August 8, 2014
The list of things here that are getting on my nerves is getting longer and longer: I just learned that "Orange" (French Telecom) has incorrectly billed me for three service calls when I properly cancelled two before the date; and received no service on the third --I had to pay an electrician to set up the phone connection.
I have a contract for unlimited calls to the United States and within the European Union, yet I received a phone message yesterday that I have exceeded the amount allowed under my contract.
To pay my bills, I try to establish auto-pay on-line. It turns out I will be sent a form that I have to sign and send back with the same information I provided online. I want to be billed electronically, but each time I complete the online form and click the key to continue, I get an error message. Billing and payment are two entirely separate activities as organized on the Orange website. The Internet line and the phone line are also two entirely separate activities: you can turn the phone line on/off online, but you have to write a letter to turn off the Internet service. The letter has to be sent a month before the shut-off date; the phone can be programmed to be turned off a day before.
Trying to access my account on line to see my bill, I am thwarted by messages that tell me that my password is incorrect, although I just changed it and had the change verified automatically.
I call Orange originally to address this problem, when incidentally, the woman I speak with tells me that my first bill is for 262 Euros. Which leads me to be referred to the "Claims" department, to a man who tells me he will cancel the charges for the first two visits, but not the third, because the technician showed up, even though he could not establish the connection. The next thing he says is "I will see what I can do for you", and he tells me he will call me an hour. Fat chance.
This morning I stopped by the Trésor Publique to gather more information about how to establish automatic payment of the taxe foncière, levied in early September; and the taxe d'habitation, payable by December 15. I cannot establish auto-pay for both at the same time. Rather, I have to pay each in its season. Which is problematic, because I will be gone by November when the bills are sent out, and only one address can be given for both tax bills.
Which means I have to go to the Trésor Publique in October and pay the taxe foncière, then set up my address in New York as my address for all bills. Having established auto-pay for the foncière, even if the bill arrives in New York, rather than Caunes, the payment will have been made anyway.
By the beginning of December, when I am in New York, if I have not received the bill for the taxe d'habitation, I have to send an e-mail or letter explaining that I have not received the bill and making arrangements for payment, as well as establishing auto-pay.
In brief, nothing works as it should here. Other examples:
I just received a letter containing the receipt for the emergency medical services I received last Sunday. It came to me via a neighbor who rang the bell: the envelope was stamped and addressed to me at "Route de Trausse" and delivered to him instead, notwithstanding that I gave the physician my correct address.
Post cards do not arrive in the United States until long after they are sent, if at all. A replacement credit card for the one I use regularly has not arrived, although it was sent in mid-June.
And the local art cinema is on vacation for six weeks. In Paris, the bad weather there has been keeping the movie houses full. Here the bad weather and the opportunity to turn a profit is no impediment to a closure of a month and a half.
Jimmy Breslin, the famous reporter, wrote a book humorous book about the Mafia called "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight". His argument was that so much of the organization was incompetent the threat it posed was laughable.
I am beginning to feel the same way about France.
On the other hand, I had my eyes examined at the Polyclinique Montreal and could not have been happier with the personnel and the facility. My appointment was for 9:00 a.m., and I was through by 9:30 a.m. I paid 50 Euros for a thorough follow-up examination to surgery for a retinal tear I had in New York and took away with me the insurance form to submit to my insurance, filled out by a computer, stamped and signed.
And my veterinarian, Dr. Mougin, is a wonder, with wise advice on every problem I have brought to him and a great sense of humor.
How can the same country produce two such different outcomes?
And raises the rhetorical question, "Is it enough to be a beautiful place, if most things don't work well?
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