So it appears that my negative experiences with the local, monopolized garbage services are going to continue to multiply. In my last blog on this topic, I discussed the inefficiency and incompetence of the local government in regards to my attempt to make use of these services (specifically the pickup of large items). Services, mind you, that I am already forced to pay for under the threat of my house being taken away from me. In that blog post I detailed the conversation I had with a government employee I referred to as “Mopey Mary”, and the blatant failure of the claims of government doing things for the safety of others. Unfortunately for me, this saga seems to just be getting under way.
After my thrilling chat with “Mary”, I had placed an order for the “special bags” that she had informed me MUST be obtained, at my cost, in order for the services I had requested be performed. Shortly thereafter I was also informed of an incoming snowstorm. Since I did not want to chance having to lug (then) wet pieces of furniture, carpeting, and broken toys out the night during the projected storm, I moved everything but the bed pieces (as I was still sans those ever important “special bags”) out to the curb two days in advance. The “special bags” were scheduled to be delivered the next day, assuming they could make it through the storm, so the bed could wait until the last minute. Or so I thought…
When I awoke the next morning, it had already begun to snow. To my surprise, all the items I had brought to the curb were gone. Virtually none of these things were salvageable, as they had been outdoors for about a year. This meant that scavengers were highly unlikely, especially the ones that usually roam my neighborhood. It had to have been the monopolized Town Sanitation Department. But a day early? With no warning? That was highly unlike them. They are much more likely to cancel due to inclement weather, without warning or scheduling a makeup day, than they are to show up early due to the threat of future inclement weather. With the snow still coming down, and estimates of 10-18 inches expected over the next 12 or so hours, I knew getting some answers from the Town would be dicey. Sure enough, they didn’t let me down.
The following morning I stumbled out of bed to find that at least 10 inches of snow had accumulated, and that the monopolized Town snow removal service had yet to make it down my block. In fact they didn’t make it down my block until a tick after midday. That meant that the monopolized Town Sanitation Department had definitely not come through, on what was the originally scheduled day for my pickup, to retrieve the bed pieces left behind (because I was still awaiting those “special bags”). The bags were now scheduled to arrive on this same day, so I, once again, called the Town Sanitation Department to inquire about this now overly complicated pickup. This time I got a downgrade from “Mary”, which I wasn’t sure would be possible, and drew “Sullen Sally”, instead. Lucky me.
When I made contact with “Sally” I knew right away, much as I had with “Mary”, that this phone call would be more frustrating than helpful. I was right. I started by asking about the items that had mysteriously disappeared a day early. The best “Sally” could come up with was that “they must have been driving down your street and decided to pick it up while they were there.” I started to point out the hoops that people like myself are made to jump through just to have one of these pickups scheduled, meaning that a happenstance pickup seemed rather unlikely, but I decided not to press on because the bed pieces that were still there presented the more pressing issue. Thankfully, in typical government bureaucrat fashion, “Sally” would be chock full of useless, contradictory information.
Despite leading the conversation with, and later repeating at least once, the fact that the bed pieces were not yet at the curb and that I didn’t expect the pickup to occur due to the storm, there was a disconnect with “Sally” on the issue. She referenced the pieces being in multiple locations, in the same sentence, on more than one occasion. When I tried to have her focus on the WHEN of actual pickup now occurring, it seemed like she gave me every possible answer she could think of.
Even though she was “pretty sure” that the trucks hadn’t even gone out that day, she “couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t come by, see nothing to pick up, and cross the job of as done” (thus forcing me to start over). Despite the lack of this guarantee, she also said that I “could leave them/put them out for tomorrow” (in separate sentences because, as mentioned before, she could never seem to decide where these items actually were), because there was a “small chance” that one of these formerly unheard of random pickups occurred. She then proceeded to ignore all of her own prior statements and declared that a new pickup date needed to be scheduled. With that done, she took care to remind me of all the aforementioned “possible” options that she had just declared useless due to her insistence of the new date. Textbook bureaucratic doublespeak and inefficiency.
Part of me wanted to pushback on some of what “Sally” had said, as I had done with “Mary”, but I decided it wasn’t worth the rise in my blood pressure. “Sally” seemed even less apt to catch on as “Mary” had been before her. Plus, I had already spent 2 ½ + hours shoveling out after the storm. That, of course, included the 2 extra times I needed to dig out the end of the driveway after the monopolized Town snow plows finally came by and reburied that section. Poor ole “Sally” probably would have caught quite an earful if I chose to vent my frustrations with the Town government as a whole. Luckily I thought better of it. After all, there will be more things that need to be disposed of in this manner before I am finally out of this place. And these folks don’t need any more excuses to be bad at their jobs.
To be (as I can only imagine it will be) continued…
Prior blog
https://steemit.com/busy/@abolitionistjay/all-in-the-name-of-safetyness