Greyhound Waste Thread - MOD WARNING in Post 1

I reckon we will be swithing. We currently spend about €10 per month with Greyhound, because we don't put the bins out much. So thats about €220 per year with the standing charge. €330 is now the cheapest with Greyhound.

deandean wrote: »

I have the document here in front of me, it says

"Black bin waste over 25kg charged at .33c per kilo...."

That is 0.33 cent per kilo, not €0.33 (which is 33c) per kilo.

Greyhound should stick with their published prices. OP have you actually phoned them to ask their pay-by-weight pricing? Sounds to me like they are trying to rip you off there charging you 100 times what they have quoted.

This is one of the reasons I rang them (3rd paragraph of OP). I also rang them at 5:55pm and the girl I spoke to also said 33c per additional kilo and not .33cent per kilo. So either the letter is correct and the two representatives I spoke to are wrong, or the letter is wrong. But I got quoted, over the phone at my previous 3 black bin lifts. The last lift was 73.5 kilos and I was told, by the first greyhound rep, that it would have cost €23 on plan 1.

OK. I spoke with 3 different customer care people today, one being an ignorant cow by the name of Aine in the Dublin customer service office. All 5 I have spoken to confirmed that its 33 cent per additional kilo over 25 kilo on a black bin. Juliane in Cork said it was a genuine mistake and the letter should not have been sent out. I asked for a Supervisor, but Amy was in Dublin for the day and wasn't available. I'm told I'm not the first to ring about it (obviously).

If it was .33c per additional kilo, it would make absolute sense, because most bins will be 50-60kilos, bringing the weight closer to the current charge of €7. But the average bill on plan 1 is likely to go up by 300%. They are going to be in a world of sh1t come January/February because it looks like everyone is being put onto Plan 1.

Based on that assumption, they will earn about €15 extra on top of the basic lift fee for the very first lift of a black bin in January 2013, compared to this years price. It will take people a few weeks to realise their bin charges have rocketed.

edit: I've also emailed a local labour td and a finegael td in the dublin north east constituency, so we will see if anything happens with this. tbh, I am expecting more from the labour td, because he seems to be much more active in the community and won't like Greyhound ripping people off like this.

The odd thing is that the "typo" is much closer to todays rates, when the new price is 100 times more expensive for every extra kilo.

A far as i know, Oxigen cover all of Dublin, but don't quote me on that. Howeve, we should be given reasonable prices. Greyhound got the lions share when they took over from DCC, but why are they so much more expensive and why are the prices so varied? I have seen price differences already of 100% more in my area, but across the road, it's half the price.

I wrote to Minister Phil Hogan about this. My letter below.

Dear Minister Hogan,

I would like to make you aware of a very big problem, which I believe will cause great hardship and anger at the hands of Greyhound Recycling, which as you know, took over from DCC this year. Greyhound have introduced new pricing for next year, which is very misleading and breaches advertising standards. Quite simply, the prices they advertise in a letter sent to all their customers in incorrect. They also offer massively different prices for different areas. I live in Donaghmede, Dublin 13 and the annual fee is €330, but someone who lives less than 50 metres away from me in Clongriffin, Dublin 13 only pays €160 for the annual fee. I have informed my local FG TD, Terence Flanagan about this, but I want to inform you about it, because this is your area of responsibility as minister for the environment, so far as I can tell. Terence noted the difference in price and said he would write to Greyhound about this. The biggest problem is that the advertised price is not the actual price they are charging for anything over 25 kilos in a black bin, they are charging 33 cent per kilo, but they advertised .33c per kilo, which would actually fall in line with the current pricing structure. Paying 100 times the advertised price is unacceptable, to put it kindly. I am concened for those who will be oblivious to this, especially the elderly.

I would like to draw your attention to a thread I started on www.Boards.ie which is linked below. You may have to paste the address into your browser for access. The thread is quite short, but it will give you a good understanding of what is happening. There is also a "mega-thread" on the same forum about greyhound, which gives some more insight if you scroll to the last few pages. Unless something is done about this, people will see their top up accounts drained in a single bin left and many bins will be left uncollected at the end of January. Aside from this, bin charges will raise from an average of €350 per year to over €1000 per year by my simple estimation.

