$354.06 - what?!?!?!

[allie]

Okay I am frustrated.. We called to get garbage service in April '02 from this new place, Swatco. They start getting our trash every week. Well a month later, no bill. So I call them but they leave the office by 11am. I leave MULTIPLE messages over the next month asking where our bill is, please call us back, etc. No return call. I assumed then our landlord paid for the service, I mean they wouldn't call back and I called before 11am but no one answered!

Today we receive a bill for $354.06 and a note saying our service will resume once we pay (they didn't pick up our garbage Monday).

The invoice shows a monthly fee for every month back to April '02!

WHY are they just now billing us? We don't have $400 to shell out, it's not going to happen!! And I am p*ssed off because they should be on top of their crap and billing us long before this! I mean if our landlord isn't to pay for it, why is this our FIRST BILL?

Oh I am so mad. Sigh. What would you do? Tom is going to call them tmo. morning from work to get things hashed out. Any ideas on what he should tell them? I mean we're adament that we will not (CANNOT!) pay this bill immediately.. but we're also angry that this is the first bill in almost two years and that they never once returned our phone calls about the bill! Sigh.

[shermt1]

Oh Allie that is crazy. What kind of company doesn't send a bill for 2 yrs? We pay our garbage co. 45 every 3 mos. I would definetly question them, let your dh take care of it and try to relax, you have had enough to worry about!

[Defenderofthefaith]

I think your landlord should pay this bill!

[wildbirds]

Sounds like a crock to me. If I was to be mean I think I'd tell them I paid cash every month. LOL. Maybe they changed management or cleaned house of all their employees. Wouldn't be able to prove you didn't pay cash. LOL.

Do you have another trash service in your area? If so, I would call them and order their service and hash it out with the other company afterwards. Do you have friends or family in your area who would be willing to split the bill with you and you could take the trash to them the day before trash day? My sister did this with a neighbor and it worked out well for both of them.

I had two trash cans in my kitchen. One for paper and the other for tin cans and glass. I burned the rest. I saved pop cans for my uncle. I only had one bag to get rid of every two weeks and didn't have to have trash service. If you don't have anything with your name on it that you want to throw away, you can drop in a dumpster somewhere. There is ways around the trash service! Hope it all works out for you.

[allie]

We did burn our trash for a LONG time and then every 3-4 months we hauled out two garbage bags full of soot to the dump. Then we knew we were having a baby (or babies actually) and diapers do NOT burn plain and simple. So we obtained service from the company in the next town over (the cheapest place, I think there's one other our county offers but it's much more expensive).

DH is calling tmo. If it's not one thing, it's another with us lately (money wise) it seems. If they'd cut some off the bill or something similar, I'd be willing to pay in monthly installments that we all agree upon. I mean if they cut 1/4 to 1/2 of the bill, we could pay it in two months easily. I am just angry that it takes them two years to do this and then they don't even call us, they just snail mail a bill.

And we would take it to neighbors if we had any and our closest family is 20 min. away.. that is an option, I may take a couple of bags over to our in laws on Friday possibly 'cause with diapers it's piling up. Gross!

PS In the state of Oregon the landlord is not liable for trash collecting service, I looked it up online and sure enough - unless stated different in the rental contract, we are to pay it, not them. And I looked all through the contract my husband signed with the landlord but no where does it say he'll cover this service.

[rojo13864]

Allie, If they didn't bill you for two years are you liable for the full term? You made numerous contacts with no results, and now they bill you? I would definetly try to make arrangements on paying a minumum amount monthly until it's caught up with. I mean your not ducking the issue, you tried to pay! I was shocked when I read this. Some where along the line ..they were unresponsive to the fact that you left messages. Will you let us know how this comes out?

[nancy_k1]

The only problem here is proof. I mean they are a company and you owe them. The problem then falls on you to prove that you called and tried to contact them and prove that they did not send a bill before now. I was in the same position. My son had a docotor bill that was only $24.00 that got turned over to a collection agency that I never knew about. I mean come on $24.00? With all the out there bills I have I would have been happy to get one so low. They said that they had sent out numerous bills to me. Well if they did I hadn't received any of them. They also said that they had called me......well answering machine and caller ID said otherwise. I paid the bill but still ticked me off because it was turned over. I'm not sure what you can do but I do wish you the best of luck.