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Update on Greyhound Bin Service Takeover
We recently posted information we received about the takeover by Greyhound of bin collections for the Clontarf area to our website.
View the full news article here.
There's been a significant amount of press and media coverage surrounding the new service which started on Monday 16th January. You should have by now received a pack from Greyhound (although we believe that many residents have still not received this). The key points from the pack stated:
- There will no longer be a quarterly bill as Greyhound operate a pre-pay system via a customer Payment Card.
- You will have a 30 day grace period during which your bins will be collected. To ensure that your bins will continue to be collected, customers should pay the €100 annual charge before 15th February 2012. to ensure bin collection.
- Any customer who had a waiver of the standing charge by Dublin City Council as of the 9th December 2011, will continue to have a waiver.
For all further queries, you should contact Greyhound at 1890 98 99 98, or email them at dublincity@greyhound.ie.
Across Dublin, there has been anger at the short notice and the insistence that the standing charge needed to be paid by mid-February. Following intense media pressure, Greyhound have now relented and the charge can now be paid in two instalments provided you register with them by mid-February in order to avail of the instalment scheme. You can view the full details and Greyhound's statement on this here.
To pay online at Greyhound - please click here.
At a local level here in Clontarf we've had other complaints about the service such as:
- bins not collected
- empty bins not being returned to footpaths (and being left on the road to block on-road parking spaces)
- packs not being sent out in time
We have made calls to DCC and to Greyhound in relation to the above. We called the number listed in the documentation circulated which was 1890 98 99 98. This number is not a general enquiries number but one that only accepts payment details. They cannot deal with you if you do not have your card number which comes with your pack. The problem is that many households in our area did not receive the pack. Our experience has been that the operator at the above number then takes your number, telling you that someone else will ring you ‘in a few minutes’ to talk our problem through. Having waited in vain for the call, we rang again the following day only to be told someone would call us back. We explained that we had been told that the previous day and the response was that we should have been told there was a 24 hour turn around on calls. We explained that it was now well in excess of 24 hours. We were then given another number to try but the operator said not to hold out much hope of getting through as they were receiving an average of 4,000 calls per hour. We tried several times without success.
The bad news is that we are still, at the time of writing, waiting for the call made at 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday 18th to be returned.
The good news is that the pack, dated 1st January, finally arrived in the post on Friday 20th January.
In the meantime we have received an e-mail from another company saying that they are prepared to collect the bins in our area. This company is OZO and they tell us that their decision to cover Clontarf is in response to several enquiries and the fact that they also already collect commercial waste in the area. Their initial response to the enquiries was that they did not plan to compete in the area of household waste in Clontarf but they have now changed their mind and have decided to offer the service. Some residents may wish to check this out before committing to Greyhound. The type of service provided by each of the companies and the charges may differ slightly and may suit one household better than another but at least we are being offered a choice.
Here are some details we received from OZO;
OZO can be contacted at (01) 616 0610 or LoCall 1890 247 020, or at info@ozo.ie.
Finally, many residents have been paying their bin charges to Dublin City Council by Direct Debit and may be concerned that payments may continue to be taken from their bank account by D.C.C. despite the discontinuation of the service. We have been informed by D.C.C. that the final demands for payment will be made during this month. This charge will be for the last quarter of 2011. D.C.C. will make no further demands for any payments after this final one.
Having said this, the responsibility for cancellation of a direct debit remains with the account holder so you may wish to take the further step of cancel the direct debit mandate.