WASHTENAW COUNTY, Mich – A Washtenaw County man was being charged almost $450 by Priority Waste, even though he’s never used their services.
He reached out to me for help, and now the company says they’re fixing the issue.
John Ohanian showed Local 4 the bill, $443.47. He said that wouldn’t work, so Local 4 called the company.
“He still has this invoice; he hasn’t paid anything. He owes $443, so has that changed?” Russell asked Priority Waste.
A few minutes later, there was an answer. The issue had been resolved, and Priority Waste planned to inform him.
Local 4 was still near his home, so they told Ohanian.
“I just talked to Priority, and they said they are going to reach out to you to let you know that you don’t owe anything. It’s fixed, all good,” Russell said to Ohanian.
Ohanian is grateful, but this has been a long journey.
Ohanian has never used Priority Waste. He doesn’t even have cans at his house.
Local 4 checked.
“I am seeing a lot of cool stuff, but I am not seeing any trash cans,” Russell said.
“No cans,” Ohanian said.
Last September, he got this notice.
“Due to a recent one-year audit, we discovered that we have been servicing your address. You have not received any invoices from us,” Ohanian said, as he was reading from the notice.
Then came an invoice.
“$353.93,” Ohanian said when asked what the invoice amount was.
He called them to try to get some answers. Nothing came of it. The company sent him a photo as proof they were servicing his home.
“They angled it so my house is behind it. My driveway is over there,” Ohanian said.
He reached out to the township supervisor for help, but hadn’t heard since.
In January, he got another bill, the one for $443.47. For months, he’s been hoping to hear it got fixed.
“Sometimes putting it out in the light is enough to make certain people back off, because they certainly weren’t going to do anything about it when I was calling,” Ohanian said.
Ohanian said Priority Waste did reach out to him directly to say he does not owe the money.