Greenstar vs Panda

JohnR1968

Hi All,

I live in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and received a letter from Greenstar offering 6 months free bin collections if I switchover from Panda. Anyone any experience of Greenstar? Will they take 2 green bins per collection.

Thanks.

dudara

Moved to Dublin County South forum.

dudara

coylemj

Greenstar don't charge per collection for the green bin, I don't know if they will give you two green bins, frankly I doubt it. Shouldn't be a problem with the general refuse (in their case purple) bin as you pay a flat charge per lift and a weight charge (per kg).

Do you have so much glass and cans that you need two green bins collected every week? I'm doing nothing tomorrow night if you'd like me to call over to discuss it

ted1

coylemj wrote: »

Greenstar don't charge per collection for the green bin, I don't know if they will give you two green bins, frankly I doubt it. Shouldn't be a problem with the general refuse (in their case purple) bin as you pay a flat charge per lift and a weight charge (per kg).

And with both companies an annual charge

homer911

I got the same letter

It seems that Greenstar only collect bins every two weeks. Currently Panda collect the general waste bin weekly and the recycleables every two weeks.

There are no published rates on the greeenstar website - I emailed them looking for details after I got the letter, but no reply received so it doesnt look like I'll be switching - what a stupid waste of marketing spend!

(They also included a large heavy cardboard flyer, with no details of whether it was printed on recycled paper - opportunity missed! The Panda guys will have a laugh when they find it in the green bin)

AdpRo

homer911 wrote: »

I got the same letter

It seems that Greenstar only collect bins every two weeks. Currently Panda collect the general waste bin weekly and the recycleables every two weeks.

There are no published rates on the greeenstar website - I emailed them looking for details after I got the letter, but no reply received so it doesnt look like I'll be switching - what a stupid waste of marketing spend!

(They also included a large heavy cardboard flyer, with no details of whether it was printed on recycled paper - opportunity missed! The Panda guys will have a laugh when they find it in the green bin)

I was jsut looking into this. There are rates published on Greenstar website:

http://www.greenstar.ie/external-forms/index.php

Comparsion is as follows:

Standing Charge:

Panda - €64 (may go up this year)
Greenstar - €65

Charge per lift:

Both €3.20 per lift

Charge per Kg:

Panda - .277c per kg
Greenstar - .26c per kg

In summary if you put 1000kg's out per year you would save €16. However with greenstars offer of 6 months free then this would rise to €207 for 2015 would makes it worthwhile if you can live with fact that greenstar only collect every 2 weeks. However I have never used greenstar so anybody know how reliable they are?

strandroad

We use Greenstar, they are fine. They collect the black bin one week and the green the other, and they text you in the evening to remind which one is collected the following day.

Alkers

As above, we use Greenstar. We have a purple bin (refuse) and two Green (recycling bins), purple gets collected one week and the Greens the following week and so on.

schemingbohemia

Greenstar have a compost bin which means you should be putting out your normal bin less often, or that putting it out only every second week works fine. The cost per pick up of the compost bin is less than the normal bin so double savings really. I find them fine but I've never used anyone else since moving to the house.

ted1

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Greenstar have a compost bin which means you should be putting out your normal bin less often, or that putting it out only every second week works fine. The cost per pick up of the compost bin is less than the normal bin so double savings really. I find them fine but I've never used anyone else since moving to the house.

Not double savings as there is an additional annual fee which you will never make back,

coylemj

ted1 wrote: »

Not double savings as there is an additional annual fee which you will never make back,

+1 Greenstar's per kg charge for general waste is 26c, for compost (brown bin) waste it's 15.5c per kg but there is an additional annual charge of €22 for the brown bin which means that you need to leave out 210 kgs in the brown bin to break even. I've ignored the 70c difference in the per lift charges.

ted1

Rang panda this morning saying about the greenstar offer. They gave me 13 free lifts which they claim is the same as greenstar. Only difference is greenstar collect every 2 weeks as oppose to evey one. So really I got 3 months free. But am not tied into an 18 month contract and am supporting an Irish company.

