corporation bin collection

snuggles09

I wont turn this into a rant so I'll keep it brief (ish)

My black bin was due to be collected on Saturday (Monday is collection day but the Monday was a bank holiday so they were to be put out on Saturday)..i put the bin out on Friday night, all was grand..woke Saturday, all bins collected bar mine

Went out and looked and saw sticker saying my 2010 sticker wasnt displayed..looked to the side and someone had torn the sticker from the side of my bin I went straight to the dump to see could i catch a truck as I have loads of black sacks and I cant wait 3 more weeks (that'll be 7 weeks without bins being collected) for my black bin to be emptied..birds are starting to use the garden as a restaurant and ripping open the black sacks on me..its horrible:mad:
..went to wrong dump anyway but the guy at dump told me they wouldnt go back for it

I rang corporation on Monday and the girl on phone told me she found it hard to believe that someone had pulled it off, that they couldnt issue stickers willy nilly and that she should really send and inspector out to look at the bin..i said thats grand send someone out, i havent done this myself

She gave me and e-mail address to send a note into as they cant issue another one without something in writing. I took a picture of where the sticker was ripped off the black bin and also a picture of my brown bin with my 2010 sticker displayed (in case they needed extra proof I've paid my charges but they can see I have anyway on the system)

Sent the e-mail yesterday and have heard nothing..the girl said the stickers are printed weekly but even if I get the sticker this week, the next bin collection isn't for another 3 weeks..no one has replied to my mail, rang me etc...i'm raging to be honest..i got a frosty reception yesterday when i called and felt the implication was there i had done this myself..the lady on the phone, her voice was full of accusation without her saying it and she gave out to me..i felt like a 10 year old and it wasn't my fault..i didnt steal the sticker from my own bin:mad:

What to do? any point ringing them again and asking them to send a bin out especially for me? in the meantmie i rang Mr. Binman and have changed over but will take 10 days to get the forms in etc so it'll be 2 weeks anyway before i'm with them so doesnt solve the problem, only the problem that i don't want to deal with the corporation anymore..looking out window here now at birds feasting on yesterdays dinner and dragging tin foil around the garden:(

dayshah

Once they didn't collect my bin just because I forgot to sign the ticket. I mean, what's the point of the signature? To prove I no longer want the crap I put in the bin?

wobbles

your an adult, and whatever the reason may be, you deserve to be treated as such. They are their to answer questions and sort out problems, not give you the first degree. That the problem with the public sector, they act as if youve screwed their wife when they actually have to fo their job.

While mr. binman is far from perfect, its been much better since we switched over, and they have sent a lorry off its normal route to collect out bins before

rayc

Doesn't help with your dilemma but I moved to Mr. Binman last year, better value, no bin tags, and weekly collection of all bins. You're much better off. With them I do find if you pay with laser/credit card they have the stickers out to you within a day or so though.

snuggles09

i've rang and gotten no answer so i've emailed the same address as yesterday again to see if they can send someone out to me..dont know what to do otherwise..i've no way of getting the bin to the dump myself and it's going to take me ages to catch up as i'd go through a black sack a day (baby in house, nappies etc)..actually at a loss as to what to do..ringing and no answer and no reply to e-mails..will try again in a while but dont want to get the same person i spoke to yesterday

mike65

The year sticker is pretty hard to get off if its applied correctly, its bad luck but shouldn't have happened I would suggest. As for your description of the birds etc, what is going in that bag? Mine contains nothing that wild life would give a first glance to never mind rip open the plastic to get at.

snuggles09

is this where i get berated for not using my brown bin properly?
maybe its the nourishment in the nappies that attracts them:D that or the tinfoil with the fat from a cooked chicken..beats me..all i know is they are ripping the bags to shreds in the garden and as for the sticker, it was ripped and torn off, even some of the 2009 blue sticker underneath was taken with it...it was of no use to anyone so its a mystery why anyone would want to take it..all i can think of is kids with nothing better to do

rayc

Not sure if this would be possible but if you're really desperate would you consider driving to the Mr.Binman office in clonmel, handing in the form directly and paying there and then? Would definitely speed things up on that end, ring them first to make sure though.

gscully

Do you know anyone who uses Mr Binman nearby? Ask them can you throw a sack or two in. Theirs is collected weekly, so there should be no fuss.

snuggles09

rayc wrote: »

Not sure if this would be possible but if you're really desperate would you consider driving to the Mr.Binman office in clonmel, handing in the form directly and paying there and then? Would definitely speed things up on that end, ring them first to make sure though.

i'll ring them in morning and explain as the next collection here for Mr Binman is this Friday.if i pay by laser on the phone she might send the stickers to me in tomorrows post in time for Friday..thats all i can do for the time being..thanks for the help:)

snuggles09

gscully wrote: »

