Question 1

Where does DS Services work?

Accepted Answer

We serve Central Massachusetts, Greater Boston and Southern New Hampshire, and we travel further for larger commercial projects. If you are outside the immediate area, ask — the answer is usually yes.

Question 2

How long have you been in business?

Accepted Answer

DS Services was established in 2005. We are veteran-founded and family-run.

Question 3

Are you certified?

Accepted Answer

Yes — DS Services is NAID AAA Certified, the data destruction industry's certification for secure destruction operations.

Question 4

Do you work with businesses, residents, or both?

Accepted Answer

Both. Commercial ITAD and decommissioning projects are our focus, and we continue to serve residents and small businesses with shredding and recycling.

Question 5

Who should use DS Services? Is my business too small?

Accepted Answer

Any business, of any size, that produces and maintains client/customer information. Any business, of any size, which wishes to eliminate valuable, internal information: R&D, financials, sales info, etc. Any residence wishing to keep their personal tax, credit, banking, insurance, and identity information secure. Industries we serve include — Financial: insurance, banks, mortgage lenders, credit card companies, etc. Healthcare: hospitals, clinics, labs, practices, MRI centers, etc. Professional services: attorneys, CPAs, architects, engineers, advertising, etc. Retail: department stores, chains, health clubs, etc. Hospitality: hotels, restaurants, etc. Hi-tech: software, hardware, telecommunications, etc.

Question 6

Why should I trust DS Services to dispose of my sensitive information?

Accepted Answer

DS Services is a mobile on-site solution: your information is destroyed right on-site at your company or residence, avoiding the possibility of loss, misplacements, or theft. If you choose our even more affordable off-site shredding services, your materials are locked and secured until they reach our service facility and are destroyed immediately upon arrival. A Certificate of Destruction is provided at each service call to document the proper and secure destruction of all data and media. DS Services is fully insured and an approved member of NAID (National Association for Information Destruction). Further, each of our professional service technicians is bonded for your protection and peace of mind. DS Services ensures environmentally friendly recycling of all destroyed materials. We never incinerate our media or electronics.

Question 7

Why not do it myself?

Accepted Answer

Great question! There are a plethora of reasons why companies large and small, as well as residents, should trust their information destruction needs to DS Services. For example. businesses need to protect against external as well as internal threats. Most often, the task of shredding is delegated to one of the company's lowest-paid employees. You'll want to ask yourself how secure your customer database is in the hands of an employee who'd have a lot to gain by selling it to your fiercest competitor. Or, how appropriate it is for your entire staff's payroll records or trade secrets to be in the hands of your least compensated employee.

Question 8

How valuable is your time?

Accepted Answer

You (or one of your employees) could spend time removing staples, and paper clips, preparing documents, and then finally shredding them – or, that time could be better allocated to business activities that will expand or enhance your own business. Let's say you pay an hourly wage for an administrative assistant to handle the shredding in your office. Or, perhaps your company has each employee shred their own material with a small shredder under their desk – which means your most valuable human resources are not generating revenue for your business. With the time it takes to prepare the documents and perform the actual shredding, DS Services's Scheduled Service could have easily paid for itself! The cost of appropriate office shredding equipment: commercial/office grade shredders start at over $1,000 and can climb as high, with maintenance and service, to $3,800. It's true, you can purchase a paper shredder at your local retail store for under $50, but anyone who has ever used a shredder, such as this, for anything more than their MasterCard bill can tell you, in an office environment, this simply will not do. And, all office shredders, regardless of price, will contaminate your office space with disruptive noise and unnecessary and potentially harmful dust/debris. The amortization and maintenance costs, included with the cost of the labor to prepare documents (discussed above) winds up shockingly more expensive than a scheduled service plan with DS Services. Call us today to discuss our various and affordable plans.

Question 9

How do DS Services's services improve my current situation?

Accepted Answer

DS Services provides your company or your household with a superior, convenient, secure, cost-efficient, and environmentally friendly alternative to your current situation. We enable businesses to fully develop procedures and processes for proper and secure destruction of information. We dramatically reduce the associated costs, risks, and dangers of improper information destruction. In these FAQs, we've discussed the costs a business suffers, the risks involved with adhering to government regulations as well as the environmental hazards associated with improper shredding/destruction/recycling procedures. DS Services is proud to stand by our Peace of Mind Policy which ensures all our customers are provided with a Certificate of Destruction with each and every service. Further, DS Services's Peace of Mind Policy guarantees our commitment to your security and the environment, evidenced by our 100% customer satisfaction, our relationship with NAID (National Association for Information Destruction), our Certified and Preferred Vendor status with Harvard University, as well as our commitment to proper and responsible recycling all destroyed materials – for the good of the environment.

Question 10

What happens if your employees misuse the information from the "to be shredded" documents? Are you insured?

Accepted Answer

All DS Services employees are properly screened for background checks including criminal records, DMV history, and credit reports. Each DS Services service technician is bonded for your protection and peace of mind. DS Services is fully insured and licensed. We are always proud to supply a list of professional references from various industries.

Question 11

Do you handle end-of-life hardware destruction?

Accepted Answer

Yes, we can destroy hardware that is past its life.

Question 12

How does a commercial project start?

Accepted Answer

With an assessment. Tell us the site, the equipment and the timeline. For anything substantial we walk the site, agree the scope in writing and schedule around your operations.

Question 13

Can you work outside business hours?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Decommissioning and office clearouts are routinely scheduled for evenings, weekends or maintenance windows so your staff and tenants are not disrupted.

Question 14

Can you handle a whole data center?

Accepted Answer

Yes — from a few racks in a server room to a full facility, including de-racking, cable removal, packing and secure transport.

Question 15

What if we do not know exactly what we have?

Accepted Answer

That is normal, and it is what the assessment is for. We inventory the equipment as part of the project.

Question 16

How is data destroyed?

Accepted Answer

Physical destruction by shredding, or sanitization where equipment is being resold. The right method depends on the device and on your policy — we will recommend, you decide.

Question 17

Do we get proof of destruction?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Certificates of destruction are issued for every project, with serialized reporting available for data-bearing devices.

Question 18

Can destruction happen at our site?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We can destroy drives and media at your facility, or transport them under chain of custody to ours.

Question 19

How is equipment secured in transit?

Accepted Answer

Assets are inventoried before they leave, moved under chain of custody by our own team, and reconciled on arrival.

Question 20

Can retired equipment be worth money?

Accepted Answer

We are not a resale or remarketing company — our focus is recycling, decommissioning, secure removal and data destruction. When equipment such as recent servers, storage, networking gear or test equipment carries significant residual value, we can work with qualified partners who specialize in that market. Data is destroyed and documented first.

Question 21

What happens to equipment with no value?

Accepted Answer

It is recycled responsibly through our recycling process rather than sent to landfill.

Question 22

Can we send a small quantity by mail?

Accepted Answer

Yes — see our mail-in recycling service for drives, media and small electronics.

Frequently Asked Questions

About DS Services

Working with DS Services

Projects and scheduling

Data security and documentation

Value recovery and recycling

Tell us about your project