deceiving material request for pickup

Last night (Sunday) at about 5pm, I had a frantic phone call from a company I have never heard of. They're right down the road but I have never heard of them or even noticed this building and they have been here for years.
Anyways, the owner was pretty much freaking out and left a straight to the point message ( i didn't answer normally have my phone on silent on Sundays).
All he said was " This is high priority, I have a ton of TVs that we are no longer in need of and they have to go ASAP "

So I called him back this morning at 6am. He said that he had 60+ plasma screen TVs that he needed gone. They are no longer offering sales or service on plasma and are getting rid of them all.
They don't want anything for them, just want them gone. He used a bait by saying that "A LOT" of people had came by and tried to cherry pick through them.
I told him that I would take them all and even pay him if he wouldn't let them go to anyone else. I started to ask him if they had been gutted or taken apart and then this dude went from straight forward to straight a$$hole.
Once I started asking the TVs conditions, all of sudden he became to busy to talk and told me to just come and get them.

SO, I went out there and the guy just told me to go around back and help myself.

These TVs had not been cherry picked, they had been gutted and been outside for MONTHS. No one was coming to get these. I think I was just another guy they found to call hoping I'd haul off their problems.

Besides this, the techs didn't neatly stack anything, they had just been throwing these TVs out the back door onto the ground. Glass everywhere, I figured this would be some kind of violation or something.

Any advice, should I bring this company to the regulators attention or as I have read on here from time and time again; to let them run their business and I'll run mine....

I follow the laws and hate to see larger companies getting away with it and polluting like this.

I will upload pictures in just a moment.

We all try to be responsible when scrapping and disposing of waste properly according to local laws. This guy probably already had a visit from local code enforcement and now wants to get in compliance the cheapest way possible. He wanted to pass the buck on to speak. If he gets away with it once he will try to get away with it again. I say make the call because who knows where this guy will dump this stuff.

First - walk away. For me, when his tune changed on the phone would have been the end of it.

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Originally Posted by Mick

First - walk away. For me, when his tune changed on the phone would have been the end of it.

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lol , I almost did, but it is rare to get someone saying just come and get it - no charge.. i bit my tongue. too much competition in the city of Raleigh to tell someone to GFY

[IMG]http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2c96ac55.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/...ps686142f9.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/...ps87f8a89d.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5fc18ee1.jpg[/IMG]

the crt monitors in the back have the tubes exposed and some are stacked on top of each other , smashed. the plasma screens that are leaned up against each other are broken and when you move them glass falls all over the place.
you can see in the far back all the TVs are on the grass. I'd hate to walk out there barefoot , might get lead poisoning.
The only reason they have not been caught is because they rent out the entire building and share the parking lot with no one.

I may be taking this to far but if I had this stuff stacked up in my lot everyone would be all over me. I had some crt tubes on a pallet left out overnight because one of my dummy workers didn't put it up and the city jumped all over me. all i had to do was show them i had them palletized and had a proper spot for them and they left me alone. They just didn't want them out in the open like that. this guy has it thrown on the ground....

I can't even begin to count the violations this guy has coming . If you want them I would charge him to remove them . You know the right way to store this . He obviously is to lazy or just uninformed . If you take them for free you will prob get future business from him , but if he is the type I think you think he is . You won't . I would make the call and tell him that you would do it for a fee . Your time is money and this guy seems like more of a liability then a asset .

!. He called you on a Sunday.

2. He was in a panic.

3. Tune changed under some reasonable questioning.

4. Add common sense.

= Brass was probably 99.9% right.


don't create an enemy when not necessary, most especially one right down the road. We already know the guy isn't afraid to do unlawful/shady deeds. If he gets stung he will look for some one to take it out on. There is no resion to put a target on you or yours. just my .02

i already told the guy that no body in their right mind was going to pick this stuff up for free and its obvious that him letting people come by to do so has resulted in all the cherry picking. as the crts have been stripped down and broken.

Now I just told him that i would remove the flat screens for free but I would need to charge for the crts. i also made it very clear that i wasn't going to just take the flat screens, leave the tubes to lay in the grass also that bait and switch tactics don't fly.
told him to drop the bass from his voice and read up on regulations with the material he is dumping on someone else's property as the building and parking lot are rented. I gave him the number for our local EPA office and told him to give them a call for an inspection.
so i am about to leave to start picking up everything tonight. flat screens are free for disposal, charging 10 per CRT tube and DLP tvs , told him I'd even rake up the glass and clean the area for an extra 20...

I really hope you're getting paid up front. Last thing you need to do is load up and haul it away, and then this joker plays dumb. "What stuff?"

I'm with Idaho, this guy sounds shady.

You're a better business person than i am. If it works out, you found a way through a difficult situation and made a profit.

If new customer with an inflated ego came at me under false pretenses i would (tactfully) shut him down in a heartbeat. (People like that cause too many sleepless nights.)

You might want to tread lightly with calling in the authorities. Back in the day they used to say that what goes around comes around. By making problems for someone else you bring problems into your own life. Maybe better to stay focused on the work in front of you and keep the unnecessary distractions to a minimum ?

In other words ... if what the other guy is doing isn't having a direct impact on your life then chalk it up as none of your business ? Maybe you don't have the right to meddle in it ?

