Khaled Al-Solaiman
Okaz
A citizen was surprised to see his water bill contained a fine for not using equipment to rationalize consumption.
He browsed the website of the National Water Company (NWC) to be in for yet a bigger surprise. The photos illustrating the violation were of a cafeteria in another building, which was not owned by him.
He went to the company's branch to register his objection to the fine but the employee in charge informed him that it might take three weeks to settle the issue and advised him to follow up the case through the company's toll-free number.
After three weeks the man inquired about the case through the toll-free telephone and was told that the fine was still registered against him and that he better visit personally to the company's branch office.
The man did not have a car. He was using the taxi for his trips to and from the company's office.
By a simple calculation he discovered that it would be a lot cheaper for him to pay the fine than to pay the taxi fare. He paid the fine to rid himself of the headache of the violation and also to save the money he was spending on taxi fare.
The NWC got money it did not actually deserve from a fine, which was registered by mistake against a subscriber who did not commit any violation. The actual violator — the cafeteria owner — escaped unscathed.
The fine may be small and symbolic but there are subscribers who have actually paid fat fines for mistakes they have not committed.
Though small, the fine must have made an adverse effect on the subscriber. You feel deeply frustrated and hurt when injustice is done to you and when you are made responsible for the mistakes of others.
It is noteworthy that the jotting down of fines for violations will not take more than a few seconds but getting back the money you might have paid in fines is a difficult matter that may take weeks, months or maybe years.
Your fine will not be reimbursed to you in cash when the company finds out that it has made a mistake. It will be given to you in credit, which you may use to pay bills for future consumption.
