How much are your bin charges in Lucan?

tomred1

Just wondering who people use as their bin collector in Lucan. Currently paying €22-50 a month with Citybin for the 3 bins but its going up to €27 next month. What are other people paying and with who?

Heroditas

Funny, I got an email from Thorntons concerning this the other week.

I'm currently paying €9 for a general waste bin and €4.50 for a compost bin, along with the annual €50 charge.
I put my black bin out every 4 or 6 weeks and the brown bin once in a blue moon.

Thorntons were making a big deal in their email that the lift charge was increasing from €9 to €9.90.

hat struck me though was that they said you are charged 20c per kilo for every kilo over 40kg per lift.
Now, I've been looking at the weight of my bins online and they have varied from 40kg to 70kg and I have never been charged this excess charge! :eek:

I can't fault them though. They've never missed a lift in the 4 and 1/2 years I've been using them and they always put the bins back neatly on the footpath, unlike the other gougers who just leave them on the road.

jomalone14

Like Heroditas, I'm currently with Thorntons. I find their service excellent and while I don't have a huge objection to increased charges on their lift fees, I was not impressed with the small text at the bottom of the email indicating effectively that they are introducing a weight surcharge on every kilo above a 40kg bin on collection day.

This is a way of sneakily introducing a pay by weight system before it's officially introduced in 2016. Since privatisation of waste collection services, the only way I see these charges going is up.

I put out my black bin every 7-8 weeks as I'm a one person household. My bin contains normal household waste materials and looking at my bin weight history, for the last 6 collection cycles, I was under the 40kg limit once, with the other lifts averaging between 43-52kgs.

If I can't keep my black bin weight under 40kg as a one person household, what hope does anyone else have with 2 or more people in their house?

In my area, Greyhound and City Bin also provide refuse collections. I will be contacting these two companies to see what alternatives they can offer me.

Thorntons annual service charge is 50 euro. Something to bear in mind though if leaving any company to go to another, if an annual service charge has already been paid and the service is cancelled midway through the service year, will they refund any unused part of that charge?

Heroditas

Citybin are much more expensive by the looks of it:

€5 monthly fee
€9 lift charge
30c per kilo in excess of 30kg!!!

Their other option is €17 per month

unkel

Getting a sense of Déjà vu here

I was with Citybin for many years and couldn't fault them. Until they started charging me for excess weight (I paid per lift, I never signed up for paying by weight. I wasn't even warned, they just started charging)

I then switched to Thorntons last October. Can't fault them either. I made absolutely sure they would not charge me for any excess weight, only for lifts. And now they threaten to charge by weight too :mad:

We're a 5 person household but we recycle heavily (have to stamp on the green bin every fortnight) so we only put out the black bin every 6-8 weeks. And yes, it is well over 40kg every single time. Sometimes over 100kg. What to do next?

Pherekydes

Paying City bin €20 pm flat fee. They haven't yet advised on any increase.

unkel

That City Bin flat fee service has a maximum of 42kg per month (grey bin). You pay 30c per kg over 42kg on top of that

Even if you never went over, €20 per month is quite a lot too. At the moment with Thorntons we pay a €50 fixed charge per year plus €9 per grey bin, so about €10 per month...

CreepingDeath

Paying €20 flat fee with Greyhound.

Never charged for excess, and with 2 kids in nappies our bins can be seriously heavy. (One lift was 57.5kg last month)

But the Govt is bringing in legislation to force all waste collectors to charge by weight not a flat fee.
They postponed doing it this year, but I believe it's coming for 2016.

Fagashlil

We're €15-50 a month with greyhound, no weight limits. Brown bin collection can be a bit hit and miss (had to ring them for 3 months last year as it was never collected) but apart from that they're not the worst!

average_runner

16 euro a month with City bin, never go near the 42kg limit now that we use our brown bin correctly, 2 adults and 2 kids, one in nappies.

Brown bin is free.

