Call me strange but I shouldnt have to be nice to get services I am paying for. That is BULLSHIT!!!! I pay my bill every month, My service should be as on time and right. FUCK EM!

CH

Baksheesh is not the American way.  

If they do something extra, tip them.  

If they don't do their job, hold them to task.  One warning then, if it happens again, get to the person who can make a difference.  Try the city council.  

The trash men around my neighborhood take everything...sometimes MORE than they should!

If you put out a tarpaulin with a bunch of trimmed branches on it,  stick a sign in the ground next to it saying LEAVE THE TARP HERE, PLEASE.

They'll also take that nice blue plastic 55 gallon
drum that you just got for use as a trash can, too, unless you let them know you want to keep it.  (Staking it to the ground on a 20 foot rope clues them in.)


CJ

I second the opossum.  They are so slow that you can run right up to them and bop them on the head and toss them in the can real quick.  

I think a wasp nest in the can would be cool. [:)]

Rig up an exploding dye pack into one of your garbage cans, so that when they go to remove the lid, it triggers the dye pack to rupture and cover the bastard.

Be very careful when you set this up, because if you don't do it right, it could backfire on you.

Make sure all of your garbage for a particular week is mainly paper products, leaves, waste that would tend to be dry.

Fill your garbage to the top. Toward the top of the bag, place a one gallon zip lock bag filled with swimming pool chlorine, the one pound bag you can get at Wal-mart will work well. Place an open bottle of brake fluid in the pool chlorine powder being very careful not to upset it. Close the ziplock bag. Carefully cover making sure not to spill the brake fluid into the chlorine.

Gently cover this with other light trash being careful not to upset the brake fluid. Set it out for pick up.

The garbage men should be a few houses down when the appropriate reaction occurs. Grab yourself a glass of tea and enjoy the show.


Edited to add - you may want to set this up using someone else's trash. Or just get an extra can and put it in front of someone else's house just to add one more level of protection.

Edited once again to add that no one should actually try this. This could be dangerous and get you in trouble.

The local TV stations have "Troubleshooter" segments in the evening news.  They especially like it when gov/public 'service' people are caught in the act.

Do the videotape thing, and then call the local TV station.

what does mixing break fluid and chlorine do?

IBTL

On the next trash day, wait for them to arrive to pick up your trash.  Go out and help them put your trash into the truck and comment on how you thought they could use some help since they seem to never be able to empty all of your trash.  Also, be carrying one of you choice pistols on you belt in the open.

Maybe something to the effect of mixing bleach and ammonia?

I personally would not do any nasty stuff to my garbagemen cuz pretty much all of the ones on the back of the truck know me through the town (working at dispatch and the FD). But one time we did have to throw out a dead possum. The night before they came to pick it up, some woman was going through my trash looking for cans. We sat upstairs, listening to this woman mumble about the horrible smell and then she retched, but didn't throw up. It was so funny. The garbagemen didn't seem to mind though.

sounds like my piece-o-shit mail carrier lady, see the sig line below

Brake fluid mixed with the dry pool chlorine will start a fire.

You can't bring fire on a plane!
You can't bring fire on a garbage truck!
You can plan & get a garbage person fired.
Good Luck!
[/dr. seuss]

Within the city limits of the town I live near, the people bitched and complained so much about the garbage pickup service that the mayor and city council decided to get rid of garbage men and go with robot arm trucks.  Everyone gets a huge garbage can with wheels that has to be set by the road side on pick up day.  The robot arm picks it up and dumps it in the back of the truck.  Sounds pretty efficient to me.  Oh well, I live in the county, so we have private garbage pick up.  Those guys are great.  They come into my backyard, get my can, empty it and bring it back exactly where they picked it up at.  I'm so glad we don't have city service out here.

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We use those big plastic cans that the trashmen pick up with a little robot arm. My trash company is pretty cool. One day I had about 6 truckloads of tree clippings. Gave the trash guy a twenty and he even loaded up the stuff. If I have a big item like furniture or a TV they will pick it up as long as I call them in advance.

edit; our city as most cities in surrounding area contract out with private companies.

Mis hombres de la basura no hablan inglés.

Bribery works wonders for the garbage guys here.  Anytime we clean out the basement or something, I just throw it out one extra bag at a time and they never complain or have us billed like they're supposed to.

Sorry sparky -
en·gi·neer:
4 : a person who runs or supervises an engine or an apparatus.
Driving a train ain't the same as dumping garbage by a long shot. I guess a garbage truck IS an apparatus though.

Back to the topic...

I agree that you need to do this at someone elses house, a block away. Know any neighbors that will be outta town on garbage day?!?


ByteTheBullet  (-:

Man,

That's awful. We have dumpsters so we have the opposite problem where people pile up all sorts of junk that legally, they need to take to the dump themselves.

Tires, compressors, batteries, all sorts of crap.

But your garbage men sound like real pieces of garbage themselves.

HOLY SHIT!!!

This is a good one...as are the bees, rotten meat, dead skunk, and the ideas to bring them refreshments too.

What you guys may be missing is the fact that this trash company is run by the government.  THAT is the root problem.  There ain't no competition.

When we lived in Kalifornistan, the county let a contract out for garbage pickup.  Only the largest, "most efficient" and lowest costing companies could win ([b]and[/b] those that were in tight with the government of course.  The trash company that won was a VERY big and wealthy father/son business that had been doing biz with the county for years.  They had VERY strict rules on the amount of trash they would take.  Separation of recycleables (An idea we actually like!) was mandatory (An idea we hate!).  We had to provide them with the size of our family and they gave us a can sized based on that!  All trash had to be in their can and NO extras were permitted.  Any more than the alloted amount and you paid big $$$ extra.  They wouldn't take it without a call request for larger than normal pickup!  It took me weeks to get rid of the moving-in trash and when we did a bathroom reconstruction...well, let's say I spent a shit-load of time busting up the concrete board, studs, tiles, and all the makeover detritous into small parts to fit in the can and it took a few weeks to ditch it all.  I had to buy several regular trash cans to hold the crap then transfer it to the big company canister with the flip-top just before they picked up.  I HATED THAT SYSTEM!

After we moved to the 'burbs in VA, we noticed trash company competition!  Several companies are permitted to work our area, they are not under contract to the government, the cost is WAY lower than in Kalifornistan and those dudes pick up ANYTHING!  I mean it...I swear, I think they'd find a way to pick up a damned car if I declared it trash!  Further, they don't use the trucks with a side can grabber like in Kali...where only one guy does it all.  These guys actually hump that big flip-top can up into the truck.  They work hard and they leave no mess behind.  Competition is GREAT!

It's all about free enterprise.  Get the guvmint into it and you have a mess.  [soapbox]

Being that you are in Florida sir Steyr…..You’ll need the Florida equivalent of the Wolverine!


One pissed off [i]Procyon Lotor[/i]!

A Raccoon!!! [bow]