Portland Disposal & Recycling

This place is awful… they have missed trash pickup at our house over 50% of the time for the past three months. Their excuse… we have a new driver. They refuse to come back. This is the problem with an unregulated monopoly… they know they don’t have to care about customer service one bit. The city should disbar them from any future contracts. THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY AWFUL. If I could give them zero stars I would

No complaints, been in their service area for four years and had our first missed pickup. They are a bit difficult to get hold of, but after leaving a message and getting a callback the next day they agreed to just pick up our extra garbage on our next scheduled pickup at no extra charge. I found the customer service to be quite nice and helpful, maybe I just called on a good day.

No harsh words for the pick up employees, this is all about the (lack) of customer service. We were switched to this company earlier this year and the lack of communication at that time was noticeable, but did not interfere with much then, and, since we have no choice of service providers, what could we do. It became an issue yesterday when my husband let me know that the garbage hadn’t been picked up (although the recycling had) that day or for the past three weeks — wtf?! I looked back in my email and realized I had not paid the bill, which was totally on me — however, what company stops providing a service without notifying the client it is going to happen? I had received no notification of a missed or late payment, or that the service was going to be stopped. I promptly paid the bill as it was an oversight on my part and called today to find out what was going on, only to be told it would be TWO WEEKS before our garbage was scheduled to next be picked up — unless we wanted to pay a fee to have it done earlier of course. Not only was the woman who answered unhelpful, she was rude and took no responsibility for their lack of communication, including stating it wasn’t her/​their problem that we had not received their notice in the mail. With the ease of electronic notifications and such in this day, it is incomprehensible that a company would be this inept at communication and provide no level of costumer service. And, of course, the cherry on top is that, by paying the bill, I essentially paid for services which had not been provided at the time and won’t be retroactively reimbursed — nice way to scam your clients…

The people that you deal with are THE WORST.
They will hang up on you, I assume because they are looking for an answer to your question, intead of just politely asking if you will wait in hold like a regular human would. I know this because they say,“wait and I’ll ask my manager.” (in a disturbingly rude tone) then CLICK.
They routeenly find ways to interrupt, disconnect a call, make snide remarks under their breath like «OMG people these days.» And «it’s like you’re slow» and all because you asked a simple question like «is there any way I could get a second recycling can but only for six months, there will only be extra people renting my property for about that long.» Wouldn’t it be easier to give a straightforward answer like, «yes»? Or,“no but you can change it for a year.” Sweet baby Jesus it’s not that hard. Somehow they turned that into a 20 minute conversation, hung up on me twice and literally yelled periodically. If only we could just pay a insane hobo to run their office, things would go swimmingly.
Their general lack of good nature and common sense knows no bounds, and the fact is that they don’t care. They’ve got a monopoly. That’s right, if you have the misfortune of having to deal with them, then that’s your only option.
I’m writing this with hopes that you will learn from my dealings with them. You cannot go to other conpanies, as they’ll happily remind you that if you dont like it,“too bad, you have to go through us but if you don’t then you’ll be fined by the city.“
It’s unfortunate that they abuse their power, the upside is that you can just never ask questions, don’t ever disagree with or clarify billing options or any other action a customer can usually take with a customer service department without walking on egg shells.
Upside: they will remove your garbage, recycling and yard debris.
You can schedule extra pickups or have them remove certain types of items if you need that done.
Downside: according to my wife «I think it’s an office full of women going through varying stages of menopause or PMS».

I am amazed at how much i pay every month for this. Obviously, they have no competition and i have no other options but to use them so they can allow them self to do a bad job.
Trash is rarely fully picked up and when they do, some is spread around in the street.
When you call them, they absolutely dont care. Why would they? Nobody else will come pick up garbage.
Ever since adams changed the trash to every other week, this city has been littered. I ll pay twice as much if someone does a decent job at this.

I prefer giving good reviews, getting a one star experience would be sooooo much nicer to just forget. Unfortunately, I have to deal with them every week.
They’re always leaving my stuff at the curb. Wether it’s recycling, garbage or even garden debris. I call them, and they’re very rude. They make excuses, that the can is too heavy, or that the recycling has plastic bags mixed in. There’s 0% chance that I can lift that can while the garbage man can’t. Also, I’m like one of those recycling nerds. You know, I know the locations for battery recycling and what the recycling code represents. Also, I think it’s just polite to wash out the debris or fluids from food containers. So I would never mix garbage into my recycling and there’s no use in throwing recyclables in the trash. They just do a terrible job, and God forbid you end up talking to that southern woman in the office there. Worst. Customer. Service. Ever.
Bottom line: it’s iffy (sometimes) wether or not they’ll take you’re garbage/​compost/​recycling. Should you find yourself needing to contact them over the phone, brace yourself; it’s ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ customer service. And that’s a generous statement. It’s a weekly game of roulette for me.

