THE director of a waste collection firm which has left thousands of customers with garden refuse rotting in bins for six weeks has offered apologies “from the bottom of his heart” and promised to do better.

Customers of Greentopia from Brighton to Seaford have put up with grass cuttings, tree clippings and compost decomposing while fortnightly collections were repeatedly missed.

With no sign of the collection vans and no one picking up the company’s phones, many assumed the firm had gone bust.

But The Argus contacted the business’s new owner , who offered heartfelt apologies, promised refunds for those who want them and gave assurances the firm will come back “better than ever”.

Gaynor Fisher, 73, said she chose to pay the firm’s annual £78 subscription rather than buy Brighton and Hove City Council’s own garden waste collection services because “you could set your watch” by Greentopia’s fortnightly pick-ups from her home in Crescent Drive, Woodingdean.

But then a collection was missed in early August and another two weeks later. Ms Fisher could not make contact with the firm.

She said: “On the phone it said there were eight people ahead of you in the queue, then seven and when you got to zero you just got told there was one again.

“Then they sent us an email weeks later saying sorry and I replied asking for a refund and didn’t get any response so I thought they’d ceased trading.

“Our bin was smelling horrible. It hadn’t been collected for a month.

“If they have gone bust, at least they could make people aware because then you’d know and could go with the council.”

Cooper Mitchell, 77, who lives in Seaford, explained: “It’s been six or seven weeks and nobody’s bothered to call me or email me to say what’s going on.

“I’d rank the service we’ve had at one out of ten.”

And Joy Chittenden, in Old Shoreham Road, Hove, said: “I’ve called them a dozen times.

“I spoke to Trading Standards and they told me Greentopia were in breach of contract.

“I don’t care so much about the money but I don’t want other people to get caught.”

However, in the last few days the Greentopia van has been doing the rounds again.

Company owner Brandon Bezuidenhout, 32, who bought the firm from its previous board of directors in June, put his hands up to the criticisms and promised to do better.

He said: “From the bottom of my heart, I’m so sorry, but we’ll come back and come back better than ever.

“We haven’t gone bust.”

He said a string of bad fortune, from vehicle breakdown to driver sickness and telephone software shortcomings, had contributed to the recent poor service.

And he promised that those customers who had transferred to a competitor would receive pro-rata refunds for the months remaining on their subscriptions.

A spokesman for Lewes District Council advised concerned residents to contact Trading Standards and said the council offered its own own garden waste collection service.