Saturday, March 10, 2018

Trashing Waste Corporation of America

I'm done.
I've had it with WCA, and they know it.


In January, the talented team of trash collection technicians which services my neighborhood destroyed  my trash receptacle--the second such container I've had to replace in a year's time. I had little choice but to immediately replace it with another 32-gallon Rubbermaid container for the princely sum of $32.44. Oh, and by the way, these events always occur on Saturdays, when WCA's corporate offices are closed; there's no one to immediately speak with.

I wrote WCA with my complaint:


"Greetings-

Enclosed is December’s invoice for trash collection service at my residence in Lakewood Forest North... You will also find a WalMart receipt for $32.44 for a 32-gallon Rubbermaid trash can, which has been credited against the invoice amount of $54.86. I have enclosed a check for the remainder, $22.42.

This is the second trash container I have replaced in the past year. Your crews continue to destroy them at a rate of about two per year, by my count, which is wholly unacceptable. 

Please counsel your collection crews to treat these containers as if they were their own. In this case, this one is yours now.

Sincerely...

No response from WCA to this letter, but they did cash my check...and not long after, stopped picking up my trash. I called Customer Service, explained my complaint, and the guy on the other end of the line actually agreed with me, and promised to resume service (which he did). Seven weeks later, the kind and considerate neighborhood WCA crew graciously dropped off an official WCA trash container on my driveway. And they refused to pick up my trash. I called Customer Service.

This time I spoke with a very understanding woman who placed me on hold for a time, and returned with apologies and promises to restore my service, credit my account for the cost of the can, and to have the official WCA container retrieved, as I didn't want it, and didn't have room for it in my tiny suggestion of a two-car garage. Within 24-hours the WCA can had been retrieved, and my trash was collected on the next trash day. Until today.

The crews refused to pick up our trash--which happened to include this week's grass clippings, which have been rained on overnight, so they're nice and pungent  in their industrial-strength trash bag. It's Saturday (of course), and Customer Service is not accessible at WCA (if indeed it ever existed). 

It's not like when you get miffed at HEB, and you can go to Kroger.
WCA apparently has a lock on our neighborhood trash collection, so there's no competitor to keep them honest: They can destroy my trash cans and refuse trash service with impunity. They are the Trash Monopolists, sole arbiters of any and all complaints; judge, jury, and trashocutioner. 

This isn't over by a long shot, but it's certainly out there, in public now.
Stay tuned for all the trashy details...