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TopTenREVIEWS - Gold Award - Awarded for excellence in design, useability and feature set
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The Shred-it paper-shredding service is one of the most simple to use, affordable and safe options available for personal or business use. This paper-shredding service has a one-time service option where a truck will be sent to your office or home to shred any and all documents, hard drives, X-rays or any other item that needs to be destroyed. The service also has the ability to store a secured, locked box in your office where you can accumulate all of the different papers you will need to shred and perform regularly scheduled pickups to destroy these documents. Shred-it's convenience, price, security and variety of options make it our TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award winner.

Security:
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Maybe you just want to get rid of some papers that contain sensitive information. Perhaps your place of employment is required to shred sensitive information in order to comply with state and federal regulations. Whatever the case might be, the most important factor is that the paper shredding is done effectively without any holes in security.

There is an agency called the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID). This group will certify different shredding companies after extensive auditing and observation. NAID ensures that the different companies follow all state and national regulations and that the paper shredding is done securely. For example, NAID ensures that no one ever sees or handles the documents that are shredded. When looking for a paper-shredding service, look for services that are NAID approved.

The two basic services that should be available with all paper-shredding services are mobile and one-time shredding. One time service will be cheaper if you take the paper to the company headquarters or to a document-shredder truck location. However, the company should also provide the option to take the truck to you for convenience and security measures.

Establishing a regularly scheduled service can be very helpful. You can have the truck stop by your office as often as you need. There are weekly, bi-weekly and monthly services available, and prices and other information can be established with a sales representative.

While the size of the shred might not be the most important factor in deciding which paper-shredding service to select, we like to have the option. This paper-shredding service has different sizes of shred for those who want to ensure that all their documents are totally destroyed.

Other Services:
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Putting a one-size-fits-all price on a shredding service is impossible. The prices can vary depending an assortment of factors, including how much paper you need shredded, where you are located, how often you need the job done, how many boxes you need stored at your home or office and about a thousand other factors. In order to determine a pricing point, we spoke with all the different paper-shredding services and got a price quote for a one-time shred of about 30 pounds of paper and another quote for a weekly shred of one box of paper. Our price quote is only valid in a major metropolitan area. While the Shred-it paper-shredding service does have other locations, the pricing will vary depending on where you are.

This service's one-time shred price of $35 is a very competitive price. The paper-shredding service comes to your home or office and shreds about 30 pounds of paper, and later ensures that it is recycled. When doing the shredding, the paper-shredding service's employees do not ever see the documents. They are loaded into a truck, which will shred the paper right in front of your eyes. You can watch the shredding happen and see the final result. This one-time service can be scheduled for any business day during regular business hours. It usually takes around three days between the time you call the paper-shredding service and the actual performance of the job. Obviously, this varies by location and cannot be guaranteed.

The mobile-shred service with a weekly pickup is $15 for every service. This is one of the lowest fees we found. Considering all the different options and customer service that comes with the process, it is well worth the money. When you establish a weekly or any other regularly scheduled pickup, the paper-shredding service will store a box in your office. You can put all your paper that needs to be shredded in the box, and when the truck comes by, all the paper will be emptied immediately into the shredder. No one will ever see the documents until they are totally shredded. There are no installation fees or requirements when establishing the pickup, and it makes for a convenient location to store sensitive documents.

However, when we tried to find out all this information about pricing, it took more than a day to receive all the information. We called and got a voicemail message and were not able to speak to a live person until after we sent an email. This was one experience, and after we were connected with a sales representative, we were able to have all our questions quickly and easily answered. However, some other services sent us responses to our inquiries within an hour.

In order to receive a price quote, you have to give the paper-shredding service all your contact information, including your phone number and address. Because each different location and business is going to vary, it can be difficult to guess how much each job will cost without detailed information.

While paper-shredding services are primarily used for document destruction, you can also use these services to destroy other products, such as hard drives, laptops and X-rays. You can schedule a regular pickup and have these other things destroyed along with your documents, or you can schedule a one-time destruction. The pricing varies widely based on how much you need to destroy, whether you are an existing customer, if there is already a paper pickup at your office and other factors.

Customer Support:
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Whether you're signing up for an account or looking for a simple price quote with a document-shredding service, getting quick and effective customer support can make all the difference. When you sign up for an account or want a price quote, you have to call during business hours only. This is standard across the board, so it is something to keep in mind. Also, you can call the toll-free number or fill out an online form, but you will have to wait for a representative to respond to your inquiry. The wait time with Shred-it was about one day, and the customer-service representative was extremely helpful and answered all our questions.

Summary:

The Shred-it paper-shredding service is a hassle-free approach to destroying sensitive information. Whether it's your personal documents or confidential information from your work, this paper-shredding service is an invaluable resource for protecting your confidential information. You can set up a one-time shred or a regularly scheduled shredding with a secure box stored in your home or office. This NAID-certified shredding service is top notch.

 
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Shred-it

Pros
This paper-shredding service has more paper-shredding size options than any other service.

Cons
The customer-support line is not always readily available.

The Verdict

We highly recommend this service for regularly scheduled shreds and one-time shreds alike.