# Greyhound taking over Dublin City Council waste collection



## circle (11 Jan 2012)

From January 16th Greyhound will be taking over the waste collection service in Dublin City Council:
[broken link removed]

The Annual Service Charge has to be paid in full, within 30 days from Monday 16th January, and then all collections are dependant on having credit in your account with greyhound. Prices remain the same for six months.



We should be recieiving a letter from greyhound by Friday.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (13 Jan 2012)

Hi Circle

I got my letter yesterday. 

I stayed with the City Council rather than move to Panda as I felt it was the right thing to do.  I want my waste to be incinerated rather than landfilled.

Have you any idea why Greyhound were chosen? 

Have they committed to send the waste to the incinerator when it is built? 

Brendan


----------



## Sue Ellen (13 Jan 2012)

People elsewhere aren't too impressed with Greyhound charges.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (14 Jan 2012)

Sue Ellen

That is great thanks. 

I could not figure out the documents from Greyhound and now I see that nobody else can either. I rang them but kept doing circles of the "Press 1 for more information on charges" thing. It's astonishing that they won't actually answer their phones at a time of great change like this. 

I will probably switch to Panda. I am amazed though that Panda are not out canvassing us hard. (Or maybe they are and are respecting my "no junk mail and no sales people" notice)


Brendan


----------



## newirishman (14 Jan 2012)

Not that I care too much who is picking up the bins, but you have to pay upfront for all collections according to the website. They only picking up your trash if you have a surplus on the account. Don't like that.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (14 Jan 2012)

I presume that Panda has  a similar scheme. I don't really blame them given the reluctance of so many people to pay household charges and the cost of credit control. 

Brendan


----------



## MB05 (16 Jan 2012)

I got my letter today and it's the first I heard of the change. I think Dublin City Council have handled this very badly. They should have wrote to all the households they look after and explained what they were doing. 

How are we supposed to know it's legit if DCC do not 'introduce' us to our new service provider? I deal with things like this in work, especially in this climate where companies are factoring their debts to third parties and I would NEVER accept the word of the third party alone. I insist that our supplier puts it in writing for us etc.

This could be a scam especially as they are asking us to pay upfront. I hate the idea of paying upfront. I don't mind direct debit but I shouldn't have to pay for a service I may or may not use.

The letter also makes it sound like it's a done deal. That Greyhound is your only choice. What is niggling me about it is that I have to pay an annual charge upfront but they have only committed to keeping the lift charges as is for 6 months so you are at their mercy for the other 6 months unless you forgo half of your annual charge. 

Does anyone know who the alternatives are? I live in Dublin 13 if it helps.


----------



## ClubMan (16 Jan 2012)

_DCC _have been collecting my refuse (bags) and _Greyhound _the green bags to date. Never got any letter about any changes and today the green bags were left uncollected.


----------



## ang1170 (16 Jan 2012)

You're lucky. The first I heard about it was reading the paper over the week-end. Apparently the transition would be "seamless" according to the council. Ha! I thought, as I put the bin out for collection last night. With good justification it turned out. No bin collected. No notice from anyone. Check the Web site. Only then do I find out about the pre-pay. Tried to pay: you can’t without a payment card! Tried calling. No answer (you should count yourself lucky to get even a machine voice “press 1 to…”). Also, it seems collection day has now moved to Thursday (seamless, remember?). What do you think my chances of getting this sorted by then are????


----------



## gianni (17 Jan 2012)

Listeners to a popular RTE afternoon radio phone in show were very irate on this topic. They were scathing in their condemnation of Maureen O'Sullivan TD for not notifying them of changes to their refuse collection!!

Podcast available here http://www.rte.ie/radio1/liveline/​


----------



## Brendan Burgess (17 Jan 2012)

You can contact you city councillors here

[broken link removed]


Panda are not taking on new customers for a few months according to a caller on Liveline. Are they waiting for a High Court decision on whether or not DCC can restrict the right to collect to one company? 

If I pay €100 up front now to Greyhound, does it mean that if I change to Panda in the meantime, I lose the money spent?


----------



## ALEXA (17 Jan 2012)

*Alternative to Greyhound*

Thorntons is another waste collector in Dublin and as far as I know they don't have a standing charge so you only pay for the bin lifts. They are a bit more than Greyhound at €7.50 I think for the grey bin but at least no annual standing charge to pay.