Greyhound, €12 per month, no limits.

unkel

foreign wrote: »

Greyhound, €12 per month, no limits.

Any link? People seem to be quoting different prices. If Thorntons are going to charge for weight, I might have to bite the bullet and go Greyhound even though that will be at least 20% more expensive than I pay Thorntons now...

Pherekydes

Some of these companies don't have a full size brown bin, if that's of any concern.

unkel

unkel wrote: »

Any link? People seem to be quoting different prices. If Thorntons are going to charge for weight, I might have to bite the bullet and go Greyhound even though that will be at least 20% more expensive than I pay Thorntons now...

I signed up last year. They were going door to door in the estate.

L1011

unkel wrote: »

Any link? People seem to be quoting different prices. If Thorntons are going to charge for weight, I might have to bite the bullet and go Greyhound even though that will be at least 20% more expensive than I pay Thorntons now...

When weight comes in everyone will have to charge by it. Its been delayed for another year for everyone.

unkel

Aye. But Citybin started charging a year or two ago, Thorntons are threatening to charge by weight soon and Greyhound will (presumably) wait until next year

And then it matters how much they will charge. I don't know if there will be a legal minimum per kg / or per kg over a certain weight or what will happen. Any linky to relevant legislation anyone?

L1011

Thorntons emailled out to existing customers that they arent changing until legislation requires.

unkel

L1011 wrote: »

Thorntons emailled out to existing customers that they arent changing until legislation requires.

That's not what they said. They state in their Price Review (valid from June 8th, 2015) that there is a surcharge on the waste bin of 20c per kg for all bins over 40kg. Here is the email:


Important Customer Notice


Dear Customer
Thorntons Recycling would like to thank you for your business and continued support and to update you in relation to a number of changes to our service to you in the coming months.

Customer Website:

On 1st June 2015 we are launching a new company website. The new website is designed to be more informative and user friendly. We would appreciate any feedback you have on the new site through e-mail at domestics@thorntons-recycling.ie

Price Review from June 8th 2015:

Due to increases in a number of our costs including insurance, disposal outlets and environmental compliance we have to increase our charges slightly as follows from Monday June 8th 2015. This increase has been kept to an absolute minimum and we are confident that Thorntons still represents excellent value for money for the service provided. Please note there is no change to the annual service fee.







* Please note there is a surcharge on the waste bin of 20c per Kg for all bins over 40kg.

Local Sponsorship/Support Programme:

Thorntons Recycling is keen to help local charities, groups, teams and initiatives as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy. Over the past number of months we were proud to support the following:

• Ballyfermot Club for Physically Disabled
• Ronald Mc Donald House
• Tallafest
• Greystones Cricket Club
• Ashbourne Community Day
• Dunboyne Cycling Club
• Maynooth St Patricks Day Committee
• Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children Crumlin
• Ballyfermot Environment Group
• St James Gaels GAA Club
• Ballinteer St Johns GAA Club
• North Clondalkin Tidy Town
Mobile Phone App – IPhone and Android:

Over the next few weeks we will be launching a mobile phone app (IPhone and Android) to enable you manage your account through your smartphone. The app will be easy to use and enable you:

• Calendar – check your service day
• Payments – Top up your account/make payments
• Skip Hire – hire a skip and avail of your additional Thorntons customer discount
• Balance Information – check your balance
• Contact us – if you have a query you can log it through the app
• Service and account notifications

We hope this takes the hassle out of managing your account with us. If you have any queries in relation to these services please contact domestics@thorntons-recycling.ie

Government Changes to Domestic Customer Billing 2016:

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (DEHLG) has decided not to introduce mandatory pay by weight charges on all bin types until 1/7/16. At this date all waste operators will be required to charge customers based on the weights of their bins. We will keep you updated of any further legislative changes in the future.
For clarification on any of the points raised in this communication please e-mail domestics@thorntons-recycling.ie or phone 01-6235133.
Yours sincerely

Lorraine Spierin
Domestic Accounts Manager

To unsubscribe, click here.

