Dutch Attitude

A. has been a bit grumpy for two days he has a good reason though: problems trying to get thru to some people. He tried to pay council tax by direct debit which is only possible by filling out a form which they have to send to you. Since A. can't make phone calls while he's at work he had to contact them in the evening. And of course in the evening they can't make payment arrangements so you'll have to call during the day... Dilemma and worse, he got a court summons and had to pay £90,- on top of the bills that kept coming in. He tried so many times to sort out an arrangement over the phone but somehow he couldn't get thru to these people on the other end of the line...

I recognise his frustration, I had the same problem with UPC. They kept sending me invoices and took more money out of my account than they were supposed to do. In the end they owed me 200 Euros. And then one day this letter came in, from a major dept collecting company in The Hague. They summoned me to pay a final amount of 280,- Euros including tax and their fee. I sent a folder containing a 80 page document existing of correspondence [faxes and recorded letters], invoices, notes of corrections I made on the invoices etc. All the stuff I'd collected over the years. They wouldn't accept it.

In the end I was so frustrated I decided to pay the money, just to get rid of them and have some closure. It worked out just fine. They threatened to cut off my internet connection, my telephone line and my cable connection. Internet was indeed disconnected, so was my phone line, but I was quite happy with that and moved all my business over to KPN and XS4ALL *my heroes still* but what they forgot to disconnect was my cable connection, although I had in writing that they DID. So in the end I ended up watching cable tv for free for at least three years which has gotten me my 200 Euros back and even a profit.

To emphasise their stupidity, the previous tenants of the apartment I lived in at the Westlandgracht [ground floor 80m2 and tiny garden *I miss it; can you tell?*] were a couple; old sweet people. The woman past away and after two years so did the man. Up till the day I moved to London I have been receiving invoices from UPC and threats from the same debt collectors, addressed to a deceased person. Now isn't that sad???

So I was laughing my ass off when I read about the latest trick people played on UPC, sending heavy and big concrete paving stones to them, making use of their freepost deal. Why? Because UPC sent them this Mediabox that they didn't request and by accepting a parcel from the mailman at the door and opening it, you've accepted UPC's terms [which are included in the box of course] and got yourself a subscription without realising it. *yup that's actually how UPC treats people!* So in return for their favour of a forced subscription UPC will receive a paving stone every day [UPC pays for receiving them based on volume and weight...].

This is why I love Dutch attitude at times... [just every so often] Read more here --> [in Dutch]