“But I Can Still See It Sitting There”

What Happened

Someone left a broken stroller on Ms. K’s lawn. She tried to move the stroller to the lane at the back of the house where her garbage is picked up, but the stroller was too heavy and too big to fit between the houses. She called 311 to ask if someone from the City could pick it up. She was given a tracking number and told it would be picked up in 72 hours. That didn’t happen.

Ms. K called again, and 311 staff told her that, based on the information in their computer system, the City had picked up the stroller and closed her file. Ms. K replied that the stroller hadn’t been picked up because she could still see it. She was told she would have to wait another 72 hours for pickup. When still no pick up happened, Ms. K called 311 again. This time she was told specifically that the garbage had been picked up at 9:51 a.m. Frustrated that the City was not picking up the stroller, she called our office.

What We Did

We spoke to a number of City staff member, stressing that issuing a second service ticket was not only poor service but unfair to the resident.

The Result

The stroller was, indeed, finally picked up.