KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The memory is still vivid for Lauren Dhans.
“The garbage truck came out of nowhere and rear-ended me,” said Dhans, a nursing student who lives in Kansas City, Kansas.
At the time of the accident, Dhans was waiting to turn left on State Line Road. Dhans said the driver would not give her any information, so she called police and the driver’s employer, Town and Country Disposal.
She spoke to a man who identified himself only as Billy.
“He made it clear he wasn’t going to take any of the upfront costs and he didn’t plan on contacting his insurance company,” Dhans said.
Billy did promise her Town and Country would pay for all the damages. Except, two months later, it still hadn’t. Dhans said she even tried calling the president of the garbage company.
“The reason for me calling him was because Billy had stopped answering my phone calls,” Dhans said. “He said, ‘Billy is busy. Billy has other things to do,’ and hung up on me.”
Dhans hired a lawyer, but a lawsuit could take months, and this college student is having to hoof it to school all because of an accident that the police report clearly shows wasn’t her fault. Dhans isn’t the only one having trouble with Town and Country Disposal.
Madison Kremer’s family used to be a loyal customer of the garbage company until one of its trucks backed into the high school senior’s car last June.
“He smacked into me,” said Kremer. “After he smacked into me he pulled away and it tore my whole bumper off.”
It happened on her own street in Belton and she’s happy to show you the photos. She said at first the Town and Country driver was friendly.
“He told me everything was going to be okay and it wasn’t my fault,” Kremer said. “But when police got there he totally threw me under the bus.”
According to the police report, the Town and Country’s driver accused Kremer of rear-ending him. But police apparently didn’t believe that scenario and blamed the driver for illegally backing down the street. Who was that Town and Country driver? Laddie Pesek, the then-president of the company.
“I felt betrayed. I thought he was a genuine person,” Kremer said.
FOX 4 Problem Solvers has received more than a dozen complaints from frustrated Town and Country Disposal customers who say they have either had their property damaged or can’t get anyone to pick up their garbage.
Town and Country Disposal has an F-rating with the Better Business Bureau because it hasn’t responded to a complaint in more than two years.
Kremer spent more than a month trying to track down Town and Country’s insurance company when the information on the police report didn’t match up to an actual policy. She finally did find the correct company and got reimbursed for the damage to her car.
But Laren Dhans was still waiting.
So FOX 4 Problem Solvers paid a visit to Town and Country’s headquarters in Harrisonville, Mo. The ‘No Trespassing’ sign makes it clear you can’t just walk inside. So we called and Billy met us outside the gate. That’s the same Billy who Dhans accused of not returning her calls.
“She hasn’t been able to get any compensation,” Problem Solver Linda Wagar told Billy, who wouldn’t tell us his last name.
Billy insisted that Dhans problem had already been turned over to the company’s insurance company, and said he was puzzled that she was still having problems collecting.
The day after talking to Billy, Dhans finally heard from Town and Country’s insurance company. With help from her attorney, she now has her money.
On October 1, Town and Country Disposal was purchased by a new company, Waste Corporation of Missouri. Regional Vice President Kevin O’Brien said his company is changing business practices and making sure customer complaints are resolved, not ignored.
In fact when Problem Solver Linda Wagar told O’Brien of another unhappy customer whose electric fence was damaged by a garbage truck, the customer got a call that day promising to reimburse him.