Over the next three months I plan to clear out the house, garden and shed

P. S. It's being a good week. Made a similar call to UPC and got half price for 6 months. Board gais have announced a price cut. I get paid tomorrow and will see the benefit of 15% cut in LPT ( I pay monthly) and there is also less tax to be paid. Roll on 2015

zagmund

We rang Panda a few days ago and they didn't try anything, just said "yep, you can cancel any time".

It all seems a bit odd - when someone from the DLR area rings up and says they want to cancel there's really only one place they are moving to. You would think they (Panda) would actively try to retain customers. I'm only moving because I'm getting 6 months free. It's hard to beat that. I believe Greenstar when they say that their ongoing charges will be the lowest standard charges after the 6 months finish. Maybe I'm gullible. "And we promise to be the lowest price after that*" . . . and . . . "* Lowest price is the standard local renewal rate, special promotional pricing is excluded."

NB - if Panda gave me 13 free lifts I wouldn't be paying them anything for a year and a half or so. I don't put the bin out much. Did they say the 13 lifts must be used within 3 or 6 months or something?

z

ted1

zagmund wrote: »

We rang Panda a few days ago and they didn't try anything, just said "yep, you can cancel any time".

It all seems a bit odd - when someone from the DLR area rings up and says they want to cancel there's really only one place they are moving to. You would think they (Panda) would actively try to retain customers. I'm only moving because I'm getting 6 months free. It's hard to beat that. I believe Greenstar when they say that their ongoing charges will be the lowest standard charges after the 6 months finish. Maybe I'm gullible. "And we promise to be the lowest price after that*" . . . and . . . "* Lowest price is the standard local renewal rate, special promotional pricing is excluded."

NB - if Panda gave me 13 free lifts I wouldn't be paying them anything for a year and a half or so. I don't put the bin out much. Did they say the 13 lifts must be used within 3 or 6 months or something?

z

It's 13 weeks free. So 3 months. But there is no contract to sign up to.

RainyDay

ted1 wrote: »

Rang panda this morning saying about the greenstar offer. They gave me 13 free lifts which they claim is the same as greenstar. Only difference is greenstar collect every 2 weeks as oppose to evey one. So really I got 3 months free. But am not tied into an 18 month contract and am supporting an Irish company.

zagmund wrote: »

NB - if Panda gave me 13 free lifts I wouldn't be paying them anything for a year and a half or so. I don't put the bin out much. Did they say the 13 lifts must be used within 3 or 6 months or something?

For me, Panda told me it was three months of no lift charges - see http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=93693162&postcount=9 - rather than a specific number of lifts. I presumed it was just waiving the lift charge and not waiving the kg charge.

RentDayBlues

Simona1986 wrote: »

As above, we use Greenstar. We have a purple bin (refuse) and two Green (recycling bins), purple gets collected one week and the Greens the following week and so on.

Can I ask, what do they charge for the extra green bin? We have 2 green bins and panda charge 25 per annum

100gSoma

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Can I ask, what do they charge for the extra green bin? We have 2 green bins and panda charge 25 per annum

I'd say the two green bins referred to are the dry recyclables and the compost bin (both are green). I don't think anyone would need two large dry recycling bins unless they were in a commercial enterprise.

I find Greenstar fine. Although, their marketing and PR is not really up to par. I think all bills should be sent out to email as a PDF if you so choose.
This would be much easier for me to manage. Instead they only send them out by paper. not very GREEN is it?
They have said this eBilling is in their plan... Lets hope its soon.

RentDayBlues

I currently have 2 recycling bins, which we put out every 2-4 weeks, the black maybe every 3-4 weeks.

Rock Steady Edy

ted1 wrote: »

It's 13 weeks free. So 3 months. But there is no contract to sign up to.

Greenstar needs new customers hence the offer.

Panda offered 50% of the annual fee rebated plus 10 weeks free, but I negotiated for fewer collections over 26 weeks (the number of times I'd expect to put the bin out over the 6 months), so effectively the same offer as Greenstar. Happy enough with them, so have saved the hassle of moving.

tandcapply

Rock Steady Edy wrote: »

Greenstar needs new customers hence the offer.

Panda offered 50% of the annual fee rebated plus 10 weeks free, but I negotiated for fewer collections over 26 weeks (the number of times I'd expect to put the bin out over the 6 months), so effectively the same offer as Greenstar. Happy enough with them, so have saved the hassle of moving.

Also rang Panda, told them the truth, that I don't want to leave and happy with Panda's collections and etc, but Greenstar offer is tempting.

Got next 13 lifts free (what it means is for the next 13 weeks whether I leave the black bin out or not it'll be free).

Alkers

100gSoma wrote: »

I'd say the two green bins referred to are the dry recyclables and the compost bin (both are green). I don't think anyone would need two large dry recycling bins unless they were in a commercial enterprise.

I find Greenstar fine. Although, their marketing and PR is not really up to par. I think all bills should be sent out to email as a PDF if you so choose.
This would be much easier for me to manage. Instead they only send them out by paper. not very GREEN is it?
They have said this eBilling is in their plan... Lets hope its soon.

The two green bins are both recycling bins. I house-share with 4 other 20-30 year olds and we tend to fill both recycling bins every two weeks. We only put the purple (refuse) bins out every month or so.

I will check the bills as to the cost of this.

acermaple

Had the man from Greenstar around the other night (with Panda atm) and am tempted to switch, one thing I didn't ask him was what about old bins do they take them away or do you have to try to get Panda to do it?

RentDayBlues

acermaple wrote: »

Had the man from Greenstar around the other night (with Panda atm) and am tempted to switch, one thing I didn't ask him was what about old bins do they take them away or do you have to try to get Panda to do it?

Bins belong to panda. Worth calling panda, I got a great deal with them this week

Dubl07

Panda seem to have a dedicated team for retention. I'm happy to stay with them given the deal I got.

100gSoma

Sent greensatr a query on my invoice on monday last (16th). no reply as of yet.
resent it today. They say a reply can take up to two working days. That's 5 now. hmmm. Kind of regretting not taknig Panda up on their 6 months free offer that came in the door! I also need the ability to review or print my past invoices online. Greenstar do not have this. They do not even have ebilling. Not very green.
feeling a bit sour now... If anyone from GS sees this. Get reply to your queries.
thanks

100gSoma

one other thing I just noticed... Panda don't take glass in their green bin. I use this feature a lot with the greenstar bin. Between beer/wine/jars we have quite a bit of glass each week or two. I guess it would mean loading a box and driving to the local recycle station each week or two. not a huge deal, but it is very handy to just dump glass into the greenstar green bin. So thats one advantage GS have over Panda. Otherwise though, I'd prefer Panda. Especially with their MUCH better online expereince. view and print past bills etc. Nothing like that on greenstar. That should be a very basic thing. view and print past invoices.

Dubl07

100gSoma wrote: »

one other thing I just noticed... Panda don't take glass in their green bin. I use this feature a lot with the greenstar bin. Between beer/wine/jars we have quite a bit of glass each week or two. I guess it would mean loading a box and driving to the local recycle station each week or two. not a huge deal, but it is very handy to just dump glass into the greenstar green bin. So thats one advantage GS have over Panda. Otherwise though, I'd prefer Panda. Especially with their MUCH better online expereince. view and print past bills etc. Nothing like that on greenstar. That should be a very basic thing. view and print past invoices.

Panda take glass in our area.

100gSoma

Dubl07 wrote: »

Panda take glass in our area.

that's strange? Evry reference on their website to glass says NO.
https://www.panda.ie/household/what-can-i-put-in-my-bin/green-bin.html

Sounds like they should update their website so. That's a big selling point especially for people they are trying to lure away from Grenestar.

Dubl07

100gSoma wrote: »

that's strange? Evry reference on their website to glass says NO.
https://www.panda.ie/household/what-can-i-put-in-my-bin/green-bin.html

Sounds like they should update their website so. That's a big selling point especially for people they are trying to lure away from Grenestar.

Interesting. I wonder if it's to do with which depot is lifting the waste. It was important to us as well!

acermaple

Thanks for the advice folks, rang Panda today and told them I wanted to change, offered free black bin collection til mid July and half price standing charge for the year so I'll stick with them for the moment:).

