Sunset Scavenger Company

Super annoying as they have missed garbage pickup three times. My neighbors trash is collected, but somehow mine is always missed. Customer service is not very helpful as they give you a generic apology and states that a truck will come by. Usually I have to call twice to get them to come back and collect trash. Compost and recycling driver are always on point and collects, but not the garbage driver. Why is this?

This is a review about the driver on Geary Blvd and 30^th ave Monday 11÷2÷15 I was leaving for work and saw my cans were toppled over where all the bags of garbage and recycling were on the curb/​street. It’s 6:30a and its raining/​dark, I’m picking up all the soaking wet paper and garbage back in the bins. The guy obviously saw me did not help me nor asked me if I needed help or asked if I was ok. If I was the driver and saw a woman alone picking up garbage I would help!

HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE SERVICE!!! If there was another company I could go to I would but because they’re the only game in town I’m stuck with them.
My sad story started on Friday, which is my garbage pickup day. Garbage is put out on Thursday evening so that it’s ready nice and early on Friday. I get to work and later that morning I get a phone call that our garbage and recycling were not picked up but luckily enough our compost was. Not only that but it seems our neighbor’s and ours were the ONLY garbage not picked up on our whole block. I call customer service, get a profuse amount of apologies and a promise that a driver will be sent back out to pick up the garbage, for us to leave the cans out. Well I get home from work on Friday and no one has picked up our garbage or recycling. I go to call and of course they are closed already and won’t be open again till MONDAY! I figure, maybe I’m just being impatient and they will surely come this weekend at some point after all the customer service agent assured me it would be picked up.
Fast forward to Monday, as of this morning still no pick up. I call again and now I’m very put off since people are now dumping their trash in our cans. I once again speak to customer service (different agent) and they are again very apologetic and will make sure someone picks that up TODAY! She apologizes again and is very sympathetic. I think fine it’ll get taken care of today for sure. I know customer service closes at 4:30pm and I don’t want a repeat of Friday I check with my kids to see if the trash has been picked up just in case I need to make another call. SURPRISE, SURPRISE the trash is still there!
Now it’s my neighbors turn to call and she is told «oh sorry all the drivers are gone it won’t be able to be done till tomorow» seriously!!! Oh but we won’t be charged for any overages or contamination because of people dumping in our cans… really? Oh why thank you so FREAKING much! This wouldn’t even be an issue if our trash was picked up.
Now before you say, «there has to be a reason the trash wasn’t picked up» «maybe they didn’t recycle properly» or something along those lines. Well thankfully for our sake that is not the reason. In fact according to the driver our garbage was picked up… yeah, I beg to differ. The only thing we can think of is that with all the trash cans he was emptying he just plan goofed, thought he emptied ours and moved on… simple oversight. That is understandable, after all being a trash collector is a hard job (not being sarcastic) BUT that I’ve been trying to get this taken care of since Friday all to no avail that is what is ticking me off. But let me not sort my trash/​recycling/​compost correctly or pay my bill late and I’d get cutoff so fast I wouldn’t know what hit me!
Come on Sunset Scavenger/​Recology SF get your act together, take pride in your company and your work. Do your job and keep our streets clean if not let someone else takeover the contract.
NOW PICK UP OUR FREAKING TRASH!

This is a review for the «Recycle My Junk» program. They say you can schedule a junk pick-​up for up to 10 items. I did so and listed 4 items for junk pickup. I figured I had 6 junk items to spare so I left 3 additional small items, for a total of 7 items. When it came time for them to pick up the items, they not only refused the 3 extra items, they only took 3 of the original 4 items I listed. I called customer service (waited on hold for over 10 minutes) and they claimed all original 4 items were picked up. Not the case. I understand not accepting the 3 extra items I put out but for crying out loud, please pick up all the stuff originally listed. Between the junk collectors and the regular garbage people, it’s a lazy, over-​paid, incompetent bunch or workers.

Recology truck driver trespassed our property!
I wish I could give a zero or negative star because this company doesn’t even worth any star! They don’t care about their customers at all.
One truck driver sneaked into our front yard and pee into the portable toilet parked there. He thought no one would know but actually we all saw him in through our living room window.
When we confronted him, he claimed he didn’t do anything wrong and it was not a big deal. He even threatened us by coming back to our house!
We called his supervisor (fyi, who is also the district manager) and did NOT get a formal apology! The driver lied by saying that he got permission from construction workers, whereas in fact no workers were on site!
This company hires dishonest people. The management is no good, lack of discipline and is corrupted.