I do’t have any problem with the guys who come to pick up the trash. That is always fine. It’s the people in the office. They speak in such a snippy way as to transfer the feeling that what they say is it! I was delivered a much smaller Debris box than I ordered as they claimed the driver could not fit this average sized box in my long drive way and still get out… yet, all he need to do is leave it at an angle. They were super quick to charge my card the high fee, but here it is over a week later and the refund has still not posted to my account! Yuk! I do not like them at all!

I never thought I’d need to rate a waste removal company, but these guys are horrible. We set up new service with them, they told us to roll out the cans on 3÷23… Guess what? No one comes, and they don’t even have our account on file. Our cans were filled by previous owner with garbage and they said that’s OK to, just put a note on it… NOPE, after I call about no one picking it up, they tell me they’d NEVER say anything like that; great, so now I’m either an idiot or a liar… thanks. PLUS, when they actually DO come, they like to leave passive aggressive notes in ALL CAPS if the garbage isn’t arranged to their liking. I wish there was an alternative, because these people obviously do not care about their customers. It’s just garbage man… I pay you, you pick it up reliably… Only place I’ve ever had a problem with a garbage company is here in Portland, OR.

I called their office today to inform them that someone had taken one of my yellow glass recycling bins from the street. She asked if I had more than one? I replied, ‘yes’. Her response, ‘well the driver probably took it. You’re only supposed to have one.’ I said, ‘Really, I’ve had two yellow bins since I’ve been in the house, 11 years now’.
I told her I am filling both bins on a weekly basis. The woman did not care. Her response was to get a milk crate or bucket and she’d mail me a sticker that said ‘glass’. [Great, now the homeless guy will be walking around with a bucket that has a pretty sticker on it that says ‘glass’]
Furthermore, she went on to say that they are out of yellow recycling bins.
Ahhhh, it is clear now. They are out, so they’ll take from the street if they see multiples, to recoup their losses. Funny, as I had them drop off that second bin almost a decade ago. They even replaced it about six years ago.
Poor customer service. Plain and simple.
Sure wish there was another option on a waste/​recycling service for us to choose from.

Monopolies should be illegal. I had my can out the night prior, but when it was not picked up, I thought it was a delayed schedule due to the prior holiday. So I waited. Next week, no pickup so I called. I made sure I did not raise my voice when I was told they will not be picking it up. «I was suppose to call within 24hrs». I started into my rant about Monopolies in a calm voice and she hung up on me. I used Grutters sanitary for 12 years, I also have a 2 plex that is serviced by Sunset. They have hands down much better customer service. Even when you call Portland Dis, to just ask a question, they seam irritated and unfriendly. This is my only venting method due to the monopoly.

Think about this, if there is a product you are required to buy, and only one person who you are required to purchase it from, what kind of quality do you think that service will be?
If you guessed the worst kind, you would be correct.
This is what you get from PS&R. Rude people who don’t answer the phone and who aren’t willing to do the work they are likely paid to do.
I have decades of complaints, lets group them by category.
Missing pickups.
So often (like every third or so) pickup is missed. It’s usually trash (which is picked up only once every other week in Portland) and thus I have to call to sek them why. Of course they are supposed to be in the office until 1600 but by 1540 they have checked out and put the machine on and don’t answer. When you finally do get a response they will tell you they will charge you to come by and pick up what they should have the first time.
Dumped Garbage
Messy is the best word I can describe. I never overfill my trash (a hard thing to do when you have two children in diapers and only pickup every other week) but they always seem to find ways to spill things.
It does not help they often let the can rill down the hill and usually into my neighbor’s car.
Not answering the phone
Like I stated before, they usually check out early when it comes to helping people over the phone. If you go in person (and that’s a drive from SE) you get in, usually, but on the phone it’s 10 minutes before the hour Monday thru Thursday and on Friday it’s between 20 and 30 minutes before. This makes paying your bill or getting a missed pickup difficult and considering you only get trash pickup every other week and miss a payment, you won’t get trash for over a month.
A MONTH.
All because they are too lazy to stick around until 1600 like their hours say they are.
Finally there is the cost. I can let my trash pile up (and I have to again every other week fro trash and two kids in diapers means LOTS of garbage) and go to the dump on Oregon City and pay something like $ 30.
They charge $ 45 for half that amount.
When they bother to pick it up.
So I suggest if you aren’t a renter, just don’t use them. Any means necessary, just avoid them.
And if you ARE a renter, sorry, the law requires you to use them.
Nice huh?

