it. Unfortunately there is only one company do this service. read more

Bad bad bad service I never had, Didn't pick up the recycle bin for a week, call straight 5 days for pick up keep saying the supervisor will come over but no one show up........ read more

Recology - Junk Removal & Hauling Near Me - San Carlos, California

They are pretty bad from their lack of Customer Service to their employees removing the garbage. Have observe multiple times that the employees have bad aim when trying to pick up the garbage using the extenders. They completely miss the garbage and end up pushing it to the ground. Then oh well onto the next one!! Leaves the mess for you to pick up. Not to mention their awesome Customer Service who insists is your fault that you pick such a small garbage that can only fit one weeks worth of garbage. And don't you even bother getting those twice a year pickup that they advertise as a benefit. Unless you are clairvoyant and know at least a month in advance. But not more than a month because they can't schedule that far in advance! read more

Twice a year I get a free debris bin for the apartment I manage. They came to exchange the partially full bin for a fresh bin (which was not needed) and charged me $250 because they couldn't change the bin. The exchange was not needed because the other bin was less than half full. To not change the bin was less work than if they had exchanged the bin for free. No, it is really not like if you canceled your dentist appointment at the last minute. Not even close. read more

So there is more to garbage collecting than just the weekly truck visit. I'm talking Recology's billing practices. Today I was informed that if I wanted to establish autopay, I would no longer receive a paper statement. No option to request a paper statement if you wanted auto pay. Since the IRS requires a 'paper trail', I must have those quarterly pieces of paper. So instead of opening an envelope and filing the invoice, I now get to open an email, open the Recology app, look up my i.d. and password, then enter the i.d. and password, select billing, download the current statement, print the invoice (on my basement printer), retrieve the copy and then file it. Wow, so glad Recology is doing me a favor and saving me from that quarterly envelope! How about Recology giving the customer the OPTION to choose a paper invoice or an email reminder. Seems simply enough to me. read more

Still crappy customer service. And this time I caught them in a lie. Once again, I have a commercial dumpster. For the last 20 years they have always picked up before 8am. The three businesses that share the parking lot open at 8am and that's when the lot starts getting crowded. In the past their excuse for not picking up was that the dumpster was blocked by cars and they couldn't get to it. Recently, at 9am, my coworker told me the trash hadn't been picked up so I called customer service. The customer service agent said they were running late on my route because it wasn't my normal driver. So I thought to myself maybe my normal driver called in sick. That sounds reasonable, right? An hour later the garbage truck pulls up and my coworkers tell me that it's our normal driver. Customer service lied. Lol read more

They consistently pick up my garbage and recycling each week. :) Seriously, why are we reviewing this place? WE DON'T HAVE A CHOICE, this is our garbage service! May as well accept it. read more

We had a scheduled bulky items pickup on December 30, so we left all of our items on the curb for pickup. Sometime during the night someone drove by and covered all of our items with their own trash. When the truck came, they had to clear the other trash before getting to ours and the driver couldn't take anymore, so our trash was still sitting on the curb. I called the Recology office and told them what happened and they were extremely sympathetic and said that, because it wasn't our fault, they would come back over the weekend to pick up our items. True to their word, they rang our doorbell at 9 AM and picked up everything that was still outside! We thought this was going beyond their obligation and we were absolutely thrilled! A big thank you to both the office staff who were extremely kind and sympathetic and to the drivers who were professional and friendly! read more

I have been a customer for over 12 years. I have never had a missed pick up. I use the curbside pick up. I do what the ask, abide by the rules and have no issues. Staff I talk to are great. I have never had a problem using their paint, or electronics recycle. Some times the bins are damaged, they replace them when I call. I really have no issues with Recology. Tom in San Carlos read more

We have been happy with this Recology ever since they became our collection agency many years ago. They used to have a buy back CRV program which we fully enjoyed visiting often; unfortunately, it is closed now, sadly. Nevertheless, we still stop by and drop off the hazardous materials at their clean, convenient located center regularly. Lastly, their BIC (Bulky Item Collection) service is great; house owners are entitled to 2 free services per year. The staff answering our phone calls, like Trisha and Jennifer are cordial and nice; we followed their instructions and items were picked up per their schedule; great services!! read more

Had a bulk pick up and Paul one of Recology's drivers was great. Also the drivers who come by weekly are also excellent and willing to go the extra mile. I hope Recology appreciates their employees! read more

The hours are fantastic, the fact they're open on Sunday has saved us more times than once. They're very efficient.

