ciroccoj | Well that... was interesting...

I just wrote the following e-mail to sales@1877garbage.com. I'm still a bit... bewildered by what just happened. What a weird end to my week.

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Hi there!

I have a complaint to make, and I'm not sure who to direct it to.

I live in Ottawa, and my neighbourhood is having a garage sale tomorrow. Two of my neighbours and I had been planning on having a garbage removal company remove any unsold stuff. When I got home today, there was a sticky note with your company's number on it. This would be just fine with me, except that my door very clearly says "No junk mail", "No flyers" and "We boycott businesses that ignore this sign."

We do get junk mail every so often, and whenever we do, if I have time, I call the business in question and explain to them what has happened. I've been doing this for a few years and have received a few apologies, as well as a few explanations like, "We just hire somebody to distribute mail for us, we have no control over what they do." I expected something like that this time.

I got something a little different instead. I got a hold of a man who listened to my regular explanation (we don't want mail, blah blah) but cut me off fairly quickly, asking (pretty politely) why I didn't want to hear about services in my community. Asking also why I don't just throw out unwanted commercial mail.

I answered that it's a waste of paper, and he said, "It's printed on recycled paper anyway." I started to say something like, "I don't think that's the point, it's still a waste-" and at this point the conversation got a little weird.

He asked, very rudely, if this is the kind of thing that I waste my time with, and if I really hunt down every single company that leaves me mail. I was a little surprised at his tone of voice – I've never spoken to anybody who got even slightly rude with me about this topic – so I just listened for a bit and didn't start writing down what he was saying until about two more minutes into the conversation.

When I did start writing it down, it went something like this:

• Do you honestly think that the people who are handing out these flyers are taking the time to read your little sign? I mean most of them don't even speak English!
• So you call all these companies? That's crazy! That's what you waste your time with??!!
• Listen, you sound like a person who really likes a fight!! Are you the type of person who just really likes to look for trouble?!
• "Let's start with this:" and then he started to explain to me, very sarcastically, about how businesses have to tell people what they're all about.
• Do you seriously believe that Loblaws, and all the places that leave you mail care that you don't want it??!

At this point I was mostly just staying silent and letting him speak, but broke in several times asking for his name. He refused to give me his name, and at one point shouted, "Listen, you asked me some questions, now it's time for you to answer some of MY questions!!!"

Somewhere near the end, he said something like, "Are you ANGRY now?? This making you ANGRY? You wanted a fight, you got somebody who'll actually tell you the way it is, instead of somebody who's just going to say sorry?!"

The call ended when he demanded that I give him my name, since I kept asking for his name. I had already started to get the impression from his ranting that he was a rather unstable person, so I ended the call.

I'm not sure what can be done about this. I obviously don't have his name, since he refused to give it to me despite me asking him for it at least five times. I do know that I got a hold of him by calling 1-877-GARBAGE and asking the person who picked up the phone to connect me to somebody in management, regarding a complaint. I called from the Ottawa region sometime between 4:30-4:45, Friday afternoon of today (June 2, 2006).

Your attention to this matter would be appreciated.