Basura

[digifidd]

Even better find a way to attach a billing address so that the bills do actually get delivered in the first place saving not only the householder the trouble of continually visiting the office but also the council staff the time in dealing with them

That's way too logical or organised for the Spanish I'm afraid Fred. 

By the way, it was Michaela and Jo Tissington who were visiting places and asking people if they were prepared to register for basura.  Jo works at the Town Hall, but I'm not too sure what Michaela is doing but I first met her when I needed a medically trained interpreter to come to an allergy consultant in Almeria with me. 

[digifidd]

I'm in agreement that Albox can't get their act together re basura.  We have been paying on direct debit since April 2008, however the Ayuntamiento are insisting that we have been paying nothing and owe about €400.  I can produce my bank statements if they want but most of the time they aren't interested.  The gallic shrug has a multitude of meanings but mostly seems to be "it isn't my problem".

If their system was organised and was accurate, there wouldn't be a problem, but it is not and are insisting on fining people for THE TOWN HALL'S incompetance.

If they had someone like Arboleas does, in Roger, things might start progressing, but whilst the bureaucrats insist that nothing is wrong and don't take any sort of responsibility, then nothing will change.

Perhaps its the "no pasa nada" attitude that is the Spanish problem, yet it IS a problem when it comes to money and them wanting it from people.

At one point the basura office was employing a lovely lady called Michaela who spoke fluent Spanish and could help the many expats who are baffled by the  system, but they stopped using her services. 

Are they just stupid or do they prefer an incomprehensibly, chaotic system,  as it allows them to get up to who knows what?

[DaveL]

As previously stated, the best way to pay is by Direct Debit. The banks will, in my experience, very quickly resolve any issues if money is incorrectly taken from an account.

Lynne states the Albox office is hopeless. Well, I went to the Diputacion office in Huercal Overa and was able to pay by Debit Card, and set up a Direct Debit in just a few minutes. The girl at the reception desk did it all for me despite my speaking limited Spanish. It seems much more amenable than Albox, but it will be easier to have someone who speaks the language with you if you are unable to speak it yourself.

DaveL

[Roger]

I have gone into great detail on www.arboleasnow.com
about this issue.
We are only dealing with Arboleas, and WILL sort it out (eventually).
The head of the Basuras Office admits that their register is a mess.
Frankly, the only way it will be sorted is via individual Town Halls, who should have the information to correct the register.

If your Town Hall does not have the will to do it, I do not know what you can do.
I know how big a task it is.

[sandra]

We have discovered that we are entered twice on the Basura. One has no address for us at all - just our surname incorrectly spelt - the other we have been paying since 2008 by direct debit. We have to go into the Basura office and have one account deleted but I am sure there will be bills going back to 2005. We have continually asked them if there were outstanding bills for us to which they have replied that we do not owe anything. As you say, they are totally disorganised but when the outstanding bills stack up too much they will have no hesitation in "removing" the money from out bank account! :head :head

[Baritone]

i get 4 bills for about 31 euro each year.. if you have more than that... how many accounts have they got 4 you

[Lynne]

The Albox basura office has to be one of the most disorganised companies in the whole of Spain - you just couldn't make it up.  We're still battling with them and refuse to pay a penny (sorry, euro) until they get themselves sorted.

[Queen Clare Shirley]

its easier to pay by direct debit


Clare

[fred]

Has anyone had the same problems as we have with Basura . For almost 3 years we have been receiving and paying within a few days our bills , they are erratic on the periods they cover to say the least . The last one we received was the day following the last date for payment so we went into the office to pay and were told we had in fact missed 3 since we started receiving them . I compared the dates and amazingly we had one on Feb 2008 and another in Aprr 2008 , both had been promptly paid , one of the missing ones that we had not received was Mar 2008 , actually 29 days after the previous one . To add insult to injury we have been fined for each of the unpaid ones even though we never received them , we were told we should have made enquires to see if any had been issued to us . I can see that this is an easy way to make money from the fines , the periods covered ( should be every 3 months ) actualy are 1 month , 6 weeks , 2 months , 3 months , 5 months , how on earth can anyone be expected to avoid fines however small other than going in weekly and checking . Even then its not foolproof . I cant understand how the Mayor condones this practice by allowing it to continue for so long .We come under Albox so I cant speak for other districts , most of the people I know that have been paying have no idea of the frequency of the bills either and whether or not they will also have fines to pay after they make enquires . As we live far from the road and have no official address other than the one alloted to us by the council office we use a postbox inside the bus stop type buildings which is totaly diferent to our alloted address , the council wont amend the address on the bills to be sure we recieve them and insist they have to be posted to the property address that the bill is for , as a result some of our bills are returned to them by the post office :head