It's one way of looking at things ......

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Originally Posted by Scrappah

You're a better business person than i am. If it works out, you found a way through a difficult situation and made a profit.

If new customer with an inflated ego came at me under false pretenses i would (tactfully) shut him down in a heartbeat. (People like that cause too many sleepless nights.)

You might want to tread lightly with calling in the authorities. Back in the day they used to say that what goes around comes around. By making problems for someone else you bring problems into your own life. Maybe better to stay focused on the work in front of you and keep the unnecessary distractions to a minimum ?

In other words ... if what the other guy is doing isn't having a direct impact on your life then chalk it up as none of your business ? Maybe you don't have the right to meddle in it ?

It's one way of looking at things ......

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And maybe that guy will keep right on polluting and "dumping" without anyone to answer to.

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

And maybe that guy will keep right on polluting and "dumping" without anyone to answer to.

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What goes around comes around. He's sowing the seeds of his own destruction.

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You're a better business person than i am. If it works out, you found a way through a difficult situation and made a profit.

If new customer with an inflated ego came at me under false pretenses i would (tactfully) shut him down in a heartbeat. (People like that cause too many sleepless nights.)

You might want to tread lightly with calling in the authorities. Back in the day they used to say that what goes around comes around. By making problems for someone else you bring problems into your own life. Maybe better to stay focused on the work in front of you and keep the unnecessary distractions to a minimum ?

In other words ... if what the other guy is doing isn't having a direct impact on your life then chalk it up as none of your business ? Maybe you don't have the right to meddle in it ?

It's one way of looking at things ......

Full article at Scrap Metal Forum: http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/day-l...#ixzz35VuvuGpX

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If the rain water runoff from this guys property ran on to yours would you still feel the same?

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Originally Posted by jimicrk

If the rain water runoff from this guys property ran on to yours would you still feel the same?

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Excellent point !

We all have the responsibility to protect our own self interest.We can't reasonably expect somebody else ( guvmin't included ) to do what we should be doing for ourselves.

Who is the injured party in this situation ? This polluter is renting the property. It's the responsibility of the property owner to notify the authorities and possibly file suit in court for damages.

This is a beef between the renter and the landowner. carolinaecycle isn't involved and certainly doesn't have the responsibility to clean up this irresponsible person's mess.

Our clients have a right to privacy. They also have the right to expect confidentiality. Notifying the authorities is a breach of trust unless we're required by law to disclose certain information.

Threatening a client with notification could be construed as coercion. They have the right to make choices of their own free will and accord. They also have to bear the consequence of those choices .... not you.

The first coin minted in the United States was inscribed with the simple motto " Mind your business ". That's one of the principles that our country was founded upon. It's one of those crazy radical ideas about freedom that they had back then.

Just sayin' is all. It's just my viewpoint. When we're in business we all have to decide the right and wrong of things for ourselves and then bear the consequence for the decisions we've made.

I think that you handled it well Carolina. Charging your fees is more then acceptable, in my eyes, considering the circumstances. His panic was probably due to either the owner of the property, or the local EPA office. Either way he was just looking for an easy way out and push the problem off to someone else. I see it as a win/win considering you're making enough to cover your costs and still make a profit, and it's getting clean up/properly disposed of.

Seems like a lot of red flags and warning buzzers going off to get in bed with this guy from your description of the call unless something has changed. EPA/treehugers don't care who they fine or put out of business nor do they care who the real responsible party is they want some one to pay, any one.

Once you reach an agreement with this guy You are on the hook, he has already proven he,s not a responsible person or business, you sound like you are. EPA will think the same, so, who do you think they will go after if things don't go the way they think it should.. They don't care if you make a profit.

If by chance they get involved, you will do it there way not yours and remember they are used to spending our money not their own $100,000 is lunch money to them. just sayin.

well I just got back. turns out this guy has had a bad run with people picking up his scrap.. people had been coming and just cherry picking through everything and leaving behind all the junk.
picked up 36 flat screen units, 13 crt tubes and 2 dlp.. not quite 60 as he had said but close enough. raked and swept everything up for him. i told him to pick a spot inside his shop to keep a pile of scrap and call me once a week and i will pick up instead of throwing the stuff outside and letting everyone get to it. i told him $150 for the job and from now on it would be free of charge if he didn't let it get out of hand plus I'd throw him a few bucks for the TVs if they aren't gutted. He gave me 200 and threw in a box of circuit boards...

i guess it takes a ton of "cherry pickers" to make one man crazy and one good scrapper to come along to make things better.....

funny how this morning up to about 3 hours ago we had been pretty much at each others throats..

I will upload some pictures of the clean up tomorrow when the sun is out

Good for you for cleaning up the mess , putting him in order and getting paid for your time . Glad to see you take action . Hopefully this will become a nice future source for you . Your story reminded me of one time I was pumping gas and a guy asked me if collected metal , he saw a oven and some other scrap. I said yes . He asked me to come to his shop because every night people would jump the fence . This was not electronics thou it was hvac units and my guy was begging and grateful as opposed to ignorant and deceitful .

= Brass was probably 99.9% right

My wife may disagree with you Mike....lol

Good job Carolina, you did a good thing, made some $$$ and picked up a new customer!!:winner: