450$ for electricity contract in Bavaro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! why we are ripped off always

[rubio_higuey]

@DV8. 80 pesos for a fan it's not unrealistic. Fans use on average 100W, x 8 hours of use x 30 days = 24 kWh x RD$3.90 kw/h = RD$94 per month.

My fridge (12 cubic ft), 42" LCD, satellite receiver, media player, 2 routers, modem, home office (laptop + laser printer), toaster, panini press, coffee maker, iron 8 low consumption lightbulbs, etc. I consume 500 pesos per month in electricity including fixed RD$120 connection charge. My daily consumption including inverter battery loading for a 3-hour daily blackout is just 3 kWh per day. I rarely get over 100 kWh consumption per month, which is less than RD$400.

NOW, I am electricity usage saving freak, I turn off the lightbulbs, TV, even put laptop on standby when I am not using it. Fridge maintains its cool, I open it maybe 4-5 times per day.

My A/C is on a different meter but I started to turn it on only this month, it was on a 4-month vacation since late November last year.

 

[dv8]

i live a normal life my power bill is about 2500 a month and i do not have AC.
and fan was a blind shot, i have no clue how mouch electricity it uses but i know dominacs like to have them on 24/7, they don't like the heat.

 

[AlterEgo]

Thats why you see so many locals "tapping in" into the power grid. In some areas you dont even see meters on the houses just wires running to the house. I always wondered how the bill was calculated.

Sometimes those houses are on a flat contract - they pay a set fee every month regardless of how little or how much they use. The contract amount does get small increases from time to time, but they have no meter. Important to remember not every house without a meter is stealing electricity.

AE

 

[DMV123]

IS there a difference in required deposit if you do not have a Cedula? Just a thought.

 

[InsanelyOne]

To the OP... just wait till you get your first electric bill!!! Electricity here in the East is very expensive. My bill averages over US$250/month.

 

[Chirimoya]

We pay about US$45 in the cooler months, US$65 in the hotter months.
No a/c as we are on 4th/5th floor with good cross-breezes; no clothes drier as we hang our clothes to dry on the roof terrace.

 

[johnny]

thanks for all that info guys. I appreciate it.
I am really scared of going to a third world country with third world salaries but European cost of living ...

You forgot to mention that you are going to a place
with a first class beaches
First class resorts,
first class golf courses
First class fishing
First class condos
First class weather
First class electricity

 

[JuanDolioLiving]

Dear friend,

You will be better off to wait and do it when you get here because this number doesn't sounds right to me. I just had an electrical business contract done with Edeeste and it cost me 2500.00RD pesos deposit or what they called the fianza to do it. The best part of it is that I didn't have to pay it at front it was included on the first bill. So budy wait and do it yourself so you don't get rip off.

 

[Los Lobos]

Sometimes those houses are on a flat contract - they pay a set fee every month regardless of how little or how much they use. The contract amount does get small increases from time to time, but they have no meter. Important to remember not every house without a meter is stealing electricity.

AE

Yep I know that also. They get a set rate per month. This usually occurs in what most on here would call the gehtto areas. These areas also have the most and longest power outages. I had to have some bars welded on the house and the meter wasnt up. Therefore no electric. Guy said no problem scurried up the pole tapped in is welder and went to town. All I could do was shake my head.

 

[Bryanell]

We pay about US$45 in the cooler months, US$65 in the hotter months.
No a/c as we are on 4th/5th floor with good cross-breezes; no clothes drier as we hang our clothes to dry on the roof terrace.

In our eight roomed house, we have all electric kitchen appliances, microwave oven, toaster, food-processor, refrigerator and water cooler, water pump for the cisterna/tinaco system, washing machine, 2 big ceiling fans, two stand-alone fans, a/c in the bedrooms, water-heater, vacuum cleaner, 3 TV's, media players and sound systems, two computers, printer, but all interior and exterior lamps are low consumption. Oh, and we have a trabajodora who does ironing every day and never switches anything off. We use an average of 230kw/h and our monthly bill is around RD$1000-1500 depending on how much we use a/c and including a fixed charge of RD$134.00.
Pretty reasonable I think by anyone's standards.

 

[PJT]

A few years back, probably about five, the cost of a meter was about US $250 plus a deposit. Now, to clarify this issue with your electricity contract, you say the electric company told you the cost was $450. Was it you who actually communicated with CEPM or was it someone else acting as your agent? The reason why PJT asks this is sometimes developers, real estate agents or condo assoc. will arrange the contract with CEPM on the behalf of the client and will balloon the expenses to their advantage at your cost.

