Weather watch: Sick and tired

I mentioned the other week about how "sick and tired" I was for paying so many rates and having, what I feel, is a fairly average service in return. That blog was about how Auckland is facing another water crisis and I wanted to know why my tax money hadn't been used to fund a better system to pipe water from the Waikato river.

Today I had another issue with the Waitakere City Council - and while this isn't weather related it's certainly environment related and I thought you would get a kick out of the email sent to me by the WCC this morning. It honestly made me laugh and shake my head.

Every second Monday is recycle day where I live - the day we put our paper and bottles to be recycled. When I got home last night I found my bin, and my neighbours, hadn't been picked up.

No problem, I thought, I'll email the council and let them know. The Waitakere City Council has a detailed Contact Us form, and I couldn't really find what I was looking for, so clicked on Complaints, Compliments and Suggestions.

My email briefly said that my recycling hadn't been picked up and that I'd leave it out for them to come back and collect today, or as soon as they possibly could. Friendly, no stresses.

I received a phone call first thing this morning, great service, asking me a few questions, then letting me know they would be back out to get it today or tomorrow. Fantastic!

Then, this morning, I received this email:

Good morning Philip,

Thank you for telling us your recycling bin not being collected.

Our Customer Services Charter describes a complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the Council or its staff affecting an individual customer or group of customers. A complaint is not an initial request for service or information, a request for a new service provision or a request for information relating to the Council's policies/practices.

We encourage you to contact our 24-Hour Call Centre on 839-0400 or email us at info@waitakere.govt.nz instead of using the Compliments, Complaints & Suggestions Feedback Form.

Are you kidding me?! I misused their contact us form - and they pointed it out in an email!

So there we go. Nothing like bureaucratic mumbo jumbo to make you laugh.