[Japan: Land of wonders] My water supply (almost) got disconnected experience

I’m sure a lot of people on the internet already share with you how great Japan is. But let see it from my point of view. I can tell you one thing. I  did not named my Japan experiences' entry “Japan: Land of wonders” because it’s full of wonderful things, it's more like the opposite.

If I were to elaborate on all what-the-f*** experiences I have in this country, I would be as long as a novel. So today I’ll just talk about something you probably haven’t seen anyone talk about yet, what happen when you don’t pay your bill properly in Japan.

Before I start bashing about how fucked up the system in this country could be, let me make something clear here first:

1.It’s my fault for being negligence and ignored my bill to this point. I admit that and I will not blame anyone for that. But the purpose of writing this entry is to elaborate how the system works.

2.I come from Thailand; classified as a developing country. Where things are very fucked up and never go your way. So I was expecting something good, reasonable and efficient from a country that called itself “developed country”. I don’t know if I am expecting too much because I have no experience of living in other countries except these two, so I don’t know if my view is biased.

October 2014:

Things started 4 months after I moved into my new place. Before this, I lived in the school dorm, so I didn’t have to handle any kind of bills, as it was included in my rent. The first 4 months passed by normally, I don’t have any problem. Although I was a little bit curious about my bills because nothing was delivered. My internet, my water supply bill, none. Only my electricity bills appeared in my letterbox that is attached to the door every month. So I thought “Hmm… probably because the water bill will be delivered only once every 2 months that’s why it’s not here yet.” I didn’t take any action until that one very sad day…

When my internet got disconnected.

I called NTT (my internet provider) to talk (more like to war) with them for hours. I told them they never send me any shit how do they expect me to pay. And then after a long session of me yelling at a Japanese cc girl who keeps on apologizing, we discovered that I actually have 2 mailboxes. One is the letterbox attached to my door and the other one is a mailbox on the first floor. OK. This was my fault. I know. I should have known I have 2 mailboxes, that was stupid. BUT this was what happened.

1.My electricity bill managed to be delivered every month so I thought things were fine. (I found out later on that the electricity bill guy has to come up to my room to check the electricity meter, so he just dropped the bill there)

2.The 1^st floor mailboxes are full of dust and spider webs. I thought it was not in use as other rooms’ boxes look abandoned too.

So that ended with an oops! moment. I hung up the phone and wiped off my 1^st floor mailbox. There were dozens of bill inside. I classified them a bit and just took the whole pile to the nearest convenience store. Bills paid. Internet worked. Done.

January 2015:

I check my 1^st floor mailbox from time to time because I know now that everything except the electricity bill will go there and I paid my bill when I found one. So on the 20^th of January, I checked my mailbox as usual, but this time what I found was very interesting. It’s the “Water supply disconnection Notice” (給水停止予定のお知らせ)

So they said I didn’t pay for my Sep-Oct water bill. That means I probably missed some bills from that big stack I took to 7-11. And they will disconnect my water supply after the 23^rd of January. It was the 20^th when I found out. I went into full throttle panic mode and search my whole house for any sign of water bill but I found none that is actually usable. The only thing I found is some stupid receipt-like notice That cannot be use to pay. They’re basically just notices saying you have some unpaid bills.

Let me explain to you a bit on how does Japanese bills and notices from service companies like electricity, water and gas look like. There are 3 types that they will send you regularly (If you don’t pay the bill like I did lol)

1.     Your monthly bill. A little bit thicker and harder than normal paper. Comes with barcode that can be used to pay at convenient stores.

2.     A receipt-like long and slim paper notice which its only function is to tell you that you are in debt. Nothing more than that. Pretty much useless. (Already tried to use it for payment, didn’t happen)

3.     A postcard notice. (I don't have photo for this one) The text inside is sealed with sticker, after you peeled the sticker off you can read inside. Sometime it has barcode inside, but most of the time, it’s just a normal notice.