----------



## rayn (17 Jan 2012)

You would think privatisation of waste services was new.
Other Counties and Towns have had  private services for up to 20 years.
Consumers have a choice.
In Mayo the year before privatisation the Co. Co. charge was €365 per annum for a single bin.
After privatisation the rate dropped to under €300 euro and a 2 bin system was introduced and almost 10 years later it is still about €300.
Welcome dubliners to the private unsubsidised market.
Shop around.


----------



## Sue Ellen (17 Jan 2012)

ALEXA said:


> Thorntons is another waste collector in Dublin and as far as I know they don't have a standing charge so you only pay for the bin lifts. They are a bit more than Greyhound at €7.50 I think for the grey bin but at least no annual standing charge to pay.



There appears to be a €50 annual fee with Thorntons - see here

*Option 1 - Pay by Lift - Payments Card*

       Under this system the customer will pay an annual service charge  of €50.   After this the customer will only pay for their black and  brown bin collections at a fixed price per lift.  The Green Recycling  bin collection is free of charge.


----------



## extopia (17 Jan 2012)

Well I've decided to go ahead and give them a chance, despite hearing about problems in Phibsoboro yesterday with bins going uncollected.

Got the letter yesterday, paid today, collection is due Friday (a change from the DCC collection day).

We'll see what happens.


----------



## ang1170 (17 Jan 2012)

Update to message above: bin collection was Monday with DCC, now apparently it's Thursday with Greyhound, but they actually collected today (Tuesday, last time I checked). Go figure.

And to Ryan, above: yes, us city folk have heard of privitised bin collection. My complaint is that nobody bothered to tell me it was happening here, and when it did total chaos seems to be the order of the day.


----------



## ClubMan (17 Jan 2012)

extopia said:


> Well I've decided to go ahead and give them a chance, despite hearing about problems in Phibsoboro yesterday with bins going uncollected.


Green bins by any chance? I'm not far from _Phibsboro _and the powers that be (_DCC _or _Greyhound_) decided not to bother collecting the green bins/bags this week as per the last calendar we were sent and the place is a mess.


----------



## Diyhelp (17 Jan 2012)

Just got the invoice letter from Greyhound tonight. I think this is disgusting. Access waste is not accepting dublin customers until the spring. Panda, CityBin and Thorntons don't collect in my area (Raheny).  Where is the choice? Who votes for these county council councilors and lets them act with impunity.


----------



## ClubMan (18 Jan 2012)

Diyhelp said:


> Who votes for these county council councilors


Eh - you, me and others.


----------



## ClubMan (18 Jan 2012)

In case it helps anybody:

*Key Post* Dublin City Council area household refuse collection options


----------



## extopia (18 Jan 2012)

Diyhelp said:


> Who votes for these county council councilors and lets them act with impunity.



I guess we all do. On the bright side, DCC refuse collectors weren't the greatest, not in my area anyway. It will be interesting to see how much crap gets left on the street by the new guys, before we all start harping on and crying about the good old days when the friendly corpo lads were cheerily taking our bins.


----------



## ClubMan (18 Jan 2012)

Looks like the situation around our way will remain as it was under _DCC_ - no fixed annual charge and €3 per bag label on a pay as you go basis with _Greyhound _taking _DCC _labels until March (any unused labels can possibly be refunded by _DCC_). I generally only put out a bag about once a month. Green bag collected every two weeks or so. No brown bin/bag but I don't mind since I compost what I can anyway.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (19 Jan 2012)

Press release from Greyhound:
*Greyhound responds to Dublin city customers with instalment pay plan*  Greyhound Recycling and Recovery customers struggling to pay their €100 Annual Service Charge in Dublin city now have the option of paying the charge in two instalments.  The company has announced that customers can now opt to pay €50 up front and to defer the second payment of €50 until 1st July 2012 if they sign up to become Automatic Top Up customers before February 15th.  Customers who chose not to sign up to the Automatic Top Up easy pay service must pay the €100 Annual service in full by 15th February 2012 and also put their account in credit to meet bin lift costs in order to maintain their Greyhound bin collection service after that date.  Customers wishing to pay the €100 Annual Service Charge in two instalments by signing up to the Automatic Top Up offer can do so by visiting www.greyhound.ie or by returning the sign-up form attached to their invoice. The offer closes on 15th February 2012.  “We have listened to the concerns expressed by our customers across the city and we have also heard the views voiced by the members of Dublin City Council on behalf of constituents,” said Michael Buckley, joint Founder and CEO of Greyhound Recycling and Recovery.  “We understand that many households are financially constrained and struggling to pay bills. The Automatic Top Up service is the only option open to Greyhound customers to alleviate any difficulties in meeting the €100 Annual Service cost and to maintain a bin collection service,” he said.   “Greyhound Recycling and Recovery has already committed to honouring the waiver scheme for 33,000 customers, to maintaining the €100 Annual Service Charge for 2012 and to keeping bin lift fees at their current rates up to at least July of this year,” Mr. Buckley continued.  “Greyhound Recycling and Recovery is the most competitively priced operator in the Dublin market,” he added.  The company confirmed that it had consulted with officials at Dublin City Council on its proposals to respond to the concerns of customers regarding the pre-paid model that it operates.  ENDS


