Electricity
British electrical goods will work on Greek voltages but a two pin plug or adapter is needed. Electricity is subject to more 'brownouts' and 'blackouts' than we are used to in Britian partly due to the large amounts the incomers use- Cretian consumption is double the average for Greece.. Electricity is cheaper than in England, although the locals think that it is expensive.
If you pay your bill within two weeks(I think) of its date, then you can pay at the post office for your district (ours is in Vamos), other than that you have to go to the main office in Chania.
You may have to register with the electricity board, you have to do this in the main offices in Chania, which are near the steam generating plant (sic) which is signposted. I have been through this process three times (my neighbour, me, my new neighbour) and each time the requirement was different. It is best to take with you:-
- Passport (asked for each time)
- bill from previous owner (our builder, wanted each time)
- present meter reading (twice)
- copy of house deeds (once just looked at, once filed)
- Fathers name (once)
- sum of money (all three times but it varied from twenty to one hundred euroes.
This is pure guesswork but the meter number might be enough without the bill, the name of the person who put in the electricity will be on your deeds. Please be patient and fix a smile on your face, remember they are trying to speak your language in their own country!
This bill can be paid by the bank, organised this at the bank, not at the electric company. If you go too long without paying you can be cut off, we have not yet found out what too long is, but we have been three months in arrears.
Phone
The OTE is a bit like the old GPO Telephones, takes a while to get the phone. The office for the area is in Vamos, on the right as you go up the hill on the road from Kalivas. Inside it is very informal and difficult to decide who you want to see. In many ways its better to get a local mobile- unless you want to do alot of phoning to Britian or you want the internet.
OTE will also connect you to the internet modem or ISDN outside the towns speeds can be very poor.
Believe me, you want the guy at the back on the right. He speaks some English and has won the Malcolm Reay award for the most helpful official in Crete. Though I must admit that there is not much opposition, except for the man in the post office and that girl...
When OTE first told us that we were connected our phones still didn't work. We called in to our man in the corner and he arranged for the engineer to come round. This time we were in and the engineer showed us that the phone worked, at the pole in the road, from there on in we needed an electrician, not a telephone engineer!
So the electrician turned up traced the cable and found that some navvy had put a shovel through it where it went into the house.
After all that trouble we hardly ever use the phone and for the next two years we were constantly having to pay for it to be reconnected as they cut you off a few weeks after your bill is due.
Reconnection is cheap, I think I paid ten euroes last time,and is usually done before you return home from the office in Vamos. You can still receive calls and make emergency calls when disconnected, but a lady with a sorrowful voice will tell you, first in Greek, then in English, that you have been disconnected if you try and make a call. This is your only clue.
Bills should be paid in the Vamos office, first desk on the right. The bank will pay this bill, this has to be organised at the bank.