Regards,

My Name
FG Supporter

www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=81274635

I received a reply from Phil Hogans secretary, which is a start, but I hope to see something done about this. The reply is below.

Dear my surname,



I have been asked by Mr. Phil Hogan ,T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to refer to your recent email in connection with

Greyhound Recycling.



A further email on this matter will issue as soon as possible.







Yours sincerely,





__________________

Senders Name

Private Secretary

ranmac wrote: »

Thats exactly to info I was looking for. So, on that basis, for me a 70 kg bin would cost €4.90 for the first 25 kg plus 45 kg at €0.33 (if what I am told is a 'typo' error) - total cost for my bin €19.75. Just what I am afraid of

No. The first 25kg is a set €6.50 for the black bin and then 33cent per kilo eafter. That means:

70kg full weight.
25kg charged at €6.50
45kg overweight at 33cent per kg = €14.85

€6.50 + €14.85 = €21.35


The current charge is €7 per black bin lift, regardless of weight, so your charge is more than 3 times the price you're paying now if you use Plan 1.

So if you put out 26 black bins per year, your 2012 charge would be €182 for lifts, plus €100 annual fee = €282
In 2013, on Plan 1 (using the charges in my area) you pay €59.95 plus €555.10 (based on 70kg weight) = €615.05

That's before taking brown bin into account.

I received a letter today from Terence Flanagan TD (FG) with a response from Greyhound Recycling regarding my complaint. I have responded to Terence, thanking him, but the Greyhound reply is less than satisfactory. I have pasted the whole email below, omitting only my name. The Greyhound response has been split into single line statements and is in bold font. The opening and closing formalities were not included, as they were not relevant to the subject. Email reply to follow:


Dear Terence,


First of all, let me thank you for making contact with Greyhound Recycling on my behalf. You should know that I contacted Tommy Broughan (Labour) a day or so after contacting you. However, you were the first public figure I contacted and you responded, where the other TD did not, so I appreciate that a great deal. I did also contact Minister Hogan, but I only received a reply from his office to acknowledge receipt of my email and have received no reply since then. Cllr Brabazon was also recently informed and has sent a letter response with interest in dealing with the matter in a public way. I have expressed interest, if necessary in speaking with the media about this issue, as it has received little attention when time is short. I would prefer I did not have to go down this route, because I would like to see the matter being dealt with properly, without the media being brought into it.


I received your letter with the Greyhound Recycling Response this morning. It is, quite frankly, a pathetic blow off response from Greyhound Recycling, with nothing being answered and much being lied about. I will cover the response, line by line, followed by my thoughts on them. I have excluded the opening greeting, as it is not material to the response.


"The options offered are relating to the usage of the bins."

It is a bin company. I did not think they were offering food delivery plans, or selling health insurance. However, this is one of only two factually correct statements.


"Each bin has a unique microchip that feeds back to our server."

This is the second correct statement, but it fails to mention that many areas and households have not been monitored by weight up to now, because many of their fleet are not equipped with the necessary hardware to take weight measurements (according to Greyhound source) and pass them along to the server. It is also not possible, or practical for people to weigh their own bins, so how are people to know if Greyhound Recycling are being honest without independent checks being carried out? If people do weigh their own bins, Greyhound still have the final say and there is nothing the customer can do about it if they disagree. On a personal note, I often bring my own bin out and the weights always feel similar. I could not give you an accurate measurement from my duty of wheeling the bins to the front of the Garden, but I would say the average weight would be 60-70kg, but according to greyhound, one bin was over 127kg. A mistake? Who knows? On the new system, I would be charged €6.50 for the first 25kg and €33.66 for the next 102kg, which is a total of €40.16 for that bin lift on the plan Greyhound recommended for me, based on their expert analysis. They also weigh by the half kilo, but they have not given any indication of how people would be charged for a half kilo. Will they be let off the 16.5cent? Will it be carried over? Will they be charged 16.5cent? Will they be charged for a full kilo?


