“I think I can kiss a couple thousand dollars goodbye,” Nicolette Toussaint told The Sopris Sun over the phone on Monday.
Toussaint, a former resident of Carbondale, moved to Longmont last spring. She found it peculiar that trash service bills arrived at her new address for the house they had sold in Carbondale. Even stranger, Waste Management no longer provided residential trash pick-up services in Carbondale town limits.
In October 2019, following a years-long process, Carbondale trustees chose Mountain Waste & Recycling for a single-hauler trash service model. Previously, Waste Management was one of three other companies offering residential trash pick-up in town.
Since then, residents are billed by the Town, like other utilities. The choice was made to reduce traffic, noise and wear on public streets; to improve waste diversion; and to reduce bear interactions through a more systematic and less haphazard approach to securing trash containers.
Until recently, Mason Ingram, Toussaint’s now 93-year-old husband, paid the bills. “When a person is aging, you want them to be as independent as they can be, for as long as you can,” she explained. It appears, however, that Ingram didn’t notice the Town of Carbondale utilities bill including trash services beginning October 2019.
According to Toussaint, the couple was paying Waste Management an additional bill — about $200 every third month — for a non-existent service. After struggling to get in touch with the company and rectify the situation, Toussaint filed a complaint with the Colorado Attorney General. She was told that because the company is headquartered in California, “they won’t do anything.”
A media request sent by The Sopris Sun to Waste Management yielded an email response in less than an hour. It was confirmed that Waste Management does not provide residential services inside town limits. We were told the company would do some research and provide a solution.
On Wednesday, they told The Sopris Sun “we are crediting this account and it will have a zero balance. We are very sorry for this error. It appears it was a technical glitch in our system and we don’t have reason to believe anyone else is affected. However, if any current or former customer has a concern, we encourage them to call our Customer Service (800-796-9696) or chat online with a representative at wm.com
“I’d be surprised if we’re the only ones,” Toussaint told The Sopris Sun. However, we have not identified anyone else who has experienced this same issue since Carbondale’s switch to a single-hauler model, more than four years ago.
Toussaint encourages everyone to check their bills carefully, especially if they’re set up on autopay.
If you or someone you know has experienced suspicious billing, we encourage you to reach out to news@soprissun.com