Several customers of County Disposal in Rutherford County said the company failed to pick up their trash for two weeks without warning or an explanation, leaving piles of garbage in driveways for weeks.
"It's frustrating and smelly," said Murfreesboro resident, Ashley Goolsby. "We've had a lot of flies."
Goolsby recently moved to her neighborhood and signed up for services through County Disposal. The private trash removal company serves Rutherford County - including the cities Smyrna, Murfreesboro, La Vergne, Christiana, and Rock Vale - with plans to expand according to the company's website.
Goolsby
said the company has missed two of the three weeks they were scheduled to stop at her home. During that time, the company's phone lines have remained busy or no one has answered.
Goolsby said she emailed the company asking for answers, but didn't receive a response until Monday, September 26.
"We are back up and running as of today Monday 9/26/16," the email reads. "We want to thank each and every one of our customers for the patience and loyalty during these last 12 days. In 28+ years of business we have never experienced setbacks to this magnitude. Rest assure that measures have been put in place to ensure that this issue cannot happen again."
Nearby neighbor Steffania Wenisch said County Disposal told her both the company's dump trucks were broken, but they told her neighbor the state's recent gas shortage meant the trucks couldn't run.
"I don't know what's going on, I got confused," Wenisch said. "Either way I expect my trash to be picked up, that's all."
The company's Monday email to customers promised bills would be adjusted for the missed services.
"We will adjust all bills accordingly," the email said. "Again thank you so much for your support and encouraging emails. Understandably our phone lines will be very busy this week. In anticipation of this we will be extending our normal office hours as well as pickup times as late as possible to try and get all of our customers picked up and to answer all questions and concerns you may have."
For Goolsby, she's frustrated the company didn't communicate with customers until the problem was fixed, leaving many unsure of what to do with weeks of garbage.
"I understand things happen, trucks break down, but maybe some better communication," Goolsby said. "You might get some more understanding people if there's at least some communication going out explaining what's happening."
NewsChannel 5 called county Disposal several times Tuesday, but was not able to reach the company for comment.
