![\"College](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/62edea89-9e78-4aae-ae04-433223b17ae0.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOur household waste company had occasionally missed collections on our road in the past, but it\u2019s been happening more regularly over the past couple of months. This is leaving us with overflowing bins and unsightly rubbish. <\/p>\n
Recently, we even had to take our rubbish to a local bring centre, because we were having family coming to stay and we couldn\u2019t wait for the next collection date.<\/p>\n
Should the bin company give us a discount for all the missed collections?<\/p>\n
Joe, Cork City<\/p>\n
\u200bA When you paid your annual fee to the bin company, you entered into a contract for an ongoing service. The service should be provided as agreed for the full term of your contract.<\/p>\n
If your bin company is regularly missing collection dates, it is no longer providing the service you agreed. In this situation, it\u2019s up to the company to resolve the issue. It must offer you a suitable solution within a reasonable time, free of charge, and without any significant inconvenience to you.<\/p>\n
You asked if the bin company should give you a discount. If you want to stay with the bin company, or need to stay because your choice of providers is limited, you do have a right to request a partial refund of the annual fee if there is a noticeable or repeated interruption to your waste collection service.<\/p>\n
I suggest you contact the company with details of your account number and a list of the missed collection dates.<\/p>\n
Tell the company that the level of their recent service doesn\u2019t meet the terms of the service contract you agreed. Explain how missed collection dates have led to overflowing bins and a trip to your local bring centre.<\/p>\n
If you request a partial refund, it should be paid within 14 days of your contact with the company.<\/p>\n
You should receive the refund through the same method of payment you used to sign up for the service, unless you and the company agree to a different method.<\/p>\n
If you decide to cancel your service, look up your contract for the correct cancellation steps and check if the company will apply a charge for leaving your contract early.<\/p>\n
Make it clear you\u2019re cancelling because the service wasn\u2019t provided properly.<\/p>\n
Whatever you decide, inform the bin company in writing and keep a record of all your dealings with it. For more information on how to complain to a business, visit ccpc.ie\/consumers\/how-to-complain.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
College is expensive. Illustration: Getty<\/p>\n
\u2018Our daughter is starting university and we don\u2019t earn enough to pay for everything\u2019<\/p>\n
Q Our eldest daughter is starting university in Dublin in late September. My husband and I are worried about how to help her finance her first year, especially given the lack of affordable accommodation in the city. We have three other children and don\u2019t have a huge amount of disposable income. <\/p>\n
She has been trying hard to save every penny from her recent summer job and is actively applying for a part-time job in Dublin. However, I don\u2019t want her worrying about money or working too many hours when she should be settling into college and enjoying her time as a student. <\/p>\n
Any advice we could share with her?<\/p>\n
Mattie and Catriona, Co Waterford<\/p>\n
\u200bA I understand your \u00adconcerns. Starting third-level is exciting but it can often be an anxious time for students and their parents when they are dealing with so many new costs.<\/p>\n
If she hasn\u2019t done so already, your daughter should check if she\u2019s eligible for the Free Fees Initiative for tuition and\/or a SUSI grant. The Higher Education Authority\u2019s website, studentfinance.ie, has details of these and other financial supports, such as the Student Assistance Fund.<\/p>\n
It can be hard for first-time students to manage their money and their budget, especially if the university or college is not on their doorstep.<\/p>\n
The CCPC\u2019s website has lots of financial tips for first-time students in its \u201cgoing to college\u201d section, at ccpc.ie\/consumers\/money\/budgeting\/life-\u00adstages. This covers everything from searching for accommodation to dealing with debt, and has useful tools to compare student current accounts, student credit cards, and student loans.<\/p>\n
Your daughter might also find the CCPC\u2019s spending calculator helpful to get an idea of monthly and yearly costs. That\u2019s at ccpc.ie\/consumers\/money-tools\/spending-calculator\/.<\/p>\n
Once your daughter gets her student card from her university, she\u2019ll get access to a whole range of discounts and will be able to buy a Student Leap Card to access cheaper public transport.<\/p>\n
She also may well be entitled to a tax refund from her summer job. It would be worth her checking this with Revenue.<\/p>\n
Lastly, tell your daughter not to be afraid to reach out to her university for support. It will most likely have a student welfare office or student support service for this exact purpose, as well as a students\u2019 union. These will have the most up-to-date information on financial supports.<\/p>\n
She will soon find that there are lots of other students in the same boat.<\/p>\n
Clodagh McCarthy is deputy director of communications at the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. Email your questions to gabrielle.monaghan@independent.ie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our household waste company had occasionally missed collections on our road in the past, but it\u2019s been happening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,4891,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-50163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-gabrielle-monaghan","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}