Search form

menu menu
Belgium
Working
Culture
Moving
Education
Leisure
Living
Transport
Flemish Brabant
Europe
Post your own »

Search Q&A

Categories

Advice & Coaching 3,680
Animal 176
Arts 89
Beauty 150
Belgium 1,354
Children 633
Culture 166
Education 435
Food & Drinks 444
Health 640
Holiday 226
Property 1,082
Shopping 1,040
Sport 256
Transport 729
Wellness 104
Work 751

Administrative cost or pure profit, fines by monopolies?

Mikek1300gt
Aug 28, 2014
17
Question

For starters, it does NOT cost 7,50 to send out a letter, a reminder. For two, if that is truly an "administrative cost (as they claim) and that is what it really does cost, how can it be DOUBLE the next time as is threatened!? That is not a cost, that is a FINE by people with no legal jurisdiction. Worse, they reduce the time you have to pay the bill with the first reminder so increasing the chance of them getting 15 Euro for a freaking letter for the second one!

It does NOT, NO WAY, cost 15 Euro to send a second reminder! I would suggest this is pure profit enforced by a monopoly ( De Watergroep) and what makes it worse is it the incompetence of B-post that has resulted in this situation happening time and time again.

Please don't tell me I should give all Belgian companies free access to my bank account and that would have prevented this. I have tales of those who have and regretted it

This time, no way. I will pay. Bad timing for them. Hell will freeze over before I pay this and for those who are likely to suggest I will be held at the airport, get real. ID card handed in in the morning and Landlady already informed. To heck with this dump.

Mikek1300gt

Oh, I suppose it needs to be a question? Well, will De Watergroep, legalised robbers, follow me around to globe and ensure I am held at the airport, as has often been threatened on this site but never fully explained? Yes, I am pee'd off.

Aug 28, 2014 16:39
CMH

How did it reach this point?

Aug 28, 2014 18:16
pl

Why are you telling us all this? do you need our approval? the people Belgium attracts !!!!

Aug 28, 2014 18:37
Mikek1300gt

"How did it reach this point?"

Very simple. De Post, contracted by De Watergroep, did not do their job and so now I am supposed to pay for the failing of the contractor that De Watergroep employed. An "administrative" cost does not double in ten days, it remains pretty much the same. This is PUNISHMENT by a monopoly that hopes that with the new and reduced window for paying, will double again. In that case, De Watergroup has added 20 percent to the bill and have made their money from the failing of De Post, not from their services, and the sheep like tendencies of the Belgian folk to pay up.

"the people Belgium attracts !!!!"

Yea, people who refuse to be ripped off. You should be more concerned with the people Belgium repels, because they are the ones leaving or not coming any more in the first place, and they pay the majority of the taxes in this nonsense country. Can the last one to leave please turn out the lights.

Aug 28, 2014 21:28
Mimi

Have you read the little print in the contract? I'm sure you'll find it there somewhere. I'm not condoning it, just stating how things work. I've occasionally paid bills late but always received two reminders with no added charges, but I've never with that company.

Aug 29, 2014 01:11
J

Idiot.

Aug 29, 2014 08:21
Mikek1300gt

Oh, I'm sure this "gotcha" fee is all made clear in the contract, but what do you do if you don't like the terms of the contract? Do without water? It does not cost 7,50 to send out an automated reminder these days and it certainly does not cost 15,00 to do it ten days later.

I've paid the bill minus their "administrative cost" and written to them suggesting they seek any costs from Bpost, the contractor they employed and the people who caused their "administrative costs".

22,50 Euro- 30 USD- 18 Pounds to send out two automated letters?! They are supposed to make their money from water services, not from sending out reminders caused by the failing of their own business to deliver the bill in the first place. Heck, I wold not be see pizzed if it clearly was the cost of the letter and not just "gotcha" fees!

Aug 29, 2014 08:50
RPPKN

This won't help you as you are on your way out already, but others in the same situation (paper bills being delayed) by the postal service may be interested to know that De Watergroep also offers electronic billing via Zoomit. N.B. this is not the same as direct debit; it's an electronic bill you receive to your online bank and can then pay when you want. As far as I know all major Belgian banks support Zoomit.

Aug 29, 2014 08:56
Mikek1300gt

RPPKN- Thank you, that is information that may just prevent other people getting ripped off, because it is nothing less than that. Oddly I have no mention of zoomit on the bill or accompanying letter, but then why push a service that could lose them money?

J- I may be an idiot but I am humbled by your ability to prove that you are a far bigger one with one single word.

Aug 29, 2014 10:22
Mimi

The other side of the argument is people who don't pay their bills on time. I have clients who pay late and I don't mind even if they are a month past the due date. But some I've had to chase with emails and letters for over four months. Then I started, after an email followed by an email combined with a registered letter, to add an amount that exceeds what you were asked to pay, and lo and behold, instant payment. I've even had repeat clients beginning to pay on time. As you are ready to go, were you not expecting to receive and pay the last water bill?

Aug 29, 2014 10:45

Pages