Panda Bin Charges

timetogo

peteb2 wrote: »

Greenstar dont charge by kg currently. and brown and green are free.

I don't know why Greenstar seem to have so many different plans. I posted the contents of my bill and people said it was incorrect. It was from my bill and it was what I paid so I gave up posting as there wasn't much point arguing it.

But Greenstar do obviously charge by the KG in Swords. I don't know about other locations but it's not hard to check.

If you go to Greenstars site
http://www.greenstar.ie/account/domestic/new

Select Dublin and Swords
Choose the standard plan.

You'll get a page saying

Standing charge: €32.50 - it's not obvious from the site if that's per quarter / twice a year or yearly. From my bill I pay €17.18 per quarter.
Cost per lift: €3.2 - for some reason on my bill I pay €2.80 per lift. Don't know why.
Cost per KG: €0.26 - on my bill it's €0.25, again, don't know why this tiny difference is there.

That's for the purple & green bins. If you want a brown bin it's a bit more.

The start of this thread was about Panda not advertising their prices (which they don't) and the last few posts have been people asking about Greenstars prices which aren't hidden on their site. Not super easy to find but it took me a few clicks.

I've attached a screenshot of the plan as advertised on their site.

peteb2

But they're not Greenstar's prices for existing customers! They are for new-comers.

I'm not saying your bills arent correct -you had mentioned it was from recollection hadnt you? - but I'm also with Greenstar for the last 5 years at least. And that's not how my bill is. For me i most definitely pay by left. Yes they tell you the weight of the bins but they dont charge it that way.

timetogo

peteb2 wrote: »

But they're not Greenstar's prices for existing customers! They are for new-comers.

I'm not saying your bills arent correct -you had mentioned it was from recollection hadnt you? - but I'm also with Greenstar for the last 5 years at least. And that's not how my bill is. For me i most definitely pay by left. Yes they tell you the weight of the bins but they dont charge it that way.

Not sure what you mean by recollection.

I've been with them for at least 3 years. I don't know if it was always per kg for me but its been like that for as long as I remember. I dont pay that much attention to my bin bill. Its usually averaging out about €30 or €40ish per quarter. Even if that rate is only for newcomers if your bill is pricier I'd be ringing them to get put on the new plan. Yould have a contract with them now but that's only for a year as far as I'd know. My pricing is pretty close to the price on the site for Swords.

I'm not arguing with you. I quoted my bill. It says €0.25 per kg on it + the charge per lift.
Maybe they do different rates for different areas for some reason.

Gilma2010

I read about the Greenstar deal on Facebook. Was planning to ring Panda to see if they would do the same deal, €55 service charge for the year instead of €110.

After a bit of googling, it seems that only Panda now operates in Lusk for bin collections, so they have no reason to offer me a better deal.

If anyone knows different please shout!

slinky2000

Yea they have a monopoly on Lusk at the mo. €110 per year and €9 something a lift of the black bin. Green and brown are free.

Gilma2010

slinky2000 wrote: »

Yea they have a monolpy on Lusk at the mo. €110 per year and €9 something a lift of the black bin. Green and brown are free.

I wonder if there are any plans for Greenstar or others to service Lusk in the future?

Given I've been a customer of Panda since 2009, they aren't very proactive about looking after their loyal customers. Even if we don't have an alternative at the moment, as soon as we do, bye bye Panda.

Ginny

I've asked them about the kg system, seemingly some older customers are on a kg system (not the same as the new one) but most are on the flat fee. Everyone will be changed over when the new system goes live afaik.

Yggr of Asgard

So today I got a "no bin collection bill until august with panda", unfortunately while FREE is all over the pages, there is no mentioning of the cost after the free period ends.

So I called them and here is what they told me.

Price Model 1
94€ charge a year plus 8.40€ per black bin lift, with green/brown bin free

Price Model 2
52€ charge per year with 2.50€ charge per black bin lift and 0.21€ per kg weight.
Brown bin cost extra with 17.60€ charge and similar lift/weight charges.

When I asked if the free meant I pay only 1/2 of the services charge, she told me, that is correct, however I would need to pay the 1/2 service charge due for the time after August now. This is contrary to the advertising which states that no payment is required before August.