RainyDay

acermaple wrote: »

Thanks for the advice folks, rang Panda today and told them I wanted to change, offered free black bin collection til mid July and half price standing charge for the year so I'll stick with them for the moment:).

So when they say 'free black bin' - does that mean no charges at all - no lift charge and no per kg charge?

100gSoma

Dubl07 wrote: »

Interesting. I wonder if it's to do with which depot is lifting the waste. It was important to us as well!

yep its (glass recycling with Panda) only for DLR region currently. Thats why its not advertised on the website. (they rang me back after I sent in a query)

zagmund

They do glass recycling in DLR, do they? I was feeling vaguely guilty after sending glass out for the last few years and only reading the sticker which said "no glass" in recent weeks.

If they accept it in DLR then I can hold my head high again.

We were going to move to Greenstar, but rang Panda and they gave us the same 6 months free everything offer. I think the only thing that wasn't covered was the standing charge on the brown bin, but other than that the lift & weight charges were waived for 6 months and the annual black bin standing charge was effectively reduced by 50%. My only hope is that this doesn't back fire on all involved and mean that nobody gets any income from the bins for 6 months and then we all just start off again with another round in the Summer. I don't mind getting stuff for free, but not at the cost of someone taking short cuts on the waste disposal front.

z

Rock Steady Edy

zagmund wrote: »

I don't mind getting stuff for free, but not at the cost of someone taking short cuts on the waste disposal front.

I don't think anyone would want this, and nor should we expect it of reputable companies.

At the end of the day, Panda must have at least 80% of the domestic market in DLR and Greenstar need to eat into it as part of their future strategy.

Most of Panda's customers will do nothing. Let's say 10% consider moving, but then half of them think to themselves they will see if Panda will match the offer, and if they do, save themselves the hassle of moving.

So in the end Panda will lose some income to retain half the customers they may have lost but they will have lost nothing on the vast majority who are unmotivated to move. As the old adage goes, it's far cheaper and easier to retain customers than to recruit new ones.

donnacha

Did anyone that negotiated to stay with Panda actually get clarification on whether the "per kg" charges are also waived?

Concerned myself after speaking to someone over the weekend who claims it is only free lifts. I've been loading the bin up with waste that I would never have been putting in the bin otherwise ... I have the greenstar promotion leaflet still and its very clear that you pay nothing for the first 6 mths which is what I rang up Panda with when negotiating my free period. Unfortunately I got nothing in writing from them and their customer portal doesn't have a running total for the month.

Rock Steady Edy

donnacha wrote: »

Did anyone that negotiated to stay with Panda actually get clarification on whether the "per kg" charges are also waived?

Concerned myself after speaking to someone over the weekend who claims it is only free lifts.

After I negotiated with them, I asked for email confirmation to avoid any future issues. It says free lifts and weights up to the agreed number and expiry date.

zagmund

We got an email from them to (to be sure, to be sure). Like you, I didn't want to find out the hard way in July that they didn't actually mean "free" or something. The email was pretty clear and has been duly filed. The only thing we didn't get was the brown bin standing charge, but brown bin lifts & weight are free. The garden is extra tidy for this time of year.

z

Rock Steady Edy

zagmund wrote: »

Like you, I didn't want to find out the hard way in July that they didn't actually mean "free" or something.z

Exactly. Always a good idea if you've negotiated something.

zagmund wrote: »

The only thing we didn't get was the brown bin standing charge. z

We're not paying a standing charge for ours. Might be something to do with the fact that I said that I wanted them to take it back as having tried it for a year, I found we'd only used it once, and I could take sackfulls of green garden waste to Ballyogan for the same price as emptying a small brown bin (we don't use it for cooked food waste). They said they couldn't take it back as they had to issue them to all households now.

zagmund

The Panda bill came through today - a grand total of €5.50 for the entire quarter for all lifts of all bins. The only charge was 3 months of brown bin service charge. Quite the bargain considering that the brown bin has been full to the brim every two weeks.

z

2RockMountain

Has anyone gone through this negotiation recently? We're with Greenstar atm, but I haven't gone checking for other options. Did I hear right that Greenstar are taking over Panda now, or is it the other way around?