"We believe that the selected plan is the best option for each customer."

Nonsense! This is total lies. If they believed the selected plans were the best plans for each customer, then wouldn't different customers have been placed on different plans? I have asked dozens of people about this and every single person has been placed on Plan 1, which Greyhound know is the biggest money maker for them. The vast majority of customers would go well above the restriced weights on a black bin. I would ask this question; Has any customer been placed onto any other plan without having to request it? I would doubt so. I think I will start a poll on this and report back.


"Customers have a range of different options to choose from within their plan and can make a different choice at any time throughout the year."

Customers do have different plans to choose from, but variety isn't a word I wuld use here. My household was offered 4 different Plans. My current end of year projection for domestic waste is costing just under €300. With the plan Greyhound Recycling recommended (PLAN 1) my annual spend would be in excess of €1000. This is not my figure. This was from the mouth of the first Greyhound representave I spoke to when I first rang about the .33c blunder, which hasn't been detailed in their response at all, very conveniently. I would not imagine it being easy for a customer being able to switch from certain plans throughout the year, but it's not a simple point to argue, so I will forego on that one.


"Different plans do no relate to different areas."

Untrue. As mentioned in my original letter; the good people of clongriffin, Dublin 13 seem to be getting their waste collected at nearly half the cost of those of us literally across the road. I know that a number of different price plans are being offered to different customers in different areas of Dublin. Greyhound denied this when last I spoke to them. The representative kept spouting different plans, saying I should choose the one-off €330, which would be very difficult for most of us at this time of year. The annual upfront fee for someone living in Grange Abbey is €330, or €29 per month (€348 annually). The annual upfront fee for someone living in clongriffin is €175, or €15 per month (€180 annually). As you know, these communities are side by side. I do not know if all of Grange Abbey, or all of Clongriffin are being charged the same plan fees for their area, as I have not checked every single addreess of course. However, I have attached proof, which a customer in Clongriffin has kindly posted on a public forum for all to see, at my request. So, to say that prices, or plans are not related to areas is a complete lie. The first file is the cover letter with the name and address of the customer partially removed for privacy. The second file contains an image of the prices greyhound are charging that customer.


"The new choices that are being introduced include prices by weight."

These prices are misleadng and/or completely wrong. A price of .33c (one third of one cent) sits comfortably with 2012 prices after the 50cent reduction is black bin lifts. Customers would actually make a tiny saving in most cases. However, Greyhound insist that the price is actually 33cent per extra kilo, which adds several euros to the average black bin. I wonder if Greyhound could provide the average black bin weight for Dublin, or even just for my area, Grange Abbey? Based on Plan 1: If the average black bin was only 50 kilos in weight (a very conservative figure i'm sure you'll agree) then the cost for the first 25kg is €6.50 and the added cost would be €8.25, a total of €14.75.


The black bin is lifted 30 times per year (as far as I know, but i'm open to correction). Completely ignoring brown bin lifts; if the black bin is lifted 30 times per year and the weight of each bin is 50 kilos, the total annual cost, including the €59.95 upfront fee on Plan 1 is €502.45. With the weight only plan, it is €495 with no upfront fee added. That's on a very conservatively low average bin and excludes the brown bin altogether.


Greyhound have still not responded to the .33c price error. I have twice requested to speak to a supervisor. On the first occasion, the supervisor was "away in Dublin for the day". The second time, the supervisor was "at a meeting and would call me right back". One representative already said that the price was an error and that the letters should not have been sent out. I named that representative in the online forum I referred to you and I named the missing supervisor too. Unless something is done, there will be uproar next year about this. I wouldn't be surprised if the army had to be called in again to collect the bins from customers who can't, or won't pay extortionate and misleading rates, cleverly disguised in errors and half-truths, with a core of lies. If they are aiming to help customers save money, I would ask how much extra they are forecasting to raise from the average household? The response from Greyhound is total Garbage and does nothing to answer my questions. I will be taking action to alert the public in a bigger way if necessary. I will be changing to a different provider, but most people don't know the truth.


Best Regards,


Snip My Name