Electric bill scam? Hoi An expat resident

That is a scam! Who is your realtor? $200 a month in Australia is very high. If I was you I would go see this assistant and get a phone number or email for your realtor in France. She would have to have one or a copy of the bill the owner paid. Ps good luck.

woahdonald with a bill that high (if it is indeed legitimist of course) somebody might be leaching off your line. If your in a stand alone house with a meter that's reading what electricity is going into your place, power everything in the house off and see if it's still racking up. Down here the Delta, guys wearing orange jump suits are just linemen, not bill collectors, strange.

My electricity bill was around 4.000.000 VND, until I tried turning off the water-heating system (Bathroom) during the daytime - after this the bill dropped to around 2 mil. I still use the same amount of hot water as before. Today i use 1 aircon running from 7 pm to 7 am. - Light, TV, 2x computer, kitchen etc. Price close to 2.000.000 mio VND/month.

As far as i know, the price of eletricity depends on the buyer - company, privat etc. Maybe something to do with the VAT?

Information from cost-of-living Vietnam

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/co … ry=Vietnam

Utilities (Monthly)
Basic (Electricity, Heating, Water, Garbage) for 85m2 Apartment     1,048,750.00 (800,000.00 to 1,782,875.00)

Its usually 1 million per month for each aircon unit your running, so 400,000vnd for a month sounds very little to me. Maybe they have added it up during the months? The lowest bill iv had was 1,4 million for a month and the highest 4,3 million which it usually is but its a big house and 4 aircons running almost 24/7.

/Andreas

Thanks for all the responses!

I have 1 air-con unit that I run a lot, but usually set to 24C.  I generally keep the hot water turned off unless I'm doing dishes and I take cold showers.

I pay my realtor 2.5 million up front for all 3 months utilities and that's supposed to be a high estimate.  The last 3 months I've had no problems with it.  If anything I'd say my usage has gone down recently.  It's a small house with 1 main room for living, then theres a door that leads to the kitchen, living room and bathroom.  We keep that door closed to keep the cool air in the main room.

My house is in front of a post that has nearly a dozen electric meters on it.  I live in the vegetable village in Hoi An, and honestly I think 4 million could cover this whole side of the village.  As far as I know this is the only house on this side of the road here that has A/C.

I know it can't be real simply because I was told that the owner paid the 4.5 million bill from last month.  I mean, really?  What landlord in his right mind would do that?  I don't care how "nice" someone is, surely if they owned this house for years they would know what the electric bill range would be, and that it wouldn't suddenly become 15x more expensive.

between 800 000 and 1 000 000 on a 2 person house/household, without airco and we cook with electricity.

Electricity, so far I am aware of is provided by a single company only, so no different price schema should apply

I pay.... ahem the US Government pays.... roughly 2.2 million per month electric for my house.... In Saigon.... It's 4 stories but I only use one of the sleeping rooms.... with AC.... the rest stay empty.
(there are 5 self contained sleeping rooms that stay vacant)

I use AC approx. 15 hours per day... and also turn off Hot water during the day.... use washing machine 3 times a week.... run 3 comps... lights etc.... and fridge.... Other than that I'm naturally energy efficient....

I also thought someone else was piggy backing on my power grid.... ran a few experiments and learned that 2.2 million per month is the norm for what I do here...

Wow, my electricity is 500,00vnd per month with two people, two fidges and computersWe dont use aircon as its not that hot, even in Saigon two of us was only 500,000vnd per month

johnnywastaken wrote:

I pay.... ahem the US Government pays.... roughly 2.2 million per month electric for my house.... In Saigon.... It's 4 stories but I only use one of the sleeping rooms.... with AC.... the rest stay empty.
(there are 5 self contained sleeping rooms that stay vacant)

I use AC approx. 15 hours per day... and also turn off Hot water during the day.... use washing machine 3 times a week.... run 3 comps... lights etc.... and fridge.... Other than that I'm naturally energy efficient....

I also thought someone else was piggy backing on my power grid.... ran a few experiments and learned that 2.2 million per month is the norm for what I do here...

Good info, thanks.  I've got some experiments under way now to see what my usage really is.

I usually pay 500 000 / month (room + ac + fan) in HCM, except during one month when i was away from Vietnam, and it was 1 million It appears that my smiling neighbor were using electricity of my room....

But anyway 4 millions is absurd, ask for the detail of the bill for normal month and compare it with the 4 million one.

If you use A/C it pushes the bill up, but as stated above 4 million, someone is having a lend of you. Ask to see the bill then take it EVN and have them check it out, its most probably a scam with your landlord.

My wife just paid our electric bill this morning, 2,500,000

Let me guess Don, she sleeps with the AC on and puts a blanket on, seems to be a very common thing here. Iasked a group of engineers at Vietsovpetro, who sleeps all night with the ac on and also use a blanket, nearly all said yes. I said thats part of the reason we have power shedding here, they told me the ac is on to keep the mosquitos away.

I wish...lol
If it gets below 26 she puts on a blanket. With the new baby she thinks she needs to keep it at 27 to 28.
The problem is with my 14 year old son from the US, he tries to keep his room as cold as possible. He sets it at 16 and lets it run 24 hours a day. That and the TV's and computers stay on quite a bit also.

Yes, the ac chews through the dien, once you get to a certain level the price changes per kw.

woahdonald I could be wrong on this but... After re-reading your post again my thoughts are that bill for 4.5VND wasn't for electricity but for a replacement meter. That's why the guys in orange jump suits were trying to collect it not the normal bill collector that comes around every month. That also would explain why your landlord paid it without questioning usage. What happened after that with the assistant, go figure....

Yes, very good point Budman, I also thought the men in orange was somewhat unusual.But now you have also brought up that matter it does make sense.

Where in the Mekong Delta are you.

Ok, sounds good,the lone white man. I have a friend up in Binh Phuoc, he is the only round eye for miles, luckily he speaks,reads and writes VN very well, so its not a drama for him.

Budman1 wrote:

woahdonald I could be wrong on this but... After re-reading your post again my thoughts are that bill for 4.5VND wasn't for electricity but for a replacement meter. That's why the guys in orange jump suits were trying to collect it not the normal bill collector that comes around every month. That also would explain why your landlord paid it without questioning usage. What happened after that with the assistant, go figure....

yep, that could be right.

You can come to Hoi An electric (VNE)company in Nguyen Duy Hieu st (next to Yaly - fashion company)to check your bill.
You should bring your bill of last month so they know the code of your landlord's name and address.
And you can see prices are different between first 100K...
I know an expat paid 1,4 millions(660k) for last month with 1AC
If it's possible, you should go with a vietnamese person who can show staffs of VNE company about your problem.
Otherwise if you want to do it clearly, you should ask the landlord to bring 3 bills of 3 last months to VNE company and fill up a form there to require to check your automatic electric counter.
Then they will come to your house to check someone is using electric from your house or not and check the automatic electric counter is right or wrong.