Ten months after Graeme Rose made a booking to have his inorganic rubbish removed from his east Auckland home, it was finally taken away.
The Pakuranga Heights resident says he booked the collection in June last year and received an email saying it would be collected on February 26.
He contacted Auckland Council in early February to confirm the collection was scheduled to go ahead as planned and was told it was.
Rose says he put his inorganic rubbish in his driveway in Riverhills Avenue for easy accessibility.
When his rubbish wasn’t picked up on February 26 he phoned the council to ask why.
“The reply from the person on the phone was they’re on their way,” Rose told the Times.
“Then, ‘no, they have sent us a photo of your gate next to your letterbox’.
“I asked what time this photo was taken but there was no answer.
“I explained my rubbish was up my driveway where it had been collected by the council in previous years.
“I was then told another collection would be six to eight weeks away.”
Rose says the next day he found a flyer in his letterbox that said he could book an inorganic rubbish collection.
“I go to my laptop to proceed to book my collection, but it said I had already booked one.
“Then I get a text message to say my collection will be on March 12.”
Rose then went away on holiday.
He phoned his neighbour the next day and was told three large council trucks had been parked outside his house the previous day.
He returned on March 20 and the rubbish was still in his driveway.
“I phoned the council on March 22 to find out why my inorganic rubbish had not been collected.
“I was put through to a lady, told her the problem, and she said she would get back to me in two days.”
Rose says on March 26 he phoned the council and was told the staffer he’d spoken to was away.
Four days later he went to the council office in Manukau to talk to them in person.
That failed but he did manage to talk to another staffer, who he says told him she would get back to him and sort out the problem.
“On March 31 I received an email saying my inorganic collection will be on April 9, then at 4.45pm the same day I received a phone call to tell me the collection would be on April 1.
“I told her I had received an email that morning to say it was going to be on April 9.”
Rose says the staffer told him to ignore the email
His inorganic rubbish was finally collected on April 9.
A council spokesperson says there was confusion about the location of Rose’s property for the original booking, and “unfortunately the collectors did not locate anything to be collected when they came to the site”.
“If there is not a clear inorganic pile that corresponds to the booking location, we do not guess and collect things, as that could easily result in retrieving the incorrect personal property from the wrong location.
“We appreciate how diligent the customer was in following up with us and assisting us to locate the property and we are sorry for the confusion.
“The inorganic collection was retrieved on our third attempt to locate and access the collection.”
