Dublin City Council - Bin Collection Privatised/Greyhound Megathread

rickyjb

Sounds about right...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0301/1224312582907.html

Dickerty

Seems like they are up to their usual lark again. They took the half-year installment of the annual fee from my account, leaving the account overdrawn, then didn't lift our bin this morning. I have it set to auto top-up, but the card had expired. Of course, they didn't notify me to update the card or that the account was in minus.

Secondly, I took up an offer to top up by €49 in Sept for a free top-up of I think an extra tenner? But I never saw that extra amount on my account...

kaimera

I saw that too from my account & email.

60e gone - 50e half year and the other 10 went into my account.

I'd sent an email about 2 hours before hand requesting account cancellation and for them to advise me on my account balance and ****.

Whorebags.

Changing to city bin asap.

Meauldsegosha

My account with Greyhound is now in a minus figure. I also noticed in the black bin lift history that my last bin weight was 33kg whereas my previous bin lifts were all 20kg :rolleyes: I switched to citybins this morning.

deelite

I had 15 euro credit on 29 December - bin wasn't lifted this morning and now have a minus amount on the account. Problem for me is I paid last year as soon as I got notification from GH (January 21ish) of their takeover of DCC collection. So under my reckoning my annual service charge is due on this date.... awaiting phone call back from GH.

anndub

My black bin hasn't been lifted since the end of October. After numerous calls, promises of a rescan, being told the rescan and empty had been completed even though my bin was sitting unmoved and overflowing in my front garden I log on to my account this morning to see I have been charged for two bin lifts in early December which never happened, each occurring on consecutive days. These charges were not there a week ago so were obviously added to cover their behinds after my last call to them on Monday just gone. Oddly enough according to my records there are now 5 black bins registered to my address.

Not really sure where to go from here. I've called them twice today already but they seem to have trouble comprehending that I won't be paying 50euro for the next service period considering I paid 50euro for the last service period and didn't get a service. I've been promised two call backs today alone. I have lists of names the length of my arm but can never talk to the same person twice. I have been given a list of laughable excuses for this, my favourite being the day that all the managers/team leaders were in a day long meeting and couldn't be disturbed.

Has anyone had a similar experience or know a way to sort this out?

Mr Simpson

Best way to sort it out is probably leave, or at least threaten to do so.

anndub

As much as I'd love to, there are no other waste collection companies servicing my area.

Faith+1

My father is with the City Council (Former Binman) anyway there's talk that the council might be coming back due to the state of the city at the moment. In what capacity I don't know but the overseers are asking redeployed men including my father would they be interested if such a scenario becomes a reality.

So far Greyhound has lost 12m since they took over the contract last march, not exactly the start they wanted and City Bin are undercharging (Which DCC clearly know) and this will end very badly for them. The staff in the Civic offices have a pain in their ass dealing with letters and Phone calls from pissed off business's and the residential population and as a result it's gone to the city managers attention.

2013 will be a very interesting year me thinks.

Tony EH

I really hope that that's the case, because the privatisation of refuse collection has been a fat disaster from the beginning.

skepticalone

its like pulling teeth trying to get these fekkers to answer phones , my bin wasnt collected this morning either but strangely the brown bin beside it was ...also the downloadable timetable thingy doesnt recognise addresses , despite there being 1000 houses in my estate .no idea when my next bin lift will be . grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Faith+1

Tony EH wrote: »

I really hope that that's the case, because the privatisation of refuse collection has been a fat disaster from the beginning.

This is very true Tony. My father is with the council 32 years and everyday people are asking him would the council ever go back to the bins. The thing is DCC don't want to go back to them as it hasn't been profitable in the guts of 10 years but as a Public service they will have no choice.

Amazes me how Greyhound thought they could make money from this, if it made money there's no way the Council would have let it go.
And the fact that Greyhound are now charging people for the Recycling bags is the final nail in the coffin. He says the old folk apartments where he does caretaker now are overloaded with rubbish every day from people dumping their rubbish there. There is only 8 small flats and the large metal bins have to be taken 3 times a week!, a bin that size should only be lifted once a week.

deelite

I also hope DCC come back to the bins.

deelite

Has anybody got an email address for Greyhound?

Faith+1

The plot deepens..... Just got a call from the old man. He was told this morning that Greyhound will no longer be taking the bins from DCC flats/Old folks etc.. from the end of the month.

They were getting paid by the council to take these bins and after 10 months they have volunteeringly handed it over to City Bins :eek:. Greyhound got no hassle taking these bins and they handed it over??? Residential work (Houses) is where they have problems to which City Bins are slowly taking over with their aggressive pricing strategy. Whoever in Greyhound came up with this idea needs to be beaten with their own sh*t.

So you heard it first before the news! The end is nigh Greyhound and to be honest City Bins won't last long either with their €99 malarkey :rolleyes: DCC will be back eventually.

This is shaping up to be a very interesting year.

Evenstevens

Does anyone know if the knew recylcing plastic bags are any different from the previous ones they used to give out? I just ask because I got a load of them in the door last year and have plenty to be going on with. Just afraid they won't collect if I put them out. I did email Greyhound but no answer..

Ciarok

The "old" Greyhound recycling bags are green, the "new" are clear. In my area (in D7) Greyhound have collected these and other clear bags without the Greyhound imprint in the past few lifts.
I suspect this good behaviour is temporary until the Greyhound revolt subsides - if it does.

tomasrojo

Dickerty wrote: »

Seems like they are up to their usual lark again. They took the half-year installment of the annual fee from my account, leaving the account overdrawn, then didn't lift our bin this morning.

