Pricewatch queries: Customers complain Greyhound too quick out of the traps on increased bin charges

To say we have had a lot of correspondence about bin charges in recent days is something of an understatement. Most of the mail is connected to Greyhound.

“As you probably know Greyhound Waste Recycling are increasing their prices on July 1st,” starts one. “We paid an annual service charge in January 2016 which covers all our bins and any number of lifts. We feel that as we paid an annual charge, we have entered into a contract for them to collect our bins for that annual period.”

However, she says, Greyhound is changing her contract to pay by weight with a (very expensive) weekly service fee.

“Can they change our contract halfway through the term? I would expect them to honour their side of the contract to the end of the annual period in January 2017.”

Another reader recently received an account renewal notice from the same company “with the new pay-by-weight charging system. The weekly charge is €3.25, which is €169 per annum. In the renewal notice, they refer to the fact that I pay my existing fixed charge annually and they tell me that the option is still available, but they don’t tell me what the annual charge is.

“They say that they have moved me to the weekly charge because ‘our priority is to ensure that your bin continues to be collected’! When I emailed, I got the figure for the annual charge €140, a significant saving on €169. The annual charge can also be paid in two six-monthly charges of €70.”

She points out that many people will go with the default option. “At the very least, the annual charge should have been included in the renewal notice.”

Service charge

A third reader points out that while there is a cap on the charge per kilogram, there is no cap on the service charge.

“With the existing charging structure, the total cost over a 12-month period was €270.98 (including a fixed charge of €69.95). If the new charges are applied to the same volume of waste, the cost would be €298.12 – an increase of almost 10 per cent. And this is using the lower annual charge of €140. Pay-by-weight gives Greyhound an excuse to apply a hefty increase in charges.”

There was more. “I know it may be a bit late in the day, but could you do a piece on these new charges for bin by weight and all the different standing weekly fees. I am with Greyhound and if what they say in their email is anything to go by, I will now be paying almost double the amount I pay now.

“I paid Greyhound Waste €199 for an annual service for this year, 2016. I did this following a confirmation that there were ‘ no limits’ on weights or lifts. I understood that I had entered into a contract for the full year. Greyhound has emailed me to say that they are now reneging on the contract. They propose transferring half of the annual charge to part of a service charge. They want me to give them more money to ensure that my bins continued to be emptied after July 1 st.

Renegotiation

“I understood that ‘pay per weight’ is being introduced from July 1 st. However, I believe that this is a matter for Greyhound. I have a contract for removal of my waste for all of 2016 ‘without limits on weights or lifts’.

“I am happy to talk about renegotiation of terms when this contract ends at the end of this year. Where do I stand? Is a contract a contract? They have sold me a service, I paid in full, now they want to break the deal.”

Another reader wrote: “I thought it might be worth contacting you about a 338 per cent increase in the service charge I will have to pay Greyhound under the new pay-by-weight regime. I just received an email from them advising that from July 1st I will pay €3.25 a week service charge irrespective of whether I put out a bin or not. This works out at €169 a year vs the €50 a year service charge I currently pay.”

More: “I currently pay approx €170 a year in total for my bin collection as I only put a bin out once a month at a cost of €10 a lift. The move to pay by weight is going to cost me much more and I currently cannot quantify the cost as Greyhound don’t list the weight of my recently collected bins for me to estimate the new cost per lift.

“This is a massively frustrating increase and with only 20 days notice of the change it really is not good enough for consumers.”

A Greyhound spokesman said there “has been considerable misinformation in the media and elsewhere, specifically around the percentage increases in waste service charges”. He said that under the new system, “the majority of people who embrace recycling will pay less” while the “small minority of people who don’t segregate their waste will pay more. The legislation is aimed at incentivising people to recycle”.

He pointed to “potential savings on the service charges, reduced to €140, if paid in advance”. And he said that in relation to contractual arrangements “under the new legislation all waste companies are legally obliged to introduce the new pay-by-weight system from July 1st. “Any customers with funds remaining in their accounts will be fully credited for same.”