Do you know anyone who uses Mr Binman nearby? Ask them can you throw a sack or two in. Theirs is collected weekly, so there should be no fuss.

no there's an idea:D a few of my neighbours have but i dont know them well enough..my mother in law has mr binman so might throw a sack or 2 in the boot and drive to her house with it..it's terrible i have to do it though.. i shouldnt have to:mad: ah well..have to get on with it..could be worse, no ones died and all that:)

old gregg

Food & Faeces are supposed to go in the brown bin. Get out there with a spatula and scrape it up before the birds get the lot

snuggles09

old gregg wrote: »

Food & Faeces are supposed to go in the brown bin. Get out there with a spatula and scrape it up before the birds get the lot

faeces? really?? must start scraping out the nappies in future:p

baronflyguy

My grey/black bin wasnt collect once 2 years ago eventhough everyone elses along my street was. There was no reason note or anything left on it. So I rang the Council and woman said she would send someone out to inspect the bin. She rang me back by lunchtime and told me bin was fine and that she would get the lorry to collect it before the end of the day. It was collected as she said. So the city council did have a working system in the past.

Answers like "we only print stickers once a week" is the reason people start disliking civil servants and unions. If the person would have said we are busy at the moment and we will try sort something out for you tomorrow you would at least give them credit for been honest with ya but you know they are looking into your problem and trying to resolve it for you.

sorrywhat

How so? Im with them and have never had any issues. I would be interested to hear why you think that of them incase of anything that might happen in the future.

As for the OP Ive had so many issues with the corpo not collecting the bins. I moved house and put my bins out week by week and they just would not collect the brown bin for some reason. I moved in there during the summer so the bin was pretty smelly and full of maggots by week 5 or 6 and this went on for 9 weeks weeks. Got it collected in the end but they gave no explanation as to why it wasnt collected.

As for the attitude of who ever the woman is who answers the phone, she is a complete dog. She basically gave out to me cos they didnt collect my bin. she was the most unhelpful person I ever had to deal with when ringing any company. Never once did I get an apology.

I switched to Mr bin man this year. Bins collected every week and brown bin every 2 weeks. I just pay by direct debit and no bing tags.

baronflyguy

snuggles09 wrote: »

faeces? really?? must start scraping out the nappies in future:p

Just my 2 cents, I'm no expert or anything but I was told by a friend (who is setting up a veg garden patch and using his own compost bin) that faeces from dog/cat/humans etc is bad for a compost bin because they can contain bad parasites which is not good for garden worms and other factors . BUT Cow faeces is good because they eat grass and this is good for a compost. Dont ask me to explain more, google it. I was joking around at the time so I wasnt fully listening to his serious conversation.....little did I know I would probably use the info on a boards thread :-)

old gregg

snuggles09 wrote: »

faeces? really?? must start scraping out the nappies in future:p

thinking back ... we used to scrape the faeces out into the toilet before dumping the nappies but that was mainly to cut down on the quantity of stuff hitting the bin and to keep down the smell.

.... never thought I'd be talking about baby faeces today, why didn't you start a thread about music

witless1

We had problems before with the bin tags stolen from our bins if put on the night before and in some cases early in the morning when the school kids pass our house. Ringing and emailing them didn't do the trick but what I discovered works a treat is CCing a member of the town council on it. We had similar problems with our street not being cleaned, could go on for weeks, a quick email and a council email address being CC'd onto it usually does the trick within 24 hours. It's the basic principle of emailing someone and copying their boss on the task at hand, they will jump through hoops to make sure it is done in case it is followed up.

http://www.waterfordcity.ie/council/councillors.htm

south

if your stuck to get rid of some black bags you could always bring them to the place on the 6 cross roads. friends of the earth its called. it's behind the about flooring building just off the roundabout. they charge by the weight but if your stuck it might be another option.. Tel: (051)374608

snuggles09

i've had no reply again to the e-mail so i'll ring them again in the morning..the bins on the estate across are collected on a Thursday but I'm not sure what colour it is this week..they might swing the bin around to me..off out now with gloves on to pick up crisp packets, tinfoil and nappies from the garden as they have the back destroyed..the sacks are pecked to bits so will have to re pack it all into new sacks and probably double sack it now..my only option is to leave the black sacks tied in the green bin until i can get it sorted..at least it'll keep the birds away..so annoyed:(

Adyx

rayc wrote: »

Doesn't help with your dilemma but I moved to Mr. Binman last year, better value, no bin tags, and weekly collection of all bins. You're much better off. With them I do find if you pay with laser/credit card they have the stickers out to you within a day or so though.

