Power of surveys-kind of long

[Ericandjenng]

Hi. I think the budget board is the appropriate place for this.

I found out today how seriously some companies take those surveys that sometimes come through your email. Alot of them I just disregard but I do complete the ones through e-rewards. I had one recently for Waste Management. I can't remember whether it was straight from them or through e-rewards.

I have used WM for 5+ years and got very frustrated when my last e-bill arrived. They have continued to add on various fees pushing the cost up. Some of these fees have just gotten ridiculous--an admin fee, a gas surcharge, replacement fee...

Well, I wrote them an email and complained. I signed up for the e-bill which was supposed to eliminate one of the fees...it was still there and now not only do you have to sign up for the e-bill there, you have to have automatic payments. Could I have missed this is the fine print? Yes, but I understood it to be signing up for the e-bill would save the admin fee. Then there was the replacement fee that I had not noticed before. The response was they add that to all new accounts...?!? I have had an account for more than 5 years. It's supposed to pay for a replacement trash can every so often (3 years, I think they said)...I haven't had a new one to my knowledge since I started their service. Oh and if it gets stolen (still don't understand why someone would steal a trash can and they have serial numbers on them assigned to specific customers), you have to pay $60 to replace it.

Needless to say, I wasn't happy with their response. They removed the admin fees but that was it. My DH and I were discussing whether to stop the service and have him take our stuff to the dump himself--it's really a time issue with two kids, two jobs... Then the survey came...my answers were not flattering and I was very specific on why I had been pleased with the service until recently when the costs were just outweighing the service. We have another month to decide before the next quarterly payment is due.

Well, today I received an email from WM. They'd received the survey info and suddenly they are going all out to make amends because I had stated that I "probably would NOT recommend" their service. They are going to refund the admin fees since that one started, they are going to refund the replacement agreement fees and get this! lower my monthly service charge slightly. I find it interesting that whoever responded to my email just kind of blew me off but this survey made them take notice.

Guess my point is you never know when your voice makes a difference.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

 

[NMW]

My mom got a phone call from a VP at Directv after she filled out an email survey asking her why she stopped their service. He offered her A LOT, and I mean A LOT to make up for the crappy service and installation she had and to come back to them as a customer. I was stunned that she told him "No thanks" she was going to stick with Comcast.

 

[Disney845]

We have WM in our area too, and the bill has slowly been inching up over the last several years, nothing drastic, maybe $6 in 6 years, but still an increase.

We are not in an area that has the WM trash can you are required to have (although my friend about 30 mins north of us just had this implemented in her town, so who knows if it could be coming our way).

My biggest beef with WM is their yard collection day. Our WM schedule is Monday trash, Tuesday recycling (this is free to everyone as I understand it), Wednesday yard debris, Thursday trash, Fri/Sat/Sun nothing. Some weeks they "skip" yard day (no rhyme or reason, no phone message like they sometimes do to advise you of the holiday schedule). It is very frustrating, because it is somewhat of an eye sore if you have yard debris down by the curb and if you were to say put it out over the weekend (when you might be most likely to be trimming bushes/trees, weeding, etc) and they don't pick it up, then you are looking at approx 12 days before they might pick it up again (thus sitting on your grass, and here in FL it can turn the under grass yellow/dry/dead in that time during the summer).