True, but I digress...

I was simply pointing out that it is base price that's inflated, and the value is way lower, in automotive just like in many other fields.

There's also flavor: I'd pay Kilobucks for a top-notch TV, but couldn't care less for my shoes (while in the end I also pay sound figures for those, meh)

You'd think my wife is at the opposite end of the spectrum.....of course she is!

So, price is what most ones are willing to pay (too bad most for of my customers that is DAMN close to zero).

EDITed for proper quoting.

Well, okay, cut off taxes and that's half, at least here.

Anyway I just think it was an hyperbolic expression, we often use it also in Italy where in the proper context "halved" may be generalized (hyperbole) into "severely reduced" even if not quite halved.

If the water heater rental company wants to waste excessive amounts of money paying someone to take me to court just to try and collect a measly $170 which again, I don't owe them, then it's just an even greater example of their spectacularly inept ability to run themselves.

I've been in a courtroom before. I've testified as a witness before. I don't fear it. Heck, that was even for a criminal case. $170 would be small claims so I wouldn't even have to pay for a lawyer, so even if the water heater rental company was able to somehow prove I owe them $170, I'd be down $170 and they'd be down hundreds to thousands for the cost of paying someone to take me to court in the first place.

Thus win or lose, they'd be expediting their ultimate demise, and that would be better for everyone.

Even if I lost and by default would be required to pay for the cost of the water heater rental company to take me to court, I actually have a valid argument against that: I already sent a letter to the water heater rental company over a month ago saying I'd be willing to pay the amount if they could provide a breakdown of the cost and produce signed documents indicating I'd be responsible for it.

This is exactly the same thing they'd have to do in the court room to prove I owe them anything, and since I already sent them a letter saying I would pay the amount under those circumstances, the judge would almost certainly recognize that the water heater rental company is simply wasting everyone's time by completely ignoring the person they're trying to collect money from and should be responsible for their own court fees under those circumstances.

The other thing is, water heater rental companies here in Ontario typically don't have signed contracts between themselves and the people renting. I know that sounds ridiculous but it makes sense when you understand what happened in this province several years ago to create the situation that's going on with water heater rental companies right now. As such, the only signed contracts anyone has are for new rentals long after these events transpired. There's also a system in place now to ensure that people buying new properties sign documents indicating transfers of rental agreements for water heaters and such with the contract terms outlined. These documents never existed when I bought my house in 2004, and as such, I never signed anything in the first place with the company I was renting my water heater from. So even if they provide an accurate breakdown of the costs owed, they'd have a heck of a time proving that they had made me aware of those costs in advance of charging them.

...again, this is a company that sent me a final notice that was dated 13/~1/2020...

If I DO get a call/letter from a collection agency (and I'm almost certain I will) I'm also going to file a complaint against the water heater rental company with the BBB and with the Government of Ontario under our Consumer Protection Act.

Can you even send registered mail to a P.O. Box?

EDIT: Just looked at the fine print for Canada Post and you can... *sigh*... trip to the post office it is then.

They may argue that paying the bill in the past is acknowledgement that the contract existed between you and the company.

I'd check the regulations in your town first.

So there's this law, I'm not sure if its canada wide or not, but apparently if your creditor doesn't get in contact with you about the "debt" for two years, they can't chase you down any more.

Pay it, and use the waterheater til 13/1/2020. And if they take you to a court, you come with that bill saying you paid your bills up to 2020

Seems legit.

No I did not. I've been hacked!!!!! Seriously!!!>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(>:( What can we do about this???

How is this thread not locked?

This is woeird.

[on-topic]I find hard to understand why you, USA people, order the date data in so weird way (month/day/year?) instead the logic way (day/month/year) as most of the World does. Anyway it is quite funny that full time is day/month/year hours:minutes:seconds instead of seconds:minutes:hours day/month/year that is even more logic and more easy to order things.

YYYY-MM-DD HH-MM-SS is the best format. It's 2020-01-15 09:28:00.

Biggest to smallest: years are bigger than months, which are bigger than days, which are bigger than hours, which are bigger that minutes, which are bigger than seconds.