Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Veolia not collecting refuse on scheduled days

This is the second time in a row now that Veolia have failed to collect our refuse. Not just our's but our neighbours as well as far as I can see.

In the 3 years that we have lived here this has only started happening recently. With a full household the bins are packed come Wednesday and every time we report this to Veolia they say they have had no complaints and that everything is running on schedule or they say they will come and get it the next day, however still no collection.

Last time out they didn't arrive till Saturday and by then our bins were overflowing.

Is anyone else having this problem?

Is there more that can be done other than complaining to Veolia directly? We pay enough in council tax to expect a certain level of service but it looks like Veolia's service levels have gone down the tube.

Tags for Forum Posts: refuse, rubbish, veolia, veolia missed collections

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on July 6, 2017 at 19:12

I had this problem too. Two missed dry recycling collections in a month. I tried calling Veolia. In the past they've been quite good and coming round within 24 hours to make good on a missed collection. This apparently no longer works. So I did as Liz suggested and sent in some feedback to Haringey Council to get them on Veolia's case.

The issue was clearly passed on to Veolia (but not, I hope, before being recorded by the Council). Below is the response I received from Veolia:

Thank you for giving us an opportunity to investigate your complaint. You complained about your dry recycling collection being missed by Veolia.

Firstly, I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for the level of service you have received and any inconvenience caused. Having conducted a full investigation, I can confirm that there have been no issues reported at this address in 2017 until your recent complaint.

Going forward, I can confirm that we will monitor this address for a period of one month. The monitoring entails a Supervisor driving behind the crew and ensuring the collections are being completed to schedule and to a satisfactory standard. I would like to further add that the crew responsible for collecting the recyclable waste have been spoken to and reminded of their duty and responsibilities.

I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction as a result of these findings I will be upholding this complaint.

If you are unhappy with my response, you can ask our Feedback and Information Governance Team to review your complaint at the Independent Review stage of our internal complaints procedure. Information about this is on our website. You should tell them what you remain dissatisfied about and what you want us to do to put things right. This normally has to be done within six months of this response. Their contact details are:

Shared Service Centre Feedback and Information Governance Team
10^th Floor, Alex House
10 Station Road
Wood Green
London N22 7TR

T 020 8489 1988 E FIG@haringey.gov.uk

Regards

Harry Sashwell
Collections Manager United Kingdom

t: +44 (07775928662)

Contract House, Ashley Road Depot, Ashley Road I London N17 9AZ

It's probably worth following Liz's advice and make sure the problem is brought to the Council's attention and not just Veolia's.

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Permalink Reply by Nanz on July 6, 2017 at 19:30

Thanks very much for that Hugh, exactly what I was looking for, I will be bringing this to the Council's attention ASAP.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on July 6, 2017 at 19:30

I do wonder if there have been management changes in the last few months. Until the new year we had a good, responsive service from Veolia. The bins were put back where they were collected from and complaints dealt with pretty well. That hasn't been the case for a while.

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Permalink Reply by Nanz on July 6, 2017 at 19:40

I have filed a complaint now, lets see what the response is.

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Permalink Reply by michaela rourke on July 6, 2017 at 19:43

Yes - just lately they seem to have an aversion to putting bins back in the garden and they've been left all over the pavement.

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on July 6, 2017 at 21:08

Gosh it's almost as if they went from salaried employees to zero hours contracts temporary workers on minimum wage and they can't quite give the job what they used to.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on August 2, 2017 at 8:39

So as to report things fairly, I thought I'd add a short update to the effect that last week I noticed a Veolia employee stop his car outside our house shortly after the bin collection lorry had completed its round. True to their word in their email, he lifted our bin lid to check that it had been emptied.

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Permalink Reply by Nanz on August 2, 2017 at 9:01

That's great to hear Hugh!

I also received the same letter you did Hugh after my complaint.

I haven't been home when the lorry's have come by but our bins have been emptied since.

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Permalink Reply by Jane on July 6, 2017 at 20:04

For the past two weeks they have been collecting recycling a day late. I put it down to hot weather making them slow

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Permalink Reply by Maddy on July 6, 2017 at 20:06

Something's definitely amiss - I've been having issues with food and green waste collections. In the past six weeks they have failed to collect three or four times, although when I call they usually come out within a couple of days. In this hot weather it's pretty unhygeinic, to say the least. I don't see why I should have to phone every week to request a service that is supposedly scheduled.