Big fines for Waste Pro over customer service issues. The Harrison County Utility Authority will fine the company $454-thousand for contract violations related to customer complaints this year. Under their contract, Waste Pro has a certain amount of time to correct those problems, or they can be fined $500-dollars per occurence.
The Entire Press Release from the Harrison County Utility Authority:
HCUA Board Votes to Fine Waste Pro & Take Legal Action for Service Issues; Sets Deadline for Cart Removal
During HCUA's regularly scheduled board meeting held earlier today, the member agencies voted to fine Waste Pro $454,000 for contract violations related to contractual service issues for the time period of May 1, 2017 through August 31, 2017.
The action was taken after months of communications with Waste Pro regarding the increasing volume of service complaints since January 2017. Per the HCUA contract, Waste Pro is given notice of each service issue and they are given a specified amount of time to correct the issue. If not corrected within the contract-specified time, HCUA can assess a fine of $500 per occurrence.
Per HCUA Executive Director Donald Scharr, between May 1, 2017 - August 31, 2017, HCUA identified 908 service complaints that, based on available information, were not corrected within the specified time frame. Waste Pro was given notice of these complaints as they occurred. Dates for completion of the correction of the complaints were provided by Waste Pro. Prior to its decision to issue the fines, Waste Proâs Chief Operating Officer was notified of the specific issues, requesting Waste Pro to provide any additional information regarding the circumstances that should be considered by HCUA. Waste Pro did not produce any information for consideration by the HCUA.
"Because of the hundreds of complaints that were not resolved in a timely manner, as well as Waste Proâs failure to provide any additional information for HCUA consideration, the HCUA Board voted to assess the fines due to HCUA per the terms of our contract with Waste Pro," said Scharr.
In related news, during a special called board meeting on Friday, October 13, representatives from Waste Pro committed to provide additional crews to expedite pickup of their carts in Harrison County and to provide a daily written report of cart pickups made to HCUAâs Executive Director. At the same meeting, Waste Pro agreed to a HCUA-determined cart pickup deadline of Friday, November 3, 2017. The status of cart pickup will be discussed at HCUA's next regularly scheduled board meeting on Thursday, November 2, 2017. At that time, the board will decide what, if any, action is needed to complete Waste Proâs cart retrieval.
Residents who still have their Waste Pro carts should continue to place them on the curb for pickup. To avoid interference with Team Waste garbage and recycling services, the Waste Pro carts should be empty, turned over and placed 4-5 feet away from the new HCUA carts.