It's not always better value though. Maybe it's cheaper now, but when Mr. Binman first arrived in Waterford, we worked it out and it was cheaper for us to remain with WCC. We only need to leave our bins out every 6 weeks though.

alrightcuz

i had Mr binman not collect my bin cause the driver couldnt see the sticker from his van the sticker was on the front of the bin and not the back so the driver couldn't see it so he drove past i rang with in 30 minutes and they wouldn't turn round to collect it ,,,,, they also wouldn't take any extra bags that wouldnt fit in the bin unless your watching that is..... all this has only happened since i moved house when i lived on the dumore road 3 times the driver turned round to collect my bin for me and never didnt collect because of not seeing the sticker and took extra bags no problem. just saying its all down to drivers of certain areas some are gob****es and some are sound,,,,

shame the council has lost another customer a simple apology and a we see can we fix it would have resolved it i would have stayed with them only for the fact one collection in 3 weeks was too little and if u missed it u were in trouble. im often hunting crows away from my bins there constantly tearing them open as well

wmpdd3

I would be loosing the plot if i was after paying the 160 for this year and still had to move to mr binman. Maybe you could put out your bin with the receipt attached to the bin instead of the 2010 sticker. I often used this for 6 weeks while waiting for the stickers.
(I used to pay last week in March so it was my own fault!)

It is cheaper with the cc but I didn't have the 160 in March so paying 22 per month to mr. binman was the only option.

rayc

Adyx wrote: »

It's not always better value though. Maybe it's cheaper now, but when Mr. Binman first arrived in Waterford, we worked it out and it was cheaper for us to remain with WCC. We only need to leave our bins out every 6 weeks though.

Yeah I suppose it really depends on how often you put bins out. To be honest the main reason I moved was that I'm renting and didn't want to sign up to a 12 month contract. The county council allow you to pay in 3 month installments but not the city council for some reason. With Binman you can pay monthly if you want and the fact that they do weekly collections is handy for me, regularly forget to put the bins out so with the council that means a 4 week buildup.

Mr Binman works out at €340 per year, but for a weekly collection I think thats good value. For the cc collection it's about the same though.
CC: 7.50 * 21 = 157 plus the annual fee of 160 is ~€320 (excluding brown/green bins)

EDIT: are the tags actually still only 7.50??

Sully

Mod Note
Lads, can we avoid calling businesses "cow boys" and making dodgy statements about their company.

Thanks.

dayshah

Sully wrote: »

Mod Note
Lads, can we avoid calling businesses "cow boys" and making dodgy statements about their company.

Thanks.

No-one is suggesting that Mr Binman goes about wearing spurs, but how he treats his workers has been well documented in the media. Its not a "dodgy" statement.
Here is just one example.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0710/1224250387532.html

I hardly think it excessive to call someone a cowboy for this.

Also I'm very unhappy with how you edited my post. You took a negative post about Mr Binman and managed to change it into a broadly positive statement. If you thought it was out of order you could have just deleted it.

nkay1985

If you ever have a problem with bins not being collected, your best bet is to get a good city councillor onto it. They deal with this stuff regularly and don't have to go through the crap we all would of messing about with emails to this person and taht person and being harassed on the phone. It happened to us one time a couple of years ago. Can't remember the reason but my Dad was a councillor at the time and he was able to get it sorted that same evening.

You've paid your bin charges and you're entitled to have it collected. Use your public representatives. It's a sad state of affairs that this country works this way but that's the reality of the situation.

Regarding the mvoe to Mr. Binman, will you have basically paid the annual bin fees to the counicl for the sake of two months' collections?

snuggles09

still have had no bins collected..despairing at this stage..set up with mr binman and praying my stickers come by this fridays collection or ill end up having to wait until the 28th of may..last time my blacks bins were emptied was the 12th of April..have had no correspondance at all back from all the e-mails i've sent to the corporation though i did get my new sticker but thats no good unless its accompanied with a van to empty the bins:mad:

nkay1985

snuggles09 wrote: »

still have had no bins collected..despairing at this stage..set up with mr binman and praying my stickers come by this fridays collection or ill end up having to wait until the 28th of may..last time my blacks bins were emptied was the 12th of April..have had no correspondance at all back from all the e-mails i've sent to the corporation though i did get my new sticker but thats no good unless its accompanied with a van to empty the bins:mad:

Did you not get onto a councillor like I suggested?

baronflyguy

@snuggles09, that's some joke. You've paid your fee, you've told them your delimina and they still havent done anything to try collect you rubbish 1 month old. That is unbelievable.

They are probably punishing you on their go slow campaign to get you pissed off so you will make noise.

If I was in your shoes I would be thinking about going to the small claims court to get back your annual fee you paid to the city council.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/justice/courts-system/small_claims_court

best of luck

snuggles09

my mr.binman stickers came this morning thank god so my bins will be emptied tomorrow..am just sitting down here now to write an e-mail and also post one off to the manager of the council and will cc the councillors in my area...it wont do any good at all but at least they will be made aware of the situation..thanks for all the advice..much appreciated:)