Hi again.
I've had my house in Bulgaria for close on 10 years and for all that time, paying the electric bill has always been some sort of chaallenge. Years ago, in my local city (Dobrich), it was possible to give the meter reading to the lady who sat in the little roadside hut, she'd tell me how much, I'd pay in cash and get a little written receipt. Easy, if the booth/hut was open - so often it wasn't.
Then.... Enter E.On. New rules, a saga of paperwork and never possible to pay on the day. Goodness knows why, but that was the rule. It was impossible for me to set up a direct debit madate, as my bank is in Varna and my electricity account in Dobrich. Every time I went to pay.... "
Ne, ne, ne, ne."
So I'd come back to Bulgaria a few months later, pay in Dobrich and receive a hefty 'Late payment' fine.
Then E.On spat its dummy out and left.
Now we have the wonderful Energo-Pro. Even worse. What is the matter with these people?
They moved in about 2 years ago and I've always taken my card and meter reading in and got a friend to pay it for me a month later as we all know, for some insane reason, it's not permitted to pay till about a month later (daft as a brush). Then.... I discovered I can pay on-line: Yippee. So for the last 18 months, I've taken my card and meter reading into the Dobrich office and paid on-line 4-5 weeks later. Fine. Until.... Today.
As usual, I went into the office with the card and meter reading.... "
Ne. You must provide all the paperwork proving ownership of property, company and any Power of Attorney that exists."
I asked why the sudden change of policy. "
It is the rules"
I was sternly told. I explained that I was here in April, brought in the reading and paid the bill on line (via ePay.bg) a few weeks ago, no problem. "
Well"
said the lady, you can't anymore.
Now you must send all the paperwork to HQ in Sofia."

That's it - friends. Has anyone got any advice on this?
I walk into both the House Tax and Water co. Offices, show the Bulstat Card and pay on the spot. E.On, Energo-Pro.... Ne.
Thanx in advance.

Try again, tho with a different pay booth, she was probably having a bad day and you were her victim, it's happened to me many times!

Ha. Thanks for that 1. I'm not gpoing back on this trip to the office. I'm gonna take the whole issue up with Energo-Pro when I get home.
Totally ridiculous, for the sake of a meter reading and 'Me' wanting to pay them. It's not as is I was asking for money with menaces.
Home tomorrow

To be honest, i've never had a problem when giving money, ie paying bills, only when they owe me money etc etc it becomes a problem and thats the difficulties arise, i can't for the life of me understand why you couldn't pay your bill, your neighbour could pay it, infact any stranger could pay it armed with the account number, i do it for a couple of friends no problem. I suspect that because you have (in the past) provided the readings they wish to read the meter themselves, it's the same in the UK, after a few "
estimated readings"
they come and take a reading, only a guess but worth exploring. You don't have to prove who you are to pay a bill, so there is more to it, did you change the account name when you purchased the property or just carried on with the old account??? Maybe you need to register it in your own name, maybe they wish to replace the old meter with a new one (outside the property) with a smart meter, who knows but definitely there is an issue that needs resolving.

I do appreciate your comments and points, but this time they wouldn't even let me leave a reading without going through the 3rd degree etc. So nobody would be able to pay it in theory, because I wasn't allowed to go any further. As I said, fortunately, on this one occasion (Ha!!!!) they accepted the reading after all the additional paperwork. Please watch this space as to Energo-Pro's response to my Mr. Angry's email to Sofia HQ next week.
Again, thanks so much for all your comments. If I may say so - Energo-Pro's attitude needs a little correcting, then again on occasion, E.On's was questionable too.
I can pay my water and local taxes in seconds, the lekky involves a mulitude of pointless challenges before even reaching the 1st hurdle.
Can anyone here explain why it's not permitted to give a meter reading in the office and pay straight away, just like every other country's electricity companys accounts departments on the planet allows?