Finally a company who has a live customer service rep!! Carmen is wonderful. If only all other companies could have someone like her!

Very poor customer service Spoke to Monique she needs some serious customer service training or she is in the wrong job. She scolding me for the driver not picking up our garbage I believe that is what we get billed for monthly for the garbage to be emptied. She was deliberately rude on the phone and hang up on me. she said if I need to have it picked up I would have to call back cause she won't take my request. Surely she need anger management. Recology do your Job we citizens pay for . read more

Watch out for the clowns that drive these big garbage trucks . I caught one of them hitting and causing damage to my boat. I have security footage of this guy causing damage ,then he denied it when i confronted him. Joke of a business that lets their employees get away with hit and runs and do nothing about it. From someone I know that works there, they are notorious for ripping off bumpers off of cars with their hydraulic clamps. I'd cancel these frauds if there was an optional garbage company. read more

I moved to a new place that requires me to remember to take my own trash and recyclables to the curb every week - it was an adjustment, but imposed to it now and in a weird way get slight satisfaction from it. The customer service I've had so far is excellent. I have had to call customer service a few times for various reasons and the people I talked to were very helpful. I didn't expect the level of customer service I received to be so good after seeing the reviews. read more

I am the landlord of 28 Devonshire Blvd San Carlos . Recology constantly forgets to empty recycle/garbage bins, it's happening more frequently at our location!! read more

Recology trucks are so loud! Their brakes squeal, their reverse beeping is so loud, and they come way too early. In the last two places I've lived their collection times have been on Mondays. That's horrible since most holidays fall on Mondays. We've notified Recology about collections happening before 6am (6am is way too early anyway) and yet trucks still come around before 6am. Some ideas I had for a solution: 1) Recology can change up their routes every 2-3 months to distribute the collection times so it's fair for all, 2) Redwood City, San Carlos, or San Mateo could audit the Recology schedule and find out if they truly need to start at 6am (maybe they can still get their work done from 8am-6pm), 3) Recology could change the pick-up time for dumpsters to later in the day (since dumpsters are noisy), 4) Recology could change the pick-up time where they have to go in reverse to later in the day (since the beeps are noisy), 5) Recology could stop collections on Mondays or holidays, and 6) Recology should repair their brakes more frequently because they squeal. read more

Seems more often than not the truck: leaves trash in the street, leaves the bin in the middle of the street, dumps the bin over on its side and leaves it, I come home to find my bin missing..... I usually am not a person to complain, but this is so bad that it seems intentional. read more

Recology - Picking up garbage after the garbage pick up. - Junk Removal & Hauling Near Me - San Carlos, California

We live in Menlo Park, and the driver(s) who pick up our garbage on Mondays has not picked up trash from the blue recycle bin several times. He/she left a note once saying that there was contamination. When I called Recology the first time they were apologetic and immediately had the garbage picked up the same day. However the driver continued to not pick up trash from this blue recycle bin and today he/she had removed the black bags from the recycle bin and placed them in an empty cardboard box lying adjacent to the bin. When I called Recology again today they told me that the driver had informed them that there was contamination. I asked them what the contamination was and they told me that we had placed black plastic bags in the recycle bin. I told them that these were special biodegradable bags that we had ordered from Amazon.com. at a considerable expense. (In fact my wife had called Recology previously and informed them that we were using black biodegradable bags). The customer service agent said that he would have the supervisor have a word with the driver and have the trash picked up today. We appreciate the customer service agent's attention to this issue, but feel frustrated with the driver that he/she seems to make spurious judgement calls on what should/should not be picked up. NOT the kind of service one expects/ read more

