Stericycle, Inc.

Dear Revdex.com:Below is the details on our availability for a Mediation Hearing: From: [redacted] Sent: Friday, January 08, 2016 4:49 PM To: [redacted] Cc: [redacted] Subject: Revdex.com Case #[redacted] - Stericycle Hi [redacted] At this time, we are going to have to decline the mediation request on case # [redacted] Thank you, [redacted] Customer Service Team Lead Stericycle, Inc. [redacted]
[redacted] Phone: [redacted] Fax: [redacted]

Our service agreements do allow for periodic price increases and these increases are a standard condition of our service agreement to help cover any cost increases we may face to meet regulatory requirements across local, state, and federal standards as well as prepare for investments in our...

business to keep abreast of needed technology and ensure the protection of our customers as part of our 'cradle to grave' service offering.
However, we are more than willing to work with our customers to find a service program with a rate that works for them. We offer a variety of different program levels and pick-up frequencies and can help to evaluate these options. We will have one of our Managers reach out to Mr. [redacted] directly in order to review potential solutions to this matter.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  I have spoken with over 7 different employees of Stericylce to work out an acceptable plan.  The last time I was given one number then sent a contract (fill & sign) that was completely different than the numbers that were discussed AND even varied from the email that contained the "key account changes".  This, on top of being told I had to be "certified" as a medical waste generator which was why I needed the Sterisafe Program.  Veterinary Hospitals don't even fall under these guidelines.  Stericycle does not even know its client or the laws regarding its own product.  Again, I do not wish to continue business with a company that works on such deception and bad business ethics.  I want the contract terminated with no "liquidation" fees or other penalties.
Sincerely,
Adrienne [redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  We have requested SEVERAL times for someone to contact us and they never did.  We have also been told SEVERAL times that they DO NOT allow one pick up per year.  Why would any of this suddenly change because we made a complaint and want out of our contract?  I believe Stericycle would prefer this response be accepted to quickly close this complaint so it appears to be resolved, and we would be in the same boat we are in now.  We are not the first office who has complained about this company for the same reasons. I think that is evident in the huge class-action lawsuit against Stericycle right now alleging that the company violated contracts and defrauded customers by hundreds of millions of dollars through an automatic price-increasing scheme.  Therefore, I cannot accept this response.  I want out of this contract.  No termination fees attached.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

As stated previously, while we regret Ms. [redacted] dissatisfaction, we believe we have acted in full accordance with the service agreement signed by [redacted]. We have offered to work with [redacted] on potential resolutions to this matter, however they have insisted upon proceeding with the early termination of a service agreement still within its’ initial term therefore we feel the liquidated damages provision outlined in section 2c is valid. In addition, as a part of an amicable resolution, we have waived half of the originally billed liquidated damages fee. Should [redacted] wish to resume discussions around continuing services with Stericycle and finishing out the remainder of their agreement, we would be happy to continue that dialogue.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  I have not spoken to anyone regarding liquidated damages or about continuing contract that's in place.  In addition, I have not received an outline or itemized bill of current charges above what was originally quoted in the contract so I have no idea what and how liquidated damages, if any, are being calculated or charged.  This is the nature of my original complaint.  I have no idea what is being charged.  Were I to receive proper itemization or notice of charges, I may be inclined to fulfill existing contract.  That remains to be seen and again is the nature of my complaint.      
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: We were deceived into signing the new agreement by their sales person named [redacted] by saying that our facility will be charged with overages should there be extra containers picked up but in reality there was only one time that we had more containers than usual.  So to avoid the overages we were made to sign a new contract with increased rates and more containers when in reality the increase in container only happened one time and we are not even able to use all the containers alloted to our facility as it was an unusual increase in our medical waste.  And during the times that we are not able to use all the containers provided we were not given credit for the smaller volume.  We were continuously charged with the amount for the bigger volume when it was just a one time occurrence.  What they conveniently fail to point out is that overgages are not charged unless the overall annual amount is exceeded. In other words, a spike in monthly usages carries no adverse effect (in fact it should be anticipated) unless the client exceeds the overall annual amount of barrels. With all the unethical business practice, even the charging of $28,479 is unfair considering they have not been servicing our facility for a few months now.  
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/08/03) */
Firstly, please note that the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act does recognize electronic signatures as having the same legal and binding effect as a written signature. This act can be referenced online at...

