How much do people pay for an ECUA garbage pick up?

Our project is to the point that in March we will need to have a garbage pickup. I have tried calling since 9 this morning and have no idea how many times they pick up a week because they said they are experiencing high call volume.

In the meantime, I took some bags of garbage over to the Milton dump and could not believe how easy it was to drop off four large garbage bags for only five dollars.

I tried calling government offices and got tape recorded messages. I called an engineer who told me four hours ago he would call me back in ten minutes and no call. I honestly do not know how folks get anything done around here. I guess it is the German in me which respects efficiency and customer service........At least the water service was good this morning as we got a 400 buck water bill after a water line bust in July and my neighbor shut it off, but some vandals spray painted faces over the winter cover of the water main input and we suspect they turned the water slightly on.......probably the ones who broke the two inch pipe, but heck the plumber was called ten days ago and said he was fixing broken pipes. Maybe that cold spell has everybody slowing down.

2seaoat wrote:Our project is to the point that in March we will need to have a garbage pickup.  I have tried calling since 9 this morning and have no idea how many times they pick up a week because they said they are experiencing high call volume.  

In the meantime, I took some bags of garbage over to the Milton dump and could not believe how easy it was to drop off four large garbage bags for only five dollars.  

I tried calling government offices and got tape recorded messages.  I called an engineer who told me four hours ago he would call me back in ten minutes and no call.  I honestly do not know how folks get anything done around here.  I guess it is the German in me which respects efficiency and customer service........At least the water service was good this morning as we got a 400 buck water bill after a water line bust in July and my neighbor shut it off, but some vandals spray painted faces over the winter cover of the water main input and we suspect they turned the water slightly on.......probably the ones who broke the two inch pipe, but heck the plumber was called ten days ago and said he was fixing broken pipes.  Maybe that cold spell has everybody slowing down.

Navarre garbage service changes from Waste Management to Waste Pro...the transition phase has not gone smoothly. Many patrons are furious that garbage service was interrupted by the transition and snowdays.

My neighbors have ECUA on their garbage cans, is waste pro connected to them? They still have not called back. I have never seen anything like this. Most communities do not allow a garbage company to bid on a pick up contract unless they have sufficient customer service, and waiting four or five hours is pretty much allowing big corporations to come in and collect money but not provide service. The answering service was from outside Florida. What a mess. Our society in government and the private sector is crumbling from lack of intelligence and efficiency. The water people from the git go have been great......Santa Rosa County.....not so much.

What number are you calling for ECUA Customer Service>? Here we call 476-0480 and I've never had to wait for a callback, maybe just got lucky.

I didn't realize they pick up in Navarre -- but someone should be able to tell you.

I have monthly service that includes water & sewer, not a "per pickup" charge for garbage service.

Hope you got dispensation for that pipe bursting last summer. ECUA allows a one-time waiver of something huge like that. We had a big leak in our main we didn't learn about until after accruing something like a $1,200 bill a couple of years back. We had to apply for the waiver, and they forgave it, just charging same as the prior month.

Nope......commercial property......no breaks. Not one person called back today. I have never seen anything like this. Heading back to Illinois in the morning to get shots on Wed. but it is very frustrating dealing with folks who simply do not care to even pretend that customer service is important.

That's just weird. Never, ever had trouble reaching ECUA Customer Service. Hope you'll get a chance to try them again before you leave. In any event, safe travels back to IL.

It is probably not weird as the tape directs people with accounts into a whole different phone tree than those who do not choose that option and are trying to set up a new account.  I will spend the next week in Illinois trying to get information, but no call from the garbage message, and no return call from the engineer after being told that it would be ten minutes.  I do think the utilities are getting slammed because of pipe breakage issues from the cold weather.  I hope you are right that during normal times, they are responsive.

2seaoat wrote:It is probably not weird as the tape directs people with accounts into a whole different phone tree than those who do not choose that option and are trying to set up a new account.  I will spend the next week in Illinois trying to get information, but no call from the garbage message, and no return call from the engineer after being told that it would be ten minutes.  I do think the utilities are getting slammed because of pipe breakage issues from the cold weather.  I hope you are right that during normal times, they are responsive.