I go to recology often and I will tell you that most of the staff is very rude and sometimes confrontational. The place runs like they dont need you as a customer. I cant think of anything good about this place, except i can dump my unwanted garbage there. I would tell you to stay away but what else are you going to do? read more

Lazy, arrogant, inconsiderate and incompetent monopoly. Ridiculous sorting requirements. Remember you're providing a paid service to the residents, not the other way around. City of Belmont, please change to another company please!!! If that means breaching the contract, I'm willing to chime in $100 to cover the cost. read more

thedudeabides has put it best, "Have your lazyass goons get out of the truck and help position the big robot robot claw to pick [the cans] up." The auto arm seems like a good idea, but what it really means is that Recology employs only one driver per route. He is overpaid, lazy and doesn't care about doing his job well. Because the truck goes from house to house, picking up the bins with the robot arm, it's probably 3 times SLOWER than the old 3 man truck method of driver, and two collectors. BFI and Allied were much more efficient. Oh, Recology is green? I couldn't care less. All I see is a 25% higher trash bill, incompetent, lazy route drivers, and collection times ranging from 9am till 7pm- whatever happened to the days when I would see my trash picked up and gone by 9am? And that's not to mention all the garbage the robot arm method leaves behind. Any loose debris that doesn't make it into the big opening of the truck is left to rot in our driveways/streets. I've seen it numerous times. It's way too much to think the driver would get out and help keep our driveways/streets clean. I've lived in this town for 30 years. I used to not like BFI leaving our cans laying down out in the street. Allied Waste would sometimes miss houses or not take all the bags in the can. Recology seems to be the worst - missed cans, entire streets missed (they've been handling our garbage for less than a year and have already missed our street twice), late pick ups, lazy drivers, littering... But alas, the city has a contract with Recology for the next 10 years. We're in year 1. Wonderful. I guess you can't fight City Hall. read more

Ever wonder why there is so much trash along 280 through Santa Clara? Part of this has been answered for me. As Recology trucks go south to the dump each day they LITTER the highway. I was behind one of your trucks seeing plastic bags and pieces of ? flying onto the highway. Please try make this better. No not all this trash is from Recology. Part are pick up trucks with loose trash, dumpsters turned over in the strong winds of SV, consumers who don't want to carry trash in from their cars, other haulers and where ever else. Gotta say I was kind of upset that a company with such a cool name - does this. I will remove this when I see or hear that measures are taken... read more

I waited in line for 2 hours!!!!!! One car every 15/20 mins! Got a truck full of house hold and yard stuff for $44.

Recology sucks. the only good thing is that they have nice carts, but the service is horrible, you get snooty people on the phone and the garbage carts do not always empty properly, so you end up having to call them to pick up the garbage again. They boosted our rates about 80% this year over what Allied Waste used to charge, so they can drive around in their fancy trucks (where they tout that they can use less people, just the driver alone), yet charge a HUGE premium. THey sold all the cities based on messed up numbers where you get charged by the size of the cart, then came back and said UH we overestimated the amount of $ that we'd be collecting since everyone switched to smaller garbage cans (DUH), and we don't make as much off recycling as we wanted. That is YOUR bad accounting and crummy projections that leaves us residents footing the bills. Last time when my black garbage can did not get emptied, the lady on the phone asked me to go and LOOSEN up the garbage so that the machine will be able to dump the trash into their truck. Hey that's YOUR job, not mine! why didn't you design your carts better so all the crap can slide out and into your truck?? I wish we could go back to Allied Waste! read more

This place is a dump! I had some clean up to do after a construction job... 5 large van loads of construction debris... all the same size.... and I was charged 5 different amounts based on what the guy at the gate feels like charging. They are the only game in town.... not many other choices without a drive! read more

If there were another option, I'd take it...talk about a monopoly...its amazing how their sole job is to pickup garbage, yet how frequently my garbage can is full after a pickup day. read more

