I returned to Capital Scrap Metal since I had such a good experience on my first visit. During that visit, we backed our car in, and removed a trunk load of metal. Before it was our turn to weigh, I asked to step on the scale to check for accuracy, and I was allowed to do so. We loaded our metal onto the scale and got a receipt. I was disappointed that they did not tell us over the phone that any materials (such as weather stripping or cords) needed to be removed, or the price would be reduced when I was making a series of inquiries about scrapping. However, over all that experience was probably a high 3 or low 4. The area was "clean" as in no hazardous waste materials, fluids, or broken glass that I could see.
Now for my recent return visit: We had metal in our trunk (just as much as we did before) and were told to leave the weigh station area and drive the car around back of the property. There were no signs indicating the procedure and this is not what was done the last time, but we did it. Come to find out there was a vehicle weigh station. The man (who I presume was Terry as that was the name on the receipt) was not clear about what we were supposed to do. He looked in our trunk, told us to get weighed, then remove everything and get weighed again. We clearly had two different types of metal, which he saw. He told us after we weighed to back into an area where there was heavy machinery moving pieces of metal (over the cars that were dropping off metal!), and unload everything. It seemed very dangerous. Two employees stood and watched us unload, but did not offer to help. They helped the next person who pulled up beside us who seemed to be a regular based on their interactions, but they did not help us. When it was time to get back on the scale, we had to go all around the property again because Terry had blocked us in with additional cars ready to unload. We drove around, and he gave us a ticket with the total weight of the CHEAPEST metal. I told him that there were two types of metal, and he asked why we removed them, and I reminded him that it was because he told us to. He insisted this was not what he said and said that it didn't matter any way because we "wouldn't get that much" for it anyway. After doing the calculations, I saw we would have gotten 25% more money if the metal had been properly divided and weighed (and he saw and touched the metal we brought in and was able to determine what was what)!! I felt like this was a ploy to get more metal out of us without having to give us the money for it. There was no getting the metal back either. I noticed other people were using the weigh stations we had used the first visit and was very unhappy with the overall experience. We got ripped off, and I would never recommend this place to anybody. In addition to that, the area where we had to drop things off was a dumping area and very dangerous. When we got home we realized we must have stepped in something as our sneakers were damaged by an epoxy-smelling substance, which was definitely not an issue I would have had to have dealt with at the walk-up weigh station.
As an aside (and this may just be new state regulations since the last time we went), in addition to providing my driver's license and address as I had done on my first visit in order to get paid, this time I had to have my picture taken and get fingerprinted. Additionally, they don't give change, so if your receipt is for $19.49, you will get $19, which in the cumulative of dozens or hundreds of customers a day is a huge gain for their business, but they still count the amount on your receipt as money you received and will limit how much $ you can get from annual scrapping based on their records, not what you were paid.
After this experience, if I could give this place negative stars, I would. Very rude, very sneaky, and very unsafe. I would have presumed this would just be the nature of the business, but I had my first (pretty decent) experience here to compare it to and will not deal with them again.