Pricing Model 2 is for me cheaper than what i pay now with greenstar (as I don't use a brown bin) so I might swap over.

horse7

Any update on panda,ive paid my yearly 110 charge,and they have a warning sign on my bin that I have to buy etags now or none of my bins will be collected.

tobsey

horse7 wrote: »

Any update on panda,ive paid my yearly 110 charge,and they have a warning sign on my bin that I have to buy etags now or none of my bins will be collected.

Ring them, as it says on the warning sign. Sign up with your credit card. Black bin lift now 9.05. It'll change once pay by weight kicks in though. They didn't have details yet.

plodder

horse7 wrote: »

Any update on panda,ive paid my yearly 110 charge,and they have a warning sign on my bin that I have to buy etags now or none of my bins will be collected.

It's part of new 'pay by weight' system. So every bin has to have some kind of electronically readable tag. I think you need to call them to get the tag. The regulations are country-wide afaik.

https://www.panda.ie/news/panda-e-tags.html

Need to do it myself too....

horse7

plodder wrote: »

It's part of new 'pay by weight' system. So every bin has to have some kind of electronically readable tag. I think you need to call them to get the tag. The regulations are country-wide afaik.

https://www.panda.ie/news/panda-e-tags.html

Need to do it myself too....

It says on their FAQ website u can use bill pay.

plodder

horse7 wrote: »

It says on their FAQ website u can use bill pay.

Just signed up myself there. So thanks for reminder ..

Pay by weight not coming in till July. So, this is just in preparation for that. Charges are still the same until then. I gave them a credit card number and they send an invoice by email. Saves searching for paper tags I suppose.

dslamjack

I'm still confused about the whole thing , I could have sworn I heard in the last week or so ,that the new minister for local government Simon Coveney had rowed back on the charges that had been signed off by Alan Kelly in the last day's of the last government.
We signed up when we got the letter,but I understand that tag's are only needed up to July 1,now I could be wrong here , there will now be no charge on lifting the Green/Brown bin ... it was these charges that all the fuss was about ... then RTE reported http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0518/789232-waste-bins/ ... so where do we stand now ,I know you still have to register to get your bin lifted.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/explained-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-paybyweight-bin-charges-coming-into-force-34726175.html

https://greyhound.ie/pay-weight-legislation-july-2015/

plodder

I heard that too, but I think pay be weight is going ahead for black bins anyway, and I can see why it makes sense for them to move to a system like this, even if nothing changes with charges. Paper tags cause all kinds of issues, and at least bill pay is available for people who don't want to use credit card or direct debit.

As far as I know the electronic tags are already in the bins, and signing up only means setting up a way to pay. As it happens they had no record of my brown bin. So, they have to come out and scan it to register it.

horse7

Received the following document. The most popular e-tag options are as follows;
Daily Lift:
· The service charge remains at €110 for 12 months.
· The black bin costs €9.05 per lift, the green & brown have no extra cost.
· Your credit/debit card is saved on the system
· Each time your bin is lifted, the lift charge is deducted from your saved credit/debit card within 2 days of the bin lift.

2 Monthly Billing:
· The service charge remains at €110 for 12 months.
· The black bin costs €9.05 per lift, the green & brown have no extra cost.
· Your direct debit details must be saved on the system
· Bills will be issued every 2 months & paid by direct debit

Prepaid Electronic Tags:
· The service charge remains at €110 for 12 months.
· The black bin costs €9.35 per lift, the green & brown have no extra cost.
· A minimum balance of €9.35 must be maintained on your account at all times to cover the lift of the black bin.
Payment can be made over the phone, online or at An Post, payzone or paypoint

We have not been updated yet as to regards to the recycling charges come July. You will be notified as soon as we know.

Should you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Uriel.

Folks,

not completely off topic, but at the moment, what are the refuse collection options for Swords. Is Panda the only provider?
Trying to get details on pricing for an provider is difficult I find as well!!

Yggr of Asgard

Uriel. wrote: »

Folks,

not completely off topic, but at the moment, what are the refuse collection options for Swords. Is Panda the only provider?
Trying to get details on pricing for an provider is difficult I find as well!!

Swords for consumers is Panda or Greenstar.

cilles man

I hear that Panda management have now purchased Greenstar so I don't imagine that the cost of both will be any different.

Yggr of Asgard

cilles man wrote: »

I hear that Panda management have now purchased Greenstar so I don't imagine that the cost of both will be any different.

