For me getting to the mailbox each day is fun.  I have always enjoyed the surprise and excitement of “snail mail”, or did until yesterday.  I have been expecting, for a week, the monthly energy bill and it came yesterday.  The problem as it turned out is that wasn’t for the usual amount, it was for 1400 Euros more than the usual amount.  To say that I felt slightly sick would be an understatement.  It wasn’t a computer error.  Neither was it human error.

Basically it was an end of year statement that said although I had been paying 50 Euros a month all year long, we had actually used 200 Euros of energy a month and no we are going to charge you for it in one go, oh and from next moth it will be 200 Euros a month (excuse me if my Dutch translation is off a little).

I fail to believe that they couldn’t have seen this ‘problem’ occurring after the three meter readings I have given them last year, but apparently this is the Dutch way.  Kinda like the Belgium way, where you cannot get fries without a main course. 

I experienced this in Britain as well, where I used to pay 20 pounds a month for gas and they waited until the end of a quarter to send me a bill asking for 300 pounds extra.  Of course, when I moved into the house (during the summer) 20 pounds was more than enough to cover the gas bill.  During the winter I found out how badly insulated the house was, consequently the heating was on all the time when I was in the house. 

Me complaining about the cold?  Surely not?! 

Still Eneco Energie- you suck ass big time and I hope you go bust.  Like totally out of business.  Eneco are big advocates of green energy and saving the environment but I see their scam, there are just charging so much for their energy that people are using less! :)  Eneco sponsored the “ice rink” in The Plein (Den Haag) over the festive period this year.  As (no doubt due to global warming) the outside temperatures were warm, above freezing anyway, it takes a lot of energy to keep ice frozen, so they used a plastic substitute for ice.  So kids were skating on plastic…

It’s like using a dry ski slope to snowboard on.  It’s nowhere near the same. 

So hopefully by the next festive period Eneco will be out of business (because no-one can afford their bills) and the kids will be able to skate on ice.  Not that I am bitter.