Southwark Council: don't you just luv 'em?

[louisiana]

Bulk waste collection requested online 3 April. Not a peep from them, either to confirm or deny. (This follows on from other occasions, when they have collected without providing any confirmation.)

I call them today. Apparently, their bulky waste 'system' has been 'broken' for a month. So their online forms have been 'working', but all the info that people provided on the various screens was going into a black hole.

It clearly did not occur to anyone at Southwark to take the online forms offline for that month, given that the back-end-was-disconnected-from-the-front-end. They could even have put up a page to that effect. In three minutes. But no.

[macroban]

Did the workers wonder why they were being given no schedule of bulky items to collect?

[louisiana]

For all I know, they were also 'broken'. :-S The woman on the Southwark Council phone system didn't elaborate.

Apparently 'bulky items' are collected by another organisation, a private company. It is outsourced by Southwark to this private company. I'm sure if no work arrives, they don't ask any questions. They no doubt get paid just the same whether there is work or not.

It remains unclear whether it was just the Web system back end that failed (i.e. whether you could still call by phone and have the stuff go through the process successfully). I'm kind of past caring...

[mikese22]

how strange - I requested a bulky collection last Monday (online), I received a confirmation call on Tuesday or Wednesday confirming it would be today - arrived home tonight to find stuff had gone - so no problems here!

[tommy]

Same here. I've always found the online to be fine - and have only waited a couple of days for any pick up.

[louisiana]

It was out of action 'for a month'. She didn't specify the exact dates of that month, but it included 3 April, according to her own double-checks on the dates.

My experience in early days was that there would always be an email confirmation of date well before they arrived. That worked well for ages. Then earlier this year they seemed to move to picking up without the email confirmation. This happened several times. Hence my confusion on what was happening this time around, and my delay in getting back in touch with them.

I'm not objecting to the system being out of action. Just to them failing to spend a few minutes telling people same via the website. There were apparently many people in a similar position to me, expecting someone to pick up stuff but with nothing actually happening. They have all had to re-request, same as me. Or are still waiting...

[Sue]

Write to a councillor.

They'll have to provide you with a written explanation within a certain timescale.

They'll make sure they get it :)

[redjam]

I also requested a collection online last week and it got picked up today, so no complaints there for me (apart from I'd asked to be notified by email but I got a phone call instead; though that's just nitpicking). My main problem was that they were a bit TOO efficient - you have to specify in advance exactly what you want taken away, but of course over the weekend we found another bit of rubbish we wanted to get rid of in the same batch, and despite me pinning a notice on it this morning requesting it to be included in the collection, and also despite my dad (who happened to be around at the time) confirming to the guy we wanted it removed, he wouldn't take it as it 'wasn't on the list'. Bit jobsworth if you ask me, but apparently they've had problems with removing things that shouldn't have been taken, then having to pay loads of compensation. So I guess they're damned if they do, damned if they don't...

[louisiana]

I should be finally getting a pick-up this Thursday, though my builder - who has been watching the whole tale unfold over the last 2 weeks - has suggested other solutions, along the 'don't waste your time love' lines.

On bulky waste, I think they're quite right to insist on only taking what you asked for. It can be a bit of a hassle if you don't forward plan but it keeps everything clear...

I do however object to the recycling jobsworth who this week refused to take a bag of cardboard, marked as recycling, because it was not in he requisite 'blue bag'. It was clearly just brown cardboard (flattened brown cardboard boxes) and very light. He said I'd have to put in a request to the 'bulky refuse' people to remove it. The daft thing is, they empty all the blue bag contents straight into a huge container much bigger than the bag concerned, on the pavement right next to where you leave the blue bag... and then move that around.

[Applespider]

Oooh, I've had that problem with trying to recycle cardboard boxes even when flattened. Drives me spare! Still at least we have a free bulky waste collection - others have to pay for it.

[20stonegnome]

I have found that the bulk waste team are happy to take away large amounts of rubbish if they are approached directly and negotiated with.