SMD3 - Additional charges

Well its nice to hear things go wrong in France too, gives a sense of balance to us in the UK, we’ll probably all meet in the U bend of life sooner or later :joy:

@toryroo
thanks for making me laugh out loud… at your language… :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
You put into wonderfully ripe words what I have been thinking for quite some time… :wink: :wink:

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€244.70 for the 2 of us abd we have to do a 2km round trip to take our rubbish to nearest bins.
Last week the ultra dechettes bin refused to open despite numerous attempts with my card. Clearly it wasn’t me as there was a growing pile of rotting bags around the bin.
These particular bins are in the Maire carpark, They should get the message.
Our invoice says not to pay but instead to fill in direct debit for next year.
Does this mean we dont pay this year?

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You/we have received an information-only document, clearly marked NE PAS PAYER.
This is telling us what our adherence is costing us for one year (without any extras).

Whilst we are invited to complete a direct debit mandate… I do NOT propose to do that. I want to be in control of my money until the very last moment. Of course, it’s nothing to do with the fact that I don’t trust SMD3 :roll_eyes: :wink:

We were originally advised that we would pay “this sum” only… first time around…
so that’s what I’m expecting to be charged for the coming year.
However, seems we should all be notified of what our actual useage has been (logged each visit via the zapper/card) and we can then see that we need to reduce (or not) our black bags…

EDIT: the direct debit route does allow payment in 3 stages or all in one go…
clearly, for those with low income, 3 stages might well be easier, but personally, I’m going to stick to my guns and pay in one go… if and when absolutely necessary.
With zero black bags, my bill can’t be more that the adherance fee they’re quoting… or can it… :roll_eyes: :rage:

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the French way to get the message across is to carefully place the bags up against the main door to the Mairie… others will soon follow suit
Farmers usually do it by the bin load - smelly pig slurry works best…

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Thanks for making me laugh so much, it’s nice to see I’m not the only one that uses clourful language :rofl:

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Me too and you should have seen the video my daughter placed on FB regarding the imminent touchdown of a tornado right in front of her car, there were no words only FFFFF. We have to let off steam somehow!

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Incidentally, a neighbour couldn’t make his zapper-card work on the blackbag bin…
We watched him displaying how “it doesn’t work!!”.
He was pressing the button (yes) then holding his zapper-card in front of the glass plate just above/left of the button… (NO wrong)…
When we quickly moved his zapper-card to infront of the “reader” just below the button… hurrah… it worked!
A gentle noise announced “connection” and he pushed on the footbar and the magic trap allowed itself to be opened…

I suspect some of the black bags lying around, belong to folk who have a card but aren’t using it correctly… and the rest will be from those who don’t have a card anyway and don’t give a darn…

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The inevitable result from such charges will be an increase in fly-tipping or burning.

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Exactly, 20+ years ago I marvelled at the lack of fly tipping. Years later restrictive practices will render France just as stupid as the UK.
As expat immigrants say “its just like the UK 20 years ago”

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@Corona and @Mat_Davies

"There won’t be fly-tipping… of course not!! Things have moved-on… everyone acts responsibly… "
I was at an official meeting some years ago… fly-tipping was mentioned by one of us, but SMD3 dismissed such an idea as ridiculous… :roll_eyes:

I was there, I heard their promises on several aspects … and could weep for how we were deceived/misled.

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I know I’m outside the area and therefore know s*d all about it but it does sound as if that particular organisation is ripe for some kind of investigation? Are there higher levels of local government with whom serious complaints could be lodged :thinking:

Ditto :rofl:

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We have just received our bill 350+ Euros (collection option).
Our village had a vote. 17 of us voted most wanting the take to community bins option.
100 Euros cheaper.
The Mayor was not happy so he called for another vote, delivering voting slips to every home. Second vote went the Mayors way so now we have the more expensive collection option. since this was decided the Mayor has moved out of the vilaage and the collection option makes more sense for him in his isolated house far from where the communal bins would have been located!

I take it the maire has moved to another village to carry out another vote. Hmm

for those with close/easy access to main rubbish points… I can understand them choosing the cheaper option…

Otherwise, door to door, although more expensive to the householder on the Bill … probably works out cheaper in the long run through not needing to get one’s vehicle out (if you’ve got one) etc.

There are folk who are simply not able to trek/drive around looking for bins to use.

EDIT Our commune was not given a choice. SMD3 told us we MUST have main rubbish points across the commune… as the village was too narrow for door-to-door vehicles and they weren’t prepared to allow us a 2-way deal (ie door to door out of town and main bins in town)

Luckily I’m not in rip-off Dordogne, but I walk to
mine. I’d consider 100 euros for collection on top of that outrageous base sum to be an an absolute ripoff.

This has the whiff of corruption about it, surely?

The world is a stupid place and getting more stupid as time moves on.

Luckily I’m not in rip-off Dordogne, it is great down here 40 minutes from the Spanish frontier

Where are you ?