Junk removal is a truck-and-a-Facebook-page business, and Chicago adds a specific failure mode: the too-cheap load that ends up fly-dumped in an alley with your mail in it. Most operators are honest; the ones who aren't cluster around the same seven tells. The checklist protects you whoever you hire — us included.
Published prices, photo quotes, receipts — see for yourself
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →Ask any hauler — including us: (1) Exact price in writing before dispatch, stairs included? (2) Insured, with building COIs available? (3) What do you refuse? (The right answer includes hazmat.) (4) Where does my load actually go? Good operators answer all four without a beat. The pause is the answer.
(1) Published flat rates from your photo before booking — the whole list is public, back stairs in the number. (2) Vetted, insured local crews; same-day COIs free. (3) We refuse hazmat and say where it goes instead (household-chemical collection). (4) Donation first with receipts, metal to scrap, electronics to certified e-waste per the Illinois ban, remainder to permitted sites — itemized receipt on every job. Hold every competitor to the same four answers and you'll be fine whoever you pick.
Free, no signup — flat quote from one photo
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →Seven predict most bad days: (1) the price only exists once a truck is in your alley; (2) no straight answer on insurance; (3) cash-only or deposits up front; (4) 'we take everything' — including the paint and chemicals no legal hauler touches; (5) no answer to 'where does it go?'; (6) the Craigslist price wildly under every market rate — in Chicago that gap is usually your load fly-dumped in someone's alley; (7) no itemized receipt, no paper trail.
Because Chicago's alleys are the city's favorite illegal-dumping venue, 311 has a dedicated fly-dumping category, and dumped loads trace back — mail, packaging, and paperwork identify the household they came from. The $80 'deal' under every market rate recoups somewhere, usually by skipping disposal fees in an alley three wards away. An itemized receipt from an insured hauler is cheap insurance against your name in a dumped pile.
Four questions: What's the exact price, in writing, before you dispatch — with my stairs in it? Are you insured, and can you provide a COI if my building requires one? What do you refuse (a legitimate hauler has a hazmat no-list)? And where does my load actually go — donation, recycling, which disposal sites? Good operators answer instantly; the pause is the answer.
(1) Published flat rates quoted from your photo before booking — sofa $126, quarter truck $241, back stairs included. (2) Vetted, insured local crews; same-day COIs free for managed buildings. (3) We refuse hazmat — paint and chemicals route to household-chemical collection, and we'll point you there. (4) Donation first with receipts, metal to scrap, electronics to certified e-waste per the Illinois ban, remainder to permitted disposal — itemized receipt on every job. Hold every competitor to the same four answers.