----------



## Leo (19 Jan 2012)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Mr. Buckley continued. “Greyhound Recycling and Recovery is the most competitively priced operator in the Dublin market,” he added.


 
It's difficult tally that and their €100 annual charge and €6 per bin lift with the cheaper options available.


----------



## ClubMan (19 Jan 2012)

As I mentioned above in our area were were always on a pay as you go/no annual fee bag system - €3 per bag label (and it's gas to see how far some people have sometimes tried to go with the size of the bag! ). I don't know if this option is open to anybody or just in specific areas (which seem to be mostly city centre or thereabouts where there space for wheelie bins is at a premium)?


----------



## ang1170 (19 Jan 2012)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Press release from Greyhound:
> *Greyhound responds to Dublin city customers with instalment pay plan* “The Automatic Top Up service is the only option open to Greyhound customers to alleviate any difficulties in meeting the €100 Annual Service cost and to maintain a bin collection service,”


 
They're joking, right? The "only option" to paying €100 in one go is to be forced to use a top-up option? Two installments is the best that can be done? By the way, presumably this option is only available to people with credit/laser cards.


----------



## extopia (24 Jan 2012)

Well we had our first Greyhound collection the other day. Black and brown bins to be collected on the same day. They only collected the black ones. Rang this morning to let them know. "We'll send someone out today" said the lad on the phone (after I listened to a few minutes of recorded messages. He was about to hang up when I asked "Do you want to know where I live?"


----------



## werner (26 Jan 2012)

I have grave concerns over this if  Greyhound has useless security for customer details, if this is true as it could easily be abused for "Phishing" attacks!!!

[broken link removed]
_"The Irish Times_ was able to log on to a customer account yesterday and to retrieve details, including account balance, invoices, name, address and payment history, using only the information printed on one of the cards."


----------



## MB05 (29 Jan 2012)

Did anyone hear if anything useful came out of the special meeting of DCC councillors last Monday? Is there any chance DCC will be made redo the tender or at least force Greyhound to roll back on the prepay element?

Also did anyone successfully find an alternative company willing to take you on as a customer? 

I emailed the councillors in my area before this meeting and I got instant replies from 2 of the 4 I emailed, another emailed me the following day. One of them was a personal response i.e he addressed my concerns directly and didn't just send me a pre-typed generic response to the situation that I'm guessing everyone who contacted them got. He asked for more details and came back to me a number of times with developments (like the special meeting) but he has been silent since that meeting! I left it a few days to see if the papers or news reported on it but I didn't see much in the papers or on this forum. 

I don't want to keep emailing him but if I can't get the information myself I plan to email him for an update soon.


----------



## Gordanus (2 Feb 2012)

I must say, I'm totally ticked off at the moment.

I don't like the payment options at all.  I want to know how much money they are taking from me, for how many lifts etc the way the Corpo did.  They can't do that, they tell me.  I can pay in advance, and they'll send me an email or text message to tell me when I start running out.   I don't want a text or email - I get about 20 of each a day and once it slips down, it slips out of my mind.   Greyhound, Thorntons and Oxygen* all process the money the same way - strangely enough... weird

Secondly, just how environmentally friendly is it to have 3 different companies' trucks up and down the street every second day? Never mind having bins out every other day - the path will never be clear.

Yes, I've written to my city councillors about this.   



*Oxygen don't deal with smaller black bins, which is what I have.


----------



## ang1170 (3 Feb 2012)

extopia said:


> Well we had our first Greyhound collection the other day. Black and brown bins to be collected on the same day. They only collected the black ones. Rang this morning to let them know. "We'll send someone out today" said the lad on the phone (after I listened to a few minutes of recorded messages. He was about to hang up when I asked "Do you want to know where I live?"


 
Did they ever collect that brown bin?

