[Growster...]

Does anyone here have a problem with these people?

We're in the Tunbridge Wells area, but this company also do Tonbridge and Malling area.

We had to pay for garden rubbish clearance, which supposedly started at the end of September, but the garden bin has been outside for over a month now, and they take not a bit of notice - it's the same all down the road as well.

What makes me more than cross, is that they said that 'this sort of problem is 'normal' when they start up anywhere, what with training, map-reading etc. They had six months for goodness sake! The TWBC don't ever respond to complaints (four so far from The Turrets), and several residents in many areas are getting more than somewhat - er - disgusted, according to the local rags!

It's all very well 'outsourcing' services if the poll-tax payers get a decent/reasonable service, but this smacks of just a little naivete in certain quarters...

[rowlandwells]

I must say I really do get more than angry about the state of potholes on our county roads all they do is paint yellow paint round the potholes thinking the problem will go away 

but as for the emptying the bins first class always on time I know like most councils we have to pay for the garden bin but provided you keep using it its worth it for some reason or another the food waste bin was left on the day but they came round the next day to empty the food bin  even collected it from the drive where we had left it from the previous day

[Goosegirl]

If you pay for any service then you have a contract with the supplier. If they don't deliver (or take away) then they are in breach of the said contract. Using excuses such as training and map reading is not on because all that should have been completed before they were employed by TWBC. Perhaps if local residents attended their next monthly meeting you might get somewhere as their responses will be recorded in their minutes for all to see. I often report pot-holes on our lane and they eventually get plastered with a shallow layer of tarmac so it resembles something like a patchwork quilt.  Despite me continually stating the lane is regularly used by heavy farm vehicles who have to pull onto the side to allow cars to pass, the edges are now so eroded that it's an accident or severe damage to car tyres and wheels just waiting to happen.

[Growster...]

Kent County Council love potholes!

So much that they want to let them carry on with their little ways, and become more of a scourge to the public.

Our village has an on-going tussle with the little mandarins in Maidstone, and they know it!

[New shoot]

How are you complaining Mr G ? 

I only ask because our council are just as useless, but I have found that they do respond to things sent in on their online complaints form.  This is only because it is one of things they measure performance on, so you get an immediate response saying they will reply properly in 7 days, then something generally happens.  If not and you use the form again referencing the first time you contacted them, that counts as a fail to meet their own standards and they move very fast to sort it.  I'm not sure if that is a national performance standard, but it might be worth investigating. 

Heard from a fellow plot holder recently who was trying to reach a particular department.  He was told to email after complaining they never answer the phone.  They unplug it every morning or 'we would never get any work done'    I'm not sure what is worse - doing it for starters or admitting that is what you do 
 

It's all very well 'outsourcing' services if the poll-tax payers get a decent/reasonable service, but this smacks of just a little naivete in certain quarters...

If they are anything like our council officers, it will be more like 'well its off my desk so not my problem any more'.   It shouldn't take residents to tell them they are paying a contractor for doing nothing.  Can you imagine the reaction of a boss in a privately owned company who caught an employee handing out contract money and not checking the customers were getting what they paid for, let alone ignoring complaints when lack of service was highlighted to them 

[Growster...]

Nice one, News!

Complaints (four) - via email - have gone in from the very start, and while the electronic responses flood back, gushing obsequious sweet talk, absolutely nothing happens.

I just feel that the company have 'tucked up' the people in TW, who just were not good enough to see the future problems, and of course, there will be a stalemate.

While a few quid for a service won't break the bank, we know that our council has wasted far too much money already, and as this isn't a political forum, I will easily stop there.

Meanwhile, the rotting toms still sink lower in the bin on the road, and I'll prepare yet another complaint tomorrow, when they're supposed to be doing their job!

[mumofstig]

I often use Ashford BC's on-line 'report a missed bin collection' form - which usually works. However, the week before last they didn't empty my recycling bin - even when I reported it.
So when Biffa came again they were moaning about all the extra boxes outside the bin. I promptly told them that none of it would be there if they had collected it last time - to be told I should have reported it to ABC. When I told them I had they really didn't know what to say, as there was no record of the council telling them...
So Biffa at fault for not emptying it in the first place, then ABC wrong for not passing on the 'missed bin report' - 2 wrongs certainly don't make a right in this situation.

[Growster...]

Urbaser came today - as scheduled for just the green bin, not the garden one (paid for).

They emptied the chucked food bin, quite rightly, and also the household rubbish, correct too!

The black bin is still out there, all lonely! It's the same all down the road, but the ridiculous issue is that they returned to empty one about a hundred yards away, after a complaint, and left the other half-dozen!

Complaint number four (or five lost count) going in tomorrow!

Here's the take, reported recently on a local free rag...

https://www.timeslocalnews.co.uk/tunbridge-wells-news/bins-still-not-being-collected-one-month-into-the-new-service

[New shoot]

You complain away Mr G. 

It is nothing to do with politics or money, just good old fashioned incompetence or just laziness.  Whoever is responsible for this outsourcing should be pouncing on the complaints, collating them and having regular conversations with Urbaser about what is going wrong and how they intend to fix it.  No need for anything more than a polite but firm session of asking who/what/why/where/when, agreeing actions and then making sure they get done    A direct customer complaint should also be dealt with asap.  Any other firm would be sending a driver out pdq to pick up or drop off whatever it was that had been missed.

It 'aint rocket science and happens daily at some level or other in workplaces up and down the country. 

[Growster...]

Spot on, News!

Amazingly, they turned up just after breakfast yesterday, and emptied the bin!

Marvellous for us of course, but somehow the five bins in the next hundred yards were left still full!

You couldn't really make it up!

[mumofstig]

Marvellous for us of course, but somehow the five bins in the next hundred yards were left still full!

Yup, happens here - if you don't complain you don't count!
At least they can't say they don't know where you are now, fingers crossed for future collections.

[jezza]

Hello Biffa stands for Bin Is Full Forget About it , my local council do all services in house the only problem with them is that they are weed killer happy   jezza

[Growster...]

T.Wells BC have issued a huge apology by email, and also via the local rags!

It'll probably do something to flatten a few feathers, but to talk about compensation for paid-for services this early, smacks of an interesting next few months!

The black bins (garden rubbish), were all emptied in the area close to 'The Turrets', some for the first time in ages, so maybe Urbaser have bought their crews a village A-Z!