scrubbedexpat142

You're obviously not familiar with UK MOD procurement!

scot47

It did not last long. Now all they have are a few islands in the Carribean, and the Atlantic, 6 Counties in Ireland, and Scotland.

duztee

That's because we set all the other countries on the right path and then sent them on their way, the way a good parent/guardian should

scrubbedexpat142

I must confess to having acquired some respect for Hungarian bureaucracy, certainly in comparison to my experiences with the UK.

Two years running I have received a cash refund from the gas company together with downward adjustments to my monthly payment (due to my new boiler) - WITHOUT ASKING.

Shortly before leaving the UK British Gas, without a meter read, upped my direct debits, without notification - it took a 6 months battle to get the DD adjusted & a further 3 months to get a refund.

On our first day in Hungary we arranged for an Internet package with Magyar Telekom - visited the shop 18th December, engineer called & completed installation on December 23rd.

By contrast on our last move within the UK it took 4 months to terminate our old line with BT and have our new one connected, during that time BT direct debited both our addresses. On one of the promised installation days I waited in, even taking the phone with me to the bathroom in case they called. No show so at 7 pm I called the number BT had given me to hear "we tried to call you today but you were unavailable". Next day I asked several colleagues to call the same BT number - all received the same message, so a deliberate prerecorded lie.

Back to Magyar Telekom, when we move to Buda, we arranged for a fresh package to be installed. Engineer called 2 days later - "Sorry, this house does not have MT infrastructure, you will have to contract with UPC" (which we did, successfully 3 days later). Expecting to hear no more from MT we were staggered to receive, out of the blue, 68000 Ft from MT as compensation.

Leaving the UK we informed the BBC (Capita) that we were leaving. 2 months later we received a cheque in partial refund of our license). 6 weeks later we received a stroppy letter from the BBC threatening prosecution due to their records showing no TV licence.

Shortly after moving to Buda we received and paid our first Kommunalis bill. Some weeks later a lady from the local authority rang the bell and explained that she needed to ask some demographic questions and could she return that afternoon with a fluent English speaking colleague. They did and again without asking, and very shortly my Wife received a refund & discount.

Spotted a small water leak over the road, just a trickle, called it in - crew arrived in 3 hours and worked into the small hours to fix it.

Sister & I currently fighting a British "institution" to lodge a considerable Trust Fund sum, the current problem being their shock at discovering that the Hungarian Utility bill they had requested from me is in - you guessed it, Hungarian. Never had a problem here with the presentation of documents in English.
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TAJ cards, 1 appointment with OEP, cards issued after 30 minutes.

I could go on & on.

I have found the bureaucracy here highly satisfactory & have never experienced the British "Computer says no" syndrome.

But then of course we live in Budapest, which as the cognoscenti on here well know, isn't actually in Hungary.

Peter_in_Hungary

As a matter of interest how many years of reduced consumption due to the new boiler will it take to recoup the cost of the new boiler

scrubbedexpat142

Peter, about 5 years.

Peter_in_Hungary

That's quite a good ROI

scrubbedexpat142

Yes, very pleased with that, particularly as the old boiler (12 years old) could have gone on (after spending 100K on remedial) for quite a bit longer but I decided to bite the bullet & go for the replacement.