PJT hopes it works out OK for you and the costs are at the correct market level.

Regards,
PJT

 

[Reese]

Thats why you see so many locals "tapping in" into the power grid. In some areas you dont even see meters on the houses just wires running to the house. I always wondered how the bill was calculated.

I have family that live in Consuelo and she does not have a meter on her house and they pay a flat monthly rate of 300 pesos. Now how the amount is calculated I don't know.

 

[rubenpriego]

I think it is all about Bavaro-Punta Cana area. A very expensive area, no competence about suppliers, if you want electricy, and only one supplier, you have to swallow that ripp-off, no other way, unless you want to live without electricity ...

 

[bachata]

I had to make a deposit of 10000 pesos in 2006 in Santo Domingo for an electricity contract. I assume the idea is that you are going to leave the country with unpaid bills. In Miami you also must make a deposit but it is returned in one year if your have paid your bills.

Deposit??? That's what they say!!! but when I had my electric contract canceled three years ago I did not get my money back because I was living the country in two weeks and the check will take a couple month as the super intendencia of electricidad is the department that deal with that, I did try to let my mom en-charged to received the money but they was requesting a notarized document I did not have time for that. After a year went back to DR and visited the EDENORTE office to see if I will get my money, the clerk asked me to come back the next week so they'll refund in cash, went back next week and they did not have funds to do the payment.:smoke:

Quien tendra mis cuartos en su bolsillo derecho???

JJ

 

[rubenpriego]

Not in DR yet (end of year will move) and starting already to be tired and annoyed about the feeling that I can be living in a permanent rip-off and a permanent argument with people ...

 

[jrjrth]

I just had my meter installed, I was orginally told that it would cost $250.00 for the meter, well when it came time to have it installed I paid double at $500.00...so what is the actual figure...does it have a moving tarket??

 

[johnny]

Not in DR yet (end of year will move) and starting already to be tired and annoyed about the feeling that I can be living in a permanent rip-off and a permanent argument with people ...

Why some foreigners are always thinking that they are being rip off, electricity is expensive in the country, and that is the average price paid by most dominican middle class. There is no different prices for dominican or foreigners.
Dominicans do not change their lifestyle, no matter how high the price they have to pay.
You wont see dominicans changing their big 8 cyl. SUV for small cars, no matter if the gallon of gas rises to 10 or 15dlls
If you want to live the lifestyle of the dominican middle class, be prepared to pay the high prices we have to pay.

 

[Chirimoya]

Of all the things to complain about in Punta Cana/B?varo the last on my list would be CEPM. No matter where you live in the DR there is no choice of supplier. In most of the rest of the country (apart from Saman? and Bayahibe) you pay for a service that includes daily blackouts.

CEPM's rates may be higher but you probably end up paying the same or less as well as enjoying a 24/7 service - if you take into account the additional expense of inverter+batteries or generator+diesel that is essential in most other parts of the DR.

If your home is designed in a way that makes the most of the sea breezes, you have a laundry-drying area and use low-consumption bulbs and appliances sensibly your monthly costs will be lower than most people's - we have proved that consistently in three different houses/apartments in the capital (we always paid around RD$1000 but we had to buy an inverter and batteries) and now in Punta Cana where we pay no more than US$60.

 

[rubenpriego]

Johnny, if we think we are ripped off all the time is due to FACTS AND EXPERIENCES, thats it.
I have been many times in DR and travelling as a traveller, not as a tourist (better way to not being ripped off so frequently), and I can tell you that foreigners, or white faces or whatever however you wanna say, pay more in many many things.
How we know that? after some trips and letting time go by, you finally get the real prices of services, things, etc ... then is when you realise all the times you have been ripped off.
Just facts my friend ...

 

[johnny]

Johnny, if we think we are ripped off all the time is due to FACTS AND EXPERIENCES, thats it.
I have been many times in DR and travelling as a traveller, not as a tourist (better way to not being ripped off so frequently), and I can tell you that foreigners, or white faces or whatever however you wanna say, pay more in many many things.
How we know that? after some trips and letting time go by, you finally get the real prices of services, things, etc ... then is when you realise all the times you have been ripped off.
Just facts my friend ...

Sorry, but I dont think so.
From middle low class and up, nobody cares if you are dominican or foreign. prices are the same for everybody. everything is a matter of adjusting, once you know and meet real dominicans, you wont have any problem.
I experienced the same when I traveled to Europe or US for firsts time. I paid tourists prices because I didnt know where or how to find good deal. did I get rip off? No