Barna Recycling Galway - Price increases (blowing the rest out of the water)

tobdom

I almost dared not ask, but I enquired with Barna yesterday as to what changes to their price structure customers might be getting lumped with as of July 1st - there has been nothing communicated so far (for Galway at least, that I have seen). We only signed up with them a matter of weeks ago having moved to Headford: €350 for the year, paid monthly via DD, for black & blue/green (recycling) bin - both bins collected together fortnightly.

Here's the response I got - I have sent a flabbergasted reply to ask if someone made an error in their resposne to me, but I fear that this is the hard truth......

"Yes, these changes will commence from the 1st July. You will receive a breakdown of the prices in the post in the coming days. In brief, there is going to be a service charge monthly of €87.50 and the waste bin will be charged by weight at €0.22 per kg, there will be no charge for recycling"

EIGHTY SEVEN FIFTY A MONTH!!! That's €1050 for the year, before a bin is even lifted - I mean, what do you even say to that?! It's outrageous! I don't know what we'll do - I've enquired in my reply as to what options customers will have to cancel their service on the back of this, and what cancellation fees they might apply. Probably something like €5k, sure why not, they'll do what they like!

shrek008

tobdom wrote: »

I almost dared not ask, but I enquired with Barna yesterday as to what changes to their price structure customers might be getting lumped with as of July 1st - there has been nothing communicated so far (for Galway at least, that I have seen). We only signed up with them a matter of weeks ago having moved to Headford: €350 for the year, paid monthly via DD, for black & blue/green (recycling) bin - both bins collected together fortnightly.

Here's the response I got - I have sent a flabbergasted reply to ask if someone made an error in their resposne to me, but I fear that this is the hard truth......

"Yes, these changes will commence from the 1st July. You will receive a breakdown of the prices in the post in the coming days. In brief, there is going to be a service charge monthly of €87.50 and the waste bin will be charged by weight at €0.22 per kg, there will be no charge for recycling"

EIGHTY SEVEN FIFTY A MONTH!!! That's €1050 for the year, before a bin is even lifted - I mean, what do you even say to that?! It's outrageous! I don't know what we'll do - I've enquired in my reply as to what options customers will have to cancel their service on the back of this, and what cancellation fees they might apply. Probably something like €5k, sure why not, they'll do what they like!

The drains, ditches and bog holes gonna be full of rubbish if thats the case!!!

foggy_lad

That is most likely €8.75/month or €87.50/yearly

tobdom

You would certainly like to think so, but the way it's written in the response it wouldn't be a simple typo - "there is going to be a service charge monthly of €87.50".

I've replied to ask if it's an error (or a joke) - waiting on a response. To be honest, if it was either of your suggested alternatives, I don't think they'd be likely to make up the difference compared to the current pricing structure, as in, it would not result in much on an increase from 350/year) for a lot of people.

I'll let you know what they say (and then I'll let my local representative know).

guil

I'd imagine it's €87.50 for six months.

tobdom

Well, I got a reply from Barna and thankfully, the original information given was way off the mark. I don't know if it was someone trying to be smart/malicious or what with the original response, but I'm just grateful that it's nothing like those charges that they quoted first......

Here's the updated response:

"Thanks for your email. This is incorrect, we will be charging €17 per month in service charges with a charge of €0.22 per kilo on the waste bin, there will be no charge on the recycling bin. We expect the average customer to continue to pay €175 for six months, having looked at the amount of waste you are producing you may actually save on your waste disposal. Apologies for the error on the previous message."

€17/month service charge
€0.22c/kg black bin
No charge by weight on recycling

jimbobaloobob

They have an incredibly poor customer care service, that is unless you ring up to buy the service.