Irish Woes #192
ESB, irelands monopolic electricity supplier are wagging their finger at me via SMS for non-payment of my bill.
It seems to be normal in Ireland for official information to be sent my text messaging. Possibly not unusual for a country with approximately 1.2 cellular phones to every person, however I find it irritating and unprofessional. There is too much danger of it getting lost amongst the spam from pizza parlours, daft work collegues and general wrong numbers. I'd prefer them to send me a letter, or just phone me; I probably won't answer but it's always worth a try.
Beyond this annoyance there is the one where my bill is unpaid, despite me arranging with them to pay my bill via direct debit. a service I actually rang up a few months ago specifically to confirm... just so I would prevent this kind of scenario.
Sadly the staff at ESB have proven to be as reliable as everything else in this pantomime of a country and I'm now expected to get time off work so I can queue at the post office with all the other plebs.
What happened to the direct debit I set up I don't know. Perhaps I merely dreamt about it.
On a related note I was told that some independant fast food outlets only charge the listed price to immigrants, tourists and people they don't like, Everyone else gets "extra change" back. I'm never sure whether to believe these stories or not. Anywhere else I'd dismiss it either as leg-pull or someone's paranoiac groundless conspiracy-theory, but here... I dunno. It wouldn't surprise me. Even with the majority of staff in these places being "immigrants" or from a non-irish background (the Irish often consider themselves too good for this kind of work, though not too good to sit on welfare). Most foreigners who come to Ireland for an extended period and manage to survive the first few years eventually go native: developing a bizarre hybrid accent, the same relaxed attitude to society and a casual arrogant ignorance.
It seems to be normal in Ireland for official information to be sent my text messaging. Possibly not unusual for a country with approximately 1.2 cellular phones to every person, however I find it irritating and unprofessional. There is too much danger of it getting lost amongst the spam from pizza parlours, daft work collegues and general wrong numbers. I'd prefer them to send me a letter, or just phone me; I probably won't answer but it's always worth a try.
Beyond this annoyance there is the one where my bill is unpaid, despite me arranging with them to pay my bill via direct debit. a service I actually rang up a few months ago specifically to confirm... just so I would prevent this kind of scenario.
Sadly the staff at ESB have proven to be as reliable as everything else in this pantomime of a country and I'm now expected to get time off work so I can queue at the post office with all the other plebs.
What happened to the direct debit I set up I don't know. Perhaps I merely dreamt about it.
On a related note I was told that some independant fast food outlets only charge the listed price to immigrants, tourists and people they don't like, Everyone else gets "extra change" back. I'm never sure whether to believe these stories or not. Anywhere else I'd dismiss it either as leg-pull or someone's paranoiac groundless conspiracy-theory, but here... I dunno. It wouldn't surprise me. Even with the majority of staff in these places being "immigrants" or from a non-irish background (the Irish often consider themselves too good for this kind of work, though not too good to sit on welfare). Most foreigners who come to Ireland for an extended period and manage to survive the first few years eventually go native: developing a bizarre hybrid accent, the same relaxed attitude to society and a casual arrogant ignorance.