I agree with another recent reviewer about the weekly bin pickup service. I just cannot understand how they can miss picking up the bins. Either the person is not paying attention or is just too in a hurry! It is not the first time our green bin was missed necessitating in my having to call Recology so that they could put in a ticket for the driver to pass by again! These people are paid a nice salary so why cannot they do a job befitting said salary? My goodness if I had come home after their working hours I would have been stuck with a full bin of stinky food scraps. Really Recology do something to get better workers.

The Garbage business needs competition! Sunset Scavenger/​SF Recology is so bad it’s ridiculous. This is where competition would change this company.
I’ve had to repeatedly call for service — exchange cans, don’t leave a mess, etc. they don’t even pay any attention to customers. I can’t tell you how many times the trash collectors leave a mess & don’t even bother picking/​cleaning up their mess.
And I have to pay for this service???

Being a property owner in San Francisco, I qualified for two ‘Recycle My Junk’ pick ups (this goes for all property owners every year). Since Salvation Army Donation Pick Up Truck flaked on me THREE times, I thought this method with Recology was great.
I hired a couple of muscle men to haul to the curb an old couch, entertainment center, dining room table with 6 chairs, two end tables, brooms, tools, etc. I had to run a few errands in the afternoon, when I got back home, to my amazement 75% of it was all gone. I apparently interrupted a man who wanted this old dresser (that actually was in the basement). He said he wanted to surprise his teenage daughter with it. I said Sure! It warmed my heart that actually people found some good use out of my disguarded items. So there Salvation Army! I got one up on you!

This is a disgusting company and should be stopped the taxpayers of SF deserve better than a no bid contract system that costs sf taxpayers more money than it should. Open bidding for sf garbage contracts would be a vast improvement over the current system.
To learn more visit:

I had a bad back moving the items in the street and they didn’t pick-​up most of the items, most of the heavier ones were left behind. I had to remove the items from the streets and reschedule.

These people are great — from the service I get on the phone to the guys driving the trucks! Twice I’ve asked if I could bring a stack of big branches from my backyard that are too many for the green can. The response I got was, «Where are they? I’ll help you drag them out to the front!» They’re courteous, helpful, and take their job seriously, never grumbling about what people may think of them because they haul trash. To show my appreciation, I always try to leave a plastic bottle or two filled with fresh cold water (from the tap) on top of the cans when it’s a warm day.
And I’ve also gotten great service from on the phone, either about billing (patient, friendly etc.), getting a new can, changing to a smaller black container to save $, using the website if its changed or when I forgot how, and making it easy to arrange the semiannual pickups for big items. It’s a great company, and the price is right — practically free for two of the three bins!
Also I like that I can autopay the monthly bill with a credit card at no extra charge so I earn miles!

The customer service is always awful. They just not capable of doing the easiest job ever. I wonder how they got hired in the first place.

The online payment system is seriously flawed. It says the payment went through and I later find out after a lien is put on the house and the landlord contacted. I then log in and see very vague note saying it was «not permitted». Sometimes it goes through other times it does not. It is completely random as if they are TRYING to trick me into thinking I paid the bill so they can add fees.
So every time I make an online payment I have to check back everyday for a week to make sure it was not returned as they do not ever notify me with any sort of email or mail.
The system is primitive and constantly gives serious issues. They will not remedy the issue because it is profitable for them.

Too bad there isn’t another choice for a garbage company. Every morning on garbage day you can look down the street and see debris all over the street and sidewalk. If your cans get blown over in the wind: they won’t touch em. If the lids are partially open because you had to cram too much garbage in: they won’t touch em. They just don’t give a damn and will keep driving at any opportunity.

