Some of you might have encountered a survey from Billag which asked how long / where you have been living and I recently took that survey out of "helping out" .
Bang : I got an invoice for 4 years of my residence in Zurich.
I have been paying my dues regularly, but this invoice is in my "full name" vs. just the first and last name with 2 different kunden nummber.
I have emailed them using their billag.ch contact form it has been 12 days and no response. We still get the new invoices (under old kunden nummmber which we pay) and the new invoices (under new kunden nummer) which I dont.
Since they dont respond, should I need to take them to the court? What should I do now?
They just keep sending invoices and at some point, i know a debt collector will knock on my door.
Nah, they will take you to court Honestly, you cannot take someone to court for sending you bills. At least not before they send you an official Betreibung/Poursuit against which you can formally object and get a court ruling that it is unjust.
Still regarding Billag there might be other procedures which have to be done. Read what is written on the invoice and send them a formal object, by registered mail, that you already pay for the apartment/household under a different costumer number.
Phone up the contact number. Ask for the name of the CEO. Once you get the name hang up. Probably a waste of time talking to the call-centre.
Send a registered letter to the CEO.
That will probably end up in the legal department rather than customer services and gives you a better chance of having someone with something other than sawdust in their brain to deal with the issue.
More or less confirms what I was suspecting on another Bilag thread. Billag is doing everything it can to beef up its subscriber list. Probably going to get money for every name when they hand over to the new guys.
The lesson here is never take part in a non anonymous survey.
No, it doesn't work that way. The new company will get information from the town hall so they will know exactly who is registered as living where and who has to pay.
They don't know who has to pay as the opt-out will stil exist. Ok, the conditions will be a bit tighter but people have time to prepare to meet them and I am sure people will find some pretty creative loopholes.
So no, the new guys cannot just get a list from the Gemeinde and start sending out bills. They will have to start by apprcahing people individually and clarifying their situation. I guess that many of the people who don't pay today (*) also conicidentaly enjoy wasting the time of inspectors, or are very good at avoiding them. So it's going to be a long cold winter for them.
So buying a subscriber list off Billag saves them a ton of money, as they already have those folks they can send a bill on day one and get some money flowing.
For any busines working capital is key. The Billag list could well be what makes or breaks the new company. They will pay hansomely for it. Why else do you think Billag hasn't simply thrown the towel and decided to spend its last months partying?
* (thanks to the Darwinian process of Billag ahving creamed off those who are too dumb to evade payment effectively, they have created a siatuation orf diminishing returns)