Is it me or is the council massively overreacting here?

[Thepeopleversuswork]

So I have just had a bizarre run-in with my council waste services department which has made me wonder if I'm going mad or they are. I organised a local litter pick a few weeks ago. I contacted the council in advance to ask if I could borrow some litter pickers and they agreed, so I picked up a huge bag of them (far more than I needed, as it turned out), in a big bin bag. Possibly my mistake was not to have counted them, but they were pre-wrapped and I didn't know it was going to turn into such a big drama, so I didn't.

It turned out I only used one of the litter pickers in the pack from the council (I have two of my own and other people brought theirs) so I stuck it back into the pack and a few days later I brought the bag back to the council as requested. But I'm certain I only took one, which I put back and returned.

A few days later I had an email from a woman in waste management services ordering me "urgently" to return the missing litter pickers. There weren't any missing litter pickers, as far as I was concerned: there was the one I used, which went back into the bag and was returned. The woman said there were five missing. I reiterated that I certainly hadn't taken five as I hadn't needed them. I checked around my house to make sure some hadn't been mislaid but there were definitely none other than mine (which look different). So if there were any missing, they were definitely not in my house.

I thought that might be the end of it but she emailed again the next day telling me to come to the council offices "immediately" with the litter pickers (I said I was working in an office so that wasn't possible at the moment). I reiterated that I didn't have the litter pickers. She insisted that I did and asked me "what was I going to do about it?"

I replied that as a gesture of goodwill I was happy to pay for some replacement litter pickers and the council should feel free to invoice me for them (you can get a bag of 8 for £20 from Amazon so they're not hugely expensive). Radio silence then ensued.

Three or four weeks later she has just emailed me again today to insist that I "urgently" go to the council offices with the missing litter pickers. I reiterated again that I don't have them, that I'm happy to reimburse the council for the cost of the litter pickers but I can't leave my job in the middle of the working day to be summoned by the council waste services department. She's just sent a follow-up saying "Please come to XXX today with the missing litter pickers or there will be serious consequences."

Am I being naive or is this completely over the top? The drama and the borderline harassment over something so trivial in the scheme of things councils have to deal with, and the suggestion that I'm a thief just feels really aggressive. I know councils are very cash-strapped and people do take the mick so maybe I'm naive, it just seems a wildly disproportionate response.

I actually might do that.

Doesn't anyone else want to know what the "serious consequences" are?? 😂

@CatsorDogsrule

You offered to replace them, not me.

Yeah I am prepared to pay to replace them which I think is fairly generous considering I had nothing to do with them being lost. I draw the line at having to source and order them and deliver them too.

That did make me chuckle a bit tbh. Like the procurement office for waste management is going to be able to get me fired or imprisoned.

To be fair to that poster it's not a ridiculous idea.

You've already said you'd spend the money even though you have no need to do so, you know you can purchase them on Amazon, you know her name and the office address so actually it's no effort at all to buy them from Amazon and send them to the office. Certainly less effort than spending weeks emailing back and forth.

@Luxio yep if it comes to it I would do this.

But she seems hell bent on summoning me there (regardless of what time it is and what else I might be doing) to account for these things which she is convinced I have stolen.

Surely if you let them invoice you, they'll pick the most expensive litter pickers...

Did the council mention how many they were loaning you in the first instance? Maybe they planned to loan 20 but could only find 15 on the day so their computer says it needs 20 back, despite only 15 leaving the premises iyswim.

Ask them if they have proof of how many you received.

I would just reply and give your phone number and the convenient times to talk, and say that you won’t be responding to any more emails. If she calls you can explain your point of view, and your offer to pay for new litter pickers.

It’s standard practice with customer services, companies etc to only use email, and to not read emails that they receive. It drives me mad. I always prefer a conversation if possible. She’s clearly got “retrieve litter pickers” on her to-do list, and she’s not engaging her brain.

She sounds like a very junior member of staff.
Communicate with her boss.

I would have ignored the emails and blocked them. Oh and no more volunteer littler picking 🤣

I am assuming she doesn’t have any information about you other than perhaps your name so these “serious consequences” will surely be nothing more than some sort of litter picker blacklist - as though you’d be keen to borrow them again!

I would say ‘as I’ve mentioned X times I cannot attend your offices and do not have any of the council’s litter pickers. On XX date I kindly offered to pay for new litter pickers despite returning all of the ones lent to me. Please see my previous replies and either email an invoice to me or cease communication as I will not respond again to unnecessary threats’. Then give it a couple of weeks and block her. What’s she going to do 🤷‍♀️

No they didn’t. They just provided a huge bag of the things and I didn’t think to count them. There were over 20 I think and when I went to collect them there was another bag set aside for someone else of a similar size so they weren’t short of them.

Long before now I would have declined to discus further and blocked her email address.

No one is going to waste their time doing a job for free that someone else is paid to do. Quite simple. The council should have better processes in place - their failing.

I'm absolutely not defending this person in any way

My guess is that she's acting the way she is because she wasn't meant to loan out the equipment in the first place.

Good for you for organising this btw.

i'm afraid I would speak to somebody more senior and I'm sorry if it gets her into trouble, but it's the only way to get them to be quiet. I expect.

That's if you can get any sense out of the council. They should be encouraging people who want to help keep the place nice. I'm sure lots of people appreciate what you did.

just ignore this is a public sector do gooder. She can’t prove anything. Did you sign them out because if you did they should have been counted back in whilst you were there.

Yeah you’re right. I should not have engaged in the first place.

YES! OP I'm sorry you're having this ridiculous stress having organised something good for your community. Id be fuming. I really want to hear the conclusion to this. Shades of Jackie Weaver and Pauline from the jobcentre/other characters from League of Gentlemen are coming to mind 😖😏

Crikey my council are skint and they give out litter pickers. They are kept with a supply of bin bags at popular dog walking routes so you can do bc a bit of ad hoc litter picking through the woods.

@ReplacementBusService

YES! OP I'm sorry you're having this ridiculous stress having organised something good for your community. Id be fuming. I really want to hear the conclusion to this. Shades of Jackie Weaver and Pauline from the jobcentre/other characters from League of Gentlemen are coming to mind 😖😏

LOL

I really try not to draw conclusions about people based on their occupations but it seems to play to every stereotype about local councils and the pettiness, incompetence and downright irrelevance of what they do. I know not everyone in local government is like this but it’s fairly breathtaking that someone has the time or energy to go on a vendetta over some plastic grabbers.

Sounds to me as though other people in the group did use them and you didn't know; it is highly unlikely that other people mostly had their own as it isn't something households would generally have!

She is being out of order and this is harassment as you say. You have offered to fund replacements although they would need to be the same quality as the lost ones; we can get all kinds of junk on Amazon these days and those in the bundle for £20 may be inferior. Councils do not buy cheap stuff off Amazon; they will have their preferred supplier and I wonder if her attitude comes from if you've possibly just said you will fund the cheap ones.

I worked for a long time for the council. There were many brilliant staff there but also plenty of staff who were absolutely thick as shite. You would be within your rights to make a formal complaint about her harassment of you.

I would have long since called the office line, asked for her supervisor and cleared up the matter.

Did you explicitly tell her: "I received a bin bag full of an uknown number of litter pickers. I withdrew one from the bag for my own use. The bag was locked in the boot of my car (or whatever the case was) and no one else could have accessed it. Therefore, I am not responsible for your five missing pickers. Please do not contact me again."

Otherwise sans detail it just sounds like you are being evasive. You have to be very explicit with people like that.

Ask for the CCTV of you leaving with the pickers and count how many you left with.