It’s upsetting to read reviews on how bad the drivers are. I have lived in San Francisco for only 5 years, however, I have lived in 4 different neighborhoods since then. Each place I have lived at in the city, my garbage has rarely been missed, and if it has, it’s not that big of a deal, I just call the company and they send a driver back that day or the day after. The drivers have always been very nice and the only time I can picture a driver giving attitude is if the customer is being disrespectful or rude (one of my neighbors hated this company but he was a jerk himself). These guys have a hard job, especially when they have to go up and down the hilly streets of the city and go out of their trucks and run up and down steps to grab the garbage. It only makes sense to pay extra if there are extra trash flowing out of the bins or
As for the prices, it is pretty decent if you have less garbage and more recycle/​compost. I moved here from San Diego and it was expected that this city is the most Greenest city… and we pay for it. Sunset Scavenger teaches us how to recycle and compost, which, before moving here, I didn’t even know what was compostable or not. We also get free pickup of furniture twice a year. Which is suuuper helpful since I have moved in and out apartments every year since I have lived here. People don’t know this and that’s why they complain about Sunset. Try living in Daly City and they don’t have composting anywhere or free pick up for furniture. I admit, the only time I had an expensive bill, was when I had a large garbage bin, but that was for a house with an in-​law with 6 people who didn’t know how to recycle. If you are complaining that the garbage bill is too expensive, you shouldn’t be living in the city, bc SF is expensive in general and if you know how to recycle and compost, you can have a lower bill.

The service is as good as to be expected from a trash company, as in, they pick it up.
The problems arise with their customer service and payment processing systems. They over bill, sometimes don’t bill because their systems do not work, and then put liens on peoples homes for small amounts of money because of their mistakes. I would say that if you are forced to use this company (because they happen to have a nice guaranteed contract with the city) then triple check that your payments are actually being processed correctly on their end. If not, you will likely end up with a lien on your home, tons of fees, and having to deal with some of the worst customer service people around.

Sorry, but this company simply overcharges its customers. It can do so because they have a monopoly on trash removal in SF.
In our case, we signed up for key service, where they are given a key, they enter the backyard and empty the trash. Of course you pay extra. No problem, however, in the end they added a «distance» charge, a charge for (are you ready for this?) turning the key. Yes, they charge for using the wrist when locking the door. They then double everything because the green cans and black cans are different trucks. I could go with more discrepancies, but in the end our bill doubled due to these add-​on charges. And what of your dispute? No recourse when they are the only game in town.

Watch your bills from them like a hawk folks. These people overcharged me $ 50 a bill for over six months on some clerical error. If I didn’t check up on them and call to question it I would have been paying hundreds annually over my normal rates until who knows when?!
The extra star is for the nice lady on the phone who corrected it once I called them out on it.
Waiting for the credit now…

5 Stars for the AWESOME Sunset Scavenger drivers who do an excellent job picking up our trash, recycling, and compost, year after year.
1 Star for some of the inane administrative executions by the SSC. After over 2 decades they changed our pick-​up day from Fridays to Tuesdays and we were NEVER adequately notified of this!!! NO phone calls (even though the SSC office calls you during the Holiday Season to remind you of revised pick-​up days), NO notice on our bills, and NO mail correspondence to communicate this change. SERIOUSLY?!
The only thing we did get was a written notice stapled to our trash can last week informing us. Well, guess what? It FREAKING RAINED cats and dogs for the first time at the end of the week in SF and what was left was an unintelligible piece of soggy paper that pretty much disintegrated when you opened the lid. For all we knew it might have been something thrown off of someone’s windshield.
NOT the level or quality of communication one would expect from the management of a company like this!!!

As another commenter writes «Is there any good reason the trucks can’t pick up the trash in the afternoon?»
How do you feel after being woken from slumber by garbage pickup?
I’m now in my third SF home in a decade and as with each previous location I suffer through multiple weekly pickups in adjoining blocks. Tue its my street, Wed its the cross street, Thu its the next block north. ALL starting around 6am.
I can understand a preference for early pickup on busy city streets (though many time I’ve seen lanes blocked on Fell street and elsewhere mid-​morning), but here we’re talking quiet residential street.
Why make us suffer through intrusive noise multiple days each week, in pre-​waking (at least for people like who work till 11pm most nights) hours? Noise made worse by ridiculous system of single person operator — Stop, idle… get out and walk to trash… load…walk trash back… walk back to truck… move 25 ft… repeat and annoy for the other side of the street. Repeat and annoy 30 minutes later for the Green bins.
Recology…take a look at how trash is collected in my mum’s street in Sydney. A reasonably silenced truck with remote controlled arm cruises down, picks up each of the cans, moves on. Its done in a quarter of the time and a fraction of the intrusion, in a single pass.
SUGGESTIONS:
1) Please rotate pickup times across different neighborhoods so that 6−8am pickups occur only once per month
and/​or
2) Please rotate routes so that we can enjoy 6 peaceful mornings at least 3 weeks of the month
3) As you replace your crazy noisy fleet of trucks, consider alternatives to one man manual operation
Can there be any doubt that taking these achievable steps would foster conditions for greater happiness in San Francisco?