Cards addressing complaints over collection

The Missouri Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division has launched an investigation into Fayetteville, Arkansas-based Cards Holdings LLC over inconsistent residential collection, KSNF reports.

Dustin Reynolds, chief revenue officer and interim chief operating officer for Cards, acknowledged the company is addressing complaints that center on two issues related to a number of recent acquisitions: driver retention and billing migration.

“The bulk of the issues that we are experiencing right now are coming from integration of drivers,” Reynolds says. “We have a very strict onboarding procedure that we adhere to anytime we acquire a company.”

The waste management company has made six acquisitions this year, according to Waste Today reports, and Reynolds says its onboarding process for employees includes pre-employment background checks and drug screens. Cards has not been able to retain a number of drivers from acquired companies, Reynolds explains, because they were unable to pass a background check or drug test.

“We do not budge on these two items and we’re never going to put ourselves in a position where public safety is a risk,” Reynolds adds. “On the bright side, we’ve got a very active pipeline of driving candidates.”

Another challenge in making frequent acquisitions, he says, is switching customers over to the Cards billing procedures, which follow a quarterly billing cycle compared with the monthly schedule many of the customers had been on.

Since its inception in 2017, Cards has expanded its operating area from Arkansas to Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The company began expanding its presence in Arkansas in 2023 with the purchase of C&R Disposal Inc. and Pedersen Trash Service LLC.

The Better Business Bureau in Arkansas has received 109 complaints on Cards in the last 12 months, according to KSNF’s report.

“This is a unique type of business to have this type of issue, recycling services isn’t a high-risk type of business is what we call them here,” BBB Arkansas Director of Communications Cara Carlin tells KSNF.

Carlin says the majority of complaints center around billing, general service or customer service issues, adding that the business has responded to some of the complaints on file and resolved some of the issues. “With that being said, there is still some opportunity for the business to rebound if the issues are addressed but right now we are seeing an influx of complaints and customer reviews,” Carlin adds.

Cards has extended customer service hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to address higher call volumes due to recent acquisitions, and Reynolds says the company is addressing each complaint as it comes in.

“The best course of communication for us is either visiting us online, calling our call center or emailing us,” he says. “We’re addressing those as they come in on a case-by-case basis and, rest assured, we will resolve all open issues.”