L1011

unkel wrote: »

That's not what they said. They state in their Price Review (valid from June 8th, 2015) that there is a surcharge on the waste bin of 20c per kg for all bins over 40kg. Here is the email:

They may be treating their old home customers (I can remember when Thorntons did collections in Maynooth, and only Maynooth; before they grew and moved HQ to Ballyfermot) differently as that's not the email we got.

The entire "Price Review" section is missing, email is otherwise identical.

Heroditas

Anyone else get this email from Thorntons?

Dear Customer
We are currently reviewing our service offering and are considering introducing a mixed glass collection in a 140 litre bin (the same size as the brown food waste bin)
In order to complete our assessment we would like some feedback from our customers
Could you please click on the following link to complete the survey. It will only take you two minutes and you will be entered into a draw for €100 worth of One4All vouchers.

It's a very short survey - only three questions!!

1. Would you avail of the service?
2. How regularly? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly?
3. Are you willing to pay for the service?

jomalone14

Yes, I got it and was rather surprised at it's brevity!!

No interest in this latest idea, another bin to go along with the 3 others? It'd take me a year to fill it!

Thanks Thorntons but no thanks!

unkel

Replied earlier: yes / monthly / no

L1011

unkel wrote: »

Replied earlier: yes / monthly / no

Ditto. I'm not going to pay for what's freely taken away for its reuse value but if they want to save me going to the bottle bank (and using a large cupboard full of IKEA boxes to store it between trips), by all means...

hadit2here

Re surcharges, I got the email on the 7th may 2015


the following text was in the email, but it was in an incredibly small font

* Please note there is a surcharge on the waste bin of 20c per Kg for all bins over 40kg.

Looking online at my history, most of my collections have been over 40kg



I am in the Lucan area

Time to look around....

unkel

Aye. I got stung by that too. And to add insult to injury - the bin was lifted but that put my account balance in the negative (I had only left enough for the increased price of €9.90 per lift - this was already a 10% price hike!)

Nobody told me about this, not even an email or a txt message. And because my account was in the negative, they didn't lift my free green bin the next time. Thanks Thorntons :mad:

hadit2here wrote: »

Time to look around....

Seems like a cosy cartel now, they're all charging per excess kg afaik?

unkel

unkel wrote: »

Aye. I got stung by that too. And to add insult to injury - the bin was lifted but that put my account balance in the negative (I had only left enough for the increased price of €9.90 per lift - this was already a 10% price hike!)

Nobody told me about this, not even an email or a txt message. And because my account was in the negative, they didn't lift my free green bin the next time. Thanks Thorntons :mad:



Seems like a cosy cartel now, they're all charging per excess kg afaik?

My Greyhound went up to €17, no surcharge. I was speaking to Citybins customer manager a few days ago, they are going door to door checking on the service. I asked about the pay by weight and said that it's a few years away at the moment and would be surprised to see it come in.

unkel

He was lying. The reason I moved from Citybin to Thorntons nearly a year ago was that Citybin started to charge me for excess weight (I had been with them for a decade and only paid for lifts, not weight)

unkel

unkel wrote: »

He was lying. The reason I moved from Citybin to Thorntons nearly a year ago was that Citybin started to charge me for excess weight (I had been with them for a decade and only paid for lifts, not weight)

Interesting. I only asked as I was going to search around after the price increase. He didn't even try to get me to switch.

unkel

unkel wrote: »

He was lying. The reason I moved from Citybin to Thorntons nearly a year ago was that Citybin started to charge me for excess weight (I had been with them for a decade and only paid for lifts, not weight)

Actually, I just checked my estate on their site, nothing saying pay by weight.

Heroditas

unkel wrote: »

He was lying. The reason I moved from Citybin to Thorntons nearly a year ago was that Citybin started to charge me for excess weight (I had been with them for a decade and only paid for lifts, not weight)

I'll second this. That's also the reason I moved from Citybin to Thornton's. Citybin still tried to deny their charges even when I sent them the contract I had signed with them stating what I had signed up to.