This is the 2nd time I've come here to get the free compost. Both times I have had to wait in line for over and hour just to pick it up I am not dumping anything why should I have to wait in that big line? There seems to only be 1 person working the line. Once inside the big building the compost is in a separate area so why can't someone picking up simply go to that separate area without waiting. The compost isn't the best quality but it is free so I think 2 stars is fair. read more

the biggest challenge in running a business should not be garbage pickup. if they didn't run a MONOPOLY on refuse removal, we would get better service. the route supervisors don't return calls EVER. i have a 5min problem that has now been dragging on for months because of horrible customer service. read more

Recology has provided inconsistent service at best. Our Christmas tree has been out in front of our house for two weeks and even with 7 calls to their customer service it still is in front of our house. Trying to get a new bin when our was damaged was a 2 month effort as well. Their customer service staff is polite and attentive but that doesn't yield good street side service. The city/county needs to review this vendor. read more

Well no one likes to go to the dump that's for sure. Main issue is just it's so slow. Figure on spending at least a half hour here in the middle of the day how low the early morning apparently better read more

Recology - Junk Removal & Hauling Near Me - San Carlos, California

Instead of incoherently screaming at me in spanish maybe you could tell me how to properly stack garbage for you to take away...?

Recology drivers will leave all your bins placed in a manner that blocks your driveway. This has happened on numerous occasions and I have complained before but it keeps happening. What is going on with Recology employees/management? Do they really relay the messages back to the drivers? It is unnecessary for them to leave the bins blocking my driveway when I place all of my bins to the side of my driveway each and every single time. It seems purposefully at this point. TELL YOUR DRIVERS TO PLACE BINS BACK AS THEY WERE PLACED IN THE FIRST PLACE, PLZ! read more

Many of the reviews here concern curb side recycling/waste service. This review isn't about that. There are many things we accumulate in life which we accrue so slowly that we rarely are in the habit of putting out curbside. Motor oil, e-waste, light bulbs, cooking oil, batteries - these items gather slowly and after awhile, we have enough on hand to recycle. Where do we go? If you live or work in the San Carlos area, Recology on Shoreway is the place to go. They take almost everything (no used medication, no hazardous waste) and you can dump each item in its own bin. I find myself visiting Recology once a month and I never spend more than five minutes there. Awesome! read more

Previously Allied Waste, now have the contract for several San Mateo County cities. I was happy with Allied Waste but had the greatest Recology experience this week. Have to write about it because I don't think these guys get their props and God knows, it's a yucky job. Our filled blue recycling cart apparently rolled backwards down our driveway (it's an incline) and into the garage door in the night. I get up in the AM and go outside to put our carts away. Garbage cart, at the street and empty. Compost cart, at the street and empty. Recycling? Huh? Down by garage door and full. It's 6:30AM. Got the bright pink bathrobe going, my husband's loafers on because they're convenient, no contact lenses in yet so I can't see, and I'm half asleep. Nice visual, eh? Very Mrs. Magoo. Anyway, across and up the street the recycling guy brakes his truck and walks down to me. "Is that cart empty? I saw it down there and thought maybe you didn't have any recycling." I'm still trying to figure out exactly what happened and tell him it's full. "Musta rolled there in the night." Guy grabs the cart, pulls it up the street to his truck, empties it and returns it to me. Pretty nice guy. Pretty great service. Never even laughed at my get up. Big thanks to these people, especially that nice man. The no laughing an added plus, even if I don't want to face him again any time soon. read more

They eyeball your junk instead of weighing it. I find that they tend to be more expensive than other places because of this.

Every service guy was really friendly , it is very oranganized and clean-for a dump. Very impressed overall. Easy to drop off, don't mind paying when met with positive attitudes!!! read more

Recology keep missing garbage pickup for the entire neighborhood. It's occurring more frequently and it's so frustrating. When you called, they would say they had done the round and completed pick up. It's a lie. Earlier in the year, they didn't come to pick up the scheduled bulky item pick up. When i called, they said I didn't put the items by 6AM in the morning. The items were out the night before. Stop lying and do your job. read more