About 2 years ago, the officials who do that kind of thing, decided that there would be various new groups in charge of collecting trash and disposing of it. The big man of Etablissment Ame came to our house and told us that we, as “preferred customers”, would pay 4,000cfa per month (that's about $8) for them to come around twice a week to collect our trash. We realized right away that 4,000 was way more than others pay (“preferred” is just another way to say, “pay more”) so Roger negotiated and we got them down to 3,000cfa per month. No problem, right? They were to come by with their little mini tractor and high-sided trailer on Mondays and Thursdays. Apart from taking 2 months longer to get started than they said, it all went well for the first bit.
For the last year, at least, they wouldn't come at all for 2 weeks. Our trash sat outside the gate on the road all the time. It smelled, collected various trash from anyone else who wanted to add to it and was scrounged thru by anyone or anything who went by. The money collector was very prompt to come by on the first of the month and I finally got to where I would tell him what I thought of his ability to collect money each month, but not trash. One time I even told him I'd pay as soon as the trash was collected, since it had been there for 2 ½ weeks. The tractor came by within the same morning.
Then, I began calling them when the trash sat for longer than the allotted time. The man on the other end was always very patronizing and sometimes even this didn't get results very quickly. (If you want to REALLY get on my nerves, be patronizing to me!) Anyway, I got tired of spending my money to call them 4-5 times a month and decided to just let the trash sit.
Then our war entered a new phase (or whatever wars enter). At the end of October, our trash sat there nearly 2 weeks. The first of November came and the guy hadn't come by to collect his money—very irregular. I realized he was only coming when the trash had been collected. Sure enough, they picked the trash late on the 3rd and, like clockwork, there he was at 8am the next morning. I told him I knew he'd finally come that morning because the trash had finally been collected. He denied it until I said that I knew I was right. He just shrugged and gave a goofy smile. I said that since the trash was to be collected 2 times a week for 3000cfa, but was only collected, on average, once a week—half the service—I'd only pay half the money. You pay for the service you get, right? We argued a while and he said his boss would come that night. He never came—wasn't in town, apparently. Finally, just before then end of the month, we agreed to give him 2000cfa since they had collected trash just more than half the time. I called the boss and he hasn't come round, except once, late and we couldn't talk to him by then. I still haven't paid this month and don't plan to until the boss comes round and talks about it. If it's that big of a deal to him, surely he'll show up some day.
I realize this is a pitiful battle to fight. Afterall, what is $6 a month? However, I get tired of being taken advantage of. When we arrive at the market, prices usually go up. That's just the way it is. Fine, I argue prices just like the rest of them, but these people wouldn't argue properly. They didn't “play by the rules” and used the fact that they are the only business doing this in our area to get more money out of us. I seriously doubt I'll win the battle. Only if the contract actually says they come 2 times a week—which I think it does—will I have any grounds. Oh well, I just chose to fight this time and we'll see how it turns out. I'll let you know.