Oh Paddybg I have been there and had the teeshirt1 Eon are the most dificult company to deal with, you simply cannot pay the bill until you have the bill and pay on the due day, yet they have the details on their computer. It caused me so much problems that the supervisor of the post office decided to take over the whole thing. I leave her 200lev every time I leave and she pays the bill every month keeping receipts for me. When i cme back I igive her more money if needed as yet she still has some left. The boy came oter day to read the eter and when I asked how much he said about 40lev but not due till next month. I tried to get my details on the epay but it could ind me so gave up.

i wish you luck with the complaint and hope all goes well. Also did you know you can pay all your bills at the village post office I only found this out today - I generally go to Silistra pay the house tax, jeep taxx, water but she told me today I can pay there including your phone and bulsat . Good eh!!!!

Hi paddybg, this might help [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
You know where my villa is, not far from you, so we are in Dobrich and I know the offices you are talking about
My bill is paid monthly (see the latest below) by my gardener in the Balchik office. He has an HSBC account in the UK, so I just convert the leva amount into pounds and put it into his account. Been doing it for four years and had no trouble. Hope that helps, and by the way did we not agree to meet up on this last visit

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ELECTRICITY BILL CHECKING
Please enter your 10-digit customer number in order to check your electricity bill.
Please take into consideration the information for the due amounts on the site is updated periodically.
All liabilities paid before the date of the update will not be seen as due amounts.

More information on your consumption, invoice or payment you can get from our operators at the 24 hour company phone 0700 161 61 (at the price of one city call).

The information is update as of 13 June 2014.

Electricity bill

Customer number Subscriber number Invoice date Amount for payment Payment period
********** 0200106085 10.06.2014 25.49 28.07.2014

Thanks again, yes - we did plan to meet up, but I didn't realise you were there this time. I only booked the flight 48 hours before I went. Sorry.
Thanks, once more, for all your kind comments.

Well I have changed the electricity to my name now and set up the ddi for the electricty bill to be taken monthly, two months down the line and it all appears to be running fine. I check the bill on the due date here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] it will only show you what is due on or after the due date. Then check again a few days later and it says no result so the bill has been paid.

I tried to get registred with [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] but it send me round in circles will try again when I have a bg friend here.

I went to pay my water bill in May, Aug and Nov so all up to date - so I thought. Went to pay Dec and Jan yesterday only to find the clerk was giving me the wrong bill it was fr 51lev thought that was strainge as we only pay about 11 or 12 lev I expected the one in the summer to be high because the builders were here so paid the summer one of 36lev. He then mentions a different village I said no and our village. He got the right file and I pid hiim 24lev. This was niggling at me so had look at the previous bills when I got home seems like we paid an extra month of 36lev which I thought was our summer one. Then I looked at the nme and it was different to ours different customer number etc etc :: So looks like I have been paying someone else's bill as well as my own....... Will go to the office again tomorrow but I doubt they will refund my money they will more than likely tell me to get it from the person who's bill I have been paying. Goes to show you have to check everything. So now I m wondering when the water bills were higher was it their bills I have been paying I have only kept the bills going back to may 14....

It's mad - isn't it. You can't pay your own bill, but they're more than happy to continuously overlook you paying someone elses.
So far - so good for me and my Energo-Pro bills. I submitted my January reading(s) online last week and have just had an up-to-date bill posted on my email address, stating the balance is nil. It's only taken around 10+ years to get to this stage [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I'd like to be able to pay my house tax and water bills online too, but those two still seem to be a long way off organising at present.
My water bill is paid when I go out, at the local Dobrich Water Co. Office in just a few minutes and is never much, usually about 6Levs. The Kushta tax has been 11Levs for the past 5 years and I have to pay it at the Dobrich Oblast Offices in the City Centre. I have asked in both establishments if there's a way of paying the accounts online and I get a dominating 'NE' all the time. I'm not at all worried about the situation of those two though, as the amounts are always small and there's never been an issue if I'm a bit late with payment.