The CCPC (Competition and Consumer Protection Commission) has received several objections to it (including from me) and is now having a full investigation to see if it should be approved:

http://www.ccpc.ie/news/2016-06-10-ccpc-carry-out-full-investigation-pandagreen%E2%80%99s-acquisition-greenstar

If you are in an area where this would create a monopoly, have no alternatives to Panda because other companies don't want to enter, I would strongly suggest you make a submission to the CCPC.

ryanduffycountydublin1975 did a great summary of the consequences of this merger here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=98755578

Yggr of Asgard

According to CS these are the new prices for Panda in Swords:

6 month Service Charge €43.00
Refuse Bin per KG € 0.27 with €3.20 lift charge
Recycling Bin per KG free with no lift charge
Compost Bin per KG € 0.06 with €2.56 lift charge

peteb2

That is complete smoke and mirrors from Panda. Greenstar are
- 13 euro standing charge per month (might be higher. Letter at home)
- 0.33 cent per kilo black bin
- 0.20 cent brown bin
- 0.00 green bin

They bill per two months.

Looked at my weight on black bin and it was average 45kg and brown at 15kg as I put it out once a month so works out about 25 a month with Panda versus 30 with greenstar

Uriel.

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

According to CS these are the new prices for Panda in Swords:

6 month Service Charge €43.00
Refuse Bin per KG € 0.27 with €3.20 lift charge
Recycling Bin per KG free with no lift charge
Compost Bin per KG € 0.06 with €2.56 lift charge

To be honest I will probably never use the brown/compost bin with those rates, mostly the lift charge. I don't like leaving compost material in the bin for weeks on end, especially during the summer months so would tend to put that bin out for every collection, but won't doing that at 2.56 a go.

newdigi

got the new pricing sent to me today.

Up to now, my charges have been €110 per year + €8.70 per black bin lift.
Last year my bill was approx €210 in total.

Based on the new charges sent to me today (and i can see the weights of all my bins on the Panda site), I would have paid approx. €480 last year if the charges due on July 1st had been in place.

So that's a 130% increase I have to look forward to now.
And we have no competition. Panda seem to have used the governments minimum charging as an excuse to significantly increase prices.

dslamjack

An absolute disgrace and a total racket,and the main topic of discussion on Liveline today.
As I said when Alan Kelly stupidly signed it in too law.
We only put out the black bin 2 a year now , the green bin every 2 weeks and the brown bin 3/4 times a year.
Those who recycle the most will pay the most ,as they will use the bin service the least,and the service charge is also a huge bone of contention,as is the fact,that their is little or no competition in the area's serviced,cartel's or cosy arrangement's ,which ever way you look at it,another racket being tolerated by a totally useless regulation and toothless consumer protection.
It's not like this scenario was not high lighted from the very start,no doubt Mr Coveney will go on holidays on July 7th wringing his hand's and nothing will be done for the 3 month's that their gone and even less when they come back.

peteb2

Yggr of Asgard wrote:

6 month Service Charge €43.00 Refuse Bin per KG € 0.27 with €3.20 lift charge Recycling Bin per KG free with no lift charge Compost Bin per KG € 0.06 with €2.56 lift charge

You have that wrong. I just called there. On compost it's 16 cent a kilo. Not 6.

Yggr of Asgard

peteb2 wrote: »

You have that wrong. I just called there. On compost it's 16 cent a kilo. Not 6.

I got told it's 6 cent, maybe we can get a 3rd opinion?

carltonleon

Defo 16c + €2.56 per lift for brown bin

If the new charging structure had of been in place from the start og the year I would have paid 123% more than i did.
People are going to leave the brown bin sitting for weeks instaed of putting it out every 2 week.
It is an absolute disgarce

neris

This is what I got from Panda yesterday for bins in Baldoyle I know its not NCD but its Fingal Anyone know what weight you can get into a black & brown bin? I reckon you could easily put the best part of 50kg into a brown bin over 2 weeks in the summer with cuttings and clippings

The service charge is €86 per year (down from your current service charge of €110)

The black bin waste will be charged at 27.7 cent per kilogram and €3.20 per lift

The brown bin waste will be charged at 16 cent per kilogram and €2.56 per lift

The Green bin has no charge.

carltonleon

neris wrote: »

Anyone know what weight you can get into a black & brown bin? I reckon you could easily put the best part of 50kg into a brown bin over 2 weeks in the summer with cuttings and clippings

My highest was 42KG for a brown bin but you could probably get close to 50KG