A trash company recently asked our neighborhood to sign a 10-year contract extension. What caught my attention wasn’t the length of the contract. It was the fact that the 10-year deal had absolutely no loyalty benefit.
And that sent me down a rabbit hole that turned into a pretty fascinating customer experience case study.
The 10-Year Proposal
I help manage a small HOA in Westlake outside Austin. Like most neighborhoods, trash service is something that quietly runs in the background.
▪️The truck shows up.
▪️The cans get emptied.
▪️Life goes on.
So when Texas Disposal Systems (TDS) reached out proposing a 10-year contract, their pitch sounded familiar: “We’ve been doing business together for about 20 years, so we’d love to lock in another 10.”
On the surface, that sounds like a loyalty conversation. But after nearly 30 years in business, I’ve learned something about long-term agreements. If someone asks you to commit to 10 years, there’s usually a benefit for that commitment.
- Better pricing
- Rate protection
- Some kind of loyalty advantage
But the proposal we received wasn’t structured that way. It was essentially a steady price increase over the entire term.
🔺No real loyalty benefit.
🔺Just a longer commitment.
🚩 That’s when the red flag went up for me. If you’re asking a customer to commit to 10 years, there should be a reason the customer would want to do that.
Instead, it felt designed to reduce the vendor’s risk, not reward the customer’s loyalty.
The Auto-Renewal Surprise
While reviewing the agreement, I realized there was already an existing contract in place. And like many service agreements, it included an auto-renewal clause.
Before the renewal date, I emailed the TDS representative and told him the board planned to run an RFP and evaluate the market before committing long term. That message went out before the renewal deadline.
No one responded to say: “Just a heads up — the contract auto-renews unless we receive certified notice 90 days prior.”
A few days later we received an email informing us the contract had automatically renewed for another five years. Legally, they may have been within the terms of the agreement.
But from a customer experience perspective, it felt like a trap door.
So We Ran the RFP
Curiosity kicked in. I reached out to other nearby communities and HOA board members who also use Texas Disposal Systems.
Many were surprisingly open about sharing their pricing. What we found was eye-opening.
❌Different neighborhoods.
❌Different pricing.
Sometimes dramatically different pricing for essentially the same service. So we ran a quick RFP. Waste Connection came in significantly lower and another community is raving about their service
✅Same city.
✅Same trucks.
✅Same service.
Very different pricing.
Then We Discovered a Billing Error
While reviewing invoices, I noticed something odd. A Commodity Adjustment Fee looked higher than expected.The contract said the fee should be 10% of recycling only. But the invoices appeared to calculate 10% of both trash and recycling. After investigating, the company acknowledged there had been a coding error and said credits would be issued.
Mistakes happen.
But it raises a fair question: How many things like that go unnoticed when long-standing vendor relationships are never reviewed?
The Real CX Lesson
Here’s what this experience reinforced for me. Most customer experience breakdowns don’t start with frontline employees.
The drivers showed up.
The service worked.
The problem wasn’t the people. It was the systems.
▪️Contracts.
▪️Pricing structures.
▪️Policies.
▪️Assumptions that nobody revisits.
Over time, those assumptions quietly become accepted truth. Until someone starts asking questions.
A Thought for Leaders
Customer experience rarely breaks because a trash truck shows up ten minutes late. It breaks when customers discover transparency wasn’t part of the system.
Contracts matter.
Pricing matters.
But trust matters more. And trust erodes quickly when customers discover things after the fact that could have been explained upfront.
Curious to Hear From Others
Have you ever discovered something buried in a long-standing vendor relationship that completely changed how you viewed the partnership? Where have you seen contracts or policies quietly undermine customer trust?
Experiences like this are a reminder that transparency builds trust — and trust drives loyalty.
At SATISFYD, we help equipment dealers turn customer feedback into better decisions and stronger relationships. 👉 Let’s talk.
