July 24, 2003

T. Church

Customer Service

WM of the Piedmont

P.O. Box 16148
Winston Salem, NC 27115

Dear T. Church –

I am writing this letter in regards to the destruction of our gravel driveway caused by the heavy Waste Management trucks while picking up our trash. Over the past several months, beginning in early March, my wife has contacted Waste Management’s customer service department multiple times regarding the damage caused by the company’s heavy trucks as they back up our driveway. Each time she has left a message on a supervisor’s voice mail asking for a return call to discuss the matter. She did receive a single return phone call from a supervisor stating that Waste Management does not repair driveways, and that our driveway was not designed for heavy trucks, but has received no further replies to her repeated phone calls.

Our driveway is a shared driveway between 3 homes, all belonging to family members. Two of the households have physically disabled residents living in them who are unable to drag their trashcans to the curb, so they paid an extra fee for backdoor pickup. Beginning some time in 2002 my Mother-in-law requested backdoor service for her trash pickup, as she became permanently physically disabled. Due to the distance of her home from the road, the only way to receive the backdoor service was for the heavy Waste Management trucks to back up our driveway to collect the trash. After months of the trucks backing up the driveway, several times running into trees, deep ruts began to form in the gravel driveway. My wife made the initial phone call to Waste Management. She did receive a return phone call from a supervisor who stated that our driveway was not designed for heavy trucks and that Waste Management does not fix driveways. She requested that the trucks stop backing up the driveway, and was informed that the distance between the road and my Mother-in-law’s house was too great for the drivers to walk up to collect the cans. Subsequently the backdoor service was cancelled and my Brother-in-law or myself took the trashcans to the curb.

After my Mother-in-law’s backdoor service was cancelled, the Waste Management trucks continued to back up the driveway to collect the trash from my wife’s Grandparents home. They have resided in the same location for well over 5 years and have had backdoor service from Waste Management the entire time they have lived there. During those years, the driver had walked up the driveway with a rolling trash receptacle to collect their trash. My wife contacted Waste Management multiple times requesting that the trucks no longer back up the driveway. Each time the customer service rep directed her call to a supervisor’s voicemail. She left multiple messages requesting a return call, which she never received. One week the trucks stopped backing up the driveway, but also stopped collecting my wife’s grandparent’s trash. When they called Waste Management customer service, they were informed that their home was too far from the street for backdoor service, and that their trashcans must be taken to the curb. After explaining that they were physically incapable of doing this, a representative from Waste Management paid a visit to their home to discuss the matter. He informed them that no matter what had taken place in the past, their home was too far from the street for backdoor service, without the trucks backing up the driveway. The driver could not walk up with the receptacle to collect the trash, and that the trashcans must either be taken to the street for collection or the truck would continue to back up the driveway. Since then, their backdoor service has been cancelled and my Brother-in-law or myself take the trashcans to the curb.

As our household has never requested backdoor service, and has always taken our trashcans to the curb for collection, there no longer appears to be a need for the Waste Management trucks to enter our driveway to pick up our 3 family’s trash. But the trucks keep backing into the driveway, albeit just the end, they continue to cause damage. The evening of July 23, 2003 I returned home, and as usual, prepared to take all the empty trashcans to their respective homes, I noticed further damage caused by the Waste Management trucks. At the end of our driveway is a deep drainage ditch on either side, with a culvert running under the driveway. The shoring around the culvert is now collapsed due to the fact that the Waste Management truck drove off the edge of the driveway. Previous damage includes shallow ruts dug in the lawn at the edges of the driveway, once again caused by heavy, oversized Waste Management trucks pulling into our driveway.

There now exists the problem of the destruction done to the driveway by the heavy trucks that Waste Management does not seem to want to address. We were informed that Waste Management does not fix driveways, but in direct contradiction to this; several months ago a Waste Management employee came and raked smooth ruts caused by the heavy trucks. The very next day the ruts were dug again by the heavy truck backing up the driveway. The biggest problem is the erosion that these ruts have caused. The area that is so badly rutted is the edge of our driveway directly over what used to be a drainage culvert (not the recently damaged culvert, another one). The heavy trucks driving off the edge of the driveway have caused the driveway to collapse around the area of the culvert so there is no longer a proper channel for the water to flow. Consequently, with the heavy rains that we have experienced this year, deep channels have formed in the driveway because the culvert is now blocked. We have received an estimate from a contractor of several thousand dollars to repair the damage to our driveway. As a gesture of good customer service, we feel that Waste Management should bear at least some of the responsibility for the repairs; as the company’s heavy trucks initially started the damage. At the very least, we feel that a company representative should extend the courtesy to return our phone calls to discuss this matter. To directly quote a section from Waste Management’s Internet site:

We do not feel that Waste Management is working closely with us at all, in fact we are beginning to feel that the new damage being caused is in retaliation to our multiple complaints. While I doubt very much that this is true, this issue has become extremely frustrating to us. My wife more recently contacted Waste Management customer service via email, and did receive a reply back from T. Church, stating that her request would be forwarded to the operations manager to discuss the problem. It has been over a month and a half since she received the email reply, but has not yet received any further communications from Waste Management. Since we have not received so much as a phone call, I am writing this letter, and enclosing photographs along with it. One copy is being sent to Waste Management’s local offices, along with a copy to the Corporate Headquarters and Regional Headquarters of Waste Management. I am also sending a copy to the Better Business Bureau of Northwest North Carolina, as well as to the consumer affairs desks of WFMY, and WGHP. I ask that you please contact me at your earliest convenience so that we can resolve this matter. Thank you very much for your time.

Respectfully,

Matthew K. Baldwin

NC

Enclosures: photographs of damage

CC: Waste Management Regional Headquarters, Waste Management Corporate Headquarters, Fox8 On Your Side, 2 Wants to Know, Better Business Bureau of Northwest North Carolina

Picture 1- This is a photograph showing how deep the ruts around the upper drainage culvert are.

Picture 3 – Another picture of the ruts. These were subsequently repaired by a Waste Management Employee by raking them smooth, only to have them dug again the very next day when the heavy truck came through to collect the trash.