mazi

Hello All,

I have just received a gas bill for this amount for Oct/Nov and part of Dec. I know gas in Italy is expensive but this seems ludicrous to me. We have a largish apartment, I will admit - 5 rooms and a big hallway - plus the apartment above us (which has two rooms) BUT not all radiators are on and the heating is only on twice a day at a high (22 degrees) temp and very low temp the rest of the day. The hot water doesn't work when the heating is on and when it does work it's not really hot. We have two gas rings to cook on but rarely use them. I managed to get a representative from the gas company to come round last night and he thinks the pilot light on the boiler is up too high and could be causing the high usage.

What do you think? Have you had similar experiences?

My Italian is not yet good enough to write or call the gas people and get the full story or put my point across intelligently. My landlady has been an angel since we arrived here but I am getting tired of asking for her help (and she must be too, secretly). I'd like to write a letter to the gas people asking them:

a) am I on the right tariff - ie. not a 'tourist' tariff; I am a resident with all the relevant numbers and paperwork

b) am I on the 'home use' tariff, not a business tariff (this apartment was an architect's office before we moved in)?

c) why have they charged me twice for the period may-Sept last year (they have, I can see this much from the bill)

d) how do I go about paying this enormous bill in installments (I know I can arrange this if the bill is more than 200 euro)?

e) why did they lose the contract I sent them 5 times last year (thereby possibly adding to this bill due to the fact that we didn't pay much for ages (we did pay some) as they kept losing the contracts)?

f) what recompense can they offer me for their incompetence?

g) how the hell do they get away with this kind of thing?

Obviously I would like to write this in a more reasonable yet strongly-worded way (so they know I mean business).

Is there anyone out there who would be willing to help in composing something? I'll give you Karma if you do!

If not, no problem . Thanks for taking the time to read.

chris120

You may be suffering from the dreaded congualglio. I have had bills double yours and basically it arises due to the fact that they do not read your meter very often but only guess your consumption. My meter is read only once a year, if they under guess (which they often do as Italians are much more frugal than Brits) or if your apartment was an office then 9-5 Mon to Fri is likely to consume less than a 24 hr home.
You need to consider the 12 month consumption rather than the individual bills. I reckon for the same volumn house you will spend between 2 to 3 times what you would in the UK depending on if you are in the north or south of Italy.

As regards all the other mess ups you mentioned well unfortunately it’s about par for the course, most of the state and ex state run companies are a shambles.

mazi

I know all these companies are a shambles, it's a nightmare, don't you think?! But are you able to help with any kind of well-worded letter? I do believe in complaining about these things because companies will always be a shambles if no-one ever complains. Not that I'm suggesting my one letter will do the trick, of course, but it's a start!

chris120

I haven't lived in the UK since 1988 either, i am basing my comparison on heating bills of my friends and relatives there.

I do not know about home/office tariffs but a visit to their local office, with your bill, should clear that up.

To be honest i think writing will be a waste of effort, not because they will take no notice but because i don't think it will get read by anyone, certainly no-one that counts anyway.

In these cases there is no substitute for taking a friendly local, able to curse fluently in the local dialect, with you to their local office.

mazi

Thanks. Crikey I didn't even know there was a local office!

chris120

I don't know where you are but there usually is a local office in most sizeable towns where you can go and pay the bills in cash if you want to. My local one also has a window for complaints !

Be careful not to be Spedito da una finestra ad un’altra

mazi

I'm in Treviso. Grazie!

duffer

Hi Mazi,

Can't really help with the letter but for your information we had the same type of problem, i.e. unusually high bill.

Just as previously mentioned in this thread it was due to the gas company making an estimate. The apartment block where we live is fairly new and houses 10 flats but previously on the same plot of land there was 1 small house used infrequently. So the gas company provided estimated gas bills based on the previous resident's annual comsumption.

So it was like we were receiving bills for over a year totalling a couple of euro or something. I'll try and dig out the bills. However, we were warned to expect a huge bill once the gas company actually reads the meter as this same thing happened to my neighbour in his former flat. So we put aside some money each month for when it occurred.

How all this can help you I don't know. Sorry about that.

mazi

Thanks!