LETTER: City needs to look at WM

City needs

to look at WM

Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act states that a local government, in our case the city of Rio Rancho, “has an obligation to ensure that their contractors do not discriminate against people with disabilities.” They need to take a hard look at Waste Management.

My husband and I have “handicapped service” from WM. We put our containers outside our garage for the drivers to roll up the hill to the street. We have had this service for about five years. It always worked smoothly ... until this year. We have been skipped over many times, especially on recycle days.

This past week was recycle week for us. Trash was picked up, recycle was not. They no longer have people you can speak with; you have to go online and try to get help. I used their system to report it Wednesday evening. “It will be picked up Thursday or Friday.” It was not. I did a live chat with them Monday morning and specifically mentioned that we have handicapped service. The “chatter” said, “We will have someone out to pick it up today, be sure to have it at the curb,” and hung up before I could reiterate about the handicapped service. Did he not read what I sent him in my original message?

In another incident, the driver reported that my container was not at the curb and took a picture of it to prove his statement. The container has a large handicapped logo on the side of it!

I know we are not the only customer who has problems with WM, handicapped or not. I have been their customer for 47 years and always paid my bill on time. Do I feel like a valued customer? No. They make me feel like a burden to them. Like providing a little extra service is just so much extra work. Like ignoring us has no consequence.

I don’t know when their franchise comes up for renewal, but, dear city of Rio Rancho (that I helped birth), please hold their feet to the fire on this issue. There are a lot of people who may someday require this service in Rio Rancho, and we deserve to have our trash pickup run as smoothly as anyone else.

Janice Grimes

Rio Rancho