Pikitup problem won’t solve itself

Sue Anderson writes:

On 4 September, I called and requested a new rubbish bin as the one we had had since moving into our house 18 years ago, had finally become unusable (broken, no wheels).

I was so impressed with the service, given a reference number and was sent a new bin the following week as promised. We went out and bought bright orange contact wrap which we stuck on with a heat gun and put our house numbers on the bin in big letters, all to assist in identifying our bin. We used our new bin for the first three weeks following this, all went well, we were all happy and the rubbish was sorted.

The fourth week, we put our bin out early in the morning and it was still there when I went out mid-morning, the rubbish had not been collected as yet. When I returned home at lunch time, our bin was gone, rubbish and all! All the other bins in our street were still full, so it was obvious that rubbish had not yet been collected, but our nice new bin was nowhere to be seen.

I called the call-centre again to ask what I should do; I was not sure if I had to report it as a theft at the police station or not. I was reassured that this happens and there was no need to report it, they will issue us with a new one, gave me a reference number and told me it would be delivered in 7 to 10 working days as before. That was on 6 October.

Today is 3 November – rubbish day again – and the woes of this have been causing us all a lot of unnecessary inconvenience. We have to put our rubbish in black bags, the cats and dogs rip them open and we are picking up rubbish continually all week. Then on a Monday, along come the “recyclers” – I have always felt sorry for them, we try and put the plastic separately as much as possible, we leave food in packets separately as well. But today I am angry! They have ripped open bags, leaving all the rubbish strewn all over our pavement, taking what they want and leaving the mess behind.

Now Pickitupp arrive, pick up what is left in the shredded bags and leave, spilling more out as they do so. I have now got a pavement that looks like a rubbish dump! I called the call-centre to ask about when my bin is arriving as I have waited patiently for four weeks now, gave them my reference number and am told “Oh no, sorry but you need to pay R478,41 to get a new bin delivered as you already got one in September.”

I asked why I had not been told this when I first called four weeks ago and all I got was “Sorry, mam”. On principal, I am not paying for another bin, just so that it can get stolen again! How do people prevent this from happening and what is the way forward here? I was told that if I wait six months, I can request a new bin at no cost, but in the meantime, I will be picking up rubbish on a daily basis, I guess…

Kind regards,

Sue Anderson

Pikitup has in turn responded:

Pikitup acknowledges the receipt of the enquiry. Kindly note that we will have to contact Ms Sue Anderson so that we can obtain further details such as her account number, reference number and physical address so that we can investigate the matter accordingly with the City’s Contact centre and the Depot responsible for her area.

We will revert with a response as soon as we get feedback from the two departments noted above.

Kind regards,

Pansy Oyedele

Communications Manager

Communication and Stakeholder Management (CSM) Department