We've Got Mail: A Dublin reader got in touch to complain about Dublin City Council's policy on exchanging refuse bins. She called the council to request that her bin be changed because it was too big for her needs.
She was amazed when she was told she'd need to pay €40 for a new bin although she was returning the existing bin. "I said that I didn't need a new bin, a second-hand one would be just fine with me. And in the interests of the environment and recycling why could I not have a second-hand one?" She was then passed to a supervisor who told her that for health and safety reasons they could not provide people with second-hand bins. "So if I want to change my large bin for a more suitable small bin it costs me €40 (which almost negates the first year savings of moving from a large one to a smaller one)," she writes.
She says she was told all returned bins were destroyed and then recycled. "It seems very odd to me that they have to be destroyed and I'm a little suspicious about the recycling aspect," she writes. "Why not just have them cleaned?" she asks. "Incidentally I made the same request regarding the green bin and I received a new one at no charge with no hassle. Overall it doesn't make a lot of sense to me."
It didn't make a lot of sense to us either, so PriceWatch contacted Dublin City Council. The good news for our reader is that there appears to have been a misunderstanding about the €40 charge in her case. Customers who want to downsize their bin are not actually charged anything although €40 does appear on their bill "for record purposes". It is only customers who request a new bin or a replacement bin who are charged the fee, which is to cover the cost of the bin and delivery, a spokesman said.
Regarding the recycling and reuse of bins, the council appears to have a more environmentally sound policy than our reader was led to believe. We were told that bins in working order which are returned to Dublin City Council, are not destroyed or recycled but are "used for event management in the city, while a small percentage which are damaged, or which are without lids are returned for recycling".
One over the odds
A reader contacted us after being hit with two service charges by An Post when buying a colleague some vouchers as a leaving present. "Following a recent collection among staff, we decided to purchase One4All gift vouchers for a colleague," he writes. He bought the vouchers in the GPO. Having raised €270, he wanted a voucher for that amount.
"The cashier informed me that because of voucher denominations, he could give me a voucher for €250 and another for €20." Our reader said he was then told he would incur a €4 service charge for each voucher as they counted as two transactions. "Naturally, I protested, arguing that since I hadn't actually left the cashier's desk during our 10-second conversation, that surely I was only carrying out one transaction," he writes. Alas, his protests were to no avail and he was forced to shell out the €8 charge. "It's the principle of paying twice for a single transaction that annoys me most," he writes.
We contacted An Post, and a spokesman said our reader was at least partially mistaken and the service charge for One4All gift voucher purchased over the counter in post offices was €2 per voucher and not €4 as he said. Well, our reader was either mistaken or overcharged when he went in to buy the leaving present, but let's give An Post the benefit of the doubt on that score.
In any event, he was still charged two transaction fees for what was by any sane definition only one transaction. "The amount of money your reader wanted to spend on vouchers meant that he had to purchase two due to the denominations the vouchers are available in," the spokesman said.
He offered a degree of comfort, however, when he added that An Post was "aware that this situation can arise" and is in discussion with the Gift Voucher Shop "regarding reviewing the pricing in relation to the product". We were told an "announcement on that is expected before Christmas. In addition, a further review is due early in 2007 which will address both the cost and flexibility of the service."
But why should people have to shell out any extra money when buying gift vouchers? The spokesman said the €2 charge was necessary to cover the cost of cards and envelopes which come with the vouchers. This seemed a little excessive to PriceWatch, so we pressed An Post further.
The spokesman elaborated and said there had to be some charge "for it to be worth our while doing it - shops that do their own vouchers know that money will be spent with them so there is no need for them to charge. Obvious advantages of One4All are the choice of 500 retailers they can be spent in, the fact that they're valid for a year as opposed to the three to six months many other vouchers are, and of course availability at the local post office with no need to visit shopping centres or retail outlets."
