my newest adventure->the electricity bill

When you're an expat, you often fall into a trap of not knowing what you don't know. So take what you don't know in your home country, then double or triple it for your new country. There's only so much one can pick up from work colleagues or google. As long as I learn something from an experience and don't lose my life savings or end up in jail, I'll chalk it up as a new adventure. (In case you're wondering--I ended up in immigration detention for a few hours a few years ago--that's the closest I ever came to jail.)

I returned from Portugal to receive a bill from the local electric/gas company for 973.76 GBP (that's 1,565.39 USD or 1.069,42 EUR-->how do you like that dual comma/dot usage?) for a period from June 6-Sept 14. That rounds out to roughly 3 GBP (3.30 EUR/4.80USD) a day if we want to round it.

Yeah, holy crap. I thought the same, but slightly stronger. I called up some UK colleagues to ask, 'how much do you spend on gas/electricity in this country?'

A colleague who lives in a detached house and works from home (thereby using more electricity/gas) spends 110 GBP a month. As I'm looking at 300+ GBP a month for a tiny flat, something seems off.

With much trepidation, I called the provider. In America, I found the utility companies to be more infallible than the pope. You'll pay what we say you'll pay, even if it makes no sense! That's based on my limited experience of having phone, electric, etc. in DC and California a few years back. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to get a human, who upon looking up the account says, 'oh my'.

That was Karl. He was very nice and explained that either the last read (provided by the outgoing owner upon their departure--Heather's mistake #1 here, in retrospect) was wrong, or the recent read by the meter reading people was wrong. His instructions were to go down and read the meter to see if the mistake was the latter, and to look at the house contract I received, to see what meter reading they put in there, as maybe the mistake was instead the former.

'I do like the internet, a lot'.
No--this is like 1.5 year's worth of power--like if you had a roller coaster or maybe a jacuzzi on all the time.
(My power extravagence is limited to leaving the BBC on overnight on a radio in the hallway for Slocombe.)

I called up the property management company, to get access to the communal closet where the electric and gas meters are held. This was on Tuesday before 9 AM, but they could not get here until 10.30 Thursday, go figure. (The use of property management companies on UK owned flats is probably a different post.)

Here comes the amusing part....
We looked at the one marked 'Flat 11' (that's me). It has roughly 4700 on the dial, so that corresponds to the 4500 reading the outgoing owners left. BUT, that serial number does not match the one on my bill, so that isn't right.
We looked for the meter matching my serial number, sure enough, it has the 11k reading which matches the one they are billing me for. So I see their logic--I went from 4500-11k, wowie!

For fun, we turned off the 11k one, to be sure that it is the right one, then I would only need to get the inital read adjusted.

Back up four flights of stairs I run. Nope--lights still shining brilliantly.
Downstairs again. OK--then the serial number on the 11k is wrong, you do have the one marked flat 11.
Upstairs again. Nope!
Downstairs again. It dawns on us that this will not be easy at all. Armed with a mobile phone, we try again.
The property agent systematically turned off the power of each and every flat in this building until I say 'Yes! the power is now off!'

That was, of course, the last meter, the one marked Flat 10. It only has 6700 used, so closer, but not my miserly power usage at all.

So I now have a starting meter reading and an ending one, neither of which applies. (Duh, not only should I have read the meter I thought was mine, I should have turned off the power to confirm, mistake #2.)

Back on the phone with the power people. I try through the direct extension of Karl, but he's busy so it goes to Helen who tries to transfer me to the cross-meter department, but after 10 minutes the hold music ends so I think they lost me.

I call back. Amazingly, I get someone who looks in the notes to see who I was on with, and stays on hold with me until that person is free, popping back every three minutes to tell me he's still waiting. Oki doki, Matt.

I get back to the person who has finally sorted out that this is an already reported issue (perhaps through the other people?) and that Hunan is already looking into this and will call me back.

Um, I've never spoken with Punan? Hunan?

That's ok, she's already researching this serial number, she'll call you back on Monday. She's on holiday.

Um, this bill is due then?

How much is that for?

Almost a thousand pounds.

Yes, I'll get them to put that on hold for you until we can sort this out.

So I can honestly say that I prefer the German flats that I've had, where the meters are located within your flat so that you never have this odd issue. However, I was amazed that the electricity people here (and the call centers are in the UK in case you're wondering--the one I was dealing with today was in Leicester--because I'm so noisy that I ask) were so pleasant and actually able to think, and not just pure call center personnel. That was an interesting cultural thing for me today.

So for now, stay tuned. I can't wait to see what Hunan/Punan has to say when she calls on Monday! Off to investigate solar options now...