In practically any, if not every, industry, you have companies who directly perform the service and companies who resell other company’s services (brokers).
For example, you have insurance brokers, mortgage brokers, and so on.
Brokers aren’t necessarily always a bad thing. But that doesn’t make them a good thing either. It depends a lot on the industry and how the broker actually works within it.
If you decide you need to rent a dumpster to get rid of your stuff, you do have both brokers and local businesses to choose from.
But with dumpster rentals, brokers tend to not be as good as hiring a local dumpster rental company homeowners and small construction companies. And here’s why:
How Much Do Dumpster Rental Brokers Really Care About You?
Dumpster rental brokers know that if they can hide the fact that they’re not located in your area, you’re more likely to hire them.
The thing is they can be out of town, out of your state, and even out of the United States!
So, let’s say they connect you with a lousy dumpster rental company, and you end up with just plain awful service.
The dumpster rental doesn’t show up on time. You get odd charges on your billing statement. And when you call to get any of this fixed, it’s a real fiasco to get a hold of anyone who cares to help.
Well, how much does the broker really care? And do they even have any incentive to care?
They can simply move on to other customers without worrying about any real harm coming to their reputation.
If a local dumpster rental company gives you poor service, it hurts their reputation. You leave a bad review online that they can’t remove. Or you tell your family, friends, and coworkers in the area so they don’t use that company.
Clearly, local dumpster rental services have much more reason to care about their relationship with you.
You Pay More, But Get the Same or Less
Since brokers spend time marketing and selling dumpster rentals to you, they need to make money.
And remember, the local dumpster rental service needs to make money too.
Since they both need the cash, only two things can happen:
They charge the same combined rate as a local dumpster rental company would by itself.
They charge more than local dumpster rental companies do for exactly the same thing.
Now if the broker and dumpster rental company charge the same combined rate as a local dumpster rental company usually does by itself, that means the local service now must somehow find a way to perform their service at a lower cost.
Honestly, delivering a dumpster can only be done so fast. No one has a secret technique that greatly reduces the cost of the service.
Amazon has flying delivery drones (not yet in service) and a patent for a flying warehouse. But, no such similar thing exists in the dumpster rental industry!
So, that means that, at the very best, the dumpster rental company with a broker sending them business has to cut corners to make money on the deal.
And in the second scenario presented above, you pay more for the same level of service you can get locally anyway.
In most cases, you end up paying 10% – 100% more for exactly the same dumpster and service that you could get when working directly with a local provider.
So, brokers, for homeowners and small construction companies, just don’t make much sense.
Communication Has a High Risk of Getting Confused or Lost Entirely
Surely you’ve played the game “telephone” at least once or twice.
If you haven’t, you and a group of friends get together and pass a message on from one person to the next. Someone starts with a message. Then they pass it on.
And on and on the message goes, until it gets to the final person.
Then the person who created the message reveals their message, and you compare it to the message the last person has.
Every single time, the last person’t message is nothing close to the original message.
The idea is to show how communication works with multiple parties, and to have a good laugh when the last person reveals a ridiculous message not even close to the original.
Well, brokers work the same way.
In a brokered deal, the broker is a middleman and does all the communication with the actual dumpster rental provider.
Not only do they have to know exactly how to communicate with this particular service provider, but they have to know how to do the same with many others too.
So, that means your odds for having the price misquoted, service details messed up, or your dumpster rental not showing up when you need it skyrocket.
The more parties involved, the more likely that mistakes will happen.
When Dumpster Rental Brokers Do Make Sense, and How to Identify Them
Dumpster rental brokers do make sense for large, national construction companies. They can be helpful in coordinating projects running throughout the entire country.
So, they’re not all negative.
But for consumers and small and local businesses, brokers usually don’t make much sense.
And since brokers know this, they try to conceal the fact that they’re a broker.
How do you spot them?
It’s pretty easy when you know what to look for:
- They use an 800 number rather than a local one
- You may not even be asked for a phone number at all. They might just have you contact them via an online form.
- Their website may ask for your zip code.
- Brokers may take several days to get back to you.
- Local dumpster rental companies will prominently show their local address and phone number on their website.
Or, you could just ask them straight out where their headquarters are located and if you could take a look at their dumpsters.
If you have any doubts as to whether you’re talking to a broker or local service provider, then you’re probably talking to a broker!
So, for homeowners and small or local companies, dumpster rental brokers don’t make much sense.
Now you know why, and how to spot them.
