Issue with Greenstar

pleba

Hi,

Last week a sales rep from Greenstar called to the door and gave the 'we're much cheaper' speech. Intrigued, I gave him my name and number and he told me that Greenstar will call me over the next week to discuss their pricing.
He then asked me to sign the bottom of the form. Before I did this I asked him was I signing up to anything. He said "not at all. Its to prove to Greenstar that I didnt fill out the form myself"

Today I received a voicemail from Greenstar telling me that my new bins will be outside my house tomorrow. By the time I got the voicemail their offices were closed and there is no way to leave a voicemail.

I've sent them an e-mail insisting they dont leave any bins outside the house and will follow up with a call tomorrow.

I consider this a scam either purpotrated by Greenstar or by the Sales rep. Either way its Greenstar as he was representing them.

A couple of my neighbours (that I have spoken to so far) have been duped in the same way, by the same guy.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

Cabaal

So why exactly were you signing anything to begin with? why would you be filling out any form if you just took his contact details.

Not heard of this but ring greenstar first thing (get your neighbours to do same) and get them to take the bins back within a set reasonable deadline say 7 days and make it clear you will not be paying, might be no harm sending a e-mail to to cover this just so you have it written somewhere

January

Why did you sign the form without reading it yourself first anyway??

pleba

i wrote my name and phone number on the form and handed it back to him.
then as he was about to leave he asked me to sign it for the reason outlined in my initial post.

as this was a rep from a reputable company I had no reason to presume he was lying to me, which he clearly was. I dont believe I was in the wrong for signing the form. He had a believable reason for me to sign it (see my initial post). The form was attached to a Greenstar leaflet which was advertising their prices. He detached the form and gave me the other part of it (ie: the leaflet)

In fact I made it clear to him early on in the conversation that I never sign up for anything at the door (which I never do or never have done), but then after him talking some more I figured what was the harm in getting a phone call from Greenstar to discuss any savings I could make. He assured me that all I would get was a phone call.

B0X

It sounds weird, wouldn't they need your bank information to make this worth while for them? Sounds like a dodgey salesman.

IsThatSo?

Sounds like he was implying that he was getting your signature as your authorisation to phone you, a believable reason to request your signature, and not an unreasonable one to fall for. He must have it down well given that a few neighbours got caught out also.

Sales people like that give all sales people a bad name, and the company they work for too. Make sure you seriously complain about the tactics.

Wonder if the NCA would be any help in this situation?

sunnyside

It does sound very pushy but I think greenstar could be cheaper than the County Council, all depends on where you live, if your bins are weighed, how much rubbish you actually have...greenstar collect glass too. I know this because they collect it very early in the morning where I live and the sound of the glass breaking wakes the whole neighbourhood up.

Gurgle

pleba wrote: »

He then asked me to sign the bottom of the form. Before I did this I asked him was I signing up to anything. He said "not at all. Its to prove to Greenstar that I didnt fill out the form myself"

priceless!

You should be grateful it wasn't a blank cheque he put in front of you.

pleba

Gurgle wrote: »

priceless!

You should be grateful it wasn't a blank cheque he put in front of you.

thanks for that useful comment.

if it was just a 'bloke off the street' then obviously I'd have been much more cautious. The fact is he was from Greenstar and the 3 bits of info I gave him (name, number and sig) was on an official Greenstar document.

In his hand I also saw a neighbours form where he had given his name, number and signature. It all seemed above board and the fact that this sales rep, being from a 'reputable' company, told me that I wasn't signing up to anything other than a phone call from Greenstar should have been enough.

Sam Vimes

i believe that when you buy something at the door you legally have 7 days to cancel the whole thing. could be wrong on that though

pleba

Sam Vimes wrote: »

i believe that when you buy something at the door you legally have 7 days to cancel the whole thing. could be wrong on that though

i must check that out.
problem is that I didnt buy anything at the door. I was conned and lied to at the door. surely there must be some law/legislation against that?

Sam Vimes

this seems to agree with me:
http://www.efc.ie/publications/legal_updates/articles/corpbank/distance_selling.html

and legally you did buy something at the door, you signed up to their service

edit: but i'm not 100% sure if it's saying that our distance selling legislation covers door to door sales or just that other countries do

pleba

thanks for the info.