I'm in a similar situation - back bin collected yesterday, but not brown.

"A 72-hour backlog" I'm told when I rang (three weeks after starting????).

They also dropped a new collection schedule in through the letterbox yesterday for "clarification". It's different from the previous one, which is still on their Web site. They're ringing back about that one (ha!).

I notice that according to their Web site they have "Innovative Customer Communication". Well, they're 100% right on that one: it's quite an innovation to change your story with every communication.......


----------



## Sandymount4 (3 Feb 2012)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Hi Circle
> 
> I got my letter yesterday.
> 
> ...




Like Brendan, I also stayed with DCC out of principle, so am doubly annoyed about the handover to Greyhound. Nothing seamless about it- no advance warning, and no notification we would have to pay in advance etc etc! 

However as I take a different view on incineration (see our address!) another significant change is the move from alternate week brown and black collections, to just _fortnightly_ collections of both bins on the same day.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I suspect that many people may be inclined just put more stuff in the black bin, make less use of the brown bin...and hence help to deliver the additional rubbish required to fuel the proposed incinerator....?


----------



## dublin27 (3 Feb 2012)

I dont like the idea of paying 12 months in advance but only knowing what the fee is for the next 6 months.  Would have thought this is in breach of consumer rights.  For example, if they raise their price after 6 months and I decide to leave them, do I get my 6 month prepaid balance back? Doubt it.  Starting to wonder why I pay tax.


----------



## Gordanus (4 Feb 2012)

I have about 25 black bag tags from DCC in  my office (I totally over-ordered).  I wonder could I just put my black bin rubbish into bags, tag them, and have them collected from in from of the house?  Does anyone know?


----------



## ang1170 (6 Feb 2012)

Sandymount4 said:


> I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I suspect that many people may be inclined just put more stuff in the black bin, make less use of the brown bin...and hence help to deliver the additional rubbish required to fuel the proposed incinerator....?


 
Eh? Why would they do that? The brown bin change is significantly lower than black bin.


----------



## werner (13 Feb 2012)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Hi Circle
> 
> Have you any idea why Greyhound were chosen?
> 
> Brendan


 
Some reasons/questions as to why Greyhound were chosen here:-

*Stench as rubbish firm wins*
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/c...ross-stench-as-rubbish-firm-wins-3017015.html


----------



## MB05 (15 Feb 2012)

I begrudgingly signed up for the automatic top up this morning so I could avail of the 'offer' of only having to pay half the annual charge up front. 

I went through the screens, entered my details etc and processed the payment. It was only after it accepted my visa debit card that it told me it deducted €72. I was only expecting it to take €62 (€50 standing charge and €12 automatic top up).

They topped up my account by €22. Has this happened to anyone else? I have emailed them asking them to refund the additional €10 but I have yet to hear back from them.


----------



## Delboy (16 Feb 2012)

MB05 said:


> I begrudgingly signed up for the automatic top up this morning so I could avail of the 'offer' of only having to pay half the annual charge up front.
> 
> I went through the screens, entered my details etc and processed the payment. It was only after it accepted my visa debit card that it told me it deducted €72. I was only expecting it to take €62 (€50 standing charge and €12 automatic top up).
> 
> They topped up my account by €22. Has this happened to anyone else? I have emailed them asking them to refund the additional €10 but I have yet to hear back from them.



signed up today. not sure how you managed to 'overpay' as the amount box is blank. i entered in 64 (50 + 6 x 2 + 2) and thats what was processed.
then i hear rte radio saying that Greyhound have questions to answer over their finances and whether the company has overreached and thus is in trouble- they were'nt answering questions!!!


----------



## MB05 (16 Feb 2012)

As far as I know I only signed up to pay the standing charge of €50 and then I went down to the Automatic Top Up Grid and ticked the lowest amount possible i.e. €12. Unless some other box had €10 in it and I didn't notice ...

As you would expect I haven't had a reply as yet!


----------



## Pope John 11 (3 Sep 2012)

I have a house in a Dublin City Council area and they have failed to deliver the clear plastic bags for the recycling over the last 4 weeks. Can someone update me regarding this as DCC used to always deliver them on time etc.


----------



## JohnJay (3 Sep 2012)

DCC never delivered the bags, (not for the past 3+ years anyway) Greyhound have collected the recyling for DCC long before they took over the rest of the waste.

I have contacted Greyhound a few times in the past when they have not delivered the bags to me. They usually post them out to you a few days later.


----------

