CWS owes parish big

Over 7,100 complaints from residents could cost company as much as $250,000

St. Charles Parish Councilman Paul Hogan is upset with the way Coastal Waste Services is treating its customers, and he’s not going to take it anymore.

During CWS’ recent report to the council, Hogan told the corporation’s general manager, Gus Bordelon, that residents lodged more than 7,100 complaints against the waste disposal company last year alone.

Hogan said most of those complaints dealt with broken carts or broken wheels, and some had to do with the placement of the carts. Hogan said some people complained that their carts were left in the middle of their driveway or in ditches. All complaints are supposed to be made directly to the parish’s contract monitor. They are then forwarded to CWS, and it is their duty to take whatever steps are necessary to remedy the cause of the complaint.

“The contract we have with them has provisions for that,” Hogan said. “Coastal Waste Services has been running wild. I don’t know why the previous administration didn’t do anything about it.”

In the contract between CWS and the parish, CWS is supposed to replace defective carts within seven days. For every day after that, they are supposed to pay a $50 fee until the carts are replaced. There is also a $25 fee for each time that they spill or don’t collect trash, or fail to leave the trash cans upright and returned to their original locations.
On their website, CWS says that their carts are always placed back where they were found and that if that cart breaks, they fix it for free. Also on the website, owner Chris Jean had this to say about his company:

“Consumers are tired of the quick and dirty non-professionalism that some of the giant companies deliver,” he said. “We offer a more personal service and we are more professional with better equipment.”

So far, CWS has never been billed for any violation fees throughout the length of the contract. The contract was signed in 2005.

“I looked at the fees for just five of the complaints and it was about $27,000,” he said. “We don’t know how much they owe for violating the contract, but with over 7,000 complaints, it’s a lot of money. The previous administration just let them slide by.”

Bordelon told the council that CWS would be happy to replace every cart in the parish, as long as they were able to add 68 cents onto everyone’s bill each month.

According to the contract, CWS is supposed to provide quality curbside collection services two times a week, collect any dead animals from public roads or public right-of-ways when encountered or when requested by the public, clean up spillage from collection activities and provide “boom” truck service on a regularly scheduled weekly basis as a routed service, passing each customer a minimum of twice per month.

CWS should also not have their logo on any of the carts.

“Nobody has been holding their feet to the fire and someone needs to do that so that we don’t get those 7,000 complaints,” Hogan said. “There have been multiple violations so that’s why I wanted a committee meeting to get Coastal Waste Services and the council together so that we can clear this up.”