Did you opt for one of the new four payment schemes? I didn't (I never got a clear communication from them about the matter, neither the nature of new structures nor when and how I should tell them) and they seem to have debited me about €60. I assume they've put me on the first of their options, as listed here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056800799

That was the option I was going for anyway, but I'd like to actually know that that is the scheme I'm paying for now.


All I know about this change in charging structure I've got from Boards. Very poor communication, as usual, from Greyhound.

msg11

Faith+1 wrote: »

The plot deepens..... Just got a call from the old man. He was told this morning that Greyhound will no longer be taking the bins from DCC flats/Old folks etc.. from the end of the month.

They were getting paid by the council to take these bins and after 10 months they have volunteeringly handed it over to City Bins :eek:. Greyhound got no hassle taking these bins and they handed it over??? Residential work (Houses) is where they have problems to which City Bins are slowly taking over with their aggressive pricing strategy. Whoever in Greyhound came up with this idea needs to be beaten with their own sh*t.

So you heard it first before the news! The end is nigh Greyhound and to be honest City Bins won't last long either with their €99 malarkey :rolleyes: DCC will be back eventually.

This is shaping up to be a very interesting year.

I serious think you are jumping the gun there, DCC won't enter back into that market ever it was costing them to much money to run the operation.

nudger

Faith+1 wrote: »

The plot deepens..... Just got a call from the old man. He was told this morning that Greyhound will no longer be taking the bins from DCC flats/Old folks etc.. from the end of the month.

They were getting paid by the council to take these bins and after 10 months they have volunteeringly handed it over to City Bins :eek:. Greyhound got no hassle taking these bins and they handed it over??? Residential work (Houses) is where they have problems to which City Bins are slowly taking over with their aggressive pricing strategy. Whoever in Greyhound came up with this idea needs to be beaten with their own sh*t.

So you heard it first before the news! The end is nigh Greyhound and to be honest City Bins won't last long either with their €99 malarkey :rolleyes: DCC will be back eventually.

This is shaping up to be a very interesting year.

City bin have a strong investor in their company, Averda, who are middle east based and are looking to Europe for business in the future.

Don't think they are a fly by night company.

Faith+1

Only time will tell I suppose, I'm not in in the City Council and quite frankly couldn't give a rats ass but if this whole episode with private contractors falls apart it's the Council that will have to clean up the mess.

Greyhound thought they could manage it and are failing, only time will tell with City Bins but personally I don't think they'll last either.

Lawrence1895

muller21 wrote: »

My sister used to live in Germany and they pay for the recylibles before they buy them and only get them back when the empty bottles are brought back to the shop.

You are still charged for the green bin in Germany, since the deposit only applies to cans and plastic bottles, afaik

vikingdub

msg11 wrote: »

I serious think you are jumping the gun there, DCC won't enter back into that market ever it was costing them to much money to run the operation.

The property tax is allegedly to pay for local services, in the UK the community charge pays for these local services includimg waste and green bin collections, in addition to many other services that we also pay for separately, for example the charge for calling out the fire brigade. UK councils sell the waste collection to the highest bidder as there is a recognition that recycling is profitable.

DCC could run the waste and recycling efficiently and at least at cost if not at a profit, by selling the recycling, if the waste service was not weighed down by the cost of the overpaid incompetents which make up the so-called "executive".

DecTenToo

I've been with City Bin since the start of year, having cancelled on 31 st Dec. I'm still waiting for the old bins to be removed. Has anyone actually had them taken back?

nudger

DecTenToo wrote: »

I've been with City Bin since the start of year, having cancelled on 31 st Dec. I'm still waiting for the old bins to be removed. Has anyone actually had them taken back?

Canceled around the same time, they rang yesterday to say to leave the bins out by our gate and they would collect them in the next few days.

Came back today and they were gone, hadn't even left them by the gate.

Just a thing that shows a little how Greyhound conduct business, they sent the usual text to put out the bins for rubbish collection in the morning after taking back the bins .

DecTenToo

Well it's now been 6 weeks since cancellation and the bins are out front waiting to be collected.

I've had 2 weeks of "leave it out for 10 days"
1 week of "due by the end of the week"
1 week of "they didn't anticipate the number of bins" - refreshingly honest
2 weeks of "we've now started in D7 and they'll be gone by the end of the week"

So they're still outside and I'm having no joy with them as an organization.

That's not to say that customer services haven't been polite, but I think there are fundamental organizational problems.

Seesee

My bins are still outside waiting to be collected too - in D9. No joy from customer service," it will be next week but we can't specify what day". I wait in hope, but they are a bloody eyesore.

spurious

I was stuck in traffic behind a Greyhound lorry that seemed to be collecting green and brown bins in Santry today, so they may be in your area.

RIALTO1

Just moved to a new house in Fairview and have signed up with City Bin. But there are bins here from DCC. Will they remove them if I contact them? Sorry if lazy question but can't seem to find it anywhere.

TIA

Mr Simpson

RIALTO1 wrote: »

Just moved to a new house in Fairview and have signed up with City Bin. But there are bins here from DCC. Will they remove them if I contact them? Sorry if lazy question but can't seem to find it anywhere.

TIA

They belong to Greyhound now. Citybin will give you all the info you need, they'll be removed eventually