Several weeks ago Greyhound came uninvited into my life. The relationship, so far, has not been problem free.

First they sent me a calendar of collection dates which saw my bin day move from Wednesday to Tuesday. No problem there.

So like everyone in else in my neighbourhood, I dutifully put my bins out on a Monday night. They were not collected the following morning. Or at any point on the Tuesday. It was quite late on Wednesday afternoon by the time the rubbish was taken away. When people (not me) complained about delays, Greyhound dismissed their concerns and said that people had obviously misread the calendar. It was, it claimed, blameless.

Dublin city councillors would probably disagree and representatives of all parties have said they have been inundated with complaints from people whose bins had not been collected since Greyhound began operating the service and have described the new operation as disastrous.

Making contact with the company is, in my limited experience at any rate, not a pleasant experience. Trying to get recycle bin bags from Greyhound over recent weeks has been next to impossible. I ring, they say they are being sent out. They are not sent out so I ring again. And they say they are being sent out. And they are not sent out so I ring again. And on it goes.

They have told people in my neighbourhood (but not everyone) that they will no longer collect tagged bin bags because of some class of risk to bin collectors from the bags. There may or may not be a risk from sharp objects but it seems unlikely that the council would have wilfully put their staff at risk for the last five decades if there was.

Today is Thursday. Every house on my street put their rubbish out on Monday night. None of the bins have yet been collected by Greyhound.

The company is also threatening not to collect the bins of 18,000 would-be customers from today if they have not signed contracts with the firm.

To say “a hames” has been made of the transfer of waste collection from the council to a private operator is putting it mildly.

The thing is I would imagine any company entering a new market would try and impress peole, at least in the early days, by being super efficient and customer focussed. If this is Greyhound at its best, can you imagine what they will be like a year from now?

Rubbish.