My dad wanted to shred a bunch of confidential financial documents (going back 5+ decades! He's in his 90's and has everything printed - sometimes in duplicates, - and he holds on to...stuff for years and years. There were bank statements and investment forms from the 60's, and all sorts of paperwork in storage that, quite frankly, should have been properly disposed of 50 years ago). Anyhow, as my folks are elderly, they left it to me, to dispose of this stuff properly. I was content shlepping these bags to Staples to get shredded, but my dad was adamant, he wanted someone to come to his place to shred the documents or, at least, pick up the bags to bring them to be shredded somewhere securely. And he insisted on a reputable company. So I immediately thought of Shred-It, as I've heard about it for years and I know it's been around a long time. I think Shred-It is more accustomed to larger scale jobs, as their system to set up an appointment seems more catered to dealing with businesses, but they DO do residential jobs. My dad tried calling them on the phone to set something up a few months ago but they sent him emails to fill out and there were a few hoops to jump through (not a lot, but some), and he just couldn't deal with it (hence, leaving the job to me). I completed the emails and all the authorization stuff and arranged an appointment for the company to come by and do their magic. It wasn't cheap. The price was somewhere between $250-300 for the house visit. We didn't have that many stacks of documents, really (although they were very heavy when my dad put them in two huge garbage bags). I was told on the phone that this base price covered X amount of pounds of documents (I forget the precise amount, but I weighed our two garbage bags and it was WAY under the allotted amount), and I was advised that they'd come with a locked box on wheels and they'd take all the paperwork away, locked in these boxes. I was also advised to have the documents separated into piles of 30 pounds (or less). (In retrospect, I'm not sure why they asked us to do this, as when they arrived, they put all the papers in one locked box). Anyhow, they gave me an appointment date, about 10 days after I completed the emails. I contacted them two days prior to that date, to get a time they'd be arriving, and they said "in the afternoon". (So, no concrete time window. My folks and I decided to stay home that entire afternoon to ensure we don't miss them). On the day in question, a man in a large truck parked outside our door. He was super nice. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a language issue, but we all did our best. He was incredibly strong, carrying this big locked box up the stairs (luckily, we have an elevator in the back, leading to the garage and back alley. No way could he have brought that big box back down the stairs after putting our loads of documents in it. In retrospect, I was surprised they didn't ask about stairways in all the emails exchanged leading up to this job. Hmmmm.....). As mentioned, this guy (I think his name was Savard, but I could be wrong) was SO nice and friendly, and since this was a super small job, he was done in 5 minutes, putting all these papers in the big lockbox. I went with him on the elevator and walked with him around the back alley to his truck in front, and we were talking about the Habs. I appreciated how he didn't laugh at my bastardized French. (We both love the Habs! That helped!). Once at the truck, I said goodbye, and from our window, my dad was watching, and he thought he saw the guy shredding the documents in the back of the truck (I don't think this is the case, but my dad was happy to see whatever he saw, and that's all that matters to me). All in all, the process was fairly easy and quite smooth. I'd definitely recommend Shred-It for larger-scale shredding jobs, but for small jobs, just know that it's expensive. But for many people, knowing it's reliable and secure, it's worth it. read more