Yesterday afternoon we went to pay our electric bill at the post office because that’s where you pay electric bills. The first post office we went to was closed because they have shortened hours in August. This was no big surprise because most everything in Italy is either closed or has reduced hours during August. We went over to the main post office, which does stay open all day, but found out that the window to pay electric bills is only open in the morning.

So we returned the next morning. We took a ticket for the electric bill service window, and our number was called immediately. The usual wait at the post office is at least 20 minutes, so we thought we caught a lucky break. We rushed over to the window…and waited. No one was there to service the window. We waited some more. Still no one. Then the electronic number counter above the window moved to the next number…then the next number…and the next. Still no one. A man whose number was called after ours asked the woman at a nearby window if ours was open. She said “yes.” Still no one. Finally, after 25 minutes, a heavyset man came meandering over to the window. He took one look at our receipt and told us we had to wait in line at the regular payment window because only customers with special accounts can pay at the electric company window. Of course, it would only make too much sense for us to pay our electric bill at the electric company’s window!

So we went back to the ticket machine, pushed the button for the regular payment service windows, and as expected got number that was about 70 numbers away from being called. At least this would give us time to try to puzzle together why our electric rate had suddenly doubled and we were being charged the higher rate retroactively.

Last Modified : August 28th, 2007
Filed under : Italy, Logistics and daily life
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