HOUSTON -- An Oak Forest homeowner couldn't take it anymore about being overcharged for trash cans.
After months of fighting with the City of Houston's Solid Waste Management Department, Nathalie Ross decided to Tell Tiffany!
"You probably have more important things than trash cans but make it stop," Nathalie Ross pleaded.
Like everyone else in the neighborhood, Nathalie was issued a 96-gallon trash can and a 96-gallon recycle bin for free as part of her service. Suddenly, charges for 2 additional trash cans started appearing on her bill.
The charges started at nearly $7 a can and went up. By the time she contacted us, she was being erroneously billed more than $30 a month!
"I mean I could have bought garbage cans for this whole street for what I paid," she said.
Nathalie claimed that she called the city about 30 times and agreed to try once more while we were there. The man on the other end of the line actually recognized her voice.
"Yeah yeah that Nathalie Ross," she replied. The call doesn't work so we agreed to try and help.
After more calls and emails, here's what we found out about Nathalie's account.
In May 2016, the city showed that Nathalie placed an order for two extra trash cans online. Nathalie argued that she didn't. Either way, Solid Waste admitted that the cans were never delivered. The cancelation was being processed in July and for a reason no one can explain, that cancelation was stopped.
After our calls, the cancelation was finally completely.
"It's done," Nathalie said with a smile.
No one from Solid Waste Management would explain what happened on camera but we did get an email. It read, "we apologize and are working to review procedures in hopes that this does not happen again."
Nathalie's account has been updated and she was refunded more than $150 dollars.
If you have a consumer problem to Tell Tiffany, email telltiffany@khou.com or call her at (713) 521-HELP.