My garbage pickup is City, but ECUA does water & sewer. When my water pipe broke sometime late last year, I called them and asked for a manual meter reading. They came out...by that time I had a serious leak...they didn't bother to tell me what they read...sent me a letter a few days later verifying the leak. I hired 2 people to dig and my plumber made the repair. I had stayed in contact with the ECUA throughout the ordeal because I knew it was the period when they set sewer rates based on consumption. So, after all was said & done, I received a bill with about $20 in water and $106 in sewer. I called again...got that straightened out...and then the same person I'd been dealing with called me and asked me to rewrite the note I enclosed with my bill because she'd lost it. I was picking up my granddaughter and told her, not so politely, that I had to go. I am NOT impressed by the ECUA.

We have still not received a return call. I will call on Monday, but I do not expect much better service. We for years complained about mediacom, yet we called them about switching our internet to another location, and the next day we took that modem to the location and a technician had it installed the next day. I was very impressed, and they had follow up calls to survey their customer service. I gave high marks as it was such a distinct difference from engineers and garbage companies who do not return calls.

Our ECUA trash service here in Pace runs about $70 a quarter.   I've never had any problem getting them on the phone & dealing with customer service issues ... the very few I've had.

As to the dump .... we go there for the free paint & stain.  They've got tons of it set off to the side in a separate covered area.  Many cans (both gal & 5 gal) near-full or unopened.

You can pick up partial containers of yard stuff there too .... fertilizer, bug killers, etc.   And if you're missing a computer cord or component ... they've got lots of that stuff too.

Anyways ... I've had few issues or complaints with ECUA trash service.  I must say though ... I do miss the trash service we used to have in Texarkana.  City run, city trucks, city employees .... old school. They would take anything you put out.   And no provided cans ...you put your own bin out & the workers actually stepped off the back of the truck & emptied your stuff in.   Plus pick up whatever you might have piled up beside the cans that didn't fit.   We always made sure to remember the city trash guys at xmas & bring 'em out some treats to take home.  But like a lot of other places ... Texarkana finally sold their trucks, reassigned the trash workers, and contracted it out to Waste Management ([i]lots of picky rules after that happened)

Thanks, Emerald, for the "good ol' days" story -- one that most of us would've probably never thought much about, but that's certainly iconic when it comes to remembering the era of true customer service.

You also took me down memory lane -- well, memory alley, really -- to my childhood home in Richmond, VA, where we actually had loose gravel alleyways behind our houses, hidden behind tall shrubbery at the back yard border.  That's where the trash cans lived and were serviced and thus we never saw -- nor obviously truly appreciated -- our trash haulers.  Unsung heroes, no doubt, based on what I saw back there when a friend and I occasionally walked the alley after school.
(That was back when there was little fear of abduction by strangers prowling streets and alleyways.  How free we were!!!)

I will work on garbage this week. All I want to find out is what the cost is for a second provided garbage can, how many times do they pick up a week, and what a dumpster would cost as an alternative. Everybody has me convinced that these folks have really good customer service for existing customers, but setting up a new account has been more difficult than anywhere we have tried to set up the same over the last forty three years.

I may have to rent a mini excavator early next week and set some items in the ground. I am sure with rest I can still do the work. Some of these excavators have fm radio, AC, and really comfortable seats.....it is getting in and out where I am having problems. I know ......hire someone to screw it up and take months to get work done......no I have learned that I operate equipment better and without exception mistakes will be made.

Good news.  I got through the phone tree and found a person who gave me the information.  My guess was with the freezing weather people were flooding them with water break issues.  I found out that it will be $55 for one can and one recycle can per quarter.  I want additional garbage cans and they will allow three additional cans for $10 apiece per quarter.  It was very simple to get this information which I expected two weeks ago, but got no return calls and got hung up on while I was on hold.  All is good.

We got some updated maps from Santa Rosa County, got sub contractors to commit to finish their work by next week and we hope we can get the occupancy permit next week.  Today in the rain my wife and I looked at all the work we had done in the last three years, and how that hard physical work probably extended my life, but I am pretty much done now and my wife will still have to clean up a few loose ends after I pass, buy I simply love the weather in Feb and March and hope to enjoy the same next month when the grandkids come down for a week on the beach.

The Park model was vandalized again. The screen door to the porch we built was cut by a sharp rock and we suspect a kid crawled into the porch. Nothing seems to be missing, and I am not going to make a police report when we can fix that screen in about ten minutes and have the screen material already. My wife found the sharp rock at the top of the stairs where it looked like the kids climbed into the porch.