What's goin on?

[pato]

I read continually on this forum about Electricity, Water, Gas Rates, Sewers and no-one but no-one to know who or why they get variable bills, What's going on for F's sake, what a banana republic we've invested in, I get fed up listening to your gripes,let's get together and ask questions about the camera and their stupid attitude to home owners in the algarve, get yor act together you idiots or well all withdraw and you'll be bankrupt.

[EMM]

Pato in your own way you do have a point.
I have seen and read of groups of consumers in other parts of Europe who have approached utility companies a a group and negotiated " bulk " rates for supply of electricity etc.
With de -regulation in Portugal who knows this could be possible ????

[sunman]

Pato in your own way you do have a point.
I have seen and read of groups of consumers in other parts of Europe who have approached utility companies a a group and negotiated " bulk " rates for supply of electricity etc.
With de -regulation in Portugal who knows this could be possible ????

I thought you were a fan of the draconian taxes & prices countries impose on us EMM, are you changing your stance?

[EMM]

Sorry do not understand your comment ? I am not a fan there is little I can do about it other than to reduce my costs or cut and run.

As with any commodity or service there may be scope if a group of consumers get together to negotiate a bulk deal.
De regulation allows competition ( maybe ) , tax levels have got nothing to do with this , its just about the margin a company is prepared to accept for more business.

[HampshireRich]

Whilst not an owner I think pato has a good point (although not subtly put).

Things can be achieved if you get together - I you remember when the communications tower was to be erected at VDM(?) - petitions and compliants were organised properly and a good result ensued.

I feel you may need someone who is a permanent resident to head any group.

Good luck to all if you go ahead.

[sunman]

if my memory serves me correctly, when I was complaining about having to pay €26,000 for a car in Portugal that I could buy for €18,000 in UK due to the ridiculous taxes imposed you gave me a few speeches about countries being able to apply any taxes they liked and that we should all put up with them as it's their right to impose what they'd like;

but in general it's interesting being back in the UK, folk here earn much higher wages than folk in Portugal and yet as well as cars, the cost of utilities is much lower, we're sitting here with nice comfortable central heating on 24/7 and our energy bills are 1/3 lower than we paid on the Algarve (where by the way we didn't think we were caning the system at all & tried to be frugal)

we often wonder how the locals survive; lower income, higher taxes, higher IVA, expensive cars, expensive gas & electric

[laserblazer]

I think what Pato is mainly concerned with is the inability to get any answers from officialdom. For example, the water bill thread, where the monthly bills made little sense. If enough people stood up as a combined voice and asked for answers then maybe they wouldn't be ignored.

[EMM]

Surely this should be one of the functions of AFPOP who are supposed to represent expats.??

[Jaylay]

I think what Pato is mainly concerned with is the inability to get any answers from officialdom. For example, the water bill thread, where the monthly bills made little sense. If enough people stood up as a combined voice and asked for answers then maybe they wouldn't be ignored.

In the past AFPOP, have been very good in assisting foreign property owners in changes in the law, and obtained discounts and helped negotiations with various authorities to ease the path. So do not think there is nothing one can do, like anything else in life you sometimes have to look for the solution, not just moan.

[steve]

People are very ready to moan but unfortunately few can be bothered to actually do anything. Foreigners who are legally residents have a vote for local elections and the numbers of residents represent a significant block of votes that could easily change the result of the camera elections but how many people actually bother to vote? The communications tower was a good example of people power achieving results but this was driven by vested interest rather than altruism.

[Jaylay]

In fact since my posting a little earlier today I have just opened the latest Afpop update magazine and one article in there is explaining that the bi and tri-horaria tariffs are going to continue in 2013. A perfect example of look for information not moan all the time.