# "Rip off" Europe now?



## Telbell (May 1, 2005)

Title's a bit tongue in cheek :wink: 

But a couple of things irked me a bit having just come back from France/Belgium/Germany

First relates to two sites who charged for "Connecting/Disconnecting electricity"

Must admit we hadn't come across this before. First site (municipal) by the Meuse in French Ardennes. We arrived at about 12 noon but notice on window saying effectively, not open till 5pm but site yourself and book in later" No Tariff on display.

Sited ourselves but couldn't get into the ehu box, which was locked with individual sockets & switches inside.

We booked in at 5pm and was charged 1.5 euros for connection of the leccy. Sod of it was that quite a few people were checking in so I borrowed the key from the lady, walked the few yards to the box, unlocked and connected it myself.....still got charged 1.5 euros.   

Second site was Blaarmeersen, Ghent, which many will know. They charge same amount for "digitally connecting/disconnecting electrics when you arrive/leave"

On arrival I thought I'd "test the system". This time the ehu's were open and accessible. with numbers on each socket equating to pitch numbers. I intentionally put my cable in the "wrong" one having found out that no-one had been on that pitch for a few days. I got a connection no problems. In the interest of honesty I (soon afterwards) put it in the right socket for our pitch

When we left I "checked out" and was told I'd used 4.3 kwh (I'd been told our total was 4.7kwh a few hours earlier :roll: ) I returned to m/home and did the usual stuff before leaving. Half an hour later we still had a ehu connection.

I've no objection to paying for leccy I use-quite fair- but is this connection charge stuff creeping in? I know it's only 1.5 euros but sounds like a racket to me.

Also a quick word on Monschau Stellplatz-5 euros for water seems excessive even for "7 minutes use"

Any thoughts??


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Can't comment on campsites Tel but I would never pay €5 for water, theres nearly always a more reasonably priced one nearby.

€2 - €3 is more realistic in my book.

Pete


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## madontour (May 19, 2008)

Did the monschau Stellplatz charge for staying as well, or did you effectively pay 5 euro for a nights pitch with water?


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

Telbell said:


> First relates to two sites who charged for "Connecting/Disconnecting electricity"
> 
> Must admit we hadn't come across this before.


We first met this at a campsite in Rudesheim ( Goldenermiele ? - can't remember the name) about 30 years ago when we were in a caravan.

G

Edit: Remagen not Rudesheim. We were charged for the man coming out from the office ( eventually...) to unlock the box and insert our plug and then vice versa when we left.


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## madontour (May 19, 2008)

On the EHU front, is there not an EU ruling that limits how much can be re-charged for electricity (that's why the CC now don't charge separately for it). There is nothing in the ruling though that prevents a charge for "supplying a service" and so these sites are working around the rules. 

That would be unlike most European sites which just ignore them


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

My OH, who deals with that side of it when we're away, says that a charge for connecting and disconnecting is not uncommon on sites in Germany, Austria and the alps even now. It happens on sites where they meter the electricity and the initial charge is usually- for us anyway- more than we spend on electricity.

Perhaps you've not noticed it on your bill before ?

G


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## denisl (Mar 16, 2011)

Have only stayed on sites with a flat charge for EHU so far.

But if you are paying according to a meter, it sounds reasonable to me to have a small set charge on top of that, and connection charge sounds a reasonable name for it


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## Telbell (May 1, 2005)

> Did the monschau Stellplatz charge for staying as well, or did you effectively pay 5 euro for a nights pitch with water?


Extra 5 euros for overnight stay plus additional 5 euros for leccy- we didn't do either!


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## Telbell (May 1, 2005)

> it sounds reasonable to me to have a small set charge on top of that, and connection charge sounds a reasonable name for it


Don't agree- as madontour says-it seems to be a "workaround" or what some may call "a fiddle" :lol:


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## zulurita (May 9, 2005)

We have recently returned from Germany and stayed on stellplatz 100% of the time.

We made sure we filled up with water where the cost of the Stellplatz had water included.

Some SP you are charged a night fee, water useage fee, a dumping fee, and toilet emptying fee!

A lot of SP allow you to dump for free/included in overnight fee but others do not.

Electricity is often charged per kwh which can be 50cents/1€. at other places it can be 1 or 2€ for so many hours. the worst was 1€ for 5 hours!

So we would try to empty when it was free or included in price. We would charge up our electrical gadgets when electricity was included in the price or was a fixed price for 24 hours.

I think we only spent 1€ twice for water. There are some places that give 10cent/10litres of water which is handy if you want to fill up drinking water bottles.

I wouldn't be inclined to fill up with water at Monschau!


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Here's a tip if your a bit tight.

I carry a 1ft long hookup lead with a uk socket on the end in which I plug in one of those little testers to show if the ehu is live and earthed. 

It's a good idea before you roll out 25 metres of ehu cable but I have found on metered ehu like on stellplatz you nearly always fine one that's still live as someone fed too much money in.


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## 113016 (Jun 5, 2008)

Just returned from 10 weeks touring France, Spain & Portugal and not even been on one site and only one pay aire for 5 euro.
Works for us!


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