[redacted]
Our e-signature process is done through EchoSign, a reputable electronic signature company, which features a multi-step process to accept an agreement. The service also tracks and records the IP address of the computer on which the agreement was accepted to ensure integrity. This service is globally marketed and accepted at thousands of business and we have never had any reports of the service not working properly. It seems unlikely that we would have received verified, e-signed documents for site [redacted] from [redacted] and site [redacted] from [redacted] if they had not completed all of the steps to accept the agreement.
Nonetheless, although we feel the contract under which we have operated is entirely valid, as a measure of good customer relations, we will agree to waive liquidated damages as requested.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 8, 2015/08/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
We disagree that the "contracts" are valid. On one, you claim that I e-signed it, but I NEVER received that email nor did I give anyone permission to "sign" on my behalf so if you have a "contract" with MY "e-signature," it is a forgery. The second "contract" you claim was "e-signed" by our lowest level employee who does NOT have the authority to enter into contracts on behalf of this practice. She knows that and would not have knowingly signed a contract if she fully understood what she was doing.
If the "liquidated damages" are in fact waived, then we are satisfied with this outcome. However, since Stericycle already referred us to[redacted] for collections and [redacted] is threatening to sue us, if these collection efforts continue and [redacted] does in fact file a lawsuit, we will resume this complaint with the Revdex.com.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2015/08/14) */
We preface our signature line with the statement "By signing below I acknowledge that I am the customer's authorized officer or agent and that I have the authority to bind customer to this agreement..." so that the individual reading the document will verify before signing that they are authorized to do so.
On our end we have no way of knowing who is or is not authorized to sign an agreement for a particular office. Typically accepting and paying for the service for a significant period of time also serves to ratify the agreement. It is unfortunate that your client's representative did not read and understand what was signed.
In closing, although we believe our agreement to be entirely valid, in the interest of maintaining positive relations, we have canceled the Stericycle account [redacted] and removed the penalty as requested.
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 13, 2015/08/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

We regret Dr. [redacted] dissatisfaction; we are more than willing to work with our customers to find a service program with a rate that works for them. We offer a variety of different program levels and pick-up frequencies, we have had one of our Managers attempt to reach Dr. [redacted] directly in order to review potential solutions to this matter. So far we have been unable to connect with Dr. [redacted], but we hope that he will return our message and give us an opportunity to resolve their concerns. We will also continue trying to connect with Dr. [redacted] directly and can help to evaluate these options.

While we regret Ms. [redacted]’s dissatisfaction, we believe we have acted in full accordance with the service agreement signed by [redacted] Pediatric Dentistry that does not expire until October 1, 2018. We are willing to work with Ms. [redacted] on potential resolutions to this matter, however if they insist upon proceeding with the early termination of a service agreement still within its' initial term therefore we feel the liquidated damages provision outlined in section 2c would be valid. We will have one of our Managers reach out to Ms. [redacted] directly in order to review potential solutions to this matter.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
A remittance for $595.19 will be forthcoming within the next 10 days.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

In the interests of maintaining positive relations we have remove the balance due $400.56 on account #[redacted] leaving the amount due $0.00.

Although we believe our agreement to be entirely valid and enforceable, [redacted] DPM has been a good customer to us over the years. In the interests of maintaining positive relations we will waive the penalties billed on account [redacted].

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  While Stericycle has reached out to us and offered us other options the other options that they offered are still double the cost of what other biohazard companies are offering for the same frequency of pick ups, same number of bins.  I cannot see paying Stericycle the price that they are offering when another company offers half the price for same service.  I will never recommend Stericyle to any other business and will offer this advice:  read the fine print in service agreement carefully and be aware of automatic renewal because they will not remind you of it!
Sincerely,
Leanne [redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

We preface our signature line with the statement “By signing below I acknowledge that I am the customer’s authorized officer or agent and that I have the authority to bind customer to this agreement…” so that the individual reading the document will verify before signing that they are authorized...

to do so.
On our end we have no way of knowing who is or is not authorized to sign an agreement for a particular office. Typically accepting and paying for the service for a significant period of time also serves to ratify the agreement. It is unfortunate that your representative did not read and understand what was signed.
However, we are more than willing to work with our customers; we will have one of our Managers reach out to Ms. [redacted] directly in order to review potential solutions to this matter.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: Although Stericycle has continued to service our location against our wishes, we have proven with that Stericycle has not acted within the guidelines of their contract.  We believe, that we have canceled Stericycle within the terms and conditions of their contract and in accordance with California State Law (Unilateral Rescission On The Basis Of Mistake, Fraud, or Duress: A contract is subject to unilateral rescission by a party whose consent to the contract (or the consent of another party jointly contracting with the rescinding party) was given by mistake or obtained through duress, fraud or undue influence exercised by or with the connivance of the party against whom rescission is sought or any other party to the contract jointly interested with the party against whom rescission is sought. [Ca Civil § 1689(b)(1)])This was verified by Stericycle employee "[redacted]" on 08/17/2016 Ref#: [redacted]We insist that Stericycle immediately waive any liquidated damages.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

While we regret Ms. [redacted] dissatisfaction, we believe we have acted in full accordance with the service agreement signed by [redacted] Dental Care that expires June 1, 2020. Our agreements reflect an additional charge for service usage above the contracted amounts. The charge for using additional containers that indicates container charge plus 10% that calculates to $437.25 per container. Our records indicate your agreement effective 6/1/2015 for a 60 month term allowed 8 containers for the year and we collected 11 containers to date, leaving the container overage at 3. In consideration of our service relationship Stericycle is willing to reduce the amount billed for overages from $1,311.75 to $655.88 plus waiving half of the liquidated damages fee from $5,697.50 to $2,848.75 effectively removing the fees billed where no services were rendered, leaving the amount due to Stericycle at $ 3,504.63.
We look forward to reaching an amicable resolution over this outstanding amount payable to Stericycle.