Shybride2016

Hi,

We're with Citybin and couldn't fault them since we changed over from Greyhound who were horrendous.

We pay €15 per month for the three bins. In relation to those of you who say you only put your black bin out every 6-8 weeks that's why you're getting charged extra as I had this issue also. What they advised was to put the bin out fortnightly regardless of whether it's full or not and then it'll be under the limit so you won't get charged extra. At the time we were only putting the black bin out every 6-8 weeks we had a baby in nappies so when it was full you could barely wheel it it was so heavy!

Hope this helps some of you being charged extra as since we've been putting our black bin out every fortnight we've never gone over the monthly charge.

unkel

Shybride2016 wrote: »

We pay €15 per month

It's now €17 per month

Up until last month I paid €9 per month to Thorntons. That saved me €100 per year compared to Citybin

I'm not keen to go to Greyhound as their reputation is brutal (no prices advertised on their website doesn't help them either)

Shybride2016

unkel wrote: »

It's now €17 per month

Up until last month I paid €9 per month to Thorntons. That saved me €100 per year compared to Citybin

I'm not keen to go to Greyhound as their reputation is brutal (no prices advertised on their website doesn't help them either)

I've just double checked that on my direct debits and the most recent one this month was €15 still. We were paying €17 last year alright but I remember phoning them to get a reduction and they put me on €15 a month. Maybe we have a smaller weight allowance than you?

I've no experience of thorntons but I would never go back to greyhound. We had major issues with them a few years ago and I ended up getting our local TD involved as they were stressing me out so much trying to deal with them!

unkel

Shybride2016 wrote: »

I've just double checked that on my direct debits and the most recent one this month was €15 still. We were paying €17 last year alright but I remember phoning them to get a reduction and they put me on €15 a month. Maybe we have a smaller weight allowance than you?

Ah no, I just looked up the prices on their website

You did well to get a discount after signing up for the €17 deal, fair play!

Fagashlil

Shybride2016 wrote: »

At the time we were only putting the black bin out every 6-8 weeks we had a baby in nappies so when it was full you could barely wheel it it was so heavy!

You can fit 6 weeks worth of nappies in a bin??
:eek::eek:

Shybride2016

Fagashlil wrote: »

You can fit 6 weeks worth of nappies in a bin??
:eek::eek:

Don't quote me on that, he didn't sleep til he was 18 months so his babyhood is very blurry but we definitely didn't put our bin out every fortnight at the time, so at the minimum it was every month or 6 weeks. That's all that goes into our black bin really now that we use the brown bin properly!

Shybride2016

unkel wrote: »

Ah no, I just looked up the prices on their website

You did well to get a discount after signing up for the €17 deal, fair play!

Thanks, small reduction but every few euro add up!

Heroditas

We have a 3yr old and a 6 month old and we only put the black bin out every 6 weeks.

Capt'n Midnight

Just as a thought exercise , if you ignore the hassle factor it would nearly be cheaper to cut out the middleman and go to Ballymount if don't need a black bin collection every month. Especially if you are going there anyway to drop off electricals.

http://www.sdcc.ie/services/recycling-waste/recycling-centres

Vehicles Accepted* and Charges From Thursday 1st February, 2007, the charges at the Civic Amenity Centre, Ballymount will be as follows Domestic Waste and large bulky items such as furniture and carpets

Car only €15.00
Car Van/Estate Car €21.00
Cars & Small box trailer 1.2m x 1.2m (single axle only) €35.00

Snake Plisken

Got an email off greyhound a week or two back black bin lift is going up to 10.40 per lift brown is going up as well that's the second increase in the last 12 months. Also it was on the radio during the week that by this time next year all bins will be pay per weight that includes green and brown as well, Alan Kelly is bringing in legestlation to meet some EU target. So our refuse collections are only going to get more expensive!