Trash company leaves customers frustrated by inconsistent service

East Pikeland Township has a trash problem, and there is no end in sight.

Barbara Vitabile has been a customer of trash company A.J. Blosenski for two years, and for the last couple of months her trash has been picked up inconsistently — sometimes remaining out for weeks.

Vitabile has called and emailed the company dozens of times, but she never got a response about the missed pickups.

“We never got an email, never got a postcard, never got anything,” Vitabile said. “It wasn’t until I started posting on Facebook.”

Vitabile isn’t the only one facing this issue. Many neighbors and other customers of A.J. Blosenski — which offers residential trash and recycling pickup service in eastern Pennsylvania — have expressed similar exasperations.

After Vitabile posted on Facebook about the lack of trash pickups, dozens chimed in saying they were facing the same issues.

The inconsistent service has left areas like East Pikeland littered with piles of trash and overflowing trash bins. While most of the recent complaints have come from residents in Chester County communities like East Pikeland, the company also provides trash services in Berks, Bucks, Delaware, Lancaster, Lehigh and Montgomery Counties.

Charlene Arnold, an East Pikeland resident and customer of A.J. Blosenski for three years, said she hasn’t received refunds on her bills when they don’t pick up her trash or recycling. Arnold said she is unsure what to do, because she faced similar issues with her previous trash service, before switching to A.J. Blosenski.

Both Vitabile and Arnold blamed the disrupted service on the merger between Waste Connections and A.J Blosenski in 2022.

A.J. Blosenski did not respond to a request for comment, but a notice on its website apologizes for the disruptions, citing staffing shortages.

“We share your frustration with these challenges and want you to know that we are aggressively hiring and training additional staff while retaining the valued team members we do have,” the statement said. “We are also working on various situations behind the scenes, such as reconfiguring many of our routes, that will decrease the service interruptions and restore service back to the level to which our customers are accustomed to.”

Arnold said she feels like she doesn’t have other options.

“It’s a shame because we love the guys that ride on our truck,” Arnold said.

Vitabile said she just wants better communication from the company and her trash picked up on time.

“You’re spending good money, you expect service, everybody understands things happen,” Vitabile said. “You have issues, you’re supposed to call and contact your customers and when there’s a problem you need to let your customers know that there’s a problem.”