Sam Vimes wrote: »

and legally you did buy something at the door, you signed up to their service

so does that mean that 'salespeople' are allowed to lie to sell a product? Surely there must be laws against that

the groutch

firstly, you were a bit stupid to sign anything, or to trust a door to door salesman, after all there is a recession biting and it's his commissions that put the food on his table

secondly, if as Greenstar's actions imply you signed a contract with them, there is usually some sort of cooling off period involved within which you can pulll out with no implications (maybe someone with a bit more knowledge of the law can pull up a relevant law to back me up)

pleba

the groutch wrote: »

firstly, you were a bit stupid to sign anything, or to trust a door to door salesman, after all there is a recession biting and it's his commissions that put the food on his table

i would like to think more naive than stupid. I've never signed up for anything at the door before and the fact that I was told I wasnt signing up for anything indicated to me that I wasn't signing up for anything.

Pity he resorts to these tactics to put food on his table. I'll be making an issue of this with Greenstar and will be asking them what they will be doing about him.

the groutch

okay, naive is probably a bit of a better word, but if you demonstrate your legal knowledge by quoting a few laws, and threaten legal action, I reckon they'll cancel the contract quick enough

Sam Vimes

pleba wrote: »

so does that mean that 'salespeople' are allowed to lie to sell a product? Surely there must be laws against that

of course salesman aren't allowed lie, i was just pointing out that you did sign up to the service, whether you knew you were or not. And whether the salesman lied or not is irrelevant if you're legally allowed cancel whether he did or not. But as i said i'm not 100% sure on that

foggy_lad

i had a weird experience with AES in carlow with the sales person even offering to bring me to the bank to get the 1st three months payment for their wheelie bins,

he was at the door for almost 40minutes and would not take no for an answer even though i explained i was sticking with a local company who were cheaper and did not require payment by DD or through the post office.

he was leaving the bins outside until i told him i would call the litter warden to have them removed!

pleba

to be fair to Greenstar since I contacted them about this issue, they have been very proactive in their response.

They have ensured me that no bins will be delivered to my house and that it is not company policy to do what was done. they will be carrying out an investigation into the methods used by their door-to-door Sales staff.

It was a member of senior management that contacted me and I'm very satisfied with their handling of the matter so far.

One of the other neighbours affected is a journalist and was prepared to have an article written about this.

So its a good result, and giving them the benefit of the doubt it is hard to control the actions of all staff.

greenstar

Hi Michael here from Greenstar. This isn’t our policy for new customers and I’m sorry if that was misrepresented by the rep. We only ask people to sign if they are happy to go with our service and any new household customer can cancel at any time without penalty

Michael

foggy_lad

greenstar wrote: »

Hi Michael here from Greenstar. This isn’t our policy for new customers and I’m sorry if that was misrepresented by the rep. We only ask people to sign if they are happy to go with our service and any new household customer can cancel at any time without penalty

Michael

so by signing those householders are saying they are happy to have the bins delivered but they are under no obligation to start using Greenstar services?

Sam Vimes

foggy_lad wrote: »

so by signing those householders are saying they are happy to have the bins delivered but they are under no obligation to start using Greenstar services?

no i don't think that's what he said

We only ask people to sign if they are happy to go with our service

but he did say that you can cancel the service after signing up if that's what you mean?

pgroarke

Live in the Sandyford area and have been with Greenstar for the past year and half.
They are indeed the cheapest - they own the final step in the disposal so the others can't offer the same prices without making a loss.
RTE recently ran a piece comparing all the operators.

My experience of Greenstar was quite the opposite to the OP - I had to contact them to sign up.
Unfortunately Panda had called around to the estate first and were very pushy signing up most of the clowns by showing them how much they would save versus DlrCoCo.
Neglecting to mention of course that Greenstar were even cheaper.
People who pay more without doing the research obviously dont care how much they are paying.

Had an idiot salesman trying to convert me to Panda call 2 weeks ago.
When I asked him why would I pay more for the service he then switched tack, admitted Greenstar own the final disposal stage and then tried to question Greenstars environmental record !

the_syco

pleba wrote: »

if it was just a 'bloke off the street' then obviously I'd have been much more cautious.

But... eh... HE WAS A BLOKE OFF THE STREET. Luckily he was from Greenstar, and someone collecting details for illegal purposes.

I doubt it'd be hard to print of some stuff with a random companies logo. My point: be wary in future of handing over your details if you don't wish to do business with them.