What I found was the number 2, stupid receipt-like notices, so I can’t really do anything. And the Disconnection notice said, if you have your monthly bill (Number 1), you should go pay now, but they didn’t tell me what should I do if I don’t have. (Such a descriptive and useful notice, don’t you think?) So I decided to call them. Luckily Yokohama Waterworks Bureau call center opens 24 hours. (It’s very rare to find this kind of call center in Japan; most of them only operate during daytime) The CC girl told me that she would have the person in charge of my case call me next morning. And the guy called me. He said he would send me a new monthly bill with barcode that I could pay with right at that time. (It was in the morning of 21^st of Jan) So I just waited.

But until late night of the 22^nd, nothing was delivered. I was kinda worried because 23^rd is the deadline so I called the Call Center again. It was amazing, in a bad way. Let me show you what happened:

Me: The monthly bill that you said you had sent me has not arrived yet. Do you know when will it be delivered? Because the notice said my water supply will be disconnected tomorrow already

CC: We are very sorry for your inconvenience. There’re some technical problems with our system and your monthly bill that was sent out yesterday will reach your house next week. (WOW we’re in the same district, did they send my bill with pigeons or something?)

Me: Oh… ok. So what should I do then.

CC: Again. We are very sorry. But you don’t have to worry because your water supply definitely will not be disconnected during January.

Me: Oh… can I ask one question then. If the bill got delivered already and I still won’t go to pay, when will the water supply be disconnected? (I’m just trying to prepare for the worst-case scenario here)

CC: Ah…We are very sorry but we do not know the exact date for water disconnection. The only thing we can tell you is you water supply will definitely be ok during January, but once it’s February, we cannot tell anymore, it can be disconnected whenever during February.

That was very comforting. They don’t even know when will ‘they’ disconnect my water supply. Worst case, if the bill never came and I waited until February, I have to live my life worrying and not knowing when will I won’t have water to shower anymore. Make me feel like I’m living in a jungle with no phone signal.

I don’t understand how they work together if their information are not in sync at all. Or are ‘they’ who control my water supply some god or unknown alien and these people are just call centers who only talk about what ‘they’ allow them to? Lol They talked as if they are separate entities.

It’s not as if I’m trying to be a drama queen or anything. I don’t mind that much about the system being full of shit and fucked up in many ways. I just can’t help but be curious as to why these entities are not improving their system. They are doing things so inefficiently it’s ridiculous. Let me point something out here.

1. Why do they keep sending me barcode-less notices. If they already have to print out the notice to send to me, might as well just put a barcode on one. So your debtees can go pay their debt immediately. Not like this. All the notices they sent me just referred me back to the first paper I got. Do they really think I’m gonna keep that if I haven’t paid for this long? I don’t see the point of not printing barcode on. It’s just plainly inefficient.

2. I already paid for my Nov-Dec water bill. And there’s no trace that I have unpaid amount on that bill, so I thought I have none. I actually think it’s wiser to make it cumulative. Business-wise, you get your money faster. Less process because you don’t have to keep sending notices for old bill, just cumulate. There’s no disadvantage for this except the fact that the bill is too expensive to be paid together, which I think I irrelevant in this case. If that’s too hard for the system, then just attached 2 bills together and send again. Or if that’s still impossible at least just put a notice on my Nov-Dec bill. They just send a separate notice for everything. This is a waste of paper, waste of process, waste of labor and time, most importantly, very bothersome for your clients.

Like I said in the beginning, I don’t know if I’m just expecting too much from Japan. Japanese are known for their systematic nature and I thought they are systematic, efficient and lean. But this. This country, in reality, is full of unnecessary processes and documents that most of them, until this day, I still cannot find the answer as to why they exist. 

We all know processes and documents cost tremendous amount of money, consume a lot of time and make people crazy. But in this digitalize world, Japan is actually more paper-based than my less developed and fucked up country. Lol that’s just sad.

Lesson Learned: For water bill, you can pay as late as 3 months after your usage. For example, for Sep-Oct bill, you can pay as late as End of January and you will still be fine.