Dear Editor,

Unlike the letter writers in last week’s Review, the houses on my street have experienced repeated failures by GFL to pick up trash and recyclables. Despite repeated phone calls by myself and my neighbors to GFL, we continue to wait…and wait…and wait.

The first week of service came and went without pick-up; I gave GFL the benefit of the doubt, since it was New Year’s Eve week and the first week of service, so I could understand how they may have been overwhelmed.

But, when there was no pick-up on Saturday, or Monday, or Tuesday, I called on Jan. 7 and complained. To their partial credit, the trash was picked up that day – but the recyclables were not. More waiting, until I called again, and once again, a promise to fix the problem.

Finally, on Friday, Jan. 10 (our scheduled day is Thursday), both trash and recyclables were picked up.

Once again, my neighbors and I set our trash and recyclables out the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 15, and once again, GFL failed to pick up either trash or recyclables on Thursday, Jan. 16. I once again called to complain, and Stephanie, the phone rep, agreed that was wrong, and sent an email to her management and whoever runs the trucks to try and resolve this problem.

As you may have guessed, it is now Saturday (Jan. 18), the day of the big snowstorm, and GFL has not picked up our trash and recyclables yet again. Since tomorrow is Sunday, followed by the MLK holiday, the soonest we can expect pick up is now Tuesday, five days late!

My question to both GFL and the Orion Township leadership is: What will it take to fix this failure by GFL to perform its basic mission – pick up trash and recyclables, without constant phone calls to complain about no service?

My neighbors and I have either set up the automatic payment online, or plan to pay by check, but what exactly are we paying for – aggravation? Waste of our time making phone calls that are ignored?

This seems very similar to the problem with the Odd Job Disposal company, which failed to pick up trash and recyclables on numerous occasions.

The Orion Township Board of Trustees voted to go to the single hauler option, so I hold them responsible to fix this problem.

I hope that the township board will look into this repeated failure by GFL to fulfill its obligations and issue the appropriate fines.

Joseph McDaniel

Orion Twp.