I don’t submit bad reviews except when they are 100% warranted. Over the last couple years I’ve had poor customer service from Portland Disposal, but it wasn’t until my last call to them that I decided to write this review.
After putting me on hold, I patiently waited for them to take my call. When they finally picked up, the person I spoke with was short and trying to rush the conversation. I was informed that in a couple months they were doing away with the auto payment feature by credit card… really? What company this day in age is going backwards with their payment options?
Apparently, I can still have an auto-​pay, it will have to come out of my bank account. Fine. So I won’t get my miles. Can they help me update my payment method? Apparently not. She directed me to the website to update that info.
Once the customer service person practically shoved me off the phone, I went to the site to update my info. But I need my account number to register. I don’t know about any of you, but I don’t know the account number to my garbage bill off the top of my head, so I wasn’t able to update it after all.
I wish I had an option to who picked up my garbage…

For the past few years I had been satisfied with Portland Disposal & Recycling, but my recent experience forced a change in opinion. When they missed a pick-​up and I called to notify them of the missed pick-​up, I was flabbergasted by their response. They insisted that they had not missed a pick-​up, but that I had not left my trash out on the curb. Despite being 100% positive that my trash had been on the curb since the prior evening, they continued to imply that they were right and I was wrong. They later suggested that if I did set it out that it may have obstructed from view by my recycling bin. Give me a break! Just admit that you missed a pick-​up (I understand, it happens sometimes) and make amends for it.

What can I say other than they simply suck. Terrible customer service. They often miss pick-​ups. They often don’t take all the trash. They often will not take glass recycling. But what are you going to do? Nope, nothing you can do. Awesome.

I love this company. The nicest people answer the phones and make all my worries go away. I recently got out of sync with the garbage schedule and now find myself with two extra bags of garbage. No problem. They will pick it up at the next scheduled garbage day, no extra charge!

They have missed about 10% of all schedule trash pickups.
Most recently they missed last thursday. After checking the delivery schedule I called (next tuesday) and they «can’t make it until your next scheduled delivery»…another week and a half. Oh, but I can leave an extra bag!
Uh, okay. so where do I put my garbage in the meantime?

If I could rate them lower, I would. We have almost never had a good experience with these guys for the entire 7 years we’ve lived in Portland. Their customer service is often quite surly and unhelpful. They were often over billing me and I had to call each month to make them adjust the bill. In almost all other aspects they are completely inflexible. They remind me very much of a government agency (think, DMV) except they are a private company with a pre-​set service area so people really have no choice but to use them.
We were really sad when we left Portland for Seattle but the one bright spot was that we didn’t have to deal with PDR anymore. I cancelled my account and made sure that they would do one more pick-​up. It never got done. I called almost a month later to ask them to pick up one more time like they said they would, and that I had already paid for. They wouldn’t do it unless I paid another fee to have to driver do a «special» pick-​up. Wasn’t even worth arguing about, just one more F-​U from PDR as a parting gift I guess.

This company drives me nuts! It’s a RECYCLING company in PORTLAND that still relies on paper invoices, and snail mail. No online bill pay, no payment over the phone by credit card, and no paperless options. It’s the only bill I still have to pay the old-​fashioned way. Grrrr.

The tragedy is that I cannot give them zero stars.
1) We’re setup on auto-​pay. My wife’s credit card was stolen and, after having them as our provider without *ever* having a credit card issue, we were charged an outrageous amount of money. The woman on the phone was rude and unprofessional.
2) They have trouble with their billing system, as they’ve repeatedly billed us for services we didn’t have. (Either this or they are crooks).
3) Extremely inefficient and very long waits on the phone.
How they are allowed to operate is a total mystery. They should be shut down.

Nothing irritates me more than having a utility monopoly (in this case for garbage services) that seems uninterested in modern business practices or customer service. If they had ANY competitors I’m sure they would operate differently.
Several times these folks have not picked up our trash and when we called them they said we hadn’t paid our bill (we had-​they would find us in the system each time) and when you call after hours-​which are limited-​they have only a lousy voice mail system and they don’t return calls. Or have online or telephone bill pay.
I just called them about another missed pickup and their computers are down (??) so the best they could do is instruct us to call back «when things are working again». Not, can I take a message and call you back or anything. Super helpful.
They at least get one star because the guys driving the trucks have always been nice and I haven’t had any issues with our cans being left weird places