Convenience Is A Wonderful Thing

C-Land is a funny place sometimes...a lot of the times. The image above is a stack of bills for my apartment that I paid recently. I say for my apartment because some of the bills are from before I even moved in, but I got tired of trying to convince the water company that I didn't owe them for that time, and the amount was so small, that I finally just paid the whole sha-bang.

The grand total of 18 bills, covering 18 months of water was 663.40 yuan (roughly 100 USD)----amazing!.

Now granted, while some of the bills were for before I even moved into my apartment, the vast majority of them I have to take responsibility for. I also have to take responsibility for all the electricity bills that I never pay on time.

But here's the thing. To pay the bills on time means using this machine in the local quickie mart (LianHua) which is all in Chinese. Even though there are generally an average of 4-5 available employees in the LianHua, none of them ever want to take time out of chatting to help me decipher what the characters mean. The other option is walking around the block to a different quickie mart... the one next to the famous DongXi Shop, and pay your bills there. This is much easier as you just hand money to a real person and they give you a receipt. However, even though I walk around with the bill in my bag so I can pay it whenever I happen to be over there, I usually forget when I AM over there, and then when I remember, the lady won't take my money because it's "too late." :( sad face. So, save the rare occasion that I decide to revel in my "adult-ness", I've all but given up on this tactic, and instead, have opted for Option B.

Now picture with me the wonderful "Option B" (otherwise known as: "option wonderful", "option convenient", "option why-in-the-world-would-I-chose-another-option"): the water company, or electric company sends a lovely Chinese grandma or grandpa to your door... and you pay them. Done and done.

Wonderful! And I know what you're thinking:
"Late fees??!"
"What if they turn off your water? Your electricity??"
As proved by my apartments bills from 2007, there are no late fees, and they don't turn off your water or electricity (at least not immediately).

Over my years in Shanghai I have convinced many of the benefits of Option B. The only down-side? They somehow often decide to come at 8am on a Saturday, at which point a blurry eyed me hands them some pink funny money, they go away, and